Not covered with protection for my first sale - buyer never paid

[Donique]

Hello. I just very recently made my first sale. I shipped the item immediately (to make buyer happy) only to find out later on that the payment has been cancelled. I never got paid and I am unable to file a case for this transaction. Apparently there is a type of payment called echeck which overall means that I shouldn’t have shipped the item to buyer before e-check has been cleared. The problem is I never knew about that so I was completely unprepared. What is worst is, I thought that as a seller I have protection rights from Paypal in case something like this happens to me. It was my first sale via PayPal and unfortunately it was eCheck - I understand that Paypal does not want to protect me in this case - but my question is why PayPal wouldn’t bring an action against the buyer who is a PayPal user and who has an item that she never paid for. What if that person keeps doing the same thing to other PayPal sellers and always gets away with it just like she did with me..? I’ve only had this one bitter experience from selling via Paypal and I wish PayPal was more helpful to new sellers and warning them about eChecks before they make their first sale.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@Donique

Its unlikely the buyer will be able to keep on doing it as most sellers are aware of echeques.

Your best bet is to go to Paypals user agreement and read up on Paypals seller protection so you can risk assess your transactions by seeing what coverage they offer and what coverage is not offered.

With your echeque it would have showed 'uncleared or pending' with a clearance date in your Paypal account.