Hi guys,
Here's the way that I use eBay/Paypal & the reasons why.
I have 2 eBay accounts, both registered to different E-mail addresses. I have 2 Paypal accounts, one per eBay account.
One eBay account ( SteveW62 ) is my "buying" account. I only ever buy & pay with this account. This works fine. The feedback is "hidden" I have set the account up so that my feedback ( about 750 ) is "private". I don't care if a seller can't see it. As long as I win & pay on time, that's what counts with this account.
My "selling" account has had a PayPal problem ( & feedback problem ). The feedback on this account is "open" for (potential) buyers to check me out. From this account, I sold a Military Hamilton to a guy in Singapore. It took the buyer ages to pay & eventually, after various empty promises, he did, via PayPal & a credit card ( can you guess what's coming ? ). In order to fund another purchase, I quickly removed the money from my PayPal account. I sent the watch, via Registered post, the day after payment..
About a week after payment was received I got an E-mail from PayPal stating that the credit card used to fund the purchase was stolen & that the payment had been reversed. So my Paypal account was now negative. Paypal asked me to please correct this situation & restore my balance to zero.
I wrote to Paypal & said that I had already sent the watch & if I cleared my negative balance I would have no money & no watch. I saw ( & still see ) it as a PayPal "mistake" to accept payment from a stolen credit card. I don't see why I should carry the costs for a mistake/decision made by Paypal.
I left the seller negative & he left me retaliatory negative.
After a few weeks, 3 sellers on 3 continents had left the same negative feedback. ( Paypal & stolen credit card ) The buyers account was suspended.
Eventually Paypal stopped writing nasty letters about my acount being negative ( as far as I know it still is ). I never got the watch back. I tried to get eBay to remove my negative feedback - they refused. At that time they said it was a pure Paypal problem & had nothing to do with eBay, I know they have a different attitude now .... so some things HAVE improved :-)
I'm pretty cautious about accepting PayPal now & for larger amounts, I will INSIST that the payment is in my account for OVER a month before I sent the item. ( for smaller amounts I can swallow the loss )
So that's my sellers experience with PayPal. As a buyer I am happy with the service. It's quick easy & free me me :-)
Another point in the original post was that SELLERS are now no longer allowed to leave negative feedback. I don't know if this is true for all eBay sites, but I have read that it applies in Australia & have already seen it in eBay.co.uk I recently bought something from the UK. When I left feedback ( positive ) a popup appeared & basically asked me if my feedback was "truthful", I had nothing to "fear" because the seller COULD NOT leave negative feedback for me ..... so basically as a buyer I can say exactly what I want without fear of retribution ..... Seems fine from a buyers point of view ........... not so good for the sellers.
I don't believe that ALL buyers are honest. The new system seems to protect the buyers whilst leaving the sellers totally unprotected.
I don't sell much in eBay. But if I were to start selling watches, I'd use the forum sales board & make sure payment is 100% safe before I send a watch.
S.
