• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Use of Paypal "personal gift"?

J

Jenzbiz1

New member
Joined
Mar 6, 2011
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Corona, CA, usa
Hi all. I wasn't sure where else to post this, so hopefully I guessed right... I tried to search the site for info about this before i posted, but I didn't find any discussion on it.

Recently I inquired about a leopard gecko that is listed for sale. The answer I got back was pretty straight forward, but I didn't feel comfortable with the way the seller demands payment. The only available payment option for this person was for me to send her a PayPal payment as a "personal gift".

I did some research on what that means to me as the buyer, And it looks like it takes all protection that PayPal offers away from the transaction. Being listed as a "gift" prevents the buyer from making a claim against the seller because there is no product. Right? I'm guessing it saves the seller the responsibility of paying taxes or something, but I didn't feel confident about the sale, so I passed on the gecko.

I have been working with Kristi at Goulish Geckos for several weeks now and she is awesome! She has allowed me to make payments and has never once asked me to make a payment as a "gift". In fact, when this other seller asked for payment in that fashion, it was the first time I had even heard it was an option!

I guess my question is, is the "personal gift" thing a common practice? If so, why? Should I be less concerned?

Thanks for any help you can offer. I'm kinda the new girl and I won't wanna rock the boat, but I also don't wanna get ripped off.

Jen
 
I wouldn't say it is a common practice...and, as you said, you lose any buyer protection you might have had, since you are not "buying" anything. It boils down to the seller trying to beat the nominal fee charged by PayPal for processing the payment. Another method that some sellers use is to try to charge buyers the 3% fee - for the record, that is a violation of PayPal's TOS. Sellers cannot charge an additional fee to people that want to use PayPal.
 
Well, that makes sense. Even though it's against the law, I'd rather pay the fee for the seller than go without Paypal's buyers protection. Thanks for the info. I was probably right to pass. At least until I get a little more familiar with Fauna and how it works. Thanks so much for the info! I really appreciate the help.
 
It isn't against the law...well, maybe in PayPal's eyes, lol. It is a violation of their TOS. How they respond to it seems to depend on who fields the message/complaint. Sometimes it is ignored, sometimes they notify the seller that the practice is unacceptable; but if it is a continued problem with a seller, they can take action against the account.
As far as paying the fee, $30 to instantly receive a $1000 payment - especially when it enables credit card payments - is a pittance. If the margin is so thin that the seller cannot absorb that cost, the pricing should probably be adjusted.
 
:iagree:, and that about sums up this one! Haha couldn't have said it better myself. Okay well maybe I would have said "NEVER send payment as gift!!" Tell the seller to get lost. (which is what you did, :thumbsup:)
 
Their "buyer protection" isn't what it used to be, and for that reason I no longer use paypal.

I purchased a live animal and paid with paypal. It was sent the regular way, not as a gift. Long story short, I didn't receive the animal and seller had ceased contact so I filed a claim. A phone call to their CS dispute rep told me that their animal policy was black and white and I would be receiving a refund. Thirty days later, paypal still had not decided. I called again and was told the same thing. Ten days later, I received word from paypal that they had dropped the case. Didn't decide one way or another, just dropped it despite all the evidence they could ever want. Seller got to keep my money, and I got nothing except their word that they'd 'add a note to the seller's account'.

Careful with them.
 
Last edited:
I am hoping that new programs such as clearxchange that compete with Paypal will give it an incentive to improve, although I've had no problems with them for a long time. I would never use the gift function to pay for an item, but of course if one is giving a gift or making a donation, it is an appropriate choice.
 
Hi Jennifer,

Any seller that asked me to pay via gift would not get my business. As you found, paying via "Gift" is very risky for the BUYER and ofters no protection (even less protection than paying the regular way).
 
Thank you everyone for the information. It's unfortunate that sellers feel the service charges are too high. I was running a small web based business for several years and I just made sure my prices were low enough to be competitive but still high enough to cover these kinds of expenses. Honestly, it never even occurred to me to play the "gift" game. I didnt even know it was an option...


At first I wondered if it was a Fauna thing, or even a live animal thing... But my gut told me it was more along the lines of what you all have been saying. I'm bummed because it's an awesome gecko, but yeah, I'm not doing that. :)

Thanks again! You guys are great!
 
Back
Top