My roommates and I are looking to purchase a couch off of Craiglist. The seller says they will arrage for the delivery, if we go to see the couch, like it, and leave a 25% deposit. This seems reasonable enough to me, to put money down in order for the delivery to be scheduled, but obviously I am wary of anything on Craiglist. We were upfront about our concern of not getting our deposit back if the couch isn't delivered as promised and the seller agreed we could find a payment method that would make us all feel comfortable. They suggested PayPal. My question is, is there a way for us to send them the money but ensure we will be able to able to reclaim the funds if it turns out to be a scam? I have read that a PayPal transaction can be canceled if it's still in 'Pending' stage but I haven't been able to find any details on how long that period lasts, as I'm not yet sure what type of PayPal account the seller has, and am afraid that it will be past that stage and it'll be too late to cancel in a worst case scenario. Our time frame is making the deposit on a Thursday night and the delivery being scheduled for that Saturday. Is there a way to schedule the payment so it can't be fully processed until that Saturday? I appreciate any help or suggestions anyone has.
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