What is GREAT and NOT great about Paypal?

matteproof · November 5, 2003 11:04AM

I know this has been passed around the board many times. But can anyone give your thoughts on what features are GREAT about Paypal and what about is uncool? From the buyer perspective is it great? From the Seller perspective what is bad about it. Last thing, what exactly is a "non-credit card Paypal payment" that I often see Sellers mentioning in their auctions. Thank you for thoughts.

matteproof

Placid · November 5, 2003 11:42AM

Great=money is moved instantly no waiting for the mailman or checks to clear.
Bad=Fee if a credit card is used. Buyer can file a false claim and cause your account to be put on hold.

non-credit card Paypal payment=Payment from a source other than a credit card like a bank account.

cosmos66 · November 5, 2003 11:44AM

I love paypal as a buyer on ebay because as soon as the auction ends I pay for it. No writing checks, driving to the post office, then waiting 10 days for the check to clear before my coin is even shipped.

bearcave · November 5, 2003 11:50AM

I think paypal is good from a buyers side and for a seller. The thing about credit cards is,("non-credit card Paypal payment" ) you can not accept credit card payments with a personal account (which is free). You have to upgrade to a business or premier account to take credit cards and then they charge you fees. The fees can really take a bite out of your auction. The business or premier account would not be bad tho if they would only charge fees on a credit card payment but they charge fees for everything.

I have asked buyers before if they paid from a card or their paypal balance or verified checking account and I still got charged fees no matter where the money came from. I down graded my account to a personal after learning that and just tell my buyers I can not take credit cards and so far no one has cared one way ot the other.

razorface1027 · November 5, 2003 11:57AM

It's GREAT from a buying and selling view! As fast as my auctions close as a seller, the money's in my account and I'm buying as fast as time will allow me, which is QUICKLY...The NO CREDIT CARDS through paypal as a seller is good and bad. For me, as a seller, it's a no-no! I'd rather avoid the fees for accepting C.C.s. I'm not a high volume vendor...

bennybravo · November 5, 2003 12:08PM

I recently had a great experience with paypal.I bought something off of ebay using paypal, and the seller decided not to ship anything.I filed the complaint with paypal after 28 days(30 day limit to file) and numerous back and forths with the seller about his lack of shipping anything.After I made the purchase, I noticed that his negatives for the same practice started piling up.Paypal investigated promptly and gave him 10 days to show proof that he'd shipped my item.He couldn't, and paypal got my money back from this sellers account.Of course he's a powerseller, so ebay could care less as long as they get theirs, but PAYPAL did come through for me.

dollardude · November 5, 2003 12:13PM

Positives: Instantaneous transfer, paperless, recently acquired by eBay (trustworthy)
Negatives: Very expensive to seller

USPS Money Order Positives: No "clearing time", substantially cheaper than PayPal (only 99 cents), hard to counterfeit
USPS Money Order Negatives: Not instantaneous, but very quick

Loki · November 5, 2003 12:23PM

As a buyer, I like using Paypal as it gives me extra protection with a credit card. I always pay my CC balance at the end of each month so I don't pay interest. Also, I have the power of charging back on my CC as a last resort, which I haven't yet had to do fortunately.

As a seller, I believe it makes good business sense to allow buyers to use credit cards through Paypal, and I always offer that option. Why? I feel that I get more bidders that way. Think about it. If you get one more bidder than you would have gotten if you hadn't included the CC by Paypal option, the Paypal surcharge is paid for. That is cool with me. The bonus kicks in if you get 2 or more bidders that wouldn't have bid had they not had the option to use a CC. It pays off with a better price on your item, and the buyer doesn't have to have cash on hand to pay you.

The negative aspect of Paypal is that they can access your account that you tie in with them. That wouldn't be a good thing if you are unfortunate enough to come across a scammer that takes your item and charges back the CC, forcing Paypal to take money out of your bank account. I haven't experienced that, but it could happen.

route66 · November 5, 2003 1:06PM

As a seller I get paid fast. As a buyer it saves getting money orders. The good thing about a seller not taking paypal is that you can get things cheaper because some buyers won't bid if there is a hassle paying for it. Case in point. I just bought the Lange Lincoln book new for $10.00. plus shipping. It ALWAYS goes for $20-30 with many bidders. This seller did not take paypal. It was worth the money order fee. JMHO Steve

SDCollector · November 5, 2003 1:37PM

Seems like PayPal is heavily weighted towards giving the advantage to the buyer, which is fine with me since I use PayPal as a buyer only. I'm not a seller, but with the CC fees and dispute resolution (I believe the burden of proof rests heavily on the seller) PayPal seems much less attractive for sellers.

joejeweler · November 5, 2003 1:37PM

PayPal is a non-Bank entity acting like a Bank, but without any government safeguards! They STOLE over $1,800 out of my account from "Cleared" direct paypal balances (NOT Credit Card chargebacks) ...over 2 years ago. Their "You've got cash" email is a crock 'cause they can take it back just as quick.......even from your checking account which you give them linking access to when you sign up.....and even when you're not at fault! In my case a person paying me over $3,000 was not delivering merchandise on his end and paid me for mine and picked up the merchandise in person. They cleaned out my $1,800 paypal balance AND had the nerve to bill me for the funds i had already spent for my own purchases. ($1,200 or so) Funny they haven't pursued any further collection efforts except for a short time initially.......guess they knew i won't pay a dime!

It's certainly not worth hiring an attorney over this amount of money.........and it still frosts me they are still around at all! Currently there are several class action lawsuits against the company......and more are sure to follow. Their demise is something i look forward to, and it's especially surprising that ebay bought them out at a time when a lot of the problems were well known.

All you who still use the service are just waiting for your turn at getting shafted without a lube!

By the way........pull up www.google.com, type in "paypal complaints", and see over 61,000 (That's SIXTY ONE THOUSAND!) complaints listed there!!!! Two years ago when they ripped me off there were only 21,000 or so complaints. Looks like PayPal has had a busy couple of years!!!!

Here's another VERY interesting site devoted to exposing the dirty little secrets of this company. A GREAT read on just the 1st page!

Here's the link: PayPal Sucks

joejeweler

mintluster · November 5, 2003 3:08PM

<< <i>PayPal is a non-Bank entity acting like a Bank, but without any government safeguards! They STOLE over $1,800 out of my account from "Cleared" direct paypal balances (NOT Credit Card chargebacks) ...over 2 years ago. Their "You've got cash" email is a crock 'cause they can take it back just as quick.......even from your checking account which you give them linking access to when you sign up.....and even when you're not at fault! In my case a person paying me over $3,000 was not delivering merchandise on his end and paid me for mine and picked up the merchandise in person. They cleaned out my $1,800 paypal balance AND had the nerve to bill me for the funds i had already spent for my own purchases. ($1,200 or so) Funny they haven't pursued any further collection efforts except for a short time initially.......guess they knew i won't pay a dime!

It's certainly not worth hiring an attorney over this amount of money.........joejeweler >>

I have not had any problems with PayPal but hearing this stuff really scares me. I have heard of some past problems but I figured once EBAY bought them out it would get better. I only use it to buy stuff with my CC.

matteproof · November 5, 2003 8:59PM

Much thanks to all of you for your very thoughtful and excellent replies. I'm kind of an "old schooler." I'm accustomed to paying by check or Money Order. I've been very reluctant to use online cc services, but I suppose this has more to do with habit than anything else. However, I'm appalled to hear about JoeJeweler's terrible experience. Joe, it sounds like you were treated very poorly. Poor customer service is the WORST component of any company.

With regard to "reversals." Can a buyer reverse a charge to a Seller without FIRST sending the coin back to the Seller?

Would PayPal automatically take funds from an account without FIRST investigating and determining that a coin was in fact returned?

Last question; how does one actually GET the money when Selling? Does PayPal receive the funds and then automatically credit it to the Seller's bank account? Or, must one take some action after PayPal receives the funds? (or do the funds actually go directly to the Sellers bank account from the buyer?). Thank you again for very kind responses.

matteproof

mercurynut · November 6, 2003 3:12AM

Great.....convenince

NOT great....Ebay owns them

jjroll · November 6, 2003 4:34AM

<< <i>how does one actually GET the money when Selling? Does PayPal receive the funds and then automatically credit it to the Seller's bank account? Or, must one take some action after PayPal receives the funds? >>

Generally the money will just sit in the paypal account until you login in and either direct it to a back account, request a check or wire transfer, or spend it and send it to someone else. I don't believe that they automagically transfer to an account.
jjroll

artdeco · November 6, 2003 5:21AM

For small fries like myself who do lots of small transactions (less than $100) the 3% (I think that's what it is) you are occasionally charged when someone uses a Visa instead of their "checking account" are nothing in comparison with convenience of having the cash in your account. I like being able to go and make a deposit into my checking account, and have my PayPal money there in three days. I like being able to pay for purchases out of my balance- I feel like I spending less (haha), and I hate having to wait for some bozo in Alberta, Canada, to get me a postal money order. When the auction ends- I have money and can ship it out and be done with it. I have not ONCE had a negative experience using PayPal- not even when I bought a car. But again, 99% of what I do are small transactions.

BillJones · November 6, 2003 5:28AM

I hate Pay Pal.

I don't know about other dealers, but I have to work on close margins with really nice material. Yes, it's only 3%, but when you margin is 10% it starts to add up. Add that to the other nickel and dimeing that Ebay does to you, plus the added work of selling coins on Ebay vs. selling coins at shows, and in the end I find Ebay a down right unattractive place to sell really nice coins.

Give me a coin show and a nice long group of want lists.

poptopsRus · November 6, 2003 5:38AM

I was ripped for a $700 fraudulent charge back from a customer. I had proof that the written proof from the post office that the customer got his items but it took over 3 months to clear up through paypal. Paypal can take money from your account for nearly anything. I love the quickness of paypal but I've been shafted twice and I hate it!

LouisCamp · November 6, 2003 6:01AM

I just "lost" $500 due to Paypal's wonderful chargeback feature. A customer, George Robins of Springfield MO, bought a $10 Gold piece off my web site. It all smelled fishy from the start, but I shipped once I got my "temporary" paypal funds. 10 days later I get a letter from Paypal telling me not to ship (thier terms tell you to ship within 48 hours of payment), that fraudulent funds were used to pay. I did not qualify for sellers protection because I used insured US Mail and did not use the green electronic delivery conformation slip. So screw me, I'm out $500, the customer gets the coin, I have a letter from paypal telling me the sellers address is confirmed and tough luck.

Truly, Paypal sucks.

Lou C

BillJones · November 6, 2003 6:34AM

Yep.

People complain about checks, but you know what? You can control WHEN the item gets shipped. If you are dealing with good reliable customer out the item goes in the mail as soon as you get the check. If you are not sure you wait for it to clear.

You don't have any of the crap with YOU MUST SHIP WITHIN 48 HOURS and hope nothing goes wrong. Pay Pal is in a no lose situation for themselves. Pay Pal is a pal to Ebay. It sure isn't the merchant's pal.

matteproof · November 6, 2003 9:17AM

Thank you all for your great replies. I'm saddened to hear about the misfortune that some of the Sellers on the board have experienced with PayPal. From the comments, it seems that PayPal is less problematic to use for buying - and though convenient, potentially risky to use for selling. Thanks again for the input.

matteproof

LouisCamp · November 6, 2003 9:50PM

Paypal is a risk I'll only use with ebay now. I won't use it on my website anymore.

Lou

What is GREAT and NOT great about Paypal?

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