Paypal foolishness

[inaminit]

So I offered a nearly complete front fender oil cooling kit for sale here. A buyer came forward and we settled on a price including shipping, with me constructing a wooden box for shipping the long lines. Good so far. I suggested a bank check to avoid the pp fee, but he chose to send the $ via pp to protect himself if the tranaction goes bad. Well, it did go bad, but not in the usual way....
PP send me a "you have money" message. Next they send "you have a payment on hold for 24 hours" while pp does a security check on the sender??? then next message "some of your money won't available right away".. they will let me have $300 now and and intend to hold the rest (about $1600) for an unspecified period while they confirm that I am fulfilling my orders??? What orders?? I probably sell 4 or 5 things a year on Pelican.
So after a lot of phone calls, the buyer and I decide to cancel the pp transaction and he will send a check. So I issue a refund on pp and now they tell the buyer that the money won't be available to him "for a few days" Sounds like money sticks to their fingers instead of moving back and forth like it should.
I am going to switch to another money transfer service for incoming funds after this episode. While I build the wood box, I will get over being pissed. Thanks for reading this

[Fab64]

Good to know. Sounds like, in addition to their normal fees, they want to take advantage of float to make additional money. Thanks for the heads up.

[thetorch]

happened to me too. had to wait until the part arrived and the buyer went into PP to say he received it. At least a week or more as I recall.

[nzrobinz]

Never care about a few days, not that desperate, I prefer their guarantees so 100% in support of PP

[mepstein]

I don't like Paypay because I don't like a third party, not only in control of the money but the entire transaction. It's fine if you have a legit buyer but a fraudulent buyer can make almost any excuse for up to 180 days and PP can reach into your bank account and take the money back. There decisions are the final decision. It's great when it works but if you do enough seller transactions, you will eventually get screwed.

[Matt Monson]

They’ve been doing this foolishness for a bit now. I was reading tales of woe from shops in the business who use it for credit card processing. Big 5 figure deposits to engine and gearbox work, and pay pal locks it in there until delivered. And sets limits how much you can withdraw per month. I hadn’t used it in a while, sold some Fuchs for $1000 bucks, in person delivery, and they tried to limit me to $300 in the first 30 days. I applied to raise it, and within minutes had a $5000 limit, but still, the whole thing is just lame.

[mepstein]

We only accept PP payments up to $500.

[scootermcrad]

I recently went through a bunch of nonsense with a seller when I was buying some 964 parts. It was a transaction outside of ebay or anywhere that his reputation could be verified, so I was cautious. PayPal turned the transaction into an e-check. We waited and waited and finally we agreed to cancel the "check" and I just went ahead and paid the fees to do a normal PP transaction to protect myself.

What are you guys doing for larger transactions, now? I have some "big" stuff for sale here. If it sells locally, that's an easy one, but if I end up selling and shipping out of state, I would like to know I'm protected for a large sum of money.

[evan9eleven]

For what its worth, Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a great service, money gets moved in seconds, even internationally. Of course it is a little more effort to get set up than PP, but works very well. If the customer doesn't use Wise, they can do a regular bank transfer, if they do use Wise the money is moved immediately.

[ryans65]

A bank check, as in a cashiers check, is even worse than waiting on paypal for a couple of days in my opinion. I would have just waited on the payment to clear and it would have covered both of you in case of any issues.

[Dpmulvan]

I just sold a $100 part on eBay. Been on eBay and PayPal since the beginning 100% rating all that stuff. I get an email from PayPal saying I need to give them my SS# number at first thought it was a scam but nope. Then they tell me I can’t have my money until the buyer gets the item and OK’s everything. Then they took $17 in fees and taxes. I’m done with PayPal.

[shoooo32]

Even after several years of successful rallies, PayPal still held our funds for months over "suspicious activities". Apparently receiving $35k in orders in one day freaked out the algorithm and there was no human we could reach out to for help. Last year we used Wix for payment processing and they only held 20% "in case of returns". It's all a scam by big banks...

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by Dpmulvan

I just sold a $100 part on eBay. Been on eBay and PayPal since the beginning 100% rating all that stuff. I get an email from PayPal saying I need to give them my SS# number at first thought it was a scam but nope. Then they tell me I can’t have my money until the buyer gets the item and OK’s everything. Then they took $17 in fees and taxes. I’m done with PayPal.

That's because of the new 1099 reporting requirements. Anyone who transacts more than $5000 a year with pay pal is going to have it reported to the IRS in the next year or two. The start date has been moved off a couple times now by the previous administration. I haven't followed closely, but at some point it's supposed to start.

[AG81]

I've gone thru similar issues with paypal. "They" these so called banks have made it more difficult to do a simple transaction.

[EC900]

Years ago I had a sizable escrow payment withheld for the full period (think I there’s a 30 day allowance) for a real estate transaction. They held my buyers payment from my payout proceeds, paid on day 33.
For whatever reason they can do this depending on the atty, lender or title company involved.
Then a 30 day note was pulling double digit returns 40 yrs ago, way less now.

I figured they pooled of monies for short term investments glommed together from several other escrows for the best returns. Sneaky way to do business with small title firms.
Some things changed since but these payment companies are squeezing every nickel they can - Using other people’s money.
Maybe the same application wafted over to payment processors on top of the fees, can’t be all product fraud - there’s insurance for that (long settlement though)
Large enterprise like The Pal, they’ll compile millions in funds today, payout on yesterdays returns tomorrow.
Just a theory.

[Jonny042]

I use PayPal almost exclusively to receive payment for the parts I make, and chalk up the holdbacks and the fees as a cost of doing business. For the overall convenience and protections they provide (to buyers, mostly!) it's good value and is probably comparable to what I'd pay with processing credit cards, with less trouble.

I've had the holdbacks occur only occasionally, seemingly at random. IMO just let it happen, there's nothing to worry about other than the annoyance of having to wait for the cash to show in your account.

[Jonny042]

Originally Posted by evan9eleven

For what its worth, Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a great service, money gets moved in seconds, even internationally. Of course it is a little more effort to get set up than PP, but works very well. If the customer doesn't use Wise, they can do a regular bank transfer, if they do use Wise the money is moved immediately.

I use Wise for payments from Europe since it seems like Europeans are less likely to have PayPal accounts. It's great!!!