Im doing a pretty big transaction on Ebay and the buyer paid me with Instant Transfer. I've read many horror stories of people getting screwed out of their money because the buyer did a chargeback on their credit card or the card ended up being stolen, which pretty much screws the seller. With this instant transfer is the money actually "there" or is it still tied up in a credit card? The person has an unconfirmed shipping address which nullifies Paypals fraud insurance, but I've head that's pretty much useless anyway since they always find a way not to honor it.

 

There are actually 2 issues here. If you allow them to use a checking account, the money isn't really "cleared" for 5 days. If they use a credit card the money is "instantly" there because the credit card networks are all real-time. In either case however, transactions can be disputed through paypal, ebay, the bank they have their checking account with, or Visa/Mastercard. Unfortunately for sellers, the banks and governing bodies are there mostly to protect the consumers, not the sellers. Hope this helps.

Nick

 

Hypothetically, what can I do if I send the item and I find out 3 days later that they pulled the funds? I have the shipping address and name.

 

[QUOTE][B]Originally posted by #22Benny
Hypothetically, what can I do if I send the item and I find out 3 days later that they pulled the funds?

 

Tell them you will not ship until the funds have been confirmed just like a check. Wait 5 days before shipping.

 

There is essentially nothing you can do to insure that they don't chargeback a transaction. On Credit cards you have 6 months to dispute charges and on ACH transactions (check) you have 60 days. Keep in mind though that a chargeback is an investigation, if you can prove that you sent a product and that it was in working order when you shipped it they will deny the claim. The safest thing to do is get insurance on the shipping that way if anything does go down, you have proof that you shipped the item and if it gets there damaged the shipping company is responsible for the damages. The last thing you could do if you didn't already do the transaction is to use an escrow service. They hold the money until the customer receives the package and then they give the money to you. It is highly unlikely that any bank would allow the customer to do a chargeback if they released the funds to you.

Good luck,
RB

 

I would definitely get insurance, and the product is brand new, not even opened. I have the receipt and everything. There just seems to be too many questionable things about the buyer that raise a few flags. She(?) just joined the day she bought the item, she has no feedback, one transaction with paypal, unconfirmed paypal address, and the email addresses for ebay and paypal are different. I did a lookup of the address online and it matched up and it also showed the phone number, so at least I have that information.

 

I know it sounds silly, but try contacting them You can get a better read of people after you've talked or at least emailed them. Just remember eveyone is a n00b at some point, maybe she is just figuring out what ebay is about and stuff. If you are really that worried get insurance and just document the transaction with copies of receipts, insurance receipts, etc. I'd say you'll be fine if you do and just go for it once you've spoken to them. Let me know if you have any other questions as I work for a transaction processing company We process checks similarly to Paypal. I'm the lead programmer here, but am familiar with some of the NACHA rules and regulations as well.

Best of luck,
Nick

 

One more question, if the credit card turns out to be stolen, is there nothing I can do about it or is it essentially treated as a charge back?

 

If it's stolen, you don't get any money. They just take the money back. I'd be wary. Maybe use escrow.com. Or I would ask for a money order.