So if I am accepting Paypal for my Ebay auction, how long after payment is made should I wait before I mail the item? It’s been a while since I’ve done this, and all the Paypal scam horror stories have gotten me a bit freaked out. Some people seem to advocate waiting up to TWO FULL WEEKS after the money hits Paypal to send the item. Yeesh.
Much thanks in advance.
If you’re accepting the payment through PayPal, I’d ship immediately. PayPal insures both the buyer and seller. You might also pose this question on the forum on eBay. The audience there is fairly certain to have relevent experience.
If it’s a very large amount, I transfer it to my bank account and then withdraw it.
Then I ship…
Generally, as soon as the payment clears into your PayPal account you should ship the item. When the money is in your PayPal account you can do whatever you want with it, I generally start mine on the process of transferring to my bank account immediately and ship the item within 24 hours. I’m pretty sure that is how it is done by most of the other eBay sellers as well. Good luck.
It’s not a huge amount ($350 or so), but the most frequent horror story I’ve heard is the one about the seller who does exactly what you suggest, but then the buyer cancels the payment some time later, based on the fact that the “Instant Payment” is not really a transfer between the buyer’s account and tyhe seller’s account. Rather, it’s a short-term loan that Paypal floats you assuming that the buyer will put the money through. Therefore, when the deal goes south, Paypal doesn’t come after the buyer, they come after the seller.
It’s got me a bit worked up. How often does this actually happen? Was I a fool for taking only Paypal? I’m gonna lose my shirt, aren’t I?*
<pant pant pant>
*I know that most people are honest buyers. I was just looking for experiences from other Ebayers.
The Ebay board is filled with horror stories. “Yep, yer fuckt kthxbai!”
Argh!
Well, 10 days after the end of auction is when the buyer can file a dispute, so really, it’s a good idea to have shipped it by then - but if there are delays in actually clearing the money, then obviously that might take precedence.
I’ve heard of people withdrawing funds to a bank account for fear of losing it, but I’ve also heard that that wouldn’t be effective anyway in the case of funds paid fraudulently (for example with a stolen credit card).
If you’re selling mobile phones and laptops, then being taken for a ride by scammers is a distinct possibility, but if you’re selling handmade jewelery or second hand clothes, you’re just unlikely to run into any trouble and you should try to ship as soon as possible after receiving payment so as not to get a bunch of neutral or negative feedback.
I only sell small items on eBay now and I don’t even wait for cheques to clear - I just send the items - and after 600 transactions or so, I’ve not had any problems.
Calm down. :rolleyes:
I have had very good luck with PayPal and Ebay. On the few occasions that I thought the buyer was “dodgy”, I have transferred the money out of PayPal, and then withdrawn it as cash, then shipped. That way, if I get stuck, there’s nothing for PayPal to “retrieve”.
I appreciate the advice, but that fucking :rolleyes: drives me up a tree. Calibrate your MPSIMS-o-meter, and realize that while I am a little concerned, and was looking for thoughts and opinions, I was overstating my case for (what I thought was) obviously humorous effect.
I have standard rules for my auctions:
Contact me within 48 hours after the auction closes (if you don’t just pay straight away), just to let me know you’re serious about buying the item and to arrange payment terms if necessary.
Pay within 7 days of auction close unless other arrangements have been made.
I have had a couple of buyers renege on their wins, usually coming up with some lame excuse (they’re always low feedback buyers too) but by and large all of my buyers have been good and prompt with their payments.
As long as all of your terms are clearly stated in your auction then you’re covered. Shipping should be done at the earliest convenience after the auction closes, unless you are a higher volume seller, in which case it is acceptable to have set shipping dates once or twice a week, particularly if you use UPS or someone like that who schedule pickup times.
I’ve never been hit with a PayPal scam, but I’m pretty diligent in checking out buyer histories to see how many negs they have, how new they are, what sort of things they’ve bidded on, etc. I don’t do this to all buyers, mostly just newbies, and if I get a weird vibe from any of them I treat their bids with caution, and will cancel any that set off red flags. I also have my account set not to accept bids from users with less than 0 feedbacks, who are not from a country that my auctions state that I deliver to, or who have more than 5 bid retractions in the last month. I don’t know how many questionable members this filters out, but I’m sure it’s stopped at least a few from getting through.
I just started selling on eBay in the last month, and so far all my sales have been relatively small ones (duplicate DVDs and CDs). I’ve had two buyers who took over a week to pay (one claiming to have been out of town when the auction closed and the other reported having trouble with PayPal and inally sent me a MoneyGram money order instead). One buyer hasn’t paid me yet, and it’s almost two weeks since the auction closed; I’ve already sent one message requesting payment, and am a bit concerned because this buyer has a negative rating from having previously stiffed a seller.
I shipped within two business days of receipt of payment, and haven’t yet moved any of the money out of my PayPal account. I’m planning on listing more items within the next week, and I will probably set my account as Mindfield does.
As a frequent eBay buyer, my expectation is that as soon as you receive my Paypal payment, you will ship the item, maybe not leaping off the couch at 11 p.m., but at least putting it in the mail the next day, or maybe the next day after that.
If I had to wait two weeks for you to ship my item that was paid via Paypal, and then another several days for the item to actually reach me, I would be fairly ticked, and although I would still give you a Positive rating, I would add “slow shipping” to my Feedback.