PayPal Frustration/Issue Heads-Up


In just over a month I have tried to sell 3 relatively expensive pieces of equipment on Audiogon (B&W HTM-1, B&W N801 and an Oppo UDP-205) and on each occasion had the buyers PayPal transaction refunded/rejected as soon as the buyer paid. I now know why.

Audiogon Admin were very helpful trying to resolve the problem. Turns out the problem has nothing to do with Audiogon, it is purely a PayPal problem. I have just been on the phone to PayPal, a very protracted and frustrating process (not recommended!) and found out why the PayPal payments were rejected/refunded. Apparently my account was not verified for a large transaction, it is now. What really annoys me is; this is the third time in just over a month I have tried to sell equipment on Audiogon and this has happened, why did PayPal not alert me to the problem?

If you have a balance on your PayPal account, the verification process (apparently) is simple and can be done online. However, in my case I do not keep money in PayPal. So I had to spend another 30 minutes on the phone contacting another PayPal administrator to get my account verified, again not recommended.

So, my advise to anyone selling on Audiogon is to make sure your PayPal account is verified. The best way to do this is to have a balance on your PayPal account so the process can be done online. Alternatively, if you like anger, frustration, boredom and wasting time; do what I did (not recommended)!
mgattmch
@mgattmch  Appreciate you posting this. This has been a recent problem and not at all anything to do with Audiogon. The circumstances may vary by users, so would appreciate any other members responding if this has happened to them. 
Thanks for the heads up.  Any idea what the "magic number" is that triggers the rejection?  I ask because I sold an item on-line recently for just under $500., did not have a balance in my Paypal account, and had no problem.
rshak, I am not sure. All 3 items were priced at greater than $1k. Maybe, this is the limit?
Anyone who buys and sells here with a Paypal account shoul make sure their account is verified.  I did it when I opened my account 12 years ago.  It is not a fault of PayPal as it is there for fraud purposes, it is your fault for not verifying the account.  Why didn’t you call them after the first time you had a problem?  Did you think it would go away by itself?  I don’t keep any money in my PayPal account, but because my account is verified, I don’t have problems. The biggest transaction I have done is around 6K.  

PayPal fronts the money to the seller and without your account being verified, they could get screwed out of a lot of money.  Sorry, but this one is on you pal.