Paying Through Intermediary Service?

[AndrewGC]

Sold an item to a US seller. We get an email saying 'Please send your PayPal details'.

We sent the standard eBay invoice that allows payment to PayPal. Another email: 'I just want your PayPal email address'.

Right, so sent him a secondary email we use not the Primary that can allow hacking into the account.

We then get an email from a company based in Russia called 'Seller-online' with instructions for us to click a link to arrange payment.

Er, hang on. Why?

Checking out the Seller-online site via a Google Search it is a weird mix of English and Russian. It appears they say they offer '30 Day protection' to buyers. But as a seller you have to send a money request through them to get a Paypal payment.

That's all well and good, but why do I have to jump through the hoops to get paid? We get buyers from around the world without issue.

We've emailed the buyer back saying we cannot use an intermediary service, particularly one where most of the site is not in English - and asking him to just pay as normal. Awaiting the usual weird and blunt response.

Just curious if anyone else has come across the place and had any further information they could share?

[Sandhound]

G'day FilthyRaider.

I have the opposite, purchase from Russia and have to pay into an American account.

Reads' like you have a scammer....

[AndrewGC]

G'Day.

That's what I thought, then looked into the site via Google rather than clicking links.

Some background first. If you have a PayPal account in the UK you get 'verified' after so many purchases and sales - basic Money Laundering to be honest.

In the US this has now been extended to the actual eBay site. This leads some US buyers to be paranoid about buying off 'non verified sellers' - regardless of the fact that the scheme is only in the US.

Seller-Online appears to offer US buyers the 'protection' of buying off Russian and Ukraine sellers (that last one is most important to remember in my case) by 'shadowing' the payment process.

I think I have a dolt who thinks UK stands for Ukraine. I have emailed him back (via eBay) to say we cannot use the site as it is in Russian for sellers and is specifically for US buyers buying from the ex USSR.

I did think it might be a scam initially hence I allowed them to have an old PayPal email I occaisionally use. Then I thought, you can give your email address out to buyers to pay you anyway, so the scam idea drifted and the 'twit' scenario kicked in.

Will be interesting to see how he answers the email. I was polite but firm - pay normally!

[AndrewGC]

Well got back in tonight and he has paid via PayPal but in dollars - awkward devil.

It works out about right so I accepted the payment and now I can send it.

Have blocked him from buying again. No apology or explanation, but only what you expect.

[Sandhound]

G'day FilthyRaider.

Strange PayPal giving you dollars or am I reading wrong.

When I have to pay in US$ or EU$ PayPal convert and take their fee. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Any way pleased it all worked out ok for you.

[AndrewGC]

Had he paid for the item THROUGH the correct method, via PayPal and linking it to the eBay purchase it would have been converted.

As it was he simply sent the amount in dollars and just sent the money to my email address with no eBay link. (PayPal gives you options to link money to certain sites, eBay being the primary one when you send money).

Because of that it was in dollars which meant I had to use a few currency converter sites online to work out how much he had sent. Strangely it actually worked out better for me - he'd probably sent a bit too much.

I then had three PayPal options - Convert to pounds, open a dollar balance or refuse. I converted to squids, and still came out better.

I expect poor feedback and a chargeback attempt, but it was sent International Signed For so he will struggle. All the items are sent to a company address and you have to put an item no. on the outside.

Still not 100% happy, but as mentioned I have blocked.

EBay came back with a long winded email about dealing with people that won't pay (NOT RELEVANT!) but PayPal did email back to say they and eBay do not condone the use of intermediaries so I would be in my right to tell him to go somewhere.

As I said, I do not think it's over, but lately has been bad for poor payers. Had a couple of eCheques (through PayPal) bounce after TEN days and also having quite a few people buy, then go on holiday, then email a month later saying "Where's my stuff!!!!". (The answer is usually on its way back to us as it was not collected and on its way to them is a PayPal invoice for redelivery costs).

All good fun.