PayPal: Two thumbs down!
From PayPalSucks.com
Apparently, I’m not alone in my distaste for PayPal as now run by eBay. There are a couple of sites, PayPalSucks.com and PayPalSucks.org where there are a number of others who heartily disagree with PP’s Terms Of Service.
The other day, I sold a lens on eBay. I sold it to help finance my Leica purchase. PayPal decided that it would hold my funds, but take its fees, because:
1. I am not a power seller. (I don’t have over 100 sales for the year!)
2. I was selling a high-risk item. Apparently, a high-risk item is whatever they want it to be. In this case, a lens is a high-risk item because it is valued at over $100 and they categorize it as “Consumer Electronics”.
So, how can I get my money? Well, there are a few ways:
1. Wait 21 days. Yeah! This would go over really well with the buyer, resulting in very negative feedback!
2. Ship the item to the buyer, provide PayPal with a tracking number, and wait until 3 days after the item has been received if no feedback is given.
3. If positive or neutral feedback is given by the buyer, the money will be released; however, if negative feedback is given, they will not release the funds and you have no way to get your merchandise back!
Well, obviously, this is highly unacceptable, which is why I’m writing this. I have a 100% satisfaction rating. PP, instead of levying this policy on those with less than stellar ratings, has decided that quantity counts more than quality.
Both of us, the seller and the buyer have done our jobs. I have shipped the lens, which should arrive today, he has paid for it. Simple. Well, unfortunately, the buyer will be out of town for the next few days and will return next week. This is not his fault at all. He has a life to live. The lens, even if held by UPS, does not count as delivered until signed for, so I have to wait until next week to get paid. Add to this that PayPal still takes 3% of every sale, even if it is a direct transfer from another PayPal account: cash-to-cash. This used to not be the case before eBay owned PayPal. That transfer used to be free!
That, my friends, is my last sale through eBay/PayPal. I’ve moved my remaining items to Bonanzle. The fees are much more reasonable and I don’t have to accept PayPal as a payment method. On eBay, you have no choice unless you are a merchant that sells thousands of items.
When I was buying my Leica, I offered to pay the person through PayPal; he responded with an emphatic NO! He said that he would NEVER use PayPal again. I guess that I know why now! 
Caveat Venditor (Let the seller beware!)
Thanks for the tip. I haven’t used my Ebay account for long time and I have about $20.00 in PayPal, maybe I should take the money and run, if they give it to me.
Ugh! What a hassle.
I haven’t sold anything on Ebay for awhile, but my transactions in making purchases have been going ok. Direct sales through my website are Paypal supported, and those have been relatively problem free. However, when I have had an issue, which fortunately has been rare – their customer support is absolutely terrible. I would jump ship if I had a better alternative in accepting credit cards, but simply haven’t had the time to research it as well as redo the programming of my site shopping cart.
I have read about this frozen account issue in other places – which is understandably frustrating.
Whoa, wait a second . . .
“When I was buying my Leica”
Does that mean you HAVE it?
@Don: It works OK of you are buyer, but as a seller, horrible!
@Mark: It is a big hassle. You could get yourself a Google Checkout merchant account and you’d still be able to accept all types of credit cards. The money, less their 2.9%, goes directly to your checking account. It’s much cheaper than PayPal and no hassle! As for PayPal’s customer service, you’ll basically get an e-mail telling you that it “is their policy …”, and so you are stuck! It’s hard to get help around there!
@Chris: How mighty perceptive of you! I should get it on Friday, or perhaps on Monday!
Oh, man. I just put an item up for sale on eBay using PayPal. I didn’t realize there would be these hassles.
@Rob: Well, when you do sell, you’ll be waiting a little while for you $$$ if it’s over $100! You could remove the listing and put it on Craig’s List or somewhere else. Other than that, you’re stuck, Chuck!
Another of your instructive posts. I admit that I am one of the rare sticks-in-the-mud that has never sold anything on eBay. Now, I am convinced that I probably never will.
Please keep us posted on the resolution of this. Gracious, we don’t want you selling blood to pay for your new toy!
@Anita: eBay used to be a great vehicle for selling, but they’ve gotten to big and ‘powerful’ and the exodus has started. In a way, it’s good for other businesses. Before, it was hard to compete with eBay, now with so many people becoming disgruntled with their policies, other start-ups are taking off.
Bonanzle, where I’m selling my items, has grown tremendously in the last year to the point where they are getting more than 500,000 visitors per month. Mind you, this is probably not close to what eBay gets in a day, but it’s a start! And, most of the people who are selling there are there because they wanted to escape from eBay, or fleabay, as it is called!
I don’t mind sharing. No need for all of us to step in the steaming heap! LOL!
Similar negative experience with paypal here – they held my money for over a week instead of paying it to the receiver. When complaining, I only got standard messages. Definitely not recommended, spoils ebay usability quite a lot.
Paul, so what did you get? M6 TTL? M7? What lens do you have? I’m all excited. I captured some images with my Bessa and Biogon over the weekend. I was thinking of you.
Let’s hear it for competition! It sound as though in the near future folks may be saying, “Remember eBay?”
@Markus: Unfortunately, that’s all you’ll get from PP is a standard ‘sorry for the inconvenience, but …’ e-mail!
@Chris: M6 TTL 0.85 – I’m about as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve!
As for the lens, a 50 mm, but I don’t remember what type (Shame on me!). I’ll get back to you with that detail.
Oh, yeah, an M6!!!!! Screw PP, who’s interested in this when there are much more interesting stuff to speak about. Let’s hope you get it tomorrow. Wow!
(Seriously, it was good to learn about this with PP).
@Ove: That’s pretty funny! My interest in receiving the M6 has certainly eclipsed my PayPal woes; however, they are certainly tied together. One finances the other.
Wow, that is pretty disturbing news Paul. I saw the recent change in the Terms of Service and did a quick scan but didn’t pick up on this account freezing crap. I sell very little on eBay but when I do it is often for higher prices (over $100) items. Like you, I also have a 100% positive rating and feel that should be the major criteria.
What a shame to see eBay/PayPal fall into this abyss. I used to sell lots on eBay back when they were still a growing community and we all seemed to know one another. Now, just another huge corporation that seems to have forgotten how they came to be in the first place.
I guess when I think it through I see SOME rationale for what they are doing as it CAN serve to protect buyers. But there must be a better way to do this.
If you don’t know eBay BPP (before PayPal) you must appreciate what a risk everyone took…particularly buyers. When we sold stuff, we waited for a check to arrive by snail mail. Deposited the check. Waited for it to clear. Then (and only then) we would ship the item. Sometimes this whole cycle could take a couple of weeks. PayPal, for all its issues, completely eliminated that. But now they are putting the uncertainty back in the picture. What a shame.