REALLY stupid paypal question....

[Dave Bulla]

Okay,

I hope this isn't too far off topic for tradgang but it's the first place I thought of to get an answer.

I recently sold a lone wolf tree stand through the TG classifieds.  This is the VERY first thing I've ever sold on line and I was a bit nervous.  The sale was arranged and I went to my paypal account and set up an email payment thingy and sent it to the buyer.  Pretty easy and a slick setup.  In a very short time, he'd made payment and I sent the stand about the same time.  So far so good.

I checked paypal and it says payment has been made by the buyer to me, a fee of $9.80 was charged by paypal.  Okay, I can live with that.  There is a transaction ID number, date, time etc.

The stupid question is this...

Just where exactly IS my money????

My wife says there has not been a paypal deposit to our account or for that matter, no deposit that is for the amount paypal says was received.  I just assumed that the since when I buy something using paypal it automatically comes out of my bank account that a payment would automatically go INTO my account.  Am I wrong?  Do I have to do some other step to get it?

I sold this stand to pay for a new toy and promised my wife that the money would be back in our account real soon... There's a big ol' cast iron frying pan hovering over my head waiting to fall...

[huntin_sparty]

Its in your paypal account.  You actually have to transfer it to your bank account.  As always they make it easy to pay from your bank account but you have to do a additional set to get it out.  Paypal has a monthly limit you can move I think it is $500.  Hope this helps.  Its the 3rd option withdrawal under the my account tab.

[lpcjon2]

You got to love a money order...LOL

[Bjorn]

Your money is in your Paypal account and you can transfer it to your bank account, or pay for your upcoming purchase with paypal funds, if the merchant takes paypal.
The only time I pay fees is if the buyer uses a credit card to fund their purchase.

[Dave Bulla]

Okay!

I found the tab and that's exactly the problem.

Phew!  I was starting to sweat a bit.  I feel safer dealing with fellow tradgangers than anyone else online but being only moderately (on a good day) computer savvy, I was getting concerned.

Ya always hear about paypal scams and online fraud.  It just makes a fella cautious.  Glad it is all good to go!

[Dave Bulla]

"The only time I pay fees is if the buyer uses a credit card to fund their purchase. "

Hey Bjorn, how do you avoid them?

[joe skipp]

Call me old fashioned or whatever, but I never accepted a charge card in all the years of business.
Cash, Check or Money Orders ...won't even use Paypal because I'm not donating any of my earnings to anyone.  Safest best are Money Orders....insist on them.

[SveinD]

Money orders are a problem for us sods across the pond as we have not used them since the 80s.. I haven't seen a check in about 15 years either.. I can bet that Paypal and bank transfers are just as safe as postal MOs. Just through the vast number of transfers done by PP or direct transfers worldwide each day you're bound to hear about the frauds. imo  

The safest transfers are those you don't make at all..

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

SELLER BEWARE!!!!!!!
They do not protect the seller.
I just want to let off some steam, and let you guys know about what is happening to me.

Due to financial difficulties, I have had to sell some stuff on "The auction site"

One of the items I sold was a complete collection of seminar and instruction tapes for firearm and knife engraving that my father had collected, with plans of learning the business.

It was OVER 40 tapes and DVD's with 6 books, I mean it was an impressive collection.

Some guy from LITHUANIA bought it and paid for it through the "online payment friend".

Everything is cool, I spend the money on bills etc..

My account with "XXXXX" gets funds withheld because buyer files an "item not received claim"

This puts me in the red, I cannot use the account for anything other than to restore balance.

I contact both parties and explain that it is the Holiday Season and an international shipment, so they might take a while, but c'mon I have a 100% rating and over 150 transactions, give it a few days.

I get no response from buyer, or either on-line company, "waiting for buyers response" prevents me from any further action on my part.

Time goes by and I forget about it, until buyer changes his claim to "item not as described" stating that he received 2 of the 4 boxes I shipped.

I contact USPS and they do a search, locate one box and because I initiated the search ship it back to me until I can get it straightened out.

The online banking company grants the buyer a full refund because the item is not as described and he is required to return it to me.

I receive one box back from buyer, and I am missing 19 of the tapes/DVD's...

I inform all parties that all the items were not returned, the buyer does not respond, the on-line banking company says the missing items are the reason for the return, and my account is now "restricted" due to this ONE complaint.

I again go to USPS and they confirm that the other 3 boxes WERE delivered to buyer, so my insurance claim for lost package is denied.

The auction site refers me to the online banking site, who tell me that because the buyer tells them the items were not received and the funds were returned, and my appeal denied, that I am S.O.L.
My account is "restricted" until I restore my balance.
I cannot sell anything on the auction site until I can receive "electronic payments"
I am still missing almost half the items, and am basically screwed.........


THEN I GET AN E-MAIL FROM THE BUYER STATING THAT "HE JUST RECIEVED THE REST OF THE ITEMS" AND IF I REIMBURSE HIM $198.00 PLUS SHIPPING THAT HE WILL SEND THEM TO ME!!!

I contact the online banking company and am informed that the case is closed, appeal denied.

No response from the auction company other than to tell me to contact the online banking company, I am out half of my items and owe over $750.00 before I can sell on auction site, and the other guy wants over $250.00 from me to get my stuff back!!!

I am unemployed and strugling to pay my mortgage and support my family, with this avenue of augmenting my unemployment eliminated.

I have a 133 feedback score and this guy has only 16, yet he is the one who gets the benefit of the doubt.
I get bent over!!!
 The "auction site" tells me this is a "member negotiations" issue.  

[Biggie Hoffman]

Rather than hook up my bank account so my bank numbers are floating around out there, I got a paypal debit card for my account.
As far as donating earnings, I consider it the cost of doing business and the convenience factor alone is worth it to me.

[Biggie Hoffman]

LITHUANIA??? Are you kidding me??

US BUYERS ONLY on all of my listings

[bofish-IL]

Well I had something happen using a Money order that I was not aware of. The seller would not send my item until the money order was cleared by his bank.  I contacted him and he stated that there is a lot of fake money orders being printed and used and that he had been burned by one. I eventually got the item just took a while.

Goes to show you are not really safe no matter what you use.

[Ragnarok Forge]

Money orders to or from Europe are useless, and fleabay is very buyer protective and stick it to the seller prone.  I am very careful about selling on fleabay for that reaso.  I only sell to buyers from the US and on rare occasions Canada.  I have never had a payment problem with "local" buyers.  There are a lot of scammers out there and most of them seem to be from across the pond.  I guess if they figure you can drive or fly to "visit" them in person easily enough there is to much risk in ripping you off.

[George D. Stout]

I send things across the water now and then, but only to folks that I know or have done business with.  There are some real pranksters out there, but all in all Paypal works great if you pay attention.

And Never.....Never open an e-mail that says it is Paypal?  Never.  

Always....Always, type in the url in your address box to enter.

Most people get screwed over because they open
e-mails and messages from scammers.  And never....never, take a money order from an overseas client.

[Roconman]

I never ship anything out of the good ol'e U.S.A. Too many things can go wrong and if it does there is not much you can do about it.

[Dave Bulla]

Well, I see this has been moved to a forum that I never even knew existed i.e. "tradgang and computers".  It was getting pretty far off topic for pow wow.

I don't know how much traffic this forum gets but maybe if we can get a bunch of good paypal "how to" info in one thread it'll help somebody else in the future.

[Rob DiStefano]

i've been using paypal since before it was officially called paypal.  

the following are the only ways your paypal account can get compromised ...

* someone finds your access codes written down somewhere (this happens!)

* you give out your access codes by replying to bogus emails (never ever type out your access codes in any email to anyone)

* your pc is compromised by a spyware, malware or wireless interception, and your keystrokes are monitored (this is a good reason to get off microsoft)

there's really nothing else to be concerned about with paypal in terms of getting hacked and your money stolen.  anything else you need to know about paypal would be under the category of 'functionality', and that's pretty well covered on the paypal site.

[hitman]

Money orders are not always great either. I sent one from my bank for a bow and the other partys bank did not recognize my bank and held it for 12 days before he could ship the bow. weird!!!

[Raging Water]

I have shipped 5 bows overseas, Europe and Australia. He is my guaranty - none.

If a buyer from over there wants a bow, I can track it until it leaves the States. Then, it is no longer my bow.

No refunds if they don't get it or it gets damaged. That is the risk the overseas buyers take to get an American made bow.

So far, now problems.

Last comment, overseas buyers will pay a premium to get 3 pc take downs. It costs about $60 to ship to one Europe. I use UPS because they handle all the customs forms for me. I dont't have to do a thing.

Matt

[Don Stokes]

I've had no problem shipping bows and arrow shafts to Australia and the EU, using PayPal and USPS. The convenience makes the PayPal fee structure worthwhile to me.