Advice Needed!

resinguy

resinguy

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Feb 19, 2006
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Got a buyer for one of my Exchange items. Buyer has zero BF history. Just sent me PP, but it is unverified. Meanwhile a second potential buyer comes along, a known good guy here. I need to look into PP and what "unverified" means. I plan to ship USPS with delivery confirmation/insured/sig required. I won't ship until I can get the money out of my PP account, back into my bank. Do I smell scam, or am I just being paranoid? All buyers have to have a first time, but I don't want the hassle of a scammer claiming he never received the knife, and then having to screw around with the USPS to settle it. I don't need a $500 headache.

What do you think? Thanks!
 
send him an email explaining your feelings but in a nice way. if he isnt a scammer, he will understand. if not, you sell to the person you know.
 
Unverified just means he hasn't given Paypal access to a checking account. Let him know you will ship when the payment "clears". Basically that would be when you withdraw the payment and have it in your hand. To tell the truth from what I have seen the whole "verified" title doesn't carry any weight. For guys who have been scammed Paypal still doesn't take funds out of the bad guys checking account anyway. Also there never is a guarantee the funds are there. Just means an account number was given to Paypal.
 
Exactly what I was going to say!! If you are unsure tell him you will send it when the money goes into your bank account. Can't get scammed that way!
 
Or just contact him, explain your concerns, and ask for a USPS MO. He should understand. If not, move on.
 
I am currently listed as "unverified" by PP because my PP account is linked to a check card and I will not divulge the ABA routing numbers and account numbers of the checking account. It's a simple matter of privacy - they don't need to know and I won't tell them. It does not at all reflect on the integrity of the potential buyer.
 
Right, I definitely was not going to ship until I have the PP funds cleared into my bank. Maybe I am just paranoid, reading about scams. I am concerned about the potential worst case, where the buyer claims he never got the knife and expects to made whole, so I'm out of pocket the $500 until I can convince the USPS to pay off the insurance.
 
Too early to tell. Wait and see if the funds transfer. If they don't, sell to the other guy.
 
Even if the funds clear that doesn't mean that you'll get to keep them. If he claims the item didn't arrive and does a chargeback PP can try to recover the funds from you. If they can't get them from your bank account they will debit your Paypal account. I've seen this happen in the past with deals here. I don't trust Paypal for large transactions anymore, USPS Money order only.

Good luck

Eric
 
This has happened to me....unless there known here I would say postal money order only and ship after you get the cash in hand....




Eric Isaacson said:
Even if the funds clear that doesn't mean that you'll get to keep them. If he claims the item didn't arrive and does a chargeback PP can try to recover the funds from you. If they can't get them from your bank account they will debit your Paypal account. I've seen this happen in the past with deals here. I don't trust Paypal for large transactions anymore, USPS Money order only.

Good luck

Eric
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I would ship it to the 1st guy. insured for the $500 but I would not insure and use delivery confirmation together. delivery confirmation is a ripoff and anyways that would just be overkill. postal money orders can and are counterfitted also, so I would just as soon trust paypal.
 
flylock said:
I would ship it to the 1st guy. insured for the $500 but I would not insure and use delivery confirmation together. delivery confirmation is a ripoff and anyways that would just be overkill. postal money orders can and are counterfitted also, so I would just as soon trust paypal.
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I don't believe that Delivery Confirmation adds anything of value to Insurance other than you can look up the delivery scan online. If the parcel gets a delivery scan (which an insured piece will get whether combined with delivery confirmation or not) and is left on the addressee's porch and either is stolen or the addressee claims they never got it, USPS will use the delivery scan as "proof of delivery" to deny your insurance claim. On the other hand, if you combine Signature Confirmation with the Insurance, somebody will actually have to sign for the package or a notice is left and the package is held at the post office.
 
You should do what many other people do.
get a secondary bank account and transfer the money as soon as it hits your account. That way Paypal can't steal from you if the buyer is trying to scam you. Good Luck!
 
If you have it insured, someone has to sign for it. I would think that the USPS would be able to track when it was signed for and picked up. All of the knives I've received with insurance, I had to sign for and then the PO person scanned it as "picked up". With Delivery Confirmation, you can check to see when it was delivered. If it was delivered to that address and someone "steals" it. Not your fault, it made it to that person's address.
 
I will never tie Paypal to my bank accounts. I only use a Credit card so therefore I will always be "unverified".
The good thing is that as soon as money appears in my PP account I withdraw it. If the buyer then tries to scam me there is nothing PP can do to hurt me financially..........
 
pkdmslf said:
If you have it insured, someone has to sign for it. I would think that the USPS would be able to track when it was signed for and picked up. All of the knives I've received with insurance, I had to sign for and then the PO person scanned it as "picked up". With Delivery Confirmation, you can check to see when it was delivered. If it was delivered to that address and someone "steals" it. Not your fault, it made it to that person's address.
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Tell that to Paypal. They would just as soon lock up your account as blink an eye. Then you have to spend months proving to them that you were in the right. TONS of stories at www.paypalsucks.com
 
With a PayPal dispute. They normally listen to both sides. A lot of times one party (the one the claim is against) does'nt respond to PayPals inquiry in which case PayPal usually awards the person filing the dispute. If I responded to a PayPal inquiry in a dispute and I showed all documentation that the item was delivered (insured or not) and PayPal still charged back my account, that would be the one and only time that would happen as I would immediately cancel my PayPal account and never deal with them again. I've been using PayPal for about 3 or 4 yrs now with no issues. I've filed claims against two parties for non-delivery of merchandise. I of course showed all correspondence, payment receipts, etc. In each case both of those parties failed to respond to the PayPal inquiry and I got my monies back.
 
pkdmslf said:
With a PayPal dispute. They normally listen to both sides.
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That's only because they've been sued around 50,000 times. Had it not been for the legal of action the little guy, they'd be screwing us over hand over fist just like the "good ol' days" :thumbdn:
Paypal is not an institution that should be defended for it's fairness.
 
First off, it doesn't sound like you have any real reason not sell to the first guy.

Still, keep in mind that having funds 'clear' and land in your account MEANS NOTHING TO PAYPAL!!!

We had funds taken out of our account weeks after the funds hit our account. The scammer had defrauded her bank somehow and used the funds to buy stuff from us (among others), the bank discovered it and Paypal simply took everything back. That means the money they used to purchase goods from us were reversed right on out of our account by Paypal months after it had "Cleared."

No dispute resolution, no satisfactory response to our inquiries, NOTHING but "You're responsible." We have NO WAY of knowing where funds in the Paypal system come from or if they're fraudulent, but they'll stick it to you if they screw up and have illegitimate funds in their own system!!

We still use Paypal, but it does shake your confidence A LOT when they pull that on you, let me tell you!!:mad::mad::thumbdn::thumbdn:
 
I didn't mean for this to turn into a Paypal bashing thread. Sorry.
I just wanted to drop some advice on how to protect yourself.
Click on the link I provided, you'll find everything you need.
thanks.
 
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