Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

Buyer from Australia, amount over $100 paid via echeque.

 

Normally I ship purchases via echeques right away, don't remember the last time I had a problem.

 

This one tingled the spider senses, so I sent a note to the buyer to let them know that it wasn't counted as being paid for yet and as soon as it was I'd have the stamps on their way. They answered politely, things looked good.

 

Tonight I get the "A recent payment to you didn't complete" PAYPAL message.

 

Good thing there are spider senses!!!

 

I'll let them know it will be interesting to see if I hear anything back...

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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

No spider sense needed, ship when the echeque clears.....

 

 

Message 2 of 13
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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

Why would you ship before an eCheque clears to begin with?
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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

Philately is a handshake hobby.

Shipping before payment is nothing unusual in philately.

DH mentioned that he had left 'some material' with a  customer at a show last week and expected to make a $500-$1000 sale when he sees him next week at the club.

In case you missed it, he sent the guy home with a few thousand dollars worth of stamps to look at and play with for two weeks and is confident that the customer will return every single thing he doesn't buy.

 

That's normal.

 

But dealers (and collectors) also pass on the word about who cannot be trusted (like the Florida/Montreal dealer with the name of a character from The Tempest) so bad behaviour is quickly outed.

 

 

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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

The eleventh Commandment

 

Thou shalt not ship before an echeck on Paypal has cleared!

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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

Well, as femme says, I'm fortunate to be selling to a different crowd, one that has been used to mailorder selling for many decades (this is my 40th year selling now) long before there was an interenet. I do still send stamps "on approval" to customers who look them over keep what they want to buy and return the remainder. (we have ways to protect ourselves from this being abused, but of course I can't describe them here!)

 

I've (almost) never held cheques until they clear of the paper kind and I normally don't hold the electronic echecks either. (I see it as a customer service to send stuff at the time they "pay", and I do not recall any times that I wasn't eventually paid even if there were echeque problems*(see below))

 

If memory serves, I've had fewer "problems" with echeck payments in PAYPALland than regular payments % wise, and I've had more problems in the new electronic era than I ever had in the real paper cheques days (maybe 2 max that were never repaid in the last 40 years).

 

It turns out the story is not over for this transaction, the buyer responded back this morning. PAYPAL took the money out of their account, now they have to figure out why it was cancelled and repay me again. They advised they'll repay within a fortnight (it is cool working with folks from other countries sometimes)  once they get the $$$ back and things sorted out with PAYPAL. So it is looking very much unlike a scamming situation anyway.

 

Will keep posted as things progress.....

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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

Good luck on not getting scammed. Just know that eBay won't protect you if you do!

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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

I certainly understand that if I choose to ship before the echeque clears that I bear the risk of losing, and I would not expect anything from ebay as a result. However I live in a fairly "safe" world and I believe the customer service  benefit from shipping before clearing normally outweighs the risk of loss (same as is the case for paper cheques I get).

 

I do not remember when I last had an echeque not clear (before this one), so it has been years. As I mentioned above, it looks like this one will turn out ok in the end, the buyer was as surprised as me....

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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!


@ricarmic wrote:

I certainly understand that if I choose to ship before the echeque clears that I bear the risk of losing, and I would not expect anything from ebay as a result


Even if you wait for the echeque to clear, the buyer can simply open a fraudulent SNAD claim.

 

I'm glad you haven't been burned yet, and I hope you never are!

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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!


@mercenaryforhire wrote

 

Even if you wait for the echeque to clear, the buyer can simply open a fraudulent SNAD claim.

 

I'm glad you haven't been burned yet, and I hope you never are!

I suspect @ricarmic has done their share of risk analysis and concluded that their chances of being burned are rare enough that they can write off a rare loss as part of the cost of doing business.

My wife and I first lived in a somewhat rough and tumble neighbourhood where the supermarket kept a lot of its items inside and difficult to get (i.e. steal) in a hurry.  We were astounded when we moved neighbourhoods to find that the supermarket there (part of the same chain as the other one, actually), had a number of items displayed outside the door to entice customers, such as fresh vegetables and toilet paper.  The neighbourhood was more well-to-do, and the supermarket was, at the time, the chain's most profitable on a per-square-foot basis.

It's a matter of analysing what you sell, to whom you sell it, and your risk of loss versus the gains you may realize.

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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

mcrlmn
Community Member

In April, I had a $3.29 echeque bounce.
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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!


@mcrlmn wrote:

In April, I had a $3.29 echeque bounce.

I feel a bit sorry for that person. Bouncing their $3 cheque will cost them another $50 minimum. 

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Ooooo spider senses pay off!!!

Just to finish the story (or I hope so!) this morning I received payment again via regular PAYPAL payment, a day before a fortnight had passed!

So things worked out in the end after all.....
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