Power Sellers Unite

MIKEHATESEBAY · Joined: 18 Nov 2010 Posts: 160

Almost 2 months after selling an item (sent to UK) I get a notice from PayPal stating that funds were frozen due to Unauthorized Credit Card use on buyers side.
I checked Post office tracking which shows 2 delivery attempts over 1 month ago.
My question, since eBay and PayPal supposedly had "cleared" the buyer, and I did my part by shipping to address supplied by "eBay/paypal" , how can I be held responsible??
Paypal is supposed to handle credit card transaction, and are being paid to do so ...... why do they pass loss on to seller?
Is this legal?
Paypal is not just a credit card processor, they also can use funds from bank accounts, etc.

mojavelyn · Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 2:23 pm Post subject:

Here is probably what happened...

Buyer either hasn't paid his bill and the account is closed by the card issuer or used someone elses card.

If someone else's card, it would take the billing cycle and the real card holder dispute the charge on the statement.

If the account is closed for non-payment then there is a problem there.

You have to remember the credit card companies and processors are not going to lose money. The people who provide the convenience of accepting the cards take all the risks. Even if the transaction is approved at the time of sale.

How would you liked to have lived in the time before card scanners? When we had to look up a booklet of phoney card numbers, and had to get a voice authorization code on all purchases over $50?

Yes, the card companies actually printed a booklet
on bad card numbers, canceled accounts, stolen cards etc etc etc. if the merchant accepted a card whose number was in that book, it was like taking a rubber check. The merchant lost the money. Not the card issuer. And each card had a toll free number to get an authorization for any purchase over a certain amount and each card was a different amount.

I worked in a Days Inn with a Wendy's resturant. The resturant did not accept credit cards. But our credit card processing company, Norbanco, put us in as Wendy's Resturant. (Yep, the little American Pippy Longstocking look-alike... and we were the only Days Inn with a Wendy's) We got disputes all the time for "We didn't eat at Wendy's. False Charge" When if you had a $33 or more bill at Wendy's thats some heavy chow down, back then.

And in order to win the charge back we had to prove that the charge was in fact for the hotel stay.
The old fashioned credit card imprints didn't always stay with the registration folio nor did they copy over well into the fax. So we started imprinting the cards onto the registration folio, the guest sig and dl# on the front. And our lost dispute cases dropped extremely significantly. And this was in the days of the scanner!!! We scanned the card, then imprinted it onto the back of the registration.

MIKEHATESEBAY · Joined: 18 Nov 2010 Posts: 160

My opinion is that paypal is not strictly a credit card processor, one can use paypal through a bank account or use funds from selling on eBay.
Whatever the case , how can they transfer 100% of the risk to seller ? Completely unfair.
Smaller sellers are virtually forced into using paypal.
... since eBay no longer allows
money orders , cashiers checks, western union . etc.

mojavelyn · Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:30 pm Post subject:

It is not strickly a credit card processor... It is a web payment service. It allows people to pay with a credit card thru their service.

Its no different then the banks who charges a $35 or more for depositing a hot check that a merchant takes in from a b&m store. AND the writer of the check gets charged a NSF fee to boot.

The merchant always assumes all the risk. The risk that items will sell, the risk of transactions gone bad, the risk of shoplifters...

If you don't have the stomach for the biz, don't be in it.

sciencefare

@ MIKEHATESEBAY...

Mo has provided you with some pertinent information.

Heed what she has told you. 8)

thegolfingdolphin · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Posts: 695

mojavelyn - My gosh mo I do remember those oblong books with bad accounts that you are not suppose to accept payment in the form of a check it seemed to me at the time, as CC were not used as much then. That must have been 30 years ago, by my account.

mojavelyn · Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:54 am Post subject:

SHHHH!!!! we're telling on ourselves!!!

mojavelyn · Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 2:28 am Post subject:

I even remember when Telecheck got popular.

highdesertdetails · Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 548 Location: Great Basin

I think Mo's explanation is right on. My backwoods explanation is that Paypal paired with ebay always spells disaster.

mojavelyn · Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 2:05 pm Post subject:

thank you, HDD. Another explaination on his delivery attempts could be the card holder died or is otherwise incapacitated from the time the purchase was made to the time of delivery. At that point, the buyers credit would be frozen, especially in days of identity theft. We fought for years with creditors after my sister passed... someone got her credit cards and charged up alot of stuff after she died. They hounded my mother, as a contact reference, for years. Even after my mother gave them police info. I finally answered one call who asked to speak to my sister, And told them to look up in the Social Security Death Index for her name and if they DARED to call my mother again I would file suit for harressment. And If they had God's phone number they were welcome to talk to my sister. And if they did not understand that my sister had died, when given proof of her death... I would make sure that they were removed from doing business.

summerseveplumb · Joined: 04 May 2010 Posts: 28