Not paying by paypal on ebay

Johnnyseven

A guy wants to buy a pickup from me via ebay, however he doesn't use paypal and wants to send a cheque or bank transfer. I'm considering the bank transfer option but is there any risk here? He does have a positive scoe of 14 but doesn't seem to buy very regularly.

stimpsonslostson

Bank transfer is fine I'd say- he can't reverse it (can he?)... Cash would be better. 

Whitecat

Bank transfer is almost zero risk, save for the fact you have to give him your account details - he could sign you up for a monthly charity direct debit if he wanted.  

The thing is that you don't actually need a Paypal account to use Paypal... you can do one-time transactions as long as you have a debit or credit card. 

Strat54

He must have a Paypal account too...you can't sign up to ebay without one! 

Rabs

Whitecat said:

Bank transfer is almost zero risk, save for the fact you have to give him your account details - he could sign you up for a monthly charity direct debit if he wanted.  

The thing is that you don't actually need a Paypal account to use Paypal... you can do one-time transactions as long as you have a debit or credit card. 

Yes this...  Sounds a bit dodgey...   He can pay through paypal by card.

One of the reasons to use paypal is that both buyer and seller get some comeback if something goes wrong...  any other way and you will have no comeback..  To me, that's worth the 2% or whatever it is paypal take for using their services...

John_P

If he pays via bank transfer then he is the one giving up the protection though.  He can't claim it back like he could with paypal.  It wouldn't worry me at all. 

equalsql

If you don't want to give him your bank details, tell him you'll take the cheque but he will have to wait for it to clear before you send him the pick-up.

TheBigDipper

equalsql said:

If you don't want to give him your bank details, tell him you'll take the cheque but he will have to wait for it to clear before you send him the pick-up.

Take care. "cleared" cheques can be redacted (and your bank account debited) for up to 6 months after presenting the cheque, I believe. I'm not sure why or how. The accountant for my motorcycle training school advised me to not accept cheques from customers. 

Johnnyseven

Thanks for the input everyone. To be sure to be safe i've told him i'd prefer paypal.

mellowsun

In the old days of Ebay it was always payment by cheque. I kind of miss those days. Someone would send a cheque, you'd pay it in, wait for it to clear, and then post the item. People were patient as they knew the score and expected to wait a week.

There were fewer scammers and the feedback mechanism worked properly.

Now PayPal is obligatory, supposedly to make things safer, and yet it's never been easier for scammers.

andrewaward

It honestly wouldn't worry me - I'd take a bank transfer over paypal any day

Voxman

Strat54 said:

He must have a Paypal account too...you can't sign up to ebay without one! 

Good point!

Dominic

TheBigDipper said:

equalsql said:

If you don't want to give him your bank details, tell him you'll take the cheque but he will have to wait for it to clear before you send him the pick-up.

Take care. "cleared" cheques can be redacted (and your bank account debited) for up to 6 months after presenting the cheque, I believe. I'm not sure why or how. The accountant for my motorcycle training school advised me to not accept cheques from customers. 

Half right ......they can be redacted but the time limit is about 21 days

Dominic

andrewaward said:

It honestly wouldn't worry me - I'd take a bank transfer over paypal any day

I totally agree.........I totally refuse to use Paypal.We disputed a substantial payment very justifiably but it was complicated issue. The difficulty dealing with a human was finally overcome.We then had to contend with a Filipino who had very poor English and no grasp of legal tenets or consumer law .We made it past 2 of these gatekeepers to deal with people in America.
 My guess ,after the first conversation with each, was that neither was over 18 years old and both preferred to correspond by text - In my mid 50's I don't want to deal with kids by text nor do I want to be told to "chill " called Buddy or deal with other acronyms that I do not understand.
We were promised phone calls from managers that never came , only more texts ........."managers" were equally juvenile and did not understand either the word "mitigate" or "litigate" .........just hopeless but kept sending generic texts that were totally non-specific and irrelevant  telling us that everything was "cool" .
 I can only handle so much from low -grade morons offering bad service and poor education - if you want to run a Bank pay proper staff not kids in call centres .
 I will not use that company on principal.

Whitecat

Dominic said:

TheBigDipper said:

equalsql said:

If you don't want to give him your bank details, tell him you'll take the cheque but he will have to wait for it to clear before you send him the pick-up.

Take care. "cleared" cheques can be redacted (and your bank account debited) for up to 6 months after presenting the cheque, I believe. I'm not sure why or how. The accountant for my motorcycle training school advised me to not accept cheques from customers. 

Half right ......they can be redacted but the time limit is about 21 days

Not if the cheque is fraudulent. There is no legal time limit on those. 

Danielsguitars

My friend got scammed with a phone that he sold on eBay, I think he paid via PayPal, picked it up in person then said he never received it

close2u

Postal order anyone? Simples.

John_A

andrewaward said:

It honestly wouldn't worry me - I'd take a bank transfer over paypal any day

Me too, people sell cars using bank transfer all the time, unless you get a real bad feeling about the deal don't worry about it

mr-mac

John_P said:

If he pays via bank transfer then he is the one giving up the protection though.  He can't claim it back like he could with paypal.  It wouldn't worry me at all. 

So how do people get their money back if send to wrong account??? Which I know they do.  Personally I'd tell him he can pay via PayPal without a PayPal account using a debit or credit card and you'd prefer that

kaypeejay

To check the details, do a payment of £1, or a penny if that bothered, once that has gone through and been verified you can get the rest. 

ICBM

customkits said:

My friend got scammed with a phone that he sold on eBay, I think he paid via PayPal, picked it up in person then said he never received it

Which is why you must never accept Paypal and then do anything other than post it to the registered address via a tracked, signed-for courier service… even if it's going literally to the next street. Paypal will not accept anything else as proof of delivery.

If the buyer doesn't want to use Paypal and prefers Bank Transfer, that's all good though - it can't be reversed.