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A Paypal Offer - Is This Secure?

Hi All,

I am selling a CAT amplifier and have a paypal offer from a buyer who has very little feedback (only one transaction) and does not speak english well and communicates only small bits of information at a time. I am nervous about this. I spoke with paypal and they told me that as long as:

1) I am selling something of substance
2) I ship to the paypal address, no other address
3) I can document the shipping of the product

I am protected as a seller. If this is true, I should be able to accept his offer and make sure that I am shipping to the address listed in paypal, and I should be fine shipping pilot air insured (with tracking and all, including photos of packing, etc). What do you guys think? Is this too much of a risk, or not really a risk at all?
peter_s

Showing 4 responses by muzikat

Ag insider logo xs@2x
muzikat
921 posts
 
Paypal is my preferred way, however it is not foolproof. I recently had
trouble with a buyer, he wrongly claimed a piece of gear I sold him did not
work several weeks after receiving it. It did work.
Well he started a dispute on Paypal. They usually take the buyer's side.
Long story short, Paypal put my account into a negative balance for two
months until all was sorted out. I got the piece back and just as I said,
worked perfectly. Paypal just took his word that it didn't.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
muzikat
921 posts
 
Indeed, I keep a separate bank account for Paypal only. I also keep a very small balance there until I need to make a purchase.
The thing is, after a dispute Paypal deducts amount of sale from seller's account. If it is negative, then you must bring your account up to zero, then ad funds if you want to make a purchase elsewhere while this is going on. That was over 2 months in my case.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
muzikat
921 posts
 
There was no money in my account so they put it in the negative until dispute was resolved. In my case it was $2000, so if I wanted to buy something for $10 I would have to deposit $2010 into the account. When dispute was ruled in buyer's favor, I had to cover negative amount. This dispute process took 2 months.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
muzikat
921 posts
 
Peter, I got a chance to respond to the Paypal dispute. What I said did not seem to matter, even though I had a timeline and was telling the truth. Supposedly my buyer produced documentation to them stating the DAC was broken. I never saw any, even though I asked.
Again, I got the DAC back in good working condition. It was however missing a $200 cable and some inner packing.
I tried to start my own dispute about this but Paypal "declared" case closed.
Fortunately Audiogon took my side in all this and I was able to leave negative feedback. Some consolation, but a nightmare over all.
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