Paypal Offline on 4/19

[DeniseM]

Misleading others into thinking that once they cash out their money paypal has no way of getting it back. In the end Paypal will start holding everyones money for a length of time. This will hurt the honest paypal sellers.

Paypal is not perfect. If you do not like their terms do not use them.

You are putting words into my mouth - I never said that. I said -

I can and do give refunds willingly - but I'm not going to turn money over to a scammer. They will have to sue me - and win.

No problem - they can take me to a collection agency. I'm not handing money over to a scammer.

Thanks for the advice - but I think I will go with the professionals!

 

[ronparise]

I did over 50 rental transactions last year and another 50 so far this year and without exception I billed and was paid through paypal. I havent had a single dispute or chargeback, so maybe Im good or maybe Im just lucky, but in either case I dont have any experience with the dispute process or chargebacks with paypal. More than that I have never, ever, considered asking a credit card company to reverse a charge and give me my money back. In fact I didnt know such a thing was possible until I started visiting this forum

Here it seems to be common practice to enter into a business agreement, pay with a credit card and immediately call the credit card company to reverse the charge. Frankly I dont get it. Why not contact the merchant directly??

So Denise has me worried. It seems from her experience and on the advice of her stable of financial professionals that a lot of pay pal customers use paypal because they can just dispute a charge and have paypal immediately reverse the payment.

So I went to the pay pal site (yes its still working to day after yesterdays crisis)

They have a dispute resolution process

1) a buyer can open a dispute (within 45 days of the
2) buyer and seller are expected to negotiate the dispute (20 days)
3) either buyer and seller reach their own agreement or the matter is escalated to a claim (7 days)
4) paypal investigates and makes a descision (30 days)

In the case of a credit card chargeback Pay pal will hold the funds until the dispute is resolved

_nothing happens immediately


So I dont see any possibility that a scammer can use paypal to get money from me as Denise suggests...and I dont see the need to open multiple bank accounts to protect myself...In fact I insist on using paypal and that my customer knows that there is this dispute resolution process so they will feel comfortable doing business with me

 

[DeniseM]

Ron - I too like Paypal - it's not perfect, but it is the best payment option out there right now - IMNSHO.

However, there are renters who are scammers. In the last 2 mos. there was a renter right here on TUG who, after the rental disputed the charges and got their money back because of some trivial things, like not enough toilet paper. I will try to find the post so you can read it.

Does this happen most of the time - no!

Does it happen occasionally - yes!

This is the way I look at it - I'm not going to get ripped off - period.
If the money is sitting in my Acct. and it's easy for Paypal to just take it back, they have very little motivation to investigate. If the money is not readily available, they have a lot more reason to prove their case.

If you want to leave your money sitting there - go for it - but I'm not going to make it easy for someone to make a fraudulent claim.

For someone who does 1 or 2 rentals a year - this will probably never happen - but for someone who does many rentals - it's only a matter of time.

YMMV

 

[ronparise]

Ron - I too like Paypal - it's not perfect, but it is the best payment option out there right now - IMNSHO.

However, there are renters who are scammers. In the last 2 mos. there was a renter right here on TUG who, after the rental disputed the charges and got their money back because of some trivial things, like not enough toilet paper. I will try to find the post so you can read it.

Does this happen most of the time - no!

Does it happen occasionally - yes!

This is the way I look at it - I'm not going to get ripped off - period.
If the money is sitting in my Acct. and it's easy for Paypal to just take it back, they have very little motivation to investigate. If the money is not readily available, they have a lot more reason to prove their case.

If you want to leave your money sitting there - go for it - but I'm not going to make it easy for someone to make a fraudulent claim.

For someone who does 1 or 2 rentals a year - this will probably never happen - but for someone who does many rentals - it's only a matter of time.

YMMV

I think its a bigger deal for folks that rent only a few times a year..their scammer antenna arent very well developed. And if they do get scammed, even just once every 2 years, its 25% of the time. If I get scammed once in two years its only 1%.

Frankly I choose not to believe that the credit card companies and paypal would reverse a charge for a weeks lodging based on trivial stuff. (not that toilet paper isnt important) I think the poster you are referring to probably left something out of their story

Having said that one of the posts in this thread made a good point. It doesnt matter how quickly you remove the money. If pay pal thinks you owe them and your account carries a negative balance, you wont be able to use the account. They will get the money.

By the way I dont leave money in pay pal very long either...I spend it right out of there with the paypal debit card, or just send it of to the transfer companies for new timeshares

I think what I object to most is not your advice, Its good advice given your assumptiions. What I object to is the assumption that everyone is out to get you...I cant live that way...

 

[richardm]

There are several good products which a viable alternatives to paypal.

DepositGuard.com offers easy to use rental escrow with very low fees.
Square is a very easy merchant account that operates with a smart phone.
Google Checkout is increasing in market share.

PayPal's perceived poor customer service and high transaction fees are catching up to it and other vendors are finally stepping in to fight for marketshare.

 

[rjp123]

This thread is tiring.

 

[DeniseM]

Having said that one of the posts in this thread made a good point. It doesnt matter how quickly you remove the money. If pay pal thinks you owe them and your account carries a negative balance, you wont be able to use the account. They will get the money.

1) They may get the money eventually - but they will have to jump through all the hoops - I'm not going to just hand it over to them IF the person is trying to scam me.

2) I have another payment method (not Paypal) that I can use as a back up at a moments notice.

What I object to is the assumption that everyone is out to get you...I cant live that way...

3) I didn't say that - I very clearly said that for most people this will never happen - but for someone who does a lot of rentals - it's only a matter of time. It gets reported enough on TUG that I know it's true.

YMMV

 

[DeniseM]

I will never post info. about Paypal again...
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: