How to limit the amount a vendor can charge for a purchase?

WindsurfMaui
Contributor
Contributor

How can I limit the amount a vendor can charge me for a specific purchase? I don't want a vendor to send me a order confirmation with one amount, and for Paypal to send me a confirmation that a specific amount will be billed to my account. Then to see a different amount is listed in my Paypal activity log.

 

This happened on my lastest purchase. Now it hasn't been charged on my credit card yet, which is unusual because once a purchase hits my Paypal account it usually shows up as a hold in my bank credit card. But this time no hold has been placed. But in general I don't want any amount to be charged to my account that is higher than what I agreed to in my initial order. How do I set this limit?

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WindsurfMaui
Contributor
Contributor

I tweeted Paypal and they asked me to DM them and I laid out the issue. It took a few back and forth tweets before I finally got the policy. No Paypal doesn't either notify customers or stop a transaction that bills more than they were cleared for during the check out process. 

 

But on the good side there is a limit to how m the uch Paypal will pay above the checkout amount. The limit is 15% with a hard limit of $75. So if someone is trying to rip you off or just makes a fat finger error and adds a zero to the amount you are protected. (Not sure how Paypal notifies clients when this happens but I hope they will send an email.)

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DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

The final amount charged is between you and the vendor, not PayPal.

Check the vendor terms and then ask the vendor.

If you are unhappy with vendor policies, then choose a different vendor.

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WindsurfMaui
Contributor
Contributor

Are you saying the amount I authorized in my purchase when I got to the Paypal page in the check out process is the maximum that Paypal will pay on that specific purchase? My concern is that I authorize one amount and the vendor tries to charge a higher amiount and Paypal will pay it out without checking with me first.

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DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

What shows up on PayPal when you make the payment is what you pay.  PayPal doesn't adjust payments after completed.

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WindsurfMaui
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks, that is good to know. Because the amount in my Paypal activity log is larger than the agreed upon amount. So Paypal won't pay that larger amount is reassuring.

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DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

What ever is in you PayPal account is what you paid.  That's what you accepted at payment time.

 

I don't understand where you get an agreed upon amount.  Whatever is the payment transction is what goes to PayPal.

 

What are the details of the payment transaction?  Are there some fees?

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WindsurfMaui
Contributor
Contributor

I purchased an item and used Paypal to pay for it. During the check out process the amount of the item was $6.39. When I was sent to the Paypal website during the check out process the amount  listed was $6.39. After completing the purchase I received an order confirmation from the company and the price listed was $6.39. Then I received an email from Paypal with a record of the purchase  as $6.39 But when i checked my Paypal activity log today it is showing a purchase for $6.79. So I went back to the store order confirmation and the Paypal emails to check and see if I misread them. But no the amount in both confirmation email was $6.39 yet the Paypal activity log is showing $6.79.

 

When I went back to the Paypal email I read at the bottom of the email a disclaimer that the final price may change. I had never seen that before. The other strange thing is usually when my Paypal account is charged or an amount is reserved on hold I then see a  similar charge or reserve on my bank account. There was no activity on my bank account.

 

I have never had an amount change higher and any adjustments lower were made while on with a vendor customer service rep who was adjusting my purchase price down. So I was concerned if I had any control over the amount charged with Paypal.

 

There should be no service fees of any kind.

 

I know this is a very small amount. It isn't the amount but the concept that I can't be charged a higher amount without some notification from Paypal. After all that is the reason I use Paypal.

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WindsurfMaui
Contributor
Contributor

Just to update this thread my bank was finally billed and the billing amount was not the amount agreed to with the vendor or the amount of the confirmation from Paypal but the larger amount that was billed by the vendor. Now as it turns out the larger amount is acceptable to me in this case because it turns out the vendor did not include the state tax in their total originally. But what worries me is that any vendor can charge any amount and if I am not watching my bank account closely I will never know it. What is the Paypal policy on this issue?

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DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

No firm answer, but some ideas.

I've purchased on web sites where the price at checkout states "estimated sales tax"; this may be due to lack buyer address at the point of the transaction since the address wasn't yet provided.  So, your example could fit into such a category.  The best way to get information on that is to phone the merchant and ask what happened as PayPal can only use the transaction price set by the seller.  (See exception below).

PayPal is not in a 2-way communication transaction with the seller to have any idea what was in your shopping cart or what fees were added.  PayPal doesn't monitor the shop web site for activity.  There is a carefully defined process and specified data which goes through the PayPal; it's just the data.  I've talked to PayPal tech support a couple years again when I had an issues with how data was sent.  If you are into programming you can phone tech support for more information.

Now for the exception:  As a seller I have the option to have PayPal add sales tax and/or shipping charged to the payment coming in from a buyer; when that happens the transction amount will be higher than shown on the selling web site.  My ecommerce site has providions for shipping and sale tax with the order so my PayPal account is set to NOT add shipping and sales.  If the sales tax were added by PayPal I believe it would be listed as a separate cost on the PayPal transaction detail page.

What I would do if the seller price was different than PayPal is phone the seller and ask why.  PayPal is not going to arbitrarily change the price from that which the seller transmitted.  If it's not sales tax or shipping, then it means the seller transmitted incorrect data.

 

The only way to get this type of problem fixed is for buyers to get involved and dispute with seller directly.

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WindsurfMaui
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the reply. I know why the price was higher, the website didn't add the state sales tax until after the process was complete. Very strange but the issue for me is why isn't Paypal either communicating with me if the price is higher than their own confirmation listed or if that is too much work just not paying the bill so I am protected from being over charged. I should have the option for Paypal to not pay more than the originally agreed upon price. This way if the product isn't shipped because of non payment the vendor will communicate with me so we can come to a new agreed upon price.  But Paypal should be protecting their clients from being over charged either on purpose or by accident.

 

 I called Paypal and they said they would send my complaint up the chain of command but I was shocked that they don't have this policy already. I had relied on this "policy" for all the years I have used Paypal. So you can imagine my shock to finally find out that I have been at risk all this time. I sent Paypal a tweet and am waiting to hear back.

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