An Ebay Question

VampiraJen · 13 May, 2007, 12:10:42 PM

can i ask a wee ebay question. it's about paypal. in a nutshell what is it, how does it work and what do you have to do to use it? i read all the online info and i'm not any wiser. i've just recently discovered that ebay is a wonderful place for old comics if you shop carefully (and avoid american ebayers :)). but it's been anoying me that some sellers will only use paypal and it is confusing me to no end.

Floyd-the-k · 13 May, 2007, 12:30:43 PM

No doubt you'll get more informed answers than this one but someone has to go first.

paypal is an easy way for people to pay you online. It's an online bank (except it doesn't pay interest as far as I know). You start the account, using your email address and a credit card and people can pay you.
They sting you for a fee for each deposit, so I prefer cheques or direct deposit myself.

Peter Wolf · 13 May, 2007, 10:22:27 PM

I used to use it but dont anymore but i may do again. They are fine if you are just paying for something but do make sure you have the cash in there or it gets difficult. I know this because they paid on my behalf a few times when i didnt realise there was no money left in the account. They did this without my approval and then i found they were debiting my account without my consent which i didnt like, They should have informed me that there were insufficient funds instead so that i could have transferred some. I dont have credit cards so i suppose thats different.

So if you nominate a current account you should be alright.

Have look at paypal sucks.com

ARRISARRIS · 14 May, 2007, 07:33:06 AM

...i must admit i find Pay-Pal excellant, as the chap says, as long as you dont get into debt your okay, i use it so that buyers of my items can pay quickly, i then use my Pay-Pal balance to feed my own E-bay buyin addiction, its easy and quick, and the small payments you pay for money transferes to you really arnt anything to worry about...

Pete Wells · 14 May, 2007, 07:43:43 AM

I must confess that Paypal has made me really lazy. I actively avoid buying from people who don't let you pay with Paypal as that whole getting off my fat arse, putting a cheque in an envelope and WALKING to a post box carry on just isn't for me.

Bad, naughty, Wicked Paypal!

Mangamax · 14 May, 2007, 08:17:09 AM

Agree.
I sell more than buy on eBay and it must be a good 98 percent of payments are made now via Paypal

johnnystress · 14 May, 2007, 08:34:35 AM

It's so handy- too handy!

I usually avoid buying from people who don't use it too

VampiraJen · 22 May, 2007, 04:50:59 PM

so in a nutshell, its kind of like a credit card things where you put money into it and then use that to pay for my items.

so for example, if i put fifty pounds into it, then bought something for a fiver, it would take a fiver from it and then transfer that to the seller.

stop me if i've gotton it wrong.

Byron Virgo · 22 May, 2007, 05:09:45 PM

No, that's about it, though you can have a link to your current account, so that they can actually take money straight out of your bank account.

Paypal is actually managed offshore (registered in the Republic of Ireland, I believe) in something of a legal Bermuda traingle, so it's been notoriously difficult to bring to any form of court proceedings and the like, and they are pretty much free to make out like legalised bandits - there were a few interesting reports in Private Eye during the last year or two about them.

Peter Wolf · 22 May, 2007, 07:56:02 PM

I used paypal for ages and ages and never had a problem at all until the pot of money ran out and i tried to pay for things without sufficient funds in the account.I didnt even know that this account was empty as i hadnt bothered to look and i have a few different bank accounts and i move money around between them. I basically get in a mess sometimes with money as i am disorganised.
The point is ,Paypal it turns out were paying on my behalf which is very kind of them except for the fact i didnt ask them to do that. It effectivly meant that i was borrowing from Paypal only without realising it. Sometime later cash was disappearing from the bank account in the form of debits. Now maybe i am missing the point but i thought debits couldnt happen without the account holders consent. Throughout this time i had no emails from Paypal confirming that it was them taking the cash It would have been polite to say the least to do so. I would rather Paypal had declined the payment due to insufficient funds being in the account then i could have transferred funds myself from another account.That would have taken 2 minutes. I resented them doing all this because firstly i dont do credit or overdrafts ever as a rule and i didnt like them doing things behind my back like that so i closed the Paypal account down and told the bank to stop them debiting immediatly which they did.

Heres my advice: by all means nominate a current account to paypal and always keep sufficient funds in it and you will never have a problem if you do this.

I cant talk for ebay selling as i only ever bought things.never sold.

A lot of stuff you read about on Paypal sucks.com seems to concern sellers being ripped off .it looks like a nightmare if you read about it all. As paypal are offshore and have such a monoploy that they do have a nasty habit of making and breaking the rules as they see fit.Apparently they are regulated by the Financial Services Organisation but i think thats bollocks otherwise why are there so many class actions going through against them? Just be careful if you are selling as that is what can cause problems from what i know.

Peter.

I, Cosh · 22 May, 2007, 08:04:26 PM

The best way to describe Paypal is probably as a middleman, allowing you to make and receive payments via the internet without having to give out your bank or credit card details to everyone you might ever deal with.

Now maybe i am missing the point but i thought debits couldnt happen without the account holders consent.

When you sign up for a paypal account using a bank account as the source of funding you are accepting that any payments you make will be debited from that account. If I recall correctly, you actually fill in a digital Direct Debit mandate and they do a test debit/credit of a penny to verify it.

There is certainly a bad side to Paypal as evinced by the tales of them taking all the money from people's accounts and refusing to repay it for six months, but it's up to you to make sure there's enough money available to pay for your purchases, just like as you would check your wallet before buying a cornetto and some nails from your local shop.

Quirkafleeg · 22 May, 2007, 08:29:59 PM

Things got slightly annoying when I did a lot of business through Paypal and they made me jump through a couple of hoops to prove I wasn't a Russian gangster other than that they have been fine.

JOE SOAP · 22 May, 2007, 08:42:43 PM

I know paypal offices exist in some industrial estate here in Dublin but I can never find a number in the phone book, ex-directory or as a business listing, so there is no way of actually contacting them directly here or even an address under the name paypal. Any fax number that I have been given by them has turned out not to be a fax number at all but an automated teller. If anything went wrong with an account I wouldn't have much faith in them solving it as you can't speak to a proper rep other than a call centre which can be anywhere in the world.

Peter Wolf · 22 May, 2007, 09:01:39 PM

You re right as i probably didnt read the small print or whatewver so there you go.

I may even open a new account anyway as they were fine up to a point but as i said if they are going to debit as you said then an email would be appreciated.they have no excuse not to really especially as these things are usually
sent out automatically.

thanks. Peter.

Peter Wolf · 22 May, 2007, 09:49:17 PM

If you can wade through Paypal Sucks website you can find contact numbers etc for Paypal which they dont really want you to know about. They only bother to contact you if you owe them money otherwise there is virtually no support available at all. Its like fuck you ,you have to use us as there is no alternative ,and by the way we are not that interested in your problems and we will freeze your account indefinatly if a buyer has commited fraud,even if its not your fault.