Power Sellers Unite

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 16923 Location: Texas

It’s one of those emails sellers dread, maybe even more than the “where’s my item?” one. The one that says, your buyer paid you, but there’s no money yet: a PayPal echeque notification. And then you have to mail the buyer and explain… or decide to take the risk and wonder, for the next two weeks, if you’ve just sent the goods out for free or not.

TameBay chum Whirly had just such an email this morning. He duly mailed his buyer to say that the echeque wasn’t due to clear until 10th to 12th February. But, came back the reply from the buyer, PayPal have told me it’ll clear on the 9th, and I need my item for the 12th.

But the messaging gets worse: PayPal’s website states that echeques can take 6-9 working days to clear – meaning that Whirly’s customer’s echeque wouldn’t clear until somewhere between the 12th and the 17th. How’s anyone supposed to make an informed decision when the information is so inconsistent? Someone needs to learn to count.

more.. link to news article

Stockmiser · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 1146

Always remember - on ebay, e-checks don't work if you're list is set for immediate payment 8)

that took care of all my ebay echeck worries.

When I get them on my website, my webstore system automatically puts it in a "pending" mode, which I later show as "waiting for echeck to clear" mode - and they are informed as such. I also send them an email and let them know it's take up to 10 days to clear an echeck, and until paypal clears it, the item has not been paid for - and if they wish to cancel their order, or change their payment type, to write me.

I've had at least 2 off-ebay customers just send me a money order - which is usually quicker. 8)

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 16923 Location: Texas

PP usually sends me an alert as to when the echeck is issued, then another alert when it clears. I don't ship until I confirm the cleared echeck. As you stated stockmiser, sometimes it takes over a week. :roll:
I do like those money orders also!!!!!!!! :)

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4782

Away from eBay, I have PP set up to refuse e-checks altogether.

The reason?

As stated, 3-4 business days to clear into my account for a domestic sale. 10 business days average for a sale to Canada.

Plus at times, PP has had a problem notifying the seller that the check has cleared into their account. The email comes late, by which time, the buyer has cancelled the payment.

When I was still on eBay, I would email the buyer letting them know that I had received notification of their e-check, and that once the e-check has cleared into MY PP account, I would ship their item.

Then after the e-check cleared, I would send the buyer another email letting them know that it had indeed cleared, and that their item would be mailed the following day.

Never had a problem with a buyer over the delay.

Stockmiser · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 1146

I think the biggest problem comes when people don't read their emails and have no idea they just did an echeck. I've had many people use paypal, assume they were paying me from their pp balance or CC, and have it end up becoming an e-check.

One change pp did last year was to no longer allow a buyer to cancel an active e-check. In the past I had buyers not want to wait and re-pay me, so they would cancel their echecks. But last month I had a webstore customer actually call pp after not being able to cancel - they said that since last year, only the seller can cancel an active echeck in-progress. I had to cancel it for them.

jjj525 · Joined: 08 Apr 2009 Posts: 354

I have blocked e-cheques for my ecrater store.Lot of scammers pay by e-cheque from closed bank accounts and want to ship item soon.

As usual the e-cheque decline and paypal postpone clearance by 2 weeks.The scammer become more persistent in sending item due to delay and I saw some sellers fell for it and lost item and money.

I also set up my ebay account as Immediate payment required to prevent this headache.

If the buyer wants to pay from their bank they can easily use their debit card which is instant and has more buyer protection through visa or mastercard.

By the time the e-check clear you can sell the item to someother buyer or the price of item drops as I sell electronics.

thisnthatguy · Joined: 09 Oct 2009 Posts: 185

I agree with blocking echecks, however...you can only block them for an off ebay site...this was pulled off my acct. today while reviewing...

Block the following payments:
Pay with eCheck or German bank transfer for all website payments except eBay. NOTE: You may not block eCheck payments on eBay.

Just a fyi

Stockmiser · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 1146

thisnthatguy wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote") NOTE: You may not block eCheck payments on eBay.

You can't block them via paypal - but you can if you make your ebay item "immediate payment" fixed price. Then it won't allow the buyer to use an echeck.

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4782

One other thing you might want to check on, is going into your PP account and blocking a buyer's ability to pay you via the "Send Money" tab.

The reason for doing this is to prevent them from being able to change the invoice. In the past, buyers could use this method and change the amount of shipping and in some cases, even the cost of the items themselves.

By blocking this, the buyer has to pay you either via eBay or the invoice you sent them.