Paypal - Safety

[Gad-Westy]

I have an item for sale for a few hundred quid. A local buyer is interested but would need to fund it by credit card so has asked if he comes to see the item and wants to buy it, can he pay using paypal. He seems a nice genuine guy but now I'm reading online about charge backs happening months later.

So, should I run a mile? Or is there maybe another way of doing this safely?

[sc0tt]

Buyer pays by paypal
Buyer collects
Buyer lodges dispute that the item was never received
Seller cannot prove item was sent
Buyer gets refunded
Seller has no money and no item.

Avoid

[V8mate]

If he can't afford a few hundred quid now, I'd suggest that the risk of him being tempted to renege at a later date is increased?

Life's too short to set yourself up for stressful situations. Apologise and say that it's cash only.

[Andehh]

I agree with both of the above! Ask for a deposit until his pay day?

[227bhp]

sc0tt said:

Buyer pays by paypal
Buyer collects
Buyer lodges dispute that the item was never received
Seller cannot prove item was sent
Buyer gets refunded
Seller has no money and no item.

Avoid

You've forgotten 'vendor makes buyer sign a receipt' or if you're that suspicious get them on CCTV or take a pic of the event!
If you've both signed a well worded receipt then that's it, they have no comeback if it complies with what they've got.

[Gad-Westy]

Cheers folks. I've read enough to be concerned. Will let them know I can't do PP.

[peterperkins]

You can get cash out with your credit card, tell him to do that..

[227bhp]

The other thing is to make them use Paypals 'Friends & family' feature to pay, that way you don't make a 4% loss and he has no PP insurance.
It's quite simple, you don't have to be an awkward ahole about it.

[eybic]

As has been suggested, you can get him to send it as "Friends and family", he won't have any PayPal backup but could in theory do a credit card chargeback so that isn't really an option

[andy43]

227bhp said:

sc0tt said:

Buyer pays by paypal
Buyer collects
Buyer lodges dispute that the item was never received
Seller cannot prove item was sent
Buyer gets refunded
Seller has no money and no item.

Avoid

You've forgotten 'vendor makes buyer sign a receipt' or if you're that suspicious get them on CCTV or take a pic of the event!
If you've both signed a well worded receipt then that's it, they have no comeback if it complies with what they've got.

On the rare occasion a collection buyer’s been daft enough to use PayPal this is what I’ve done. Official looking receipt, even taking a photo of their car outside my house. I bet if they did try a claim from PayPal that I would still lose out despite ‘evidence’ of collection so I wouldn’t risk it for big ticket stuff.

[Gad-Westy]

andy43 said:

On the rare occasion a collection buyer’s been daft enough to use PayPal this is what I’ve done. Official looking receipt, even taking a photo of their car outside my house. I bet if they did try a claim from PayPal that I would still lose out despite ‘evidence’ of collection so I wouldn’t risk it for big ticket stuff.

The other thing I'm concerned about is that it appears that even if the buyer isn't a scammer, their CC company could simply refuse to release funds to PP so I'd end up with no money anyway.

Anyway, I'm sure it would probably be fine but I'm going to be concerned about it for weeks after so I think I'll steer clear!

[anonymous-user]

PayPal have there own dispute system similar to eBay. I would leave it. Take COC that is the only way.

[Silverbullet767]

peterperkins said:

You can get cash out with your credit card, tell him to do that..

Most sensible option so far.

[Gad-Westy]

Silverbullet767 said:

peterperkins said:

You can get cash out with your credit card, tell him to do that..

Most sensible option so far.

Yes, up to him how he does it. Suspect it might not appeal if he wanted to take advantage of a 0% on purchase deal or something but that's his business. I'm not going to risk it.