Avoiding eBay when paying for eBay goods?
 

I bid on and won an item I needed from a seller in Europe. I've communicated with the seller and AFAIK the seller seems like a very decent person. But the seller does not have his account linked with eBay and is asking that I pay directly via paypal (and thereby avoiding eBay).

I just don't think that's a good idea, right? My guess is that this has to be contrary to eBay's rules. Plus why would I want to lose any protection I might have from eBay by circumventing their payment system.

Also the seller wants the payment via paypal to be friends and family to avoid the fees. I don't like that either since I have zero protection if the goods aren't as pictured or if any other problem crops up.

Avoiding eBay for payment has to be a really bad idea, right? And doing friends and family for an international transaction via paypal seems like a really, really bad idea.

I would never circumvent any rules to accomodate a seller. If you sell on eBay, you do everything through eBay and use Paypal; if you use Paypal, you pay fees.

If there's a dispute, everything needs to be documented and correct.

If the seller doesn't like it, that's fine, they will probably be OK with relisting their item and trying to try it on with someone else. If it means you don't get the product you want, that's fine.

I've sold many things on eBay, and have communicated with buyers in other countries and negotiated a price (lowering a "buy it now" so including a shipping amount arrives at the negotiated price, for example), but it always must be paid for and completed within the system - always always always.

I would avoid that like the plague.

Friends and family and outside Ebay = no recourse if it doesnt get shipped or it arrives damaged or not as described. Theres only negative for you. The seller may be trying to honestly save a few pennies but you take all the risk for no gain.

European eBay sites often have different policies about payment methods than the US site. It's always good to ask questions before you bid. eBay is in the midst of severing it's relationship with PayPal as well, so things may be changing even more rapidly on other eBay sites.

I would refuse to pay via the "gift" option on any goods. That's simply against PayPal policy. I do it here in Bikeforums with other members all the time, but I wouldn't for eBay merchandise.

-Gregory

eBay owns PayPal as a separate operating entity. The OP is kidding himself.

I would check out using the eBay process. It protects you. Although the credit card linked to your PayPal account also protects you. Belt and suspenders?

Does the seller have a lot of listings and positive feedback? I think ebay monitors communication for this sort of activity, and if the seller isn’t careful, he may find himself without an account before long. I would refuse any attempts to get you to do business outside of ebay. No way.

Agreed about using the eBay process. I'm the OP and I hope I'm not kidding myself, :)

But yes the seller's request strikes me as odd. I understand his motivations but you pay to use the eBay system as it provides protection for sellers and buyers.

Actually the companies split in 2015 and maintained a five year operating contract that has now expired. eBay is currently transitioning away from PayPal in favor of the same company that provides VenMo with it's direct deposit transactions.

-Gregory

Side venting

I just got my first negative in 20yrs. Listed some Ringle bottle cages and had high bidder in Germany. I told him I wasn't shipping internationally right now and the auction stated that. Got mad and tried to get me to send it to a domestic address not attached to his account. I refused and he gave me a negative. I turned it over to ebay, but I doubt it'll get dropped.

As far as I know it is not a violation of Ebay policy to request a different payment method other than commercial Paypal. If the seller has good feedback I would not worry about it.
When I sold on Ebay some years ago, I used to request buyers make a direct cash deposit to my BofA bank account. That way nobody has to pay any extra fee.

Side Reply: I haven't sold on ebay in years, but you used to be able to not just state, but block foreign bidders (and zero feedback bidders, specific bidders, etc). Is that still the case?

In the early days of the Web when EBay was just getting started you would bid on an item and then contact the seller and promise to mail them a check and they would promise to mail you the item, sometimes even before cashing the check. Worked out pretty well until the scammers showed up in force.

I had a similar experience with a buyer from Saudi Arabia. They hit the BIN button, chose local pick up and paid. He insisted that I ship at my expense and when I cancelled the order he gave me a negative. Ebay would not drop it.

That just goes to show there's dicks all around the world.

Now you mention that- I remember paying by check...

I would simply state that I prefer to play by ebay's rules. And if the seller's intent is to save on fees, I would offer to have them cancel the sale. I would leave no feedback and walk away.

There will always be more crap to buy, it's not worth to be upset by it.

Heck I'm not upset. It was a complete Stronglight P3 headset which I could really use for a Mercier 300 I'm rebuilding but no big deal. The P3 has a stack height of 34 mm which is lower than any other French threaded headset I can get my hands on (Velo orange is 41; I have a Campy NR french threaded headset but the stack height is 41).

I can figure out a different way to get that bike rolling again.

I've offered to cancel the sale and I'm waiting to hear from the seller. I suspect the seller will let me out. If not, I'll have eBay deal with it.

I do think it's a little flaky for the seller to try to operate outside of the eBay payment system and to try to get me to buy the item paypal friends and family especially for an international sale.

Nope, just nope. Friends and Family is just a nice name for Western Union style transactions. No protection.

The seller needs to abide the rules or you will let them out of it. At least that's how I see it. :)

If I had a long term buying experience with the seller, I'd do a private sale, which this amounts to. But I don't put out on the first date.

It should get removed. The buyer asked you to work outside of the process. Hopefully you reported the buyer when the request was made. I have found that calling eBay and getting a rep on the line works in my favor almost every time.

More or less, that's still an option.

The biggest problems I've had on ebay is with sellers who don't understand the contractual relationship involved when buying and selling on ebay, or they understand, but are trying to gain further advantage. The original posters seller is trying to avoid fees and force an assumption of risk to the buyer. That's a bunch of red flags. I've dealt with a bad international seller who kept on trying create some sort of alternative reality-based negotiations right up until ebay refunded my money, which he had stalled for as long as possible. And then the steady stream of emails shifted to get me to change my feed back. As a buyer the biggest risk seems to be sellers trying to earn a living at selling junk, so they cut corners when shipping. Most of the negative feed back I leave is commentary on bad shipping practices and shipping damages. The other thing to look out for is sellers that may or may not ship an item, and will keep your money until you take action or make a claim. I lost 20 minutes of my life recently to get $10 back from a seller who sold me an item, sent me tracking info. When it never showed I checked their listing and the item was up for a greater price. I called fedex and was told that the item was loaded on the truck but called back. I contacted the seller and ebay. The seller sent a blank response. I received a refund after the item I had bought was sold again. This was a big high volume reseller that I had bought similar items from for the same price's, and I had dent realy checked the feedback. Apparently this is their new thing for x percentage of their orders. I don't know if it's a nefarious plot, but the total of funds there taken for 2 weeks over the course of a year could be substantial.

almost tempting to counter seller's request by saying you'll happily pay via alternate means, but only *after* you've successfully received the goods at your end.

Seller will then incredulously ask why on earth he should send it, when he has no assurances that you will pay.

to which you can reply "right. see how that feels?"

Paypal Friends and Family is for Friends and Family.

I consider regular posters on BF to be in that group - reputation here is worth more than a few bucks. Friends of friends are included as well.

PayPal owns venmo. So ebay is moving away from PayPal, the company they used to own, and moving to a company PayPal owns.