ebay sell - paypal pending ??? can it be a scam

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i just sold a laptop on ebay. the buyer send me the money via paypal but the money is pending...can it be a scam.

i know this happens alot in craigslit...just got similar offers in craigslit, people telling me they will pay via paypal but the money
will be pending first...as soon as i ask them to call me first or send me a webpage or facebook page where i can make sure to whom i am sending
they disappeared...
 
Do nothing until the money transfers to your account. You can call Paypal and inquire if you desire and they are pretty helpful on the phone.
 
I've found at times paypal holds the payment until the buyer gets the products, to make sure the buyer isn't being scammed. You may have to call paypal and find out exactly.
 
E-check

Evz said:
I've found at times paypal holds the payment until the buyer gets the products, to make sure the buyer isn't being scammed. You may have to call paypal and find out exactly.
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If the buyer paid with an e-check via paypal there is a 3 day hold. Don't send until it clears.
 
its say paypal will hold the money (up to 21 days) till the buyer confirms he recieved the item...never had this before. what if the buyer gets the item and says the box was empty :)
 
He means cancel the transaction. I'm not sure though. Buyers always have some protections when they use PayPal unless they pay with PayPal gift. If the funds are cleared and PayPal is just holding them for you then usually if you use PayPal shipping with a tracking number they will release the funds more quickly.

I actually had a problem with this I think when I sold my Ultra. I had to call PayPal after the 21 days to get the funds released. From those experiences I have found that PayPal's website can be really frustrating sometimes, but they can be very helpful over the phone.
 
I ran into the same thing a few years ago. It was a high priced item wasn't it? I had sold like 5 guitars in a one week period that were all fairly expensive and e-Bay held my payment until all of the items were recorded as delivered. This is because so many accounts have been hacked over the years and people would be scammed constantly.

Once you have a certain e-Bay score than they don't do it anymore.

Call them; that's what I did and they "educated" me on it. Needless to say I wouldn't have been clearing out that many guitars at once if I didn't need the money which pissed me off, but that's another story.
 
Semih Yanyali said:
i just sold a laptop on ebay. the buyer send me the money via paypal but the money is pending...can it be a scam.

i know this happens alot in craigslit...just got similar offers in craigslit, people telling me they will pay via paypal but the money
will be pending first...as soon as i ask them to call me first or send me a webpage or facebook page where i can make sure to whom i am sending
they disappeared...
Click to expand...

Last guitar i sold for $4,950 went to Tokio, PayPal hold that money until the guitar arrived to the buyer and he confirmed it was as described, this was not on ebay by the way, but Paypal sometimes hold the funds meaning that money is not longer in possession of the buyer, its on the could waiting until the transaction is fulfilled satisfactory for both ends.

When this happened i was not aware of this and i too got scared, but a simple call to PayPal cleared all my doubts, i encourage you to call then ASAP for peace of mind.
 
Yeah, it freaked me out the first time too. Never occurred to me that I was the one being suspected of being a potential fraud. ;)
 
About 5-6 years ago my friend sold a Taylor through ebay and the buyer said it there was a cheap $50 guitar in the case when he opened it. Paypal gave the buyer his money back and my friend was screwed out of a $2500 guitar.

How does the seller protect against false claims like that?
 
NY Guitarist said:
About 5-6 years ago my friend sold a Taylor through ebay and the buyer said it there was a cheap $50 guitar in the case when he opened it. Paypal gave the buyer his money back and my friend was screwed out of a $2500 guitar.

How does the seller protect against false claims like that?
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As a seller I would have documentation to back it up in the form of a receipt of purchase, serial number and pictures.
 
Sixstring said:
As a seller I would have documentation to back it up in the form of a receipt of purchase, serial number and pictures.
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I would also think that at that point you can report it as stolen. Due to the high value, I'm sure there would be a list of Federal charges to add to that, internet fraud and whatnot. If the buyer had a Paypal account, there may be some sort of paper trail. Plus you have the address it was shipped to.

I hope I would never have to deal with a situation like that. That would suck.
 
Sixstring said:
As a seller I would have documentation to back it up in the form of a receipt of purchase, serial number and pictures.
Click to expand...

I have no idea how Paypal handles this sort of scenario now, but that's exactly what he did at the time. Sent pictures of the guitar from when he had it, sales receipt etc. Buyer claimed it was a different guitar in the case when he opened it. I have no idea how, as the seller, you could defend against that.

Anyway... it in person, cash sales only for him, and me too, from now on.
 
Semih Yanyali said:
its say paypal will hold the money (up to 21 days) till the buyer confirms he recieved the item...never had this before. what if the buyer gets the item and says the box was empty :)
Click to expand...



Just another one of ebay bullshit polices . I've dealt with that wait a few times also. No issues.
 
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