My recent experience in PayPal dispute

I had a Michigan Ebay buyer tell me that a 9/10 perfect ARC preamp I sold him might be going to need a part _in the future_ because he could hear relays click during the warmup process. This as most of us know is normal, and mentioned in the manual. I had the exact same preamp in my other system, and they both worked identically (No, both of them weren't broken). He said three hundred dollars would resolve the problem, and he said he had his local dealer look it over, and that was what they wanted to replace the part that wasn't yet broken, but "might fail in the future".

I told him I was wise to the scam, and to return it for a refund, as I wasn't falling for it... and I'd rather deal with honest people. Then he decided to keep it, but left no feedback... And I deserved a "rave" positive, that pre was perfect in every way.

You really are more vulnerable as a seller than a buyer.

Paypal...necessary evil many times unfortunately; I've had to use it many times which have gone well but there is always that threat of the buyer coming back with some bollocks months down the road. They also take a long time (several days) to route money to you claiming (as they have with me via phone), that it is not their fault and it about clearing times through the FR on the disbursement of funds. Please note the same linkages and paths between the banks through the FR are used to pull money from an account and conveniently seem to work faster than when they have to disburse money from PP into your account. A cynical person who has worked much of their career with the financial markets and many FSI customers including the federal clearing related entities and settlement houses might conclude they are also 'playing the float' on the funds as a rather high percentage of possibility...same with Bombaywalla's experience while that $8K was sitting in their possession.

I'll have to check out Direct Merchants (pointed out by Czarivey above).

Wire Transfer and Certified Checks have their perils too (mostly because recourse is limited in the event of fraud once the funds have moved out of an account).

It all comes down to whether we are dealing with a scumbag on the other end of the transaction. I had one nightmare transaction spanning December 2014-early February of this year that was costly but was not PP-related. Also had one in the last couple of years where the user came back several months in and claimed a working unit had issues after not hearing back for almost all of the first 3 months after shipment was received and then freight-forwarded somewhere else that was a pain to resolve but eventually did get resolved.

I forgot to mention in the 2 problem transactions I cited above, that in the case of the 1st costly one, I was the buyer and the second I was the seller.....

incho, you were very lucky

Nowadays PayPal is seller´s nightmare but foolproof for buyer, on eBay at least IME. I wonder how safe it is for a honest seller to do business here at A´gon...several month warranty with used, decades old gear ? Totally absurd.

Bank Transfer is the safest way for sellers, once you´ve received your money no-one can touch them.