eBay / Paypal / and Frequent Flier Miles.

mclemore

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In a thread about someone and their eBay transactions, there were some back and forth about eBay and Paypal.

Someone suggested a user intentionally drained their Paypal account and thus must be bad. I don't think this always has to be the case.

First of all, Paypal and eBay shut down accounts with and without reason all the time (though I believe most of the time they shut down an account without reason they think they have a reason, though their due diligence in coming to their conclusions may be sorely lacking.)

Secondly, unless you spend money via paypal, why leave it sitting in their hands. Since Paypal can be a tad unpredictable (though seems to be getting better), why risk your funds. It costs nothing to 'bring it home'. A quick Google search will bring up numerous pages from people who lost because Paypal pulled them or froze the accounts. [And of course, a lot of people need the money so they pull funds]

Third, even if you spend money via paypal, it still makes sense to pull your $ out of there the minute they come in. I almost always drain my account the same day $ come in. Why? Frequent Flier miles. If I pay for an eBay transaction with a PayPal balance, I don't get any FF miles. It is not uncommon for me to log onto PayPal, request a free ACH transfer of the full balance into my bank account, and then no more than 2 minutes later start paying for my outstanding eBay purchases via Paypal and my favorite credit card. Even though the ACH transfer isn't instant it locks up the funds, so you can then pay for transactions with a credit card. If you have a balance in your Paypal account, eBay won't let you use a credit card to pay for the transaction...

[Speaking of which, I hate having to change my method of payment to credit card manually on every batch of items I pay for.... I miss the old days, when you could just set your default payment to credit card'].

Back to eBay/Paypal in general:

I know someone who sold a game for 1500 and shipped it to the buyer using their on-record eBay address. It turned out to be an old address and the machine disappeared. The buyer wanted his money back and the Paypal pulled the $ from the seller's account. Why? Because the seller shipped to the address eBay had on file, and not the address that Paypal had on file. The seller lost the $ and the machine for using the address eBay gave him. While I suspect eBay has synced the eBay and Paypal sites and databases better now it didn't help this seller.

I myself had a special account with eBay pulled for 10 weeks this year due to the actions of someone in Australia. I didn't know this person in Australia and never did any business with them (on or off of eBay). I don't believe this person in Australia had any intent on causing my any problems and might not have known who I even am. All I got from eBay was 'you were bad, and we shut you down'. Email's and phone messages for 10 weeks went no where productive until I explained that I was two days away from showing up at the eBay developer's conference at eBay HQ and planned on screaming bloody murder. Then they finally spent the time to look at what they did and fixed (turned back on) the account. At the developer's conference I got a 'sorry' and 'too bad that happened to you' and 'trust and safety gets a little zealous' , but definitely no offer to make good for any of the real economic damage that their actions created.

Overall I'm pleased with eBay and Paypal and both provide services I appreciate. Perfect they are not though, and draining one's Paypal account doesn't mean anything.
 
I've not maintained a balance in my Paypal account for years. I always drain it... and when I make purchases it comes right out of my bank acct. I don't trust paypal or the people running it to make the best decisions so I drain it. That simple.

I think my biggest gripe with Paypal/Ebay is the requirement on ebay that you MUST accept Paypal. THAT is BS IMHO and borderlining on a monopolistic situation.
 
Maybe monopolistic, but it's probably the thing I like the most about eBay now. I can pay for purchases from a half dozen people in a single Paypal transaction in 60 seconds instead of having to write checks to people, or worse, dealing with people that want money orders/cashiers checks when I didn't bother to see that in the description before.

Yes they get their fee, but I bet in a lot of categories of goods (especially new goods) that it actually results in more sales and higher prices for sellers.

I think my biggest gripe with Paypal/Ebay is the requirement on ebay that you MUST accept Paypal. THAT is BS IMHO and borderlining on a monopolistic situation.
 
Maybe monopolistic, but it's probably the thing I like the most about eBay now. I can pay for purchases from a half dozen people in a single Paypal transaction in 60 seconds instead of having to write checks to people, or worse, dealing with people that want money orders/cashiers checks when I didn't bother to see that in the description before.

Yes they get their fee, but I bet in a lot of categories of goods (especially new goods) that it actually results in more sales and higher prices for sellers.


Ugh i remember running a business where my suppliers were ebay back in 1999 and how i had to manually write checks to each one of my suppliers, mail it, wait for it to clear then finally getting the product. 2 weeks turnaround was considered fast shipping back then! :D
 
Just odd to me that a person who has so many transactions, has recieved 11 emails about a particular auction, and is too busy to ship the items he contractually obligated to ship has the time to make sure all the money in his account is moved.

In 10 years, this is the first issue I've ever had with Paypal, and only the second with ebay.
 
I've not maintained a balance in my Paypal account for years. I always drain it... and when I make purchases it comes right out of my bank acct. I don't trust paypal or the people running it to make the best decisions so I drain it. That simple.

I think my biggest gripe with Paypal/Ebay is the requirement on ebay that you MUST accept Paypal. THAT is BS IMHO and borderlining on a monopolistic situation.

I highly recommend removing the bank account link. The last thing I wanted is Paypal to have the ability to pull money from my bank. Plus, if you pay with a credit card, you always have the ability to do a chargeback against paypal if something isn't right.

Basically I don't trust Paypal to do right by me.

-VJ
 
Just odd to me that a person who has so many transactions, has recieved 11 emails about a particular auction, and is too busy to ship the items he contractually obligated to ship has the time to make sure all the money in his account is moved.

In 10 years, this is the first issue I've ever had with Paypal, and only the second with ebay.


Let it go. Take a deep breath, the guy said he would make it right. are you going to keep jumping from thread to thread whining about it??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUU9UmT134M
 
I highly recommend removing the bank account link. The last thing I wanted is Paypal to have the ability to pull money from my bank. Plus, if you pay with a credit card, you always have the ability to do a chargeback against paypal if something isn't right.

Basically I don't trust Paypal to do right by me.

-VJ

True - I am a new paypal/ebay person (since Feb, I guess). I read all the horror stories of paypal pulling money from people's bank accounts.

Its humorous to me everytime I login to paypal it wants me to "get verified" or whatever, by putting in my bank account information. I think that my credit card, which matches my address on file is pretty good verification for now.

Nothing is linked to my bank account - I use online banking and my bank *sends* money to pay all my bills. Heck Bob Roberts was the first person I wrote a check to in a long time.
 
Ebay and Paypal have changed to much. They just got to big. I remember when I signed up for ebay in 1999.

I still like to use Paypal. Im not really a seller, so I usually just pay for things with paypal. When I sell I dont like it as much, they really get you with there fees.
 
True - I am a new paypal/ebay person (since Feb, I guess). I read all the horror stories of paypal pulling money from people's bank accounts.

Its humorous to me everytime I login to paypal it wants me to "get verified" or whatever, by putting in my bank account information. I think that my credit card, which matches my address on file is pretty good verification for now.

Nothing is linked to my bank account - I use online banking and my bank *sends* money to pay all my bills. Heck Bob Roberts was the first person I wrote a check to in a long time.

Why write a check to Bob Roberts? I use my bill pay to pay him too! :)
 
Why write a check to Bob Roberts? I use my bill pay to pay him too! :)

When I emailed him last time I mentioned that and got no reply (regarding the billpay). Billpay (mine at least) is in one of those "tear off" forms and not everyone pays attention to them. Its nice to let someone know ahead of time and acknowledge it so they don't throw it away as junk (or just ignore it for a while).

So, to play it safe, I just sent a check - he's too valuable a resource to mess up :)
 
When I emailed him last time I mentioned that and got no reply (regarding the billpay). Billpay (mine at least) is in one of those "tear off" forms and not everyone pays attention to them. Its nice to let someone know ahead of time and acknowledge it so they don't throw it away as junk (or just ignore it for a while).

So, to play it safe, I just sent a check - he's too valuable a resource to mess up :)

Well, I use Bank of America, so he knows what those look like. I have never had a problem with him receiving the payments. He actually gets them very fast which is a plus.
 
Well, I use Bank of America, so he knows what those look like. I have never had a problem with him receiving the payments. He actually gets them very fast which is a plus.

Well, maybe I'll just try it next time - keeping an eye out for his "check received email" and if it doesn't get acknowledged, fire off a real check "just in case".

I'm finally getting my test bench finished up so I'll be making up an order "soon".
 
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