I screwed up and need advice

Guess I'll add my two cents. I don't think you're a dead beat...you screwed up and tried to make it right. That's what decent people do...they make mistakes (we all do) but they do their best to fix them. I think you acted properly. The fact that the seller will only accept PayPal doesn't make him a bad guy, either. His sale, his call on what he will/will not accept in the way of payment, his call on whether or not to deviate. Seems to me the buyer is under some obligation to meet the seller's requirements. Again, you screwed up...add $ to the PayPal account and pay when it's available...the seller has given you no other options, so he'll have to wait for the $ to become available or he loses the sale. I personally think you made reasonable effort to correct the situation and I can't think of any reason the seller wouldn't accept MO instead of PayPal (taxes?...tracking?...principle of the thing?), but that only makes him a pain in the neck to deal with, not a bad guy. You said you're willing to accept negative feedback for screwing up...if he doesn't give you any other way out, looks like you're stuck. All feedback mechanisms I've seen give both parties a chance to tell their side...sounds like when you add your perspective, this one will make him look like the pain, not you.

The PayPal fees are a totally different matter. I've no opinion on your particular situation. I personally avoid buying from anyone who wants to charge me a fee for using PayPal...even though it usually ends up as only a few bucks, I won't do it on principle. I'm curious how all the moderators in all the forums are going to handle this issue. Appears to be standard operating procedure for folks to charge or halve PayPal fees with the buyer...if it's "illegal", is someone going to police it? I had no idea it was against PayPal policy...now that it's becoming common knowledge, is someone going to hold sellers accountable? Seems like a large bite to swallow. Personally, I'd leave that up to the seller/buyer to work out...too many folks telling us what we can/can't do anyway.

Good luck!
 
Several points, first I never charge the 3%, and I've sold some fairly expensive items on E-Bay. Secondly on my auctions I state that PayPal is prefered, but that money orders are accepted. BUT, even with all this I still receive personal checks and even cash. When this happens, especially the cash I'll e-mail the individual letting him know that I received payment, even though it wasn't done according to my payment "preferences" and that I appreciate his efforts towards timely payments.

Bottom line, if you want to do any kind of business on the net you better be open to all possibilities and to be able to meet the needs of your customers.
 
Personally I've always expected to eat the Paypal charge and priced accordingly. I generally consider it worth 3% to cover my time saved in not having to go to bank, not having to worry about whether apersonal check will clear, etc.

But that's just me.

On the original topic, no you're not a deadbeat, was a simple mistake. And no, he shouldn't be charging the 3%, and you can try to report it to Paypal, but their policy might be that you can't make a report unless you're actually charged for it(ie you ahve to buy the product, surcharge and all, and then you can report him to Paypal). Not sure about that htough.
 
The passing on of money transaction charges was made illegal if it is a percentage of the sale price. You can impose a "handling" fee as long as it is a finite amount and the item is going to be shipped. The idea of the handling fee is to cover shipping expenses.

The reason this legislation was passed was to promote electronic transfer of money. Imagine if the cash price for things was 3% cheaper than charging it on a credit card. You would never use a credit card.

Paypal is sort of a money medium similar to a debit card. Debit card transactions are governed by most credit card rules including this vendor limitation.

Imagine going to a supermarket and being charged 3% for using a credit card or a $5 handling fee? It would be ridiculous.
 
Paypal dosn't seem at all concerned about the fact that so many people add the 3% Paypal fee to their price. Ebay owns Paypal, so I guess that means that they don't really care either. These companies would sooner prefer not to have to take this up with the sellers for obvious reasons. Enough buyers are going to have to raise a stink that these companies will sit up and take notice, or things are never going to change.

Sod Buster, you are obviously not a deadbeat or you wouldn't have bothered trying to figure out a way to make this deal work out. You were not purposely trying to mess this person up.

The seller stated in his auction that he only took Paypal. You missed that and that is too bad. I am sure that from now on you will read all the conditions before you bid on something. I do not think that the seller is obligated or wrong in not changing his way of accepting payment. It is also up to him if he wants to give you some extra time to straighten things out with your Paypal account. He could be a little more understanding and show a willingness to work with you, but he is not in the wrong for not doing so. However, I do think he was in the wrong for inferring that you were a deadbeat and for threatening to leave you negative feedback because of this.
 
I greatly appreciate the input that all of you have contributed to this thread and have in fact learned a great deal from this experience. As far as this knife deal goes I'm afraid that the seller has taken it out of my hands. I responded to his email and informed him once again that I would do whatever it takes to make payment even if that included using PayPal and accepting the surcharge (which I normally don't do on principle) but he is now ignoring me as I have yet to get a response from him. As far as I know my PayPal account is not linked to my checking account or any credit card and I was not even aware that you could do that. I normally just transfer money into it when it gets low. Unfortunately this auction caught me with low funds and I was not able to cover the final bid from PayPal. The seller's name is Jerry Stark and I think he is a little miffed at me for pointing out that the surcharge is against PayPal policy. I don't really give a damn about the knife at this point but I sure would like to get my reputation back. :(
However it looks as if Mr Stark is far more interested in slamming me than getting his money. But, to be fair, I am the one who didn't pay attention to the rules so I guess I have to take my medicine.
 
I have an update on the situation that will thankfully resolve the conflict with Mr Stark. He emailed me tonight and gave me another chance to make a PayPal transfer to him for the winning bid. However he is only giving me until Monday to make the transfer which will not be enough time for me to get the funds into my account since Monday itself is a federal holiday and it takes three full working days to do this. I decided to resolve this by taking the suggestion of one of the formites and contacted a friend to make the transfer to Mr Stark for me and I will in turn reimburse my friend. Since I did not read the payment options closely enough and he refuses to take a postal money order I feel that I should just go ahead and pay that surcharge as a penalty for my inattentiveness. You can bet that I'll be reading those auction rules like a lawyer inspecting an X-Ray for signs of whiplash in the future. :footinmou
 
In the future, I would recomend an Echeck. You can send that through PayPal, you would have fullfilled his requirements and it would come straight out of your bank account
 
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