New seller on Ebay! Desperately need advice please :)

[azianprideangel]

Hi guys,

I just started selling on ebay so I'm new at this whole thing. I tried to search the threads for suggestions on how to receive payment, but I am horrified by all the horrible things other buyers are capable of doing. Charge backs on Paypal?! Fake money order?! Paypal siding with fraud buyers? Funds being in the account but later turning into "funds not available"?! I got a headache just reading all of the horror stories. Can anyone recommend me a safe and secure way to receive payment? If I receive money order, should I wait for 10 days until it clears? Should I also wait for paypal payment to "clear" in case a "funds are not available, investigation going on" type of thing appears on my paypal account? I know it sounds really stupid, but I have NO experience whatsoever with money order/bank transfer, and know very little about paypal besides paying with it for the items I bought on ebay. ANY suggestions will be greatly appreciated .


I have a hate-love relationship with ebay, but thanks to all of your help, ebay isn't AS stressful as it would have been without you guys (not to say it's not stressful..it's still a very stressful piece of $()#%*)% thing ) so thanks for all of your time

 

[Litigatrix]

I just accept Paypal and wire transfer for international bidders. I haven't had any problems with Paypal myself, but I don't doubt that if you are a serious seller, you will at some point. The best things to do to protect yourself if you use Paypal is to do what you need to do to get their seller protection (i.e., ship only to confirmed addresses, get delivery confirmation or signature confirmation, plus I insure everything and include insurance cost as a mandatory cost in my shipping price). I don't think that waiting a few days will help you avoid an investigation by Paypal. Most people pay with credit cards and those funds are available to you as soon as the person pays. If you are paranoid, you can request to have those funds deposited in your bank acct as soon as you get them. Waiting generally isn't going to help anything because usually if a chargeback is going to be initiated, it will be initiated once the buyer receives the item.

 

[colleen03]

I've never had any problems with charge backs on paypal. I don't accept money orders or cashier's checks for my more expensive bags, since there are so many counterfeit ones floating around.

 

[secret shopaholic]

I think even though Paypal has had some pretty bad reviews it is probably still the best to go with. I agree that there are a lot of fake money orders etc around so you may want to stear clear of that

 

[JoV]

Have a seperate bank account for Pay Pal. This way if someone wants a charge back it won't interfere with your regular accounts. Maybe even open it at a different bank from the one you normally bank with.

When buying on the internet, I use a card with a small limit - $500.00 - I can pay it off right away and don't have to worry about fraud.

 

[ZoeyZoo]

I use Paypal too. I used to be an accountant and used to work with a lot of small and medium sized companies. There are a lot of things people can do with checks and money orders. I think PayPal offers the most protections.

Also, I do not like to do bank wires unless it is someone I know and trust. If someone has your routing and bank account numbers that can easily print up fake checks and spend your money. There are very little federal protections around check fraud and it can be very expensive it it's your account they steal. It can also affect your credit and police department may issue warrants for bad checks.