5 reasons why Paypal is a poor provider

[phbthh]

Paypal is the largest online payment company in the world (also owned in part by ebay) and they can't get their act together. Funny, as sellers, we are expected to provide a crazy level of service or get banned but paypal / ebay let's this stuff go and can't get their act together to fix it.

1. You can't ship to various Canadian Cities using paypal. - It's true. The wizards their linked postal code to city and city to postal code, so you can't change the city or else it doesn't match up. Second, many cities (especially francophone) have more than 25 letters in their city. You can put your city in as a buyer, but when you ship, it won't allow you to print out the label because there are too many letters in the city, but you can't change the city because then it doesn't match with the postal code.

2. lbs / inches cm / kg. How many times do you get the 'you can't mix them'. OK, heres the solution to the web geniuses. Pick your favourite: A. Make both lb/kg fields convert to common weight so it doesn't matter which you enter, B. If you enter inches in dims, then block out kg field and advance automatically to lb field. That is a super easy fix.

3. Tag a shipment to ebay properly. I cannot tell you how many times I have shipped an item through paypal only to not ever show shipped in ebay. Get it together. You expect us to sell, package, ship, pay etc. and get it all correct and you can't even get the shipment linked.

4. It's what they don't tell you. Sure they tell you how to do things but they don't tell you the scams out there. Where is a list of posted scams and specifics on how to recognize them. The mods here may mention something but I am sure many people are scammed due to not fully understanding the agreement with paypal.

5. I am sick and tired of schmoopy auto emails. 'after careful consideration', 'we have looked at all the facts' blah blah blah. We care, we love, we are here for you. Please stop it! Just say the truth: 'Hi there, this is an automated replay and our system shows the dispute was resolved without a person ever getting involved. Thank you for using paypal' Please don't pretend that anything personal was done. Its a program. we get it.

[tservers]

Hi phbthh,

You say "5 Reasons why PayPal is a poor provider"

but I see your post as saying "5 things that can make PayPal a Better Provider"

... And then submit that into the "Suggestion" or "Developer" section of PayPal. You could help make PayPal better. Give them the suggestions they deserve to have.

You make very good points and I can tell that things have gone not-so-good- for you on occasions with PayPal, but help them. They need and look for people to help them do better serve their members.

On an ending note: As long as PayPal is helping you receive and transfer monies without many problems, it's a good thing to do as I do and that's read, read and read more at PayPal's site and learn what you can and give suggestions. You may come up with a suggestion that they've been looking for. You never know until you try.

[phbthh]

i just felt like complaining. I am sure paypal knows all about this. Your title is a kind of glass half full. I would do that, but I'm afraid I am just too jaded. Paypal is very clear and precise when it comes to taking money, which is fine as a business, but this pretending to be something more is very annoying. I use paypal a lot and it is very useful, but all it is to me is a service provider

PS: I don't LOVE paypal as their logo motto whatever suggests. Really? Love? money transfers. That goes a little too far.

[poorprovider]

There's more than five reasons PayPal is a poor provider. 

[Maplebetsy]

I believe that there is another reason Paypal is a poor provider. I recently had a buyer (who ends up being a re-shipper, so he/she asks you to put the item # on the outside of the box so they can re-ship it which inof itself seems like an unfair demand to make, if you can't keep track of what you buy that's your problem ~ as a seller I shouldn't be "bullied" into having to write out your item # on the outside of the box or end up with your wrath against me) and this buyer bought 3 of my items, they happened to be dolls. My friends in my doll club had warned me to block this bidder, because they are infamous in 2 doll clubs (Madame Alexander and Barbie) but I didn't do it quick enough. Now that they have rec'd the 3 items AS PREDICTED they have make a bogus "not as described" claim against me to get the item cheaper.  Their claim is the "eyes are not blinking". Wow. Since a doll is a toy, not a human being, this seems a little stupid. Yet now I have a huge "hold" of $ being held up, I have a claim, and it gets worse.

As Paypal advises, I was to "communicate with my buyer" which I did. I explained the eyes are called "sleep eyes" in which they are open when the doll is standing and they can be closed (manually) when the doll is laying down flat. I didn't say it but I wanted to: only humans can "blink" their eyes!  Their response was to immediately escalate the claim to the higest level and in their reply to me was the threat that if I didn't refund them immediately they would escalate the claim, but in fact they did so before they replied to me. Paypal has put a hold on the entire amount of the sale which seems categorically unfair since only $39.95 is effected, not $168. I have been advised by Paypal I must offer to reinburse them in full PLUS shipping (? wow, I even spent $5 out of my own $ on shipping but whatever!) and now the buyer has TEN full days to dinker around and possibly send the item back. TEN DAYS! As the seller, once you get paid I'm sure ebay and paypal frown upon if I were to wait TEN DAYS to ship the item.

It seems to me that paypal backs the buyer, no matter what, and leaves us sellers out to dry. This "buyer" I am dealing with has taken advantage of many of my friends in the doll world with the SAME EXACT BOGUS "Not as described" claim ~ in fact this person has used the exact same (poorly worded English I may add) in all their claims. They have at least 13 ebay "ID's" which is permitted since a "business" is allowed to have multiple ID's for their convenience so now I have to keep track of blocking all 13 of these scammers, and I have called to complain to Ebay and Paypal, no one wants to listen. If they cared they would see that this buyer has an unreasonable # of claims against sellers with the lame "not as described" bit and not make me reinburse this abuser.

You guys (Paypal/Ebay) are the best game in town to attract buyers so my hat is off to you for leaving those of us who want to make a few extra bucks to "have no choice" really in who we list with (yes Kijiji and Craigslist are out there but not everyone can drive to pick things up), but as a seller I feel very frustrated that things are stacked against me. Ebay won't let me leave a negative feedback. Paypal puts someone's "claim" for 1 item on all the items paid for in the transaction. I can see "holding" back the 1 item that the complaint is against but holding back the amount of all the items this clown purchased and giving them 45 days to complain? It's just plain frustrating and in my opinion, grossly unfair.

[phbthh]

Sorry to hear it happens with dolls. I sell electronics and it happens all too often.

Kijiji is owned at least in part by ebay who owns paypal. So they are all the same. To me Kijiji is far worse than ebay. At least with ebay they are mostly qualified buyers, and less haggling.

Unfortunately there are  many buyers out there who know how to steal from sellers.

Here's the easiest way to do it.

Buy 'something' on ebay, when you receive it, email the seller and say "the item is not as described" I want $$$ back. Voila! Free money! It might not be the same blue you were expecting, or maybe it's more round. Maybe it should have something that all the others have, maybe the packaging is dented. It doesn't matter really.

There are too many like that and while this will occur in many places it is especially difficult as a seller in ebay with paypal because.....

Paypal doesn't expect anything from the buyer. At least with a credit card you are required to sign an affidavit. Sure there are people who still cheat the system but it's another layer and you have to be more brazen.

Paypal has little to lose by taking the customers side, as a seller they will chalk it up to the cost of business. I already am. Unfortunately it hits small sellers quite severely.

Paypal and ebay have teamed up to penalize sellers if they have 'not as described claims'. Again, too many negative reviews will sink any seller anywhere, but if you have your own store or your own website, 1 or 2 out of 100 buyers can't bring you to a close. with ebay/paypal, they can.