Paypal payments.... as a gift

[VC]

As someone who takes a huge amount of paypal payments daily I keep seeing this "paypal as gift" request appearing more and more on forum sales.

I personally think the practice should be stopped.

Theres no reason whatsoever that the paypal fee's cant be incorporated into peoples prices when they advertise, even when i sell on the forum i never ask for it to be as a gift, or even if need be ask the buyer to pay the paypal fees upon checkout.

Paying someone as a gift gives the buyer absolutely no protection when purchasing and stacks all the power to the seller. Buying on forums can be risky enough imho.

I may be out of line having a winge about it, but i simply dont see why it should be allowed or requested by the seller if they are selling above board, the fee's arent that scary and even then like ive said it can be incorporated into the price of the item your selling.

simply put, i think sales that request gift payments should be stopped.

thoughts?

[JackG]

As someone who takes a huge amount of paypal payments daily I keep seeing this "paypal as gift" request appearing more and more on forum sales.

I personally think the practice should be stopped.

Theres no reason whatsoever that the paypal fee's cant be incorporated into peoples prices when they advertise, even when i sell on the forum i never ask for it to be as a gift, or even if need be ask the buyer to pay the paypal fees upon checkout.

Paying someone as a gift gives the buyer absolutely no protection when purchasing and stacks all the power to the seller. Buying on forums can be risky enough imho.

I may be out of line having a winge about it, but i simply dont see why it should be allowed or requested by the seller if they are selling above board, the fee's arent that scary and even then like ive said it can be incorporated into the price of the item your selling.

simply put, i think sales that request gift payments should be stopped.

thoughts?

I agree, for the sake of a few extra £ your protected and can stop yourself from loosing out on yor hard earned,
I actually added the PayPal fees onto a payment I made earlier in the month

[Mandy]

I don't agree that it should be stopped altogether, if the buyer doesn't trust the seller enough or are buying an expensive item, the buyer can always opt to pay the extra fees to cover themselves. The buyer is/ should be aware that a gift payment has no protection but should ultimately be up to them to decide if they want to risk it or not. If the buyer doesn't feel comfortable sending payment as a gift, I'm sure the seller won't mind or be offended if they wanted to send it properly and pay the fees. I think the buyer should always choose how they want to go about it. If you were the seller, I'd doubt it would be your main concern whether the buyer is protected or not.

[Kregiel]

totally agree here! has purchased a couple of items here and paid by paypal but was asked to make additional payment  due to fees which I did but didn't like it, price should be all in and if paypal option was not acceptable I wouldn't go aheady with purchase...

Paul

[Kregiel]

Mandy,

The option stuff would be great only if always communicated to the buyer. For example seller might not communicate to buyer that by going pay as gift he waives his protection and offer lower price. Also some prices would include paypal fees and others not so need to constantly check what's included and what;s not to make it comparable.

For ease my view would be if selling it's always commercial activity so always include paypal fees in. Otherwise all sales adds will have to have fees included/ not included description added

Paul

[sub39h]

if you're old enough to buy off someone on a forum and you're old enough to use PayPal you're old enough to weigh up the risk and make a decision to pay fees for paypal protection if you wish

as a buyer it's your responsibility to ask for the extra protection if you want it. if the seller isn't happy with that then that's a type of protection in itself as it should send alarm bells ringing in your head.

i think common sense prevails here

[Mandy]

Mandy,

The option stuff would be great only if always communicated to the buyer. For example seller might not communicate to buyer that by going pay as gift he waives his protection and offer lower price. Also some prices would include paypal fees and others not so need to constantly check what's included and what;s not to make it comparable.

The buyer should know right away there's no protection as soon as they see 'payment as gift', it's pretty self explanatory.

For ease my view would be if selling it's always commercial activity so always include paypal fees in. Otherwise all sales adds will have to have fees included/ not included description added

Paul

Agree that it may be a good idea for the seller to state whether fees are included or not just to make it clear to potential buyers.

 

[Deako]

I suppose it depends who you are buying off. I ask for gift payments all the time. But then, i know im trusted, so dont need to take a moral highground.

Im not going to rip someone off, so my buyer protection is ensuring its sent via a good courier with adequate insurance.

[Eddie-NL]

I ask for payment as Gift, for those that are not happy with that then they can pay the fee.
Reason for not incorporating the fee into the price, is to keep the cost down as some pay by bank transfer. Why should they pay the fee

[stealthwolf]

As above, we're all adults here. Buying and selling on here is realistically no different than a dodgy geezer in a dark alley. The risks are inherent and IMO it's up to the buyer/seller. there are alternatives such as bank transfer (remember you give nothing vital that you wouldn't see on a cheque!) or cash in hand for example.

Common sense needs to prevail here. Personally, if I'm buying from someone trusted, I'll happily pay via paypal gift. If it's someone I don't know well enough, I'll either buy only small value items that I can afford to lose, or just buy from a reputable online retailer.

[h4rdy]

I always say I won't pay gift and if they say no I won't do the deal simples.

I got shafted for £30 on another forum, not a lot, but when I tried to get my money back low and behold I couldn't because I didn't know the 'gift' score.

I think it should be stopped too as not everbody knows what it means.

[Eddie-NL]

If paypal had an option when a "buyer" pays for an item to select (I will pay fee) then that would stop the need for gift payments.
When I sell something for £30, I want £30 not the £28 that I would receive.

after all a bank transfer would give me what I want and doesn't take a fee

[Deako]

If paypal had an option when a "buyer" pays for an item to select (I will pay fee) then that would stop the need for gift payments.
When I sell something for £30, I want £30 not the £28 that I would receive.

after all a bank transfer would give me what I want and doesn't take a fee

Exactly the reason i prefer it too. Sometimes people want to pay with a credit card as well, and as i dont have a merchant account i cant do that via bank transfer. So if someone specifically wants to pay with paypal, and i havent accounted for paypal costs (i always sell things at the absolute bare minimum, usually with a substantial loss) so want what i have advertised a product for.

Like i said above, it really depends who you are buying from and what their reputation is like. I will always ask for gift payment if someone wants to pay with paypal.

[daz_pd]

so how do you find out what fees to pay the seller?

[CupraKris]

so how do you find out what fees to pay the seller?

Paypal is 3.4% plus 20p transaction admin fee.