• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Please respond, is PayPal really EVIL?

X

Xeon22

Bad Trader
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
1,163
In doing a search on google, I've run across a site, www.paypalsucks.com, which states alot of horror stories about people getting ripped off by paypal.

Is using paypal in general truly a risk? I know that alot of you have been using it for years over thousands of transactions, and I would like your views on this, and possibly this website.

I am just a user with concerns about that system. Please reply.
 
and mods, I'm aware that this isn't a sale or trade thread, but it's the best place that I can think of since it does pertain to buying & selling. Please don't lock / delete. If there's a better place to move, then ok.
 
Ive never really had a problem with paypal. I use it all the time. Maybe thats why Im broke.. :(
 
in my openion the only thing i hate about paypal is that they charge you for what you make.
 
I lost quite a bit cause of them through ebay, the bad way not the good.


I earned it back though when the lawsuit happened. Its why I no-longer use paypal.
 
I've been using Paypal for over FIVE years. Never a single problem.
 
LadyMakoFox said:
I lost quite a bit cause of them through ebay, the bad way not the good.


I earned it back though when the lawsuit happened. Its why I no-longer use paypal.
Click to expand...

perhaps you clould provide a little more in deapth description on how you initialy got screwed...

worst thing i have ever had paypal do to me was threten to withdraw funds for a package that an ebayer said was never delevered, unless i presented them with a tracking number..
but that claim was cancled... and havent had any other hickups since...and i started using them back in mid 2003...
 
Vapor1000 said:
perhaps you clould provide a little more in deapth description on how you initialy got screwed...

worst thing i have ever had paypal do to me was threten to withdraw funds for a package that an ebayer said was never delevered, unless i presented them with a tracking number..
but that claim was cancled... and havent had any other hickups since...and i started using them back in mid 2003...
Click to expand...


Aparently someone I bought something from a long time ago sent the wrong item which was broken, I had plenty of proof but paypal sided with the seller. I got my money back though by having a laywer my aunt worked for contact the firm doing the settlement and they worked out something and I got money back. Wasnt the full amount but heck 2/4ths is better then none right?
 
If you have a premier account and sell items, then you know how paypal screws you :( I use to sell computers for a meager profit on ebay, and what wasn't chewed up by $16+ of paypal fees(given comp sells for $550) and $16+ of ebay listing fees, well pretty much came out to be nothing of a profit.
 
But that's exactly how they screw you...they give you a limit on recieving money, and teh limit is only lifted if you have a "premier" account. "Premier" means that while you don't have money limits, they charge you 2% on ALL recieved money, and there's a fee for selling things.
 
Yeah, which is why I decided immediately after I was done selling things on ebay to downgrade bac to "basic", even tho I beleive you can only do it once..
 
They locked my account...kept all my funds and to this day have not given me a reason as to why....i use them under a different account now but i keep MINIMAL funds in it....overall F PAYAPL
 
paypal works good, but their fees suck, i sold my laptop on ebay for about $600 bucks, and paypal took like $15 of that. pretty steep if you ask me
 
Been using them for 3 years.

I refuse to upgrade to a primier account.

Only 1 horror story.

I sent someone $200 for a barebones computer.

Never recieved the item.

His AOL email and PayPal account were set up with a stolen credit card.

I filed a complaint with PayPal. They sided with me but
"because he has no funds in his PayPal account, I cannot be compensated"

WTF?

So I was on the phone yelling at some Paki guy asking for my money. I asked "well if he registered with a credit card, bill the credit card and refund my money" to which he responded "we cannot charge his credit card"

PayPal's support team is BULLSHIT and fucking USELESS.

I paid from a checking account deduction so I couldn't do shit about it.

If I paid by my credit card, I could have been refunded either by denying the charges on my CC, or just telling the CC company which reimbursts you for fradulant charges.

But PayPal gives it to you up the ass here.

You can only recieve credit card payments if you have a primier account. And the MAJORITY of people who have a primier account want to charge you the 4% if you choose to pay with PayPal.

PayPal/eBay double dip on the fees when you use them on auction.


I use paypal because sometimes it is easier than sending out a $15 money order, but I won't do anything major with it because they CANNOT be trusted.
 
I've heard some rumours about spam, one guy said he used 1 email address exclusively for paypal and got loads of spam, complained and it went away.

Others had similar stories.

Setup an email account exclusively for paypal...
 
mostly no problems, but they did decide to do a "security audit" in the middle of an ebay transaction. made me fill out a bunch of useless shit, then said I had to allow them to call me to confirm my phone #, only they didnot bother to tell me it HAD to be phone tied to my known address, which I dont have (im cell only) and it locked my account. took me 2 weeks to get it straightened out. their customer service was useless....even after identifiying myself every which way possible it took forever. I avoid them now if at all possible.
 
I have never had a problem in approx 5yrs with them. I think its a decent service, but selling high priced items may not be the way to go because of the fees..but for convienence, its hard to beat. Helps me get that UPS man to my door quicker.. :D
After reading some of the stories here though, I will probably be a little more careful..thanks for posting..:)
 
The 2.9% plus transaction fee definately sucks when selling on ebay. Basically you get hit twice when selling expensive equipment on ebay. From ebay fee's (generally 2%) and paypal fees (2.9%). That is nearly 5% that you get screwed out of just by having convinence of buyers and convinence of instantly getting paid. Eats away profits extremely quickly. :(
 
I agree that the fees suck, however, I don't think I could have sold and made money without it so I'm willing to pay the fees. If you listed it in a newspaper, you'd pay for that as well. The double dipping is what I don't like. I don't keep money in there though. Once I'm paid, it's gone to my bank account. I've never had any problems with them and their phone support has been really good to me.
 
never a single problem, but could just be lucky :D

can the mods move this to tips/tricks?
 
Thanks for all the imput.

I was reading alot on paypal fraud, and saw that some 90% of it seemed to be from credit card fraud.

Now, I do have one more question that I was wondering about: What if you sold a big ticket item and got paid via fraudulent CC or whatever, and the credit card gets charged back. Now, I know that if you have money in there, you are just screwed, but if you don't? Will they dip into your bank account? Are they allowed to do that? Has anybody ever had that happen?

Seems like the safe bet in case soemthing like this arises, is not to accept CC payments or to at least keep little to no money standing in paypal.
 
been using paypal to sell/ buy on ebay for over 5+ years now. no real issues with them, except you cant change the master account holder name. and the fees....... are just rediculous.
 
Advice with paypal:

1) Set up a premier account with a savings account and a credit card that has very good fraud protection. Don't advertise this account in your threads, use it only when someone demands to pay with a credit card. Then as soon as they make payment, move the money to your savings. Paypal cannot EFT from your savings (most banks deny the outbound EFT on savings because it's not a feature, however inbound EFT is fine so you can confirm the account and use it to get your money out). Pay for things with your credit card on this account (use this as your paying account), ESPECIALLY for big purchases (which is any over $200 for me), so you can use your CC company to get money back in fraudulent situations.

2) Set up a second personal account with another savings account (never, ever attach a checking account to paypal unless absolutely necessary, as paypal WILL DRAIN IT TO COVER THEIR LOSSES). Paypal offers basically zero protection against fraud done correctly. If you *must* use a checking account, keep a low balance and don't set up overdraft. Move funds manually with online banking into the account to fund your account. I recommend funding with a VISA Check card, so you get some protection from VISA fraud with purchases made with this money (but to buy from some sellers, you will have to have a checking account or funds from people who do have a checking account). Use this personal account to accept payments to avoid the 2.9%+$.30 fees associated with the premier account.

Notes:

A) It is against Paypal Policy and that of Mastercard, Amex, and VISA to sell items to the public and to charge any type of surcharge for accepting these payment types. In other words, you cannot legally charge more for CC paypal than for NON-CC paypal or Cash/MO/Check. You are agreeing to this when you sign up for paypal (which is required of them by the big credit card companies to accept their cards for payments).

B) Do not sell things of value that you cannot afford to lose to buyers without confirmed address. You will have no recourse if they click the 'dispute' button. You lose automatically, even with proof of shipping.

C) Do not pass the 30 day deadline before filing your dispute. You automatically lose if you pay and you don't file within 30 days. Don't mess around. If the seller ships later, you can always cancel the claim or make payment a second time.

D) Any time you use the 'refund' button in paypal to refund a transaction it takes 4-5 days at a minimum regardless of type source of funds to make the refund. If you have insufficient funds to refund (even $.01), the entire refund balance must be funded from a normal source (you will be left with the same balance as you have at the time of initiating the refund). It is more polite and much faster to use 'send money'. However, premier users will take a 2.9%+$.30 hit on refunds sent this way AND you are putting yourself at a mild risk for a claim on the original payment.

E) Paypal's fees are high, especially for non-cc to premier transfers. However, they are very convenient and I've found that doing the work before payment is made to verify the references of your trading partners is the best way to avoid being scammed. I personally wish paypal would provide better claims and resolution (instead of the lame protect their own ass lip service they actually offer) in return for the considerable fees on transactions. However, it is the best method for most mailorder transactions, so I use it. Money orders/Western Union/and so forth basically offer no protection, so paypal is superior to those. In thoery, USPS Money Orders are better.. but in practice, it's a difficult and slow process to get your money back (or so I hear).

My best advice: Don't put any money in paypal that you cannot afford to lose. Use it for convenience. It's a tool that is only as safe or as dangerous as the user (think Mitre Saw).
 
Paypal locked my account after I began selling things on Ebay. Their reason was that they were suspicious due to all the new activity. (I had been using both the ebay and paypal accounts for years - but I had just started selling things in bulk). Took about 6 weeks to clear up - and I've avoided paypal at all costs ever since then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top