INQUIRY: PAYPAL for herps? Good or bad?

I had thought that Paypal was THE best way for sellers and buyers to conduct their transactions. I thought this because my transactions were mostly conducted through ebay.

As I buy, sell and trade herps and read stories here---I hear varying perspectives on Paypal and how they perform during disputes. I see possible caveats with use of Paypal---and I sure don't want to support them as a business if they don't support us as customers.

So---should we as buyers and sellers support Paypal or is there a better and safer way to conduct our herpin' business?

Also--for the sake of arguement---let's put the fees aside. I know that a lot of people feel that the fees are the reason not to use Paypal--but the 3% is worth it to me --- even up to $1000 --- to get money fast.

I think this may belong on the Business Forum but to me it is the ability to pay and receive money fast that keeps me using Pay Pal.
If everyone were able to take Credit Cards that would be a better, not cheaper, method of exchanging funds for goods but as it stands Pay pal is the fastest and easiest.

i have a claim filed with paypal right now, they are telling me that the only way they could get my money back is if the purchases are made on ebay, so if you use paypal to buy from any herp merchants and run into any problems with them they will not be able to get your money back using papal, paypal tells me that you are better off using your credit card for purchases that are not made on ebay, so hows that for protection, i will never buy without using my credit card again.

Originally Posted by John E Dove

I think this may belong on the Business Forum but to me it is the ability to pay and receive money fast that keeps me using Pay Pal.
If everyone were able to take Credit Cards that would be a better, not cheaper, method of exchanging funds for goods but as it stands Pay pal is the fastest and easiest.

I hope I didn't misplace this--my apologies if so.

I started thinking of Paypal as a "seller" because they are providing many of us with a way to pay for our addictions---I mean hobbies.

It is fast and easy. When both parties are legitimate, I don't think there's any better way---but I could be wrong.

I just signed up for Google Checkout as an alternative.

I am leaning towards feeling better to have a credit card company representing me in a transaction -- instead of Paypal.

Of course, Postal Money Orders are a valid alternative, IMO.

Originally Posted by greg c

i have a claim filed with paypal right now, they are telling me that the only way they could get my money back is if the purchases are made on ebay, so if you use paypal to buy from any herp merchants and run into any problems with them they will not be able to get your money back using papal, paypal tells me that you are better off using your credit card for purchases that are not made on ebay, so hows that for protection, i will never buy without using my credit card again.

Sounds like a negative experience with Paypal--crap.

From a buyers perspective, I believe that using PayPal is the best way to go weather you use a credit card or just your account. I have used them for going on 6 years now as a seller and have had just one bad transaction with them.

I utilize their service called Virtual Terminal and the first year I signed up for it, I took a payment at a reptile show for some animals I sold at the reptile show.

Almost exactly two weeks later I had a charge back filed against my account. The buyer never contacted me before filing the charge back, she just did it, so I didn't know what the problem was.

I finally got in contact with her, and she said that she basically was having buyers remorse and wanted me to take the animals back and give her a refund, but she saw my purchase policy on my site which stated I don't do refunds so she just filed a charge back stating I never SHIPPED her the animals. So she lied about how she purchased them in the first place, and after debating with PayPal customer service they said that they had no way to verify the animals were sold at the trade show, so they gave her her money back and I never got the animals back.

I didn't let this end here, so I contacted a "higher up" at PayPal and they stated that when I use Virtual Terminal at a show I should state that in the notes section of the payment screen, other wise they assume it is a shipment order, and unless you have a tracking number to verify the shipment was shipped they have no other options but to assume the buyer got ripped off.

Since this transaction took place they have changed the way they track their transactions a little better, and I haven't had any more problems with them since this transaction. I did have a person in a different city, at a different show try to do the same thing and since I put in the comments that the transaction was taking place at a convention they denied them their refund.

oh, i forgot one paypal rep told me that you can use your credit card through paypal and that it would give you much better protection, once i did that and had a problem about 5 years ago and what happend was within 2 days the credit card company took the money from paypal and paypal took months to get their money back from the merchant who scammed me and at that time they told me not to ever use your credit card to just go through paypal and they will handle it, honestly if i did not use my credit card i would not have gotten my money back, as for the claim i have filed right now it looks like i will not be getting my money back because i did not use my card through paypal this time, when you lose hundreds of $ like i did , i will never use paypal again with out using a credit card for payment through them.

One of the benefits is that you can pay right away and the buyer can reserve the animal right away and the seller is sure that he is going to go through with the transaction. A safer modification for both parties is probably to send a non-refundable down payment through PayPal (the 3% fee is thus smaller), followed by an overnight (if you are in a rush) postal money order for the difference.

Best!

my thoughts are that paypal is a great way to make payments it's the dishonest buyers and sellers that ruin it for everyone, but i think that paypal needs to find a way to extend it's protection service to purchases outside of ebay, just my thoughts.