posted on June 6, 2001 10:30:45 PM new
BEWARE OF BIDPAY:
I have been selling at eBay and Yahoo for over two years now and sometime ago I started accepting BidPay in addition to several other payment methods. I shipped as soon as I got the BidPay money order in hand (without waiting for the money order to clear in my bank account) because according to the Westen Union website (https://www6.westernunion.com/webmt/jump.asp?SRC=faq_mo.xsl#q8) "Stop payments can not be placed on money orders."
This should mean that whatever happens, should you get the money order from BidPay, you are guarantedd payment, right? WRONG.
A few days ago, I deposited a MO from Bidpay for an eBay transaction for $500 and as usual, sent the goods to the buyer, by courier, he received the goods, and even left positive feedback for me on eBay. A few days later, the bank returns the $500 Money Order from BidPay with a big red stamp saying "PAYMENT STOPPED".
I freaked out and wrote immediately to BidPay.
It has now been four days and I have been writing to every bidpay email address I know, as well as to their contact us page, and so far, they have not sent me a replacement MO. In fact, now they don't even reply to my emails anymore. All they said (initially) was that they had stopped the original money order AT THE REQUEST OF THE BUYER. Imagine that, someone goes and buys a money order from Bidpay and you ship goods based on the fact at their website that says money orders cannot be stopped, this same buyer after receiving the goods, asks BidPay to stop the money order. What does the seller do?? The buyer obviously doesn't want to know because he's got the goods and as far as he's concerened, he's sent me the payment.
I am writing this so that people who use BidPay know that untill the money order clears into your bank account, you should not part with the the merchandise.
More than that, I would like to know what steps I can take to recover my $500; BidPay are not responding, and I would like to know if there is an association or authority that can step in at this point and help me. This looks like fraud to me, and I am thinking of writing to the FBI internet fraud division, and the USPS postal fraud division.
posted on June 17, 2001 02:21:29 PM new
Hello CeylonWeb;
BidPay only puts 'stops' on money orders sent to sellers for ONE REASON and that is to replace them if they are reported lost or stolen by either the buyer or seller.
Buyers CAN NOT put 'stops' on payments once issued.
Please write to www.bidpay.com CONTACT US 'security' and include your order number and I will have someone look into this for you.
It's more than likely that what happened here was the original was reported missing by the buyer and a replacement was issued, with the original showing up before the replacement and you depositing the wrong one.
