General Paypal question(s)...

[Mark_H]

Hey guys, I've got a Paypal related question:

Is there ANY way for a "seller" to protect themselves after receiving a payment? I have a few large items on Ebay and have 2 buyers that want to use Paypal for the entire large purchases(they both agreed to add the 3% fee). that being said, is there anything I can do to keep the buyer and/or Paypal from disputing the sale and yanking the $$ out of my bank account??

The reason I ask, is because I've been a Paypal defender for years, but recently they kinda screwed me. I bought a car from my best friend and sent him an $800 deposit via Paypal. Approx. 8 days later Paypal themselves disputed the payment for no reason and yanked my $$ right out of his bank account. Needless to say I called, yelled and got it resolved but it REALLY scared me about taking any more big paypal payments.

Thanks for any help and feedback.
Mark

[john]

I don't know, Mark. I quit using paypal years ago when they started charging me huge fees to collect on large payments.

[myshtern]

Withdraw the money from your paypal account and your problem is solved

[crxrocks]

Withdraw the money from your paypal account and your problem is solved

Not really. They can still come after you for the money. There really isn't anything you can completely do to protect yourself. You are really giving all control up to the paypal gods.

[myshtern]

Not really. They can still come after you for the money. There really isn't anything you can completely do to protect yourself. You are really giving all control up to the paypal gods.
No, they can't and don't. Unless you're robbing people of hundreds of thousands of dollars, nothing will happen.

[crxrocks]

So paypal just eats the money they are having to pay out or takes it from the other party? That seems like a bad way to do business doesn't it?

[Mario]

No, they can't and don't. Unless you're robbing people of hundreds of thousands of dollars, nothing will happen.

Read their terms of service more carefully before you just make assumptions.

[myshtern]

I'm not making assumptions, I'm going off experience.

I've moved over $1mil through paypal in the last 2 years with a fair share of disputes. Paypal is usually on the common sense side of the dispute. If you withdraw funds before a dispute, your account balance will be negative. If you're really worried about about paypal withdrawing the money through your bank account, close the bank account.

Unless you've been doing something illegal and stealing money, it will end at that.

[Pang]

No, they can't and don't. Unless you're robbing people of hundreds of thousands of dollars, nothing will happen.



Yes they can and will. If the buyer used a credit card and did a chargeback. Paypal will put your account into the negative even if you had withdrawed all the money. And if you don't pay Paypal that negative balance they will send you to collections. Paypal doesn't really offer the seller shit as far as protection when it comes to the the credit card company withdrawing the funds. Even if you have proof of delivery they don't give a shit and simpy will tell you to take it up with the buyers cc company but you can't since they won't release any of the buyers info to you. Their system is a loop with huge fucking holes.

I would have them send a cashiers check for large amounts.

[dreadlocks]

The'll take there money back, they have all your account information..
I just sent $2600 to someone via paypal, paypal instantly put a hold on it and made me complete an expanded use process for my credit card that I was using.. They did like my bank did and charged my CC a small amount and then had me verify the deposit by some random numbers on my statement.. they also verified my telephone number by calling it, then they released the money....

I had to sit on the phone with them for a day faxing them shit to get the hold taken off quickly, other words it would have taken a few days and delayed my item.

If its a large amount and it clears then its probably legit because paypal pretty good bout stopping em.

[myshtern]

So paypal just eats the money they are having to pay out or takes it from the other party? That seems like a bad way to do business doesn't it?
That's exactly how it works. Paypal almost went out of business in it's earlier years because they did a poor job of fraud protection and credit card companies pulled the funds via chargebacks that paypal already handed out to scammers.

[Pang]

I'm not making assumptions, I'm going off experience.

I've moved over $1mil through paypal in the last 2 years with a fair share of disputes. Paypal is usually on the common sense side of the dispute. If you withdraw funds before a dispute, your account balance will be negative. If you're really worried about about paypal withdrawing the money through your bank account, close the bank account.

Unless you've been doing something illegal and stealing money, it will end at that.


So how many bank accounts have you closed?

[myshtern]

None, because we don't predict disputes so it wouldnt help, they just come with crazy/thieving customers.

In this case, he is predicting a dispute so as soon as the funds are transfered, just withdraw them. If these people open up a dispute for no good reason, close the connected bank account.

[Pang]

None, because we don't predict disputes so it wouldnt help, they just come with crazy/thieving customers.

In this case, he is predicting a dispute so as soon as the funds are transfered, just withdraw them. If these people open up a dispute for no good reason, close the connected bank account.

Gotcha. But then it looks bad on the person closing all the accounts and even still Paypal will come after you with collections.

I've been scammed out of a couple thousand bucks and had every proof of delivery with their signature. They filed a dispute with their cc company saying they didn't receive it so they withdrawed the funds from Paypal and Paypal withdrawed from my account putting it into the minus. All Paypal pretty much said to me was tough luck.

[myshtern]

CC chargebacks are tough to fight, we usually just have to file collections on those people. It's not up to paypal though, it's the credit card company itself. Consumers don't realize that all of their "fraud protection" comes at the price of higher costs for all dealers.

[Mario]

I'm not making assumptions, I'm going off experience.

I've moved over $1mil through paypal in the last 2 years with a fair share of disputes. Paypal is usually on the common sense side of the dispute. If you withdraw funds before a dispute, your account balance will be negative. If you're really worried about about paypal withdrawing the money through your bank account, close the bank account.

Unless you've been doing something illegal and stealing money, it will end at that.

Read their terms of services. Your experience is your assumptions.

[Redteg]

Read their terms of services. Your experience is your assumptions.

Shit I just sold a camera to some girl in Texas for $450 and realized I am not covered by paypal in case she disputes the charge. Now I'm paranoid. I don't think I'll be doing anymore business with Paypal after reading their terms

[Mark_H]

Withdraw the money from your paypal account and your problem is solved

I understand you do a lot of Paypal business as do I. But if you read my initial post you will see that YES they can YANK money right out of the sellers bank account. They yanked it and locked down both of our Paypal accounts until we called Paypal while we were sitting in the same room and I yelled at a supervisor and the $$ was back in his account that night.

Thanks to all for the info.
Mark