PayPal question

[piglet50]

I haven't used PayPal in years because of a bad experience. I've found something I really want to buy, and the seller only accepts PayPal. Since it's been so long since I had the bad experience, I would like to know if it is a safe way to purchase items. This will be an etsy purchase. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

 

[wenrob]

I’ve used PayPal for years and have never had an issue. If I can use it over other forms of payment online I do. I even use it for pizza delivery. If you’re going through the Etsy website and not sending to a personal account you should be fine.

 

[meggiebeth]

PayPal offers you protection if you pay as goods and services, which will be the case on Etsy. The only time I’ve seen people have problems is when they’ve bought something from an individual and sent the money as friends and family, which offers no protection.

 

[Klayfish]

No offense, but I'm guessing your bad experience had nothing to do with Paypal itself. There are lots of scams out there revolving around Paypal, and perhaps you fell victim to one of those? Paypal itself is very safe to use. I've used it for a really long time, including buying and selling large items such as cars. Probably over a thousand transactions by now. Never once had an issue.

 

[kdonnel]

PayPal has much friendlier policies to protect buyers then sellers.

 

[bcla]

It's pretty safe. Only PayPal will have access to whatever credit/debit card number you use, or perhaps a bank account. The whole point is that those are only accessible by a trusted service provider, and then they transfer the funds to the seller without the seller having access to that information.

You would get the same thing if you made a purchase from a "Marketplace Seller" on Amazon. The protection is that a trusted intermediary handles the payments. Even if it's a less than trustworthy seller, they won't have anything like the buyer's credit card info that they could sell on the black market.

 

[LYSE]

Been using it on a regular basis since 2003, I've been on both the seller side and buyer many times and have even gone through the dispute processes as both seller and buyer...I've never had a problem and for something like etsy it is probably the best way to pay.

 

[rwdavis2]

Make sure you know where the item on etsy is coming from. I bought something not realizing it came from Russia. Took about 4 weeks.

 

[_19disnA]

I would look for the item on some other website. Typically, I find the same item on multiple sites which make it easier to compare prices/shipping, etc. I never use PayPal, but every online purchase I have made from legit businesses accepts PayPal along with Visa & Mastercard. I would never buy from an individual since there are just too many scammers online. With a credit card, it is very easy to get charges reversed if you find someone trying to scam you.

 

[Imzadi]

No offense, but I'm guessing your bad experience had nothing to do with Paypal itself.

Actually, PayPal, when it first started, many people did have some bad experiences with them. There were THREE class action lawsuits against them. Two cases merged. They aren't a BANK, so they didn't have rules or safeguards the way a bank has with your money. So they used to randomly freeze or close down accounts "suspected" of fraud and then KEEP the money in those accounts. Often, there was no way to have a legitimate investigation done, resulting in UN-freezing the accounts or having the money go to the rightful account holder. I remember those days. I had a PayPal account closed with some money in it.

Here is a link to the class action lawsuit on SNOPES as verified legitimate and the details. PayPal paid out $9.25 MILLION to settle the suit. (Can you imagine how many more people they defrauded on top of that amount?) PayPal admitted no wrongdoing in settling the claims.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/paypal-class-action-lawsuit/


Since that lawsuit, PayPal has become more legit. However, do NOT leave large sums of money in your account. Again, you never know when they will decide to freeze an account for some reason and "hold" the money and you never get it back.

As of now, as PP stated, PayPal IS good if you are a Buyer. They tend to side with Buyers if there is a dispute. The only downside is that if the Seller makes an error, sends the wrong item or a damaged item, the BUYER has to pay return shipping for the Seller's mistake. So you end up paying for shipping both ways. (I tend to buy things with free shipping, so the Seller has to refund the full amount.)

The problems that arise for the Sellers side are Buyers who lie and cheat and say the item is not as listed, is broken, damaged, etc, or they were just sent an empty box, and they get a full refund, (remember PayPal sides with buyers,) and never do send the item back to the Seller, so they can sell it to someone else. So the Seller loses the item and any money they should have rightfully have gotten. The money is held in the Seller's PayPal account for a couple weeks. He can't withdraw it until the time limit for the Buyer to make a claim has expired. If the Buyer does file a claim and wins, it's bye! bye! money from the Seller's account and goes back to the Buyer. If there is no claim filed, then it is released to the Seller.

 

[Imzadi]

I haven't used PayPal in years because of a bad experience. I've found something I really want to buy, and the seller only accepts PayPal. Since it's been so long since I had the bad experience, I would like to know if it is a safe way to purchase items. This will be an etsy purchase. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

OP, if you don't want to go through PayPal, ask the Seller if she uses the Square app to process sales. Etsy recently made a deal with Square to be their main way of doing transactions. Square is extremely legit. Many businesses use it now, even over PayPal.

 

[piglet50]

Thank you all for the help. As a previous poster shared, I, too, had an account frozen and it took a long time to get the issue resolved. The item I plan on purchasing is a needlework pattern download so I will need to use the etsy vendor to get what I want. Never heard of Square but will check it out. Thanks again.

 

[Klayfish]

Actually, PayPal, when it first started, many people did have some bad experiences with them. There were THREE class action lawsuits against them. Two cases merged. They aren't a BANK, so they didn't have rules or safeguards the way a bank has with your money. So they used to randomly freeze or close down accounts "suspected" of fraud and then KEEP the money in those accounts. Often, there was no way to have a legitimate investigation done, resulting in UN-freezing the accounts or having the money go to the rightful account holder. I remember those days. I had a PayPal account closed with some money in it.

Here is a link to the class action lawsuit on SNOPES as verified legitimate and the details. PayPal paid out $9.25 MILLION to settle the suit. (Can you imagine how many more people they defrauded on top of that amount?) PayPal admitted no wrongdoing in settling the claims.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/paypal-class-action-lawsuit/


Since that lawsuit, PayPal has become more legit. However, do NOT leave large sums of money in your account. Again, you never know when they will decide to freeze an account for some reason and "hold" the money and you never get it back.

As of now, as PP stated, PayPal IS good if you are a Buyer. They tend to side with Buyers if there is a dispute. The only downside is that if the Seller makes an error, sends the wrong item or a damaged item, the BUYER has to pay return shipping for the Seller's mistake. So you end up paying for shipping both ways. (I tend to buy things with free shipping, so the Seller has to refund the full amount.)

The problems that arise for the Sellers side are Buyers who lie and cheat and say the item is not as listed, is broken, damaged, etc, or they were just sent an empty box, and they get a full refund, (remember PayPal sides with buyers,) and never do send the item back to the Seller, so they can sell it to someone else. So the Seller loses the item and any money they should have rightfully have gotten. The money is held in the Seller's PayPal account for a couple weeks. He can't withdraw it until the time limit for the Buyer to make a claim has expired. If the Buyer does file a claim and wins, it's bye! bye! money from the Seller's account and goes back to the Buyer. If there is no claim filed, then it is released to the Seller.

Thanks. I'm aware of PayPals' history when it first started (I'm a car fanatic, so there's the Musk tie in). However, I was presuming OP was talking about current or even recent history PayPal. Everyone can draw their own conclusions about PayPal, but for me I am very happy with them and use it regularly.