Be aware PayPal has changed it's refund policy. In the past if one needed to issue a refund to a buyer for whatever reason PayPal would also refund their Fee.. No Longer. PayPal keeps the FEE, regardless of the reason for refund.
I ran into a situation recently where I decided after being paid that I simply didn't feel comfortable with the buyer and in consultation with Audiogon Support we decided it was best to refund the buyer. I had a zero balance in my PayPal account before the transaction ( I don't typically just leave money there) the Transaction for sake of discussion was $1000.00 the PayPal fee was $30.00 .. Well when I went to refund the buyer since PayPal keeps the fee I was short. So PayPal instead of say putting the $30. on my PayPal credit card reaches in to my Checking Account and takes the whole $1000.00 out! This threw all kinds of stuff out of wack. PayPal did refund me their fee, but at that point it was to last. I had to move money around so buyer will get his correct refund, but damn what a PITA.
Axeis1, Just a quick note to say thank you. Rules around purchases and PayPal are changing all the time and it's great that you took the time to share your recent experience. There was a period recently on Agon where we couldn't use PayPal to receive funds unless we authorized the transaction through a business EIN (looks like that is gone now?). I don't know how many people will see your post, but I wish more people would share what they've been through on transactions to give others a heads up. Sounds like it was a nightmare. Sorry to hear you went through that!
Paypal doesnt always side with the buyer. They ruled in my favor as a seller serveral times. If you ship something, especially to a foreign country and dont use a method that can prove delivery you can have problems.
I’m the OP. There were numerous sketchy things with the Buyer and the circumstances. I worked with Audiogon Staff on the transaction, they agreed with me that it seemed flakey. Here’ a few of the red flags. I don’t ship internationally especially to Asia, (and Eastern Europe) the buyer was in Viet Nam, but he never told me that, I had to dig around to find it. His name that he used was the name of some lake in Viet Naim, and not a famous one ( probably one near his home) PayPal always sides with the buyer. So if the package went missing PayPal would have grabbed my money. The Buyer was using a sketchy freight forwarder. He never replied to any of my requests for more info, he never replied to any Emails, Text’s or Voice mails. He never complained or even asked why when the sale was cancelled and the $$ refunded. I’ve sold a LOT of stuff on Audiogon; my feedback is 100% it hasn’t always been easy to maintain that rating. But I have bent over backwards for some of the FruitCakes on Audiogon. I can tell when shit’s gonna go south. But I always get a second option from Audiogon staff, if things look dicey.
Paypal provides a valuable service and they should make a profit. I wonder how many that complain about Paypal have even the most basic experience running a business. I have had nothing but great experiences, both as a seller and a buyer, with Paypal. Reminds me of when Pearl Jam was bitching about Ticketmaster.
I've had some bad experiences with Paypal as well. I paid a friend a commission to sell a bunch of old gear for me last winter. By the time it had sold in April we were in full lockdown. He tried to paypal me just north of $10k. Luckily I didn't accept it before reading the fine print. Paypal was unwilling to dole out more than $1,000 per month. It would have taken almost a year for my money to trickle in. I cancelled the transaction and had him mail me a check.
There is no love lost for paypal. I do wonder about OP's situation though because OP was the one who threw the wrench in. the works Everyone had agreed to the terms. The buyer sent him money for the goods. Then OP decided he wanted to back out. The buyer got stiffed. There is no reason Paypal should have to shuffle money around from bank to bank for free if the seller isn't even committed to sending the product he listed for sale in the first place. That's OP's issue, not Paypal's.
Well I haven't had any problem with them while selling. But I won't buy anything without them or Amazon so good luck finding any buyers. Send me broken crap and expect me to pay return freight? Not with PayPal. Sell me software guaranteed to work and then balk on the refund? Not with PayPal. Besides I abhor making card info hackable by spreading it around.
It has always been PayPal’s mode to pull the full amount out of a checking account if the current balance can’t support the refund or other crediting issue. Even by $.01. I went through the same thing. Regarding the fee, not sure about that. I would like to see that in writing.
Why I got out of sales EARLY in life. I had a paper route job, I was always trying to get my money. Then after I finally got it, I felt like I needed ANOTHER shower, dickering with the jerks.. Use to sick my cousin on them he had and IQ, of 77 I think, little slow, always got my money though.. Tough crowd in 1967, Prattville AL. 12 miles from Selma yup, I seen a thing or two, a time or two...
I got it back after the fact since I bitched pretty hard about it. The issue for me is that I was short $47.00 they could have just taken That amount from my bank, or my PayPal Credit account, rather than take all the money. I asked the PayPal gal WHY? I was told it's the policy. FYI if you have a bank account attached to PayPay, might want to un-attach.
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PayPal keeps the FEE, regardless of the reason for refund
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PayPal did refund me their fee" Can you clarify, seems like you got the fee back just not upfront?
Thanks for the heads up. I am not surprised at all that they’ve decided to retain the fee. Consider it cost of doing business. How you going to handle the fee in case of refund it should be now included in the discussion prior to accepting an offer / payment.
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