[Kntr]

Has anyone been screwed by paypal? How safe it it REALLY?

 

[in the trees]

Never once had a problem . I've made about 75 transactions (both buying and selling from forum sites like this and Ebay) without trouble. Good luck!

toby

 

[stiksandstones]

over 1000 transactions, nothing but success so far. Have also used google checkout recently and was easier, quicker.

 

[djb]

Depends what you mean by screwed?
I've had issues with paying for something, the person not sending it, me filing a claim and getting nothing near the amount they "cover" back.

 

[Squeegee]

paypal won't screw you, but the seller might!

 

[Kntr]

What if Im the seller? Can the buyer screw you through paypal?

 

[Kornphlake]

Probably close to 500 transactions and never a problem buying or selling. The only problem I ran into was before I upgraded my account and people sent payment funded by a credit card, I'd get a noitice saying I have to upgrade my account (for free) and pay a percentage of the transaction amount.

You could google paypal sucks and come up with some horror stories I'm sure.

 

[Kornphlake]

I was curious so I typed in paypal sucks and came up with this story

Paypal Sucks

By Steve

I sell on both ebay and Gunbroker.com. I sold an item to a person who lived in Germany. He wrote in his notes on the Paypal payment that he wanted the item shipped to his friend in the US. He wrote the address in the notes of his payment. I sent his item to him USPS priority mail with tracking as I always do, a week later my tracking number confirmed receipt of the package.

3 weeks later he files a complaint with paypal and they freeze my money saying that they must investigate his claim of non reciept. Paypal asked me to send them a tracking number (Which they have access to already if you use Paypal to ship your packages) proving that I sent him the item and he recieved it. Two weeks later (after having my money on hold the whole time),Paypal gives this guy back his payment in full leaving me without the product or the payment.

When I call to complain and ask why they sent his money to him after I gave them the Tracking number showing he recieved it, they said because the item was not shipped to a address Confirmed with paypal he was eligible for a refund. Even though this guy asked in his payment "Please ship item to this address, not this address" I should have not done what the customer asked me to, and shipped to his confirmed address.

I asked the Paypal representive if he could see where the guy told me in the notes to ship the product, He said "yes he could and it is obvious that the guy is commiting fruad, I guess you learned a valuable lesson, Don't ship to an address that is not confirmed with paypal" In any case I lost the money and the product, and because of paypals policies this guy ripped me off legally.

If your gut tells you someone is trying to rip you off they probably are, wait for another buyer.

 

[merrrrjig]

Ive done 85 transactions on my new account, and have not been screwed over. I have had 2 things where I had to file a report (as a buyer) and got my money back within the week.

 

[Squeegee]

What if Im the seller? Can the buyer screw you through paypal?

i'm not an autority on this or anything but the buyer probably has recourse through paypal if the seller misrepresents what he's selling...much like credit card disputes...

on the other hand, the buyer has to go to the effort to fight, so the seller generally has the upper hand

 

[edwinrdz]

when you get something with paypal, paypal is like taking care of you, if one guy scammed you or something like that just call paypal and give them the email address of the guy and they will find him, thats why when you make a paypal account they ask you for a lot of information, so they can know who you are and everything like that.

 

[skiwithcharlie]

Out of a total of maybe around 150 transactions, Ive been ****ed around by paypal a few times. I bought a like new ellworth specialist on egay and when it arrived, I noticed the headtube was stretched. I could fully press my king headset in the headtube by hand and could rotate the headset inside it so I filed a paypal claim..Took 2 months to get my $ back and I lost like 75$..not too bad considering the seller was denying everything. I had to get an expertise letter at my local bike shop and fax it to paypal...ahh the headache that gave me. And a few months ago, I bought a pair of skis in egay(again) and when they arrived, they were ****ing drilled 3 times under the bindings, seller never mentionned that in the auction. H e was trying to hide it. Of course he denied everything and said I drilled the holes. So I filled a paypal claim and 2 weeks later, paypal told me they could not help me and closed the claim. Useless faggots....So in resume, paypal is relatively safe if your buying new stuff but if your buying used gear and the seller hides something from ya (like a crack in the frame or a busted air cartridge), youll have to prove it was like that when you got it and even of you do, your chances of getting some of your money back less than 50%...im never buying used gear from egay again!!

 

[ATOMICFIREBALL]

fark Paypal.

 

[Kornphlake]

Ebay isn't what it used to be, I've had better luck with craigslist recently, it seems the people who used to be honest low volume sellers can't compete with the powersellers. I've had several auctions recently where the winning bid is a foreign bidder, I just sent a camera lens to Spain. I'm pretty careful to say that I won't ship internationally but I don't ban international bidders. Feedback scores are pretty revealing, the guy who bought my lens had a feedback score of 500+ about 50/50 as a buyer and seller, he only had one negative where a seller (irrationally) refused payment and left negative feedback because the guy bid on an auction that didn't specify international shipping. I felt okay about accepting his payment and shipping the lens. I've had one other auction where I just requested a final auction value fee credit and relisted the item due to a foreign bidder, I was pretty certain the guy who won the item was trying to scam me.

Again, if something doesn't feel right it probably isn't, sell local if you have to. You may end up with a lower or higher selling price than you'd like, but you'll at least be certain to get the money or goods.

 

[sittingduck]

Paypal will screw you if they have the opportunity.
If there is a dispute, THEY KEEP THE MONEY. They are notorious for NOT PAYING UP or reimbursing anything if they can help it.
Here's how you make paypal safe:
NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER pay with your checking or paypal balance. Take the extra steps to pay with a CREDIT CARD!!!
Now, if there is ever a dispute, you go straight to the credit card people and they will take care of it. Paypal cannot fsck with them, only with you.
Again, PAY WITH CREDIT CARD VIA PAYPAL if using paypal. End of story.

 

[sbstianfreeride]

my bother got screwed over by this guy who never sent him what he bought. They did the transaction though paypal.
He reported him to paypal and got his money back without a problem.($700).
I've always trusted paypal!

 

[JustBike]

whoa that's a crazy horror story with the non-confirmed address.. Good post, I'm sure that'll help out a lot of us that are reading this thread.

Thanks!

 

[paranoid56]

i have over 8000 transactions via paypal. no issues what so ever. you just need to be careful as the unconfirmed addys can get you.

Shane

 

[MinorThreat]

sittingduck has a good piece of advice. Yes, paypal has some built-in protections; but it's still best to use your favorite charge-card of choice (rather than your checking account or pp balance) because of its further protections. I use my Discover to pay my paypal invoices just for that reason.