On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 00:49:27 EST, you wrote: > >I must say after reading stuff on this list I will probably never use UPS. > >I sell a little bit of junk of ebay and I use US Postal Service priority >mail.
If you accept PayPal, be aware of a big scam they are perpetrating. The bidder buys from sellers who are using Priority Mail (which normally does not have online tracking) then claims he never received the package. Acting on that claim, PayPal automatically reverses the funds from the seller back to the buyer. The buyer keeps the gear, and gets the money back. The seller pays the fees, and loses his gear. End of story, no appeal. Why? Because the seller violated the terms of service by not sending the package with Online Tracking. PayPal does not care whether or not the package was sent or received, or if the buyer paid for insurance, or even if the buyer account holder is the person making the claim. They only care if someone, anyone, logged in and pushed the website button saying non-receipt of item, and was there online tracking for the item in transit. May I humbly recommend those who accept PayPal always ship with online tracking to avoid this scam? Remember, the buyer gets the money back, and gets to keep the gear. Oh yeh, the seller gets to pay all the Ebay and PayPal fees to boot. But wait - there's more!. The other big PayPal scam is about the item description. It the buyer claims the item was not as described, PayPal will reverse the funds back to the buyer without recourse by the seller. Again, the buyer gets the gear and the money, the seller loses his gear and pays the fees. End of story, but at least in this case there is some provision for appeal by providing proof of condition. So always photograph the goods before and after packaging. Also, keep the description undeniably accurate (read:simple) because do you really want some desk jockey at PayPal giving your money away because the M-series lens you sold does not have autofocus, and is therefore not in Excellent condition? PayPal is not your friend. Make no mistake about it. They will change their terms of service without notification, then hold you to the new terms - and take your money. -- John Mustarde www.photolin.com
