posted on September 4, 2000 06:42:05 AM
I just got a nasty negative because I didn't 'claim' my paypal payment!
Auction ended on July 18. I sent EOA, ten day reminder, NPBA. I never got a response to any of these! I finally just forgot about it and fived for FV credit.
Today, I got a nasty negative from the bidder who claims I never 'claimed' my paypal payment. Now we all know that means she sent it to the wrong address. But why didn't she ever answer any of my email asking for payment and tell me where it was?
I believe we have a new excuse for deadbeats!
By the way, this is my second neg in 2 years, and I am seriously PO'd!
[ edited by bearmom on Sep 4, 2000 06:43 AM ]
posted on September 4, 2000 06:49:05 AM
Don't blame you a bit. It's time we all face the fact that no matter what new and wonderful method becomes available for conducting Ebay business or protecting ourselves from the baddies, someone is going to try to figure out a way around it. Unfortunately, these people seem to think that others also believe that once they bid, they have no responsibility to communicate with the seller. Any excuse they come up with is valid, even though using it means that they admit to ignoring numerous emails. It's kind of like the buyer who waited almost 60 days and ignored all the "have you got your item and is everything OK" emails after USPS tracking showed delivery, then tried to get the seller to cough up another item or a refund, because she never received the item and the USPS would honor insurance because their records showed delivery.
posted on September 4, 2000 07:52:02 AM
Gee, that happened to us. She claimed to have sent the payment and several emails inquiring about out item. Hoever, she managed to find the right address to email and tell us she had negged us.
Strange thing is, she then went into paypal and fixed the payment so it came to us. Then we sent the item. But she never could be bothered to respond to our neg to say everything was fine now, even though we asked her to please do that. So we didn't leave any feedback for her.
It seems that there are too many people who don't understand the system. With our email address, I am constantly explaining to people that they have to cancel and then resend the payment, and I say in my EOA email to please copy and paste the email address into the space in Paypal to get it right. Most of them are great, some decide to mail payment, and some try several times before they get it right.
Anyhow, have a good one.
posted on September 4, 2000 08:03:11 AM
FWIW I have line in my EOA that says that
says:
PayPal payments are received when I can verify and withdraw your payment.
This might not help with someone who doesn't respond to normal email communication. These people are clueless and are likely to have a trail of negative feedback telling of the fact.
posted on September 4, 2000 08:10:05 AM
From what I read here, it seems a lot of payments are going to the wrong e-mail address. Sellers: If this is happening to you more than once, take a good hard look at your e-mail address. Perhaps you should consider changing it to something shorter or less likely to be mis-typed. It might save you a lot of aggravation in future.
posted on September 4, 2000 08:22:21 AM
Perhaps PayPal could help with this problem by giving us code to use in our EOA's that links to a payment page with our e-mail addresses already filled out.
Then we could put in our standard EOAs, "To pay by PayPal, click here" and our buyers would be magically transported to the payment page. No more e-mail address screw-ups.
It's neater, cleaner and more likely to be used than the "request auction payment" feature.
And it really should be a feature for ALL accounts, not just the premier or business accounts. It would prevent a lot of grief and misunderstanding.
posted on September 4, 2000 08:33:59 AM
Mine has an underscore in it, which some people leave out, and occasionally someone does write to tell me that it wasn't claimed. But we always get it straightened out.
But I seriously doubt that was the problem with this buyer. Otherwise, she would have told me that when she got the first reminder. Checking her feedback, she has also used the 'computer down' excuse, so this is just a new twist for a deadbeat.
posted on September 4, 2000 11:47:04 AM
PayPal could easily avoid this problem. If a person tries to send money to an email address that PayPal doesn't recognize, PayPal should pop up a dialog box that says something like this (in bold):
You are attempting to beam money to an unregistered email address. If you believe that the recipient is an existing PayPal user, please cancel this transaction and verify the email address with the recipient. Otherwise, click Send Money to complete the transaction and the recipient will be invited to open an account in order to collect the payment.
I know this could be worded better, but you get the jist. I have recommended this to PayalDamon but as of yet have received no response.
Another problem is a trailing period at the end of the email address. This is also a simple fix. PayPal's software can simply strip the period off and use the remaining email address. To the best of my knowledge, there are no valid email addresses that end in a period.
I'd also be seriously PO'd from such a neg. If the buyer indeed send payment at all you'll have the small pleasure of showing them how they've made you suffer for their mistake. Best you can hope for is for them to understand their mistake and maybe, just maybe, they can reply to your response showing others of their recklessness.
posted on September 4, 2000 01:05:52 PM
The only neg I've ever had was from a buyer whose emails weren't reaching me, and mine weren't reaching him. After 3 weeks, a neg appeared.
I called him on the phone, and we worked it out. He's bought other stuff since, and left positives.
My suggestion: Call the buyer and work this out. Then reply to the neg with a FB comment that says: "PayPal glitch has been resolved" or some such. Then ask buyer to reply to that reply in your FB, saying something: "We resolved the payment snafu- received item, seller recommended!"
That's the best damage control you can do at this point.
posted on September 4, 2000 01:51:33 PM
A "To pay with Paypal click here" link on the listing would be very nice. It would also be nice to be able to code that into an EOA notice.
posted on September 4, 2000 01:55:15 PM
When I send my EOA, that is if it ever comes. I sometimes add if your paying by PayPal remember my email address is a lower case letter followed by numbers. I think that is a very common mistake, probably reversing numbers is also. I quite putting the PayPal logo on my auctions but I do say I will take a payment from PayPal. I don't know what happens when you click the logo.
posted on September 4, 2000 02:09:53 PM
We have yet another PayPal foul-up? Not surprising given the problems I've had lately. Still waiting for a reply on verification.
I was introduced to it by someone whose mother had bid on my auction and then went into hospital. I got an email saying that I have paid you with Paypal. WHAT????? I wasn't registered and had sworn I never would. But to claim the money I had to register, otherwise, I was not paid. This was around the time of x.com, etc etc etc and it did not appeal to me.
At least the payer did tell me, but I was still skeptical and sorry this looks like another "miscommunication" but by whom? Matter of fact, checks arriving in my mailbox never looked better!
Good luck to you.
posted on September 5, 2000 09:26:06 AM
So sg52...
So should all payments to sellers should only be made in pretty colored rocks because some buyers haven't got the brains God gave a houseplant. Some even screw up using cash, so should we just stop using it?
posted on September 5, 2000 11:08:03 AMSo should all payments to sellers should only be made in pretty colored rocks because some buyers haven't got the brains God gave a houseplant. Some even screw up using cash, so should we just stop using it?
PayPal has set up a very error prone process. It's more error prone for some kinds of addresses than others, but it's error prone for the even the best. Indeed, it's a form of a test, more attentiveness than IQ, but a test which must be passed.
Why would a seller set up a test which customers have to pass in order to get payment transferred? Can you imagine a seller making a decision to restrict the market to intelligent, careful, observant buyers?
posted on September 5, 2000 11:20:03 AM"Can you imagine a seller making a decision to restrict the market to intelligent, careful, observant buyers? "
Only in my dreams.
I see your point sg52, the payment shouldn't be allowed where the buyer could make a mistake, I once got a check made out to "Three Bladed Knife" I've not accepted checks anymore since then. I had a Money Order that was made out to the wrong person, I've not accepted Money Orders since then. I had a buyer send me a $10 bill thinking it was a $20 bill, so I've stopped accepting cash.
Your arguments against PayPal used to be better, you can do better.
posted on September 5, 2000 11:32:39 AM
Check out the check comparision.
Indeed, checks sometimes result in errors, for example the wrong check gets put into an envelope.
But consider the more precise analogue of, say, and extra '.' at the end of the address.
The US Mail system delivers the check to the right place, no problem.
PayPal, without warning, and without any real explanation, parks it in some purgatory, and lets the pieces fall where they may.
It's this lack of redundancy and checking which results in PayPal comparing unfavorably to the traditional payment systems. PayPay could fix this, as suggested many times by several of us, but PayPal has an agenda: to sign up sellers who have not as yet signed up. So they dump the breakage onto their customers. They try to shame the victims into silence by challenging their intelligence.
Eventually PayPal will mature (or be conquered by someone else who does so sooner). They'll incorporate redundancy and error detection in their system, and errors will go way down. In the meantime, stoies like this thread will be commonplace.
posted on September 5, 2000 12:16:06 PMIt's this lack of redundancy and checking which results in PayPal comparing unfavorably to the traditional payment systems. PayPay could fix this, as suggested many times by several of us, but PayPal has an agenda: to sign up sellers who have not as yet signed up.
One of the most common problems with email addresses and PayPal is a period stuck to the end of an email address. PayPalDamon likes to say that the reason the recipient will get the confirmation email from PayPal but the money remains unclaimed is that the ISPs strip the period away and then deliver the email.
I suggested to Damon that PayPal copy the ISPs practice of stripping the period away and then crediting the recipient's account. This would be soooo easy to do on PayPal's part. But I haven't heard anything back from Damon about this (and several other suggestions that others have made to make life with PayPal easier). It seems that PayPal and eBay have a lot in common when it comes to listening to their users.
posted on September 5, 2000 12:44:01 PM
The easiest solution to that problem is just send them a "request for payment" and have them cancel the previous attempt. Always seems to work for me without fail and they'll usually appericate your help.
ASK ! Better safe, than sorry!
This would be a software change and the problem has been reported to product and engineering. There will be some headway on the floating period issue very shortly.
posted on September 5, 2000 06:16:00 PM
I agree with abingdoncomputers.
Paypal should not accept payments addressed to an email address that is not a registered user, or at least should pop up a warning that you are trying to send money to an unregistered email address.
That message actually appears before a sender sends their payment. It will tell you if the account is registered or not before you have to click on the send money button.
Payments are not claimed until the party has an account and the money is still yours until it is claimed (which is why there is a reversal button). The issue is caused 99.9% by a user mistyping an email address with a period at the end of it.
*******************************************
Paypal should not accept payments addressed to an email address that is not registered user, or at least should pop up a warning that you are trying to send money to an unregistered address.
posted on September 5, 2000 11:53:28 PM
paypaldamon
"Paypal should not accept payments addressed to an email address that is not registered user"
Yes, Yes, Yes!!! This is a great suggestion!
We have had users mis-type our email address every way possible. Our only neg came from a person who supposedly sent their payment to the wrong address and they said that we never claimed it.
We also had one transaction that was sent to the wrong address. The user said she couldn't cancel the transaction and PP customer service was no help. They kept saying that she would have to request the owner of that address to send it back, however, we sent two emails to that address and they came back user unknown. We never did get paid for that auction.
Is there some way that PLEASE that PayPal can fix this serious flaw in the system?
And while they are at it they need to get some customer service people that actually read the emails people send. We just kept getting the same responses even though we clearly stated the problem in each email. They all totally missed the point. VERY FRUSTRATING!
posted on September 6, 2000 07:58:35 AM
feistyone you are so right. I have even called them and they have said that they can't help because the information is confidential. Their customer support is something to behold and I sure hope it changes. I like PayPal so I won't stop using it but you would think that when a buyer puts in an email address that doesn't work something should flash and announce to the buyer that there is an error. With all the technology that there is they should beable to do that. As I previously stated I do worn the buyer about my email address and please enter it right. I doubt the buyer even reads that part so now we have to figure out how to educate people in the art of email address.
posted on September 6, 2000 09:22:15 AM
>>"As I previously stated I do worn the buyer about my email address and please enter it right. I doubt the buyer even reads that part so now we have to figure out how to educate people in the art of email address."<<
We put in our EOA email: 'Please cut and paste the following email address to avoid mistyping' (Paraphrased). We still get a few stray payments. There's so many ways to mess up when typing an email address...(if you are not careful)
posted on September 6, 2000 10:14:41 AM
Hi fesityone,
That message is given before the sender can hit the send money button. In most cases, they are probably not paying attention to the error (generally caused by a floating period) when paying an active account and we are working on getting this corrected with a warning in the software.
posted on September 6, 2000 11:07:10 AM
Damon: Of course you're correct about the warning the user gets before actually send ing payment to an invalid address. The problem id that the warning is small and easy to miss, especially for a new user who doesn't know about the email address problem. As far as they are concerened, once they click the Send Money button, the recipient is paid. It's good to know that you guys are fixing this problem.
posted on September 6, 2000 11:55:35 AM
For what it's worth, I received a negative several weeks ago for this very thing ... the bidder was new, and thought I had never claimed her payment, when in fact, I never even received it.
I sent out the EOA's on Friday; she responded that she'd send payment right away. She didn't mention that she'd be sending it via PayPal, so I didn't know to be watching for it.
The following Monday, one business day later, I woke up and found an irate negative saying that I didn't claim her payment and that my e-mail address was no good.
This really stung, especially since I was in my 990's on my feedback, and was excited about getting my red star.
Had I known she'd planned on using PayPal, I would have e-mailed her over the weekend asking about it. I always do this if someone's PayPal doesn't arrive, because the typo thing happens soooo often, and I personally wouldn't want my money sitting in oblivion and feel that my bidders' probably wouldn't want their money in limbo either.
Anyway, after many many e-mails trying to explain to her what probably happened (she was very difficult to work with!), she finally went in and checked the address that she sent the money to, and indeed there was a typo. She did post a follow-up to her negative, which helped, but nothing is going to take that negative away.
She did this to another seller as well, during this same time frame. The other seller negged her back. The other seller was from Canada, and PayPal wasn't even available to Canadians at that time.
I really think things like this could be avoided or at least reduced if PayPal would put some kind of OBVIOUS note telling when an address isn't registered. It needs to be big and bold so people will see it!
[ edited by thedewey on Sep 6, 2000 11:58 AM ]
Most of them are great, some decide to mail payment, and some try several times before they get it right. 
