Buying & Selling Online using Paypal

[beardown]

one side effect of the new paypal/ebay amendments is that every single US seller on eBay now charges something like US$35 and up, even to ship a single button-down internationally, to cover their ass against those few buyers out to scam. off-putting.

Jgan,
Much of it is the result of higher shipping fees in the U.S. As a seller, I won't send anything that doesn't offer tracking or delivery confirmation. That's for my sake and for the sake of the buyer...because inevitably I get an email 3 days after it's shipped asking where it's at.

Even to send something as small as a button-down shirt would be $35 from the U.S. to europe or Australia. It's unfortunate but there's no way around it unless you want to risk it getting lost and risk the usual airmail time of 4-6 weeks.

Actual cost for something that size (unless you can fit it into an envelope) is around $31-$36 USD for international priority. It's so much easier to sell domestically only because shipping within the U.S. for a shirt would be $5-$7.

Suhlee,

If you've sent him several emails and PMs over the span of 2 weeks with no response, the time to act is NOW.
Don't try just his email or just his PMs, try both. If he's ignoring both and he promised a tracking number, something is already fishy.
When you open up a paypal claim, it will give him time to respond before it's elevated to an actual dispute. So it will get his attention, which is what you want.

In my opinion, a seller should always send a tracking number after it's shipped. Everyone should be able to expect that as a buyer.

I hope you didn't pay as a gift though because in that case, you probably won't get anything back.

[jgan85]

^beardown: $30ish is the minimum for shipping from US internationally with some form of tracking? man i'm sorry to hear that, i can ship a button down shirt from here to US for about US$12 tracked (that works for PayPal in the event a fraudulent buyer attempts to chargeback). either way looks like shipping costs are going to be a big factor for those small purchases everybody makes now and then, especially if they add something like 50% to the item price.

J
________
Buying A Vaporizer

[lowrey]

What's the general etiquette/recommended amount of time to wait before filing a claim?

I bought a pair of pants two weeks ago but ever since I paid, the seller hasn't responded to any of my PMs requesting a tracking number.
It's international, so I figure I should give him one more week before filing a claim?

He's a pretty reputable member here with consistently great items for sale but it does seem a little a suspicious.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

I agree with beardowns advice. there is always the chance that someone is travelling or otherwise unavailable to respond, but this of course shouldn't go on forever.

additionally, if the seller is not replying after a number of PM's and e-mails after a significant amount of time, it could be worth posting this in the Classifieds feedback thread.

[beardown]

Jgan,

If it's something you can stuff into an envelope, you can sometimes get it to around $24-29, depending on the destination. I try to send items in boxes just because of the protection it provides, especially if it's an item that's on the more valuable side.

The postal service went through a lot of changes in the past few years because it's bleeding money but I've found that it's more reliable and has less customs issues than UPS or DHL (neither of which I will use for internationally anymore).

I sent something to Canada last week that cost me $29 to ship (this is 6-8 day delivery 'priority'...not overnight or 2-day) that I could have sent domestically for $7 easily.


For the Paypal issues, that's the good thing about the process....you can start one without any damage to the seller if he's legit and has been unable to get your PMs or emails. It gives them a week (I believe) to respond. If they respond and the matter is solved, it just gets dropped. But if he doesn't respond, you can escalate it to an actual dispute.

I've just found that the quicker it's filed, the better your results will be. I've been guilty of getting antsy and impatient in the past with international shipments but it's silly when all of it can be solved with a simple reply to a PM or email. When the communication ends right after payment, that's when it's easy to get suspicious.

No harm, no foul if seller responds to the open paypal case...you get an answer and he won't be punished in any way. Regular/senior members on here are amazingly on point I've found as sellers. There's only a few cases I remember where a handful of people had issues.
It happens, it can happen but as always, communication is the key to transactions to keep it from happening.

[Raw]

You guys are lucky with shipping costs. Shipping overseas from Australia costs $58 to the US and $72 to the UK for a 1-2kg package. Now with the AUD$=USD$, that =

[nictan]

off topic, but i just realised that my credit card's exchange rate is WAYYYYYYYYYY better than paypal's. ive been duped for years. . and possibly of hundreds of dollars. ive always thought it would be around the same, so i didnt bother to change the conversion options.

Paypal conversion: 195USD = ~$257SGD

Mastercard conversion: 195USD = ~$250SGD

Thats a good near 3%.

how stupid of me.

[diorowen]

@raw
truth..
shipping 700 grams jeans will cost around $32 to UK..
so please..dont lowball australian residence guys.

@nictan,
I guess be careful with that assumption. I once bought from LVR, and the conversion paypal shows $890aud, and when I use my cc conversion, it shows $850. but when I did use my cc, and read the total cost in my cc report, it become $925 =_=..+all the fees.. so I guess count all the possibilities first before using cc conversion.

[beardown]

off topic, but i just realised that my credit card's exchange rate is WAYYYYYYYYYY better than paypal's. ive been duped for years. . and possibly of hundreds of dollars. ive always thought it would be around the same, so i didnt bother to change the conversion options.

Paypal conversion: 195USD = ~$257SGD

Mastercard conversion: 195USD = ~$250SGD

Thats a good near 3%.

how stupid of me.

Are you sure that conversion for Paypal doesn't also include the transfer service? I'm pretty sure it does because that's around 3-4% for international transactions, which would result in the difference you're seeing.

but think of it this way: When you own a credit card, you're paying high interest rates on ANY and ALL balance you carry. Some people in America pay interest rates as high as 27% or higher. Some people pay an annual fee on top of that.

So when you work it all out, Paypal isn't really that bad of a deal. They're a bank of sorts, after all. They make their money from transferring your money to other people and that's a service that you have to pay for.

The devil is in the details when it comes to credit cards, charging and money transfers. Make sure you take all of it into consideration because what you see isn't always what you get.
Plus, there's the issue of convenience. Anything that is convenient will cost you additional money.
When dealing with a lot of buyers, they can't take credit cards. So using paypal may be your only option. Paypal knows this and so you pay a premium to use their service.

I don't eve see a time when I would consider myself pro-paypal but if I couldn't use it, I would definitely miss it, fees and all.

[nictan]

yea im thinking its the 2.8%(i think) for international transactions. either way, what im seeing and using for comparisons would be the amount that gets docked off in my bank statement. that would be the safest and final amount to use.

i made two USD transactions over the past 2 days, one of them is at 1.28, the other at 1.32. and its only two days, so the actual FX wouldnt have changed much. so either way, be it transaction fees or wad, i pay less. both transactions were carried out exactly the same way, through my creditcard-linked paypal. im just changing the conversion options.

[jgan85]

agreed on all counts, beardown.
________
NEVADA MEDICAL MARIJUANA

[Raw]

nictan when you receive your credit card statement, you may incur a seperate fee for that transaction, it's happened to me before

[nictan]

sorry, said it wrongly. its not exactly a credit card. its a debit card. not sure how much a difference it makes, but yea, i'll wait and see when the statement arrives. see if it makes any difference.

[diorowen]

just an fyi and this is a HUGE one for sellers in our community...

effective nov 1, paypal buyer protection now also applies OFF-EBAY...

yes...you heard it correctly

protection for "item not received" AND "item not as described" both apply to OFF-EBAY transactions now...

recently got scammed, bought as payment, and item was damaged and stained. file a claim item not as described. and seller didnt reply any of my msg, so I decided to lift it up, and paypal send me an email saying case closed,

Our investigation into the following transaction is complete. As stated in
our User Agreement, the claims process only applies to the delivery of
goods. It does not apply to complaints about the attributes or quality of
goods received. Therefore, we are unable to reverse this transaction or
issue a refund.

shitty paypal.. I guess this is the last time I bought something off members online other than from SZ or from person I dealt with before.. dealing with strangers is too risky..

[seatbelts]

recently got scammed, bought as payment, and item was damaged and stained. file a claim item not as described. and seller didnt reply any of my msg, so I decided to lift it up, and paypal send me an email saying case closed,

Our investigation into the following transaction is complete. As stated in
our User Agreement, the claims process only applies to the delivery of
goods. It does not apply to complaints about the attributes or quality of
goods received. Therefore, we are unable to reverse this transaction or
issue a refund.

shitty paypal.. I guess this is the last time I bought something off members online other than from SZ or from person I dealt with before.. dealing with strangers is too risky..

That sucks man, how much are you in the hole? I've come to the same conclusion, SZ is a tight knit of trustworthy people, I've been scammed on sufu and styleforum.

[ardeetee]

^be careful regardless. it may not be as often, but there's certainly been occurrences here as well. it is still a public forum afterall.