I use PP gift and regular PP, generally if the seller is a regular on here it will be gift otherwise it would be regular PP with me paying the fee.

Someone off her paid me for an item by “PP gift” They never sent their postal address, I have sent an email a day requesting where to send to, but no reply for 4 days now.

I don’t want to appear a scammer/poor seller I always try to post 1st class recorded next day when possible. I have sent another email to the “gifter” that if if I don’t here back from him but Saturday I’m going to do a refund to him.

love-tubs where are thou………………….

I still don’t understand how easily people open themselves up to being ripped off (on here or other forums). If you treat it like you would ebay, there’s very little risk so PP gift or bank transfer, it doesn’t really matter.
Check seller’s thread history, length of time they’ve been posting, other stuff they’ve sold and if you’re happy, then buy. If you’re not, then don’t. If parting with large sums of cash then protect yourself, only buy from people who you can collect from and walk away with the goods.
It’s worked for me so far so I’m happy to pay in any way required.

To the OP, as the seller, it’s up to you to build into the price of the item enough to cover your costs (if that’s what you want to do). So, add the paypal fee onto your asking price if necessary. If they don’t know you from Adam, it’s unreasonable to insist a buyer uses a payment method where they have no protection (PP Gift for example). If a seller insists on PPG & I don’t know them, I’m not buying, simple.

But then the flips side is that if the buyer is happy to take the ‘risk’ having made a decision whether on balance that the seller is dodgy, why pay the fees?

Surely if the fees are to the sellers account, then they should pay them. Just because selllers have worked out a way to avoid fees which is against the rules, doesn’t mean people should feel obligated to use it! Meh, I don’t even use PayPal 🙂

Fair point (clubber) but it’s no different to paying by card in a shop…the shop pays a fee for the transaction, not the buyer (usually). It’s their choice whether they add that fee onto the asking price of the product. Let’s not forget that sellers are bending the rules by using PPG. Personally, I hate Paypal and would always prefer bank transfers anyway as PP are taking the P with their fees these days.

I’m perfectly happy to take BT too but it sometimes means the buyer will have to wait longer for the transfer to happen.

not forget that sellers are bending the rules by using PPG

I’d have thought that was the buyer whos “using” PPG. All the seller wants is a certain amount in their account – buyer can deliver that as they see fit and the seller can’t force them either way
If I agree to sell you something for 20 quid, I’d like 20 quid for it please and you can pay the admin fee

I bank with Lloyds and any tranfers I do (under £500) are instant. It’s more convenient than paypal for me, and no fees.

If I sell you something for £100. I want £100 not £95. I’ll take any payment method the buyer wants but I want the £100. If the buyer wants a quicker more secure service then they pay for it.

Remember, Paypal benefits buyers more than sellers. look at the other options….

Bank Transfer – no protection for buyer(seller gets money straight away)

Cash – No protection for buyer (Seller get money straight away, in post)

Cheque – Buyer has to wait for cheque to clear before things are sent (Poss 1 week delay for buyer)

Paypal – Seller has to withdraw money so has to wait maybe 3 – 4 days to receive money. Buyer gets security and item is generally posted staright away. A service worth paying a little more for.

As a buyer, if I trust someone I will gift it. If I don’t but am willing to take the risk I will paypal and pay the fee’s. I don’t mind paying fee’s if it means I don’t have to faff about sending a cheque and i’ll receive the item a lot quicker.

I’d have thought that was the buyer whos “using” PPG. All the seller wants is a certain amount in their account – buyer can deliver that as they see fit and the seller can’t force them either way
If I agree to sell you something for 20 quid, I’d like 20 quid for it please and you can pay the admin fee

Isn’t that the point of this thread? The buyer chose one method and the seller wanted to dictate another payment method. As the buyer chose not to use PPG, the seller is calling them a muppet and making a rare visit to the chat forum.

+1 for NOT using gift.

Too easy to loose your money. Besides, the seller has to factor in the cost of the fees into their price.

No that isn’t the point of this thread Don.
The seller dictated one method to ensure he got all of his money.
The buyer choose another method and didn’t except the fee’s himself, making the seller pay them.

IE the seller didn’t get the full amount he asked for. The seller is calling him a muppet because he hasn’t received the amount of money agreed in the sale.

Xiphon – why does the seller have to factor this in? If someone paid by cash / cheque / bank transfer there would be no fees to factor in.

Surely the buyer owes the seller an agreed amount and has to factor in expense if he chooses a payment method that charges.

IE the seller didn’t get the full amount he asked for. The seller is calling him a muppet because he hasn’t received the amount of money agreed in the sale.

Clearly I didn’t understand the OP then. I humbly apologise and ask your sincere forgiveness for such an elementary mistake.

Equally anyone who calls someone a muppet on the forum they use to sell stuff won’t be getting any of my money, PPG or not.

Sorry, I mean if the seller only accepts PayPal. So used to dealing with eBay people these days…

If they accept alternatives, such as cash-in-hand, bank transfer etc – then there will be no charge.

I tend to take an overall view of the ‘deal’ and as I buy more than I sell I would rather pay extra on the fees to cover myself if I feel it’s appropriate. I think nearly all my recent buys have been via gift as the sellers are all well known. Luckily, the only problem I’ve had on here was sent as a purchase and I got the money back quite quickly.

However, if the payment type is not specified, then I would always send it through as a purchase rather than a gift, for the simple reason it isn’t a gift and sellers should either add the cost on (and specify that in the ad) or swallow it .

I thought Paypal were cracking down on people receiving lots of gifts anyway.

I’m perfectly happy to take BT too but it sometimes means the buyer will have to wait longer for the transfer to happen.

They’re almost instant now if done online even more so.

I’ve never quite understood the difference between Gift and Payment.

If I buy something for £50 posted and want to use Paypal (which is easiest for me after all) then I would expect to pay £50 plus the Paypal fees.

If I have two identical purchases and pay for purchase A as Paypal Gift and accept the fees, and purchase B as Paypal Payment for Goods/Services and accept the fees, what does the seller actually receive in each case?

Bought something recently which took forever to turn up (legitimately enough in the end) that I’d paid for using Paypal gift, accepting the fees, and it was only when I looked into what sort of comeback I had in the event of being scammed that I became aware of a difference.

What I don’t understand is what the seller receives in each scenario?

If you have a PP account with a balance or you have a direct debit set up to pay off your purchases, you can PP gift with zero fees. It sounds like you (2tyred) have a credit card linked instead.

If you pp gift £50 to someone and don’t pay the fees yourself, they’ll get less than £50, just like if you did a normal non-gift payment.

Ah, it makes sense now – cheers clubber!

Paypal gift isn’t free if you use a credit card, the money has to come out of the linked bank account.
Always use it myself as I’m a trusting (and trustworthy) kinda chap. Sounds like this “community” may have got too large to behave that way though. Especially with folk like the OP around. Doh.

I’m kinda torn on this.

I’m leaning towards thinking that if the OP has stated requirements prior to the sale, then someone has made a purchase, then the buyer has agreed to those terms irrespective of how ill-advised this may be.

For instance, if I post a sale saying that I’ll only accept payment in major forms of carpet, then a prospective buyer shouldn’t be agreeing to the purchase unless they’ve got 6m^2 of Axminster to hand.

If however the sale has been completed and then I subsequently go “oh, by the way, would you mind paying me in luxury floorcovering rather than pounds sterling,” the buyer would be justified in telling me to do one.

If you don’t like the terms, don’t agree to the deal; that’s the underlaying(*) principle to any purchase. No-one’s forcing you to buy anything.

(* – ho ho!)

2tyred – you don’t get seller protection with PPG, if something goes wrong.

This is a cheeky (and wrong, IMHO) way for PP to still charge for the service – but zero overhead admin costs (in regards to claims).

If you sent someone a gift, why would you open a case to demand the money back 😉

If I buy something for £50 posted and want to use Paypal (which is easiest for me after all) then I would expect to pay £50 plus the Paypal fees.

So if you sent me a cheque would you add something on for the petrol costs and parking fees for me to drive to the bank to pay the cheque into the bank?

If a buyer doesn’t want to pay by gift, that’s fine but they should pay the fees as it’s them that’s getting the advantage. You agree a price, you pay that amount to the seller. Open and shut. It’s no different to agreeing a price then suddenly demanding a discount or a more expensive postal service (both of which I’ve also had)

I pay by Paypal gift as the saving on fees is considerable and the likelihood of making a claim is fairly small, but that’s obviously the buyer’s own decision to make.

breatheeasy – Member

If I buy something for £50 posted and want to use Paypal (which is easiest for me after all) then I would expect to pay £50 plus the Paypal fees.

So if you sent me a cheque would you add something on for the petrol costs and parking fees for me to drive to the bank to pay the cheque into the bank?

But because you’ve stated you accept cheque as a payment method then that is your choice (to bear the cost of petrol/parking yourself).

The OP’s arguement is that the buyer paid via a method he didn’t accept and as a result lost out on money. The buyer then didn’t reply to any communication.

I’d never use paypal gift. I just pay the fees myself, it’s an option in the payment options list. That way I get protection and they get what they expect. Asking for gift payment is like asking for sex without a condom, as the buyer you either need to know the person well or you’re an idiot.

It’s never a good thing to give Paypal money, you know.

Bank transfers are the best way, but again there’s no buyer protection.

Asking for payment as a gift for what patently isn’t is asking the buyer(a stranger)to collude in a deception for your advantage (no fee) and the buyer’s disadvantage (no protection). I see no reason why the buyer/seller relationship should be any different here to ebay – on ebay the seller pays the admin fee, why not here? You are not paying an advertising fee after all.

If it were my forum I’d make it a rule to not request this in an advert. If users who know each other wish to arrange payment as a gift away from the forum that’s up to them. It might have been all very well when the forum was a small matey group but those days are gone and known scamming is common.

If you are too tight and don’t want to pay anything to advertise and get payment for your goods and don’t want to attract those that pay with a credit card ask for a cheque and go to the faff of waiting ages and having to take it to the bank and watch the number of sales you make plummet.

I sold a frame & a chainset earlier in the year, and I asked the buyers to pay into a Justgiving account, which they both agreed to. Obviously if they’d had a problem I’d have been the person out of pocket as I would have had to refund out of my own pocket as the funds go direct to the charity from Just Giving. Charity would have won though as there was a gift aid made on the bigger payment.

In terms of PP I’ll go with whatever the seller/buyer wishes to use.

i have my paypal set so that i pay the fees, i never pay as gift if over £20 even if they ask for gift i pay as a purchase anyway and put the extra in for the fees, anyone who complains about that is clearly trying to con you.

After reading some good response and some not so friendly comments, I have learned my lesson about this, if it happens again like Squiff have done to me, I will simply refund the money back, not paying the fee and dont intend to. If the buyer really want the item, then do the ‘gift’ if not happy about it then no item for buyer.

Simples…….

Would you object if someone used normal paypal and paid the fees at their end?

Otherwise even simplers:

I wouldn’t use paypal gift. And I wouldn’t buy from you judging from your tone.

Plus one.