eBay

amcdc79 · ‎02-17-2018

I have a possible buyer from Nanaimo who wants to pay via hidden cash in the mail. He does not have a PayPal account, yet has almost 500 feedback, and has been a member since March 2004.

It's for a $15 item with free shipping via letter mail back to him.

I do have a friend in Nanaimo who could collect instead, but do I want him to get involved when the value is so low.

Could this get ugly?

Your thoughts please.

momcqueen · ‎02-17-2018

Assuming the buyer will legit mail you the cash, tell him to buy the item and then you Send Invoice which has all your data on the bottom. When payment arrives, you mark it probably 'cash in person' or 'cash on pickup' in the Sales Record like you would with a Local Pickup paid by cash and mail it back like you would with a normal paypal-funded transaction.

The buyer is assuming the risk with cash potentially being lost in the mail, but you assume the risk he will roast you in feedback that cannot be unsubstantiated should the cash not arrive and the transaction goes south.

Also, turn off any automatic unpaid item reminder features you might have set. Nothing makes a buyer see red faster than a seller who says they can have a week to pay and then turns around and lets an automatic Unpaid Item strike action start anyway.

Payment choices a la Sales Record

View solution in original post

zee-chan · ‎02-17-2018

How does his feedback looks like?

Personally, the value is low enough that I probably would say okay, but I'm not so sure with it being on eBay because the buyer could neg you if you didn't receive payment... I have done it a couple times on my own website when the buyer (international) doesn't have Paypal and doesn't want to open Paypal, so I gave them the option to mail me CAD at their own risk (and I promised them I'll hold their books for 2 months)... and both times I received the cash just fine as both of them concealed them well with magazine pages and such. Both of them ended up overpaying me because apparently they could only get hold of $20 bills at their bank, so they both had to buy another book to make up the differences.

amcdc79 · ‎02-17-2018

That's the first thing I checked, no negatives anywhere, but what is strange, is he has left over 100 more than the sellers.

I have no issue with cash, I have taken it on local delivery, and remember when I had to deal with Money Orders in the past.

Shipping the money would be two days, same thing back to him. I have shipped a few items to Nanaimo in the past, and it is quite fast.

musicyouneed · ‎02-17-2018

Now if I can remember correctly you have to be very careful here as to how you do it. You have to be sure that it is done properly and that ebay will not think you are trying to sell it outside of ebay and you can get suspended. I think the person has to buy it first and how payment and addresses are exchanged this is where it can get tricky.

Maybe another seller who has experience with this can advise, but do not give him you phone number or address or email until after he has purchased it.

momcqueen · ‎02-17-2018

Assuming the buyer will legit mail you the cash, tell him to buy the item and then you Send Invoice which has all your data on the bottom. When payment arrives, you mark it probably 'cash in person' or 'cash on pickup' in the Sales Record like you would with a Local Pickup paid by cash and mail it back like you would with a normal paypal-funded transaction.

The buyer is assuming the risk with cash potentially being lost in the mail, but you assume the risk he will roast you in feedback that cannot be unsubstantiated should the cash not arrive and the transaction goes south.

Also, turn off any automatic unpaid item reminder features you might have set. Nothing makes a buyer see red faster than a seller who says they can have a week to pay and then turns around and lets an automatic Unpaid Item strike action start anyway.

Payment choices a la Sales Record

momcqueen · ‎02-17-2018

Also, when you send the invoice, mark it Local Pickup as the postage choice since it's the closest thing that applies (and explain otherwise in the Seller's Notes field) so that you don't accidentally evoke the buyer's protection by paypal. (This is my most paranoid advice because paypal won't insure a payment that doesn't exist but it could sufficiently confuse ebay, I think.)

Actually, no. You can probably just use Economy Shipping when you Send Invoice. That won't matter. I'm getting my paypal seller protection caveats about Local Pickup confused with delivery estimates.

Available choices to put the item in your buyer's hands

ypdc_dennis · ‎02-17-2018

The buyer suggested cash not you so that is okay by eBay rules.

Make sure Immediate Payment is turned off.

Buyer purchases and sends money to your address (should be on your eBay invoice).

When the money arrives you manually mark the item as paid, then ship.

...

The money could take up to 3 weeks to arrive. Check for counterfeits

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/counterfeit-cash-being-used-on-avalon-1.4528598

...

It's been 10+ years since I have received(*) money in the mail (usually it was money orders and cheques before paypal was forced on sellers). Never had any problem. The payment risk is all on the buyers side.

-..-

(*) I have also sent money (as recently as last year) in the mail as a seller with no problems.

femmefan1946 · ‎02-17-2018

yet has almost 500 feedback, and has been a member since March 2004.

How long is it since his last feedback sent or received?

A gap of several months could mean a hijacked account.

If you mark it paid and shipped, eBay gets its fees, so I see no reason why they should be miffed that a Buyer requested a method of payment that removes or reduces his Buyer Protection.

But frankly, in my experience with offers for cash or cheque/MO payment, the payment never arrives. Be ready to fine a UID.

amcdc79 · ‎02-17-2018

I asked another seller who sold the buyer an item earlier this month, his reply was "All good, no issues", I do feel much better now.

I hope it does not take three weeks to go on a Ferry trip, as I do live in the Lower Mainland, which is why my thinking is 2 days, maybe three at the most.

I will treat it as a local pick up, where ebay does allow the exchange of phone numbers to arrange a meeting. Every thing will be above board, ebay will get it's cut, the only one not getting one, will be PayPal.

Thanks to all who replied.

amcdc79 · ‎02-25-2018

Update,

The buyer has tried to bid but my requirements were that they needed a PayPal account in order to bid. I changed it so they could bid, but it still does not allow them to bid.

I can see that they are trying, it still says blocked due to no PayPal account, and that they have unpaid strikes as well, which they say is wrong. I then took that block off as well, and they still can't bid.

I just received a message from them saying they can see that the PayPal block is off, still can't bid, they say they have never seen this situation before. They have tried 8 times to bid.

Could this be turning into a pita situation, It feels strange with all the blocks off.

I always thought that we could setup the buyer requirements for each listing, am I missing something?

Your thoughts please and thank you.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-25-2018

I've never used the block buyers without a PP account because I don't feel serves any purpose but it's up to you whether or not you use it. I do use the block for unpaid strikes. I find it difficult to believe that it is blocking your buyer if they don't have strikes but I suppose anything is possible.

I don't think that you've tried putting the buyer on the blocked buyer exceptions list? If not you can do that here... https://offer.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BidderPermitLogin

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-25-2018

I don't think that you can set up those particular requirements for each listing.

I just thought of something...When you took off the block for unpaid strikes, did you click on 'apply above settings to active and future listing"?

amcdc79 · ‎02-25-2018

Thank you, I had never heard of this before, maybe it will work.

Again thank you.

amcdc79 · ‎02-25-2018

@pjcdn2005wrote:
I don't think that you can set up those particular requirements for each listing.

I just thought of something...When you took off the block for unpaid strikes, did you click on 'apply above settings to active and future listing"?

Yes I did.

tobyshitzu · ‎02-25-2018

Of course take cash if the buyer is offerring, nothing to think about. It shows up or it doesnt. Been years since I got any, I wish people still did that.

amcdc79 · ‎02-25-2018

Holy "Houston we have lift off", have not gone to the Moon and back yet, but it's a start.

I will update, thanks to all for the help.

amcdc79 · ‎03-02-2018

Update,

item Sold-Feb. 26

Payment sent-Feb. 27

Payment received-March 2

Item shipped-March 2

So far so good.

momcqueen · ‎03-02-2018

That's great to hear. Thank you for keeping us posted.

amcdc79 · ‎03-07-2018

Well it took a day longer than I thought, but the buyer in Nanaimo just left positive feedback.

Thanks again to all who replied, may your sales be ever increasing.

happy_pigeon · ‎03-07-2018

I'm glad everything went smoothly and I'm not here to poop on anyone's party (or hand out account sanctions, so don't worry), but for future reference/anyone else with a similar question that might pop in, cash in the mail is against eBay's Accepted Payments policy.

Again, very happy that this buyer was honest, but not all of them are, so be careful!