Paypal Disputes Go From 45 Days to 180 Days

[CCarter]

Thinking about using paypal for your business - you might want to be careful, cause disputes have increased from 45 days to 180 days. So potentially unhappy customers from almost 6 months ago can get their money back.

Starting Nov 18, 2014
We're increasing the time for buyers to file a merchandise dispute (Item Not Received and Significantly Not as Described) from 45 days to 180 days. All references in the User Agreement to “Opening a Dispute within 45 days” have been updated to reflect “Opening a Dispute within 180 days.”

Sauce: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/upcoming-policies-full

My suggestion - use www.Stripe.com and visit CodeCanyon for pre-made stripe forms (Example: http://codecanyon.net/item/bootstrap-stripe-payment-forms/5026578?WT.ac=solid_search_item&WT.seg_1=solid_search_item&WT.z_author=Mammothology)

 

[BANG]

I guess this is good news for buyers in the specific scenario where the seller will delay, say it's been shipped when it hasn't, delay, lie, send a fake item, etc... gives the buyer a safety net when the seller is trying to run out the clock... I've seen that happen, the seller just stalls and stalls until the 45 days are up.

But at the same time, a lot of sellers who do a lot of transactions might not be properly equipped to have stuff from half a year ago dredged up by a buyer who just decides they would rather have a little more money that isn't rightfully theirs.

Either way, +1 for Stripe. If we don't like PayPal, nobody is forcing us to use it so it's always good to support other options.

I notice you don't accept Paypal with Serpwoo, overall have you been happy with that idea? It seems to me most people who would be ordering something online will have a credit card, and the ones that don't might be difficult customers anyways... Thoughts?

 

[CCarter]

We don't accept PayPal cause it puts an unnecessary 3rd party in between you and your customers. It may make sense if I'm a no body and need to build trust and don't have a real business in the beginning - so they lend me their trust for a slightly higher fee for processing credit cards, but I'm also subject to their ruling.

By going direct - I handle resolutions myself like an offline business does internally, and make the decision to refund, cancel, or continue with a customer. If I make shitty decisions or treat my customers poorly I'm still going to have negative problems, look at Yelp, BBB reports and negative review sites. So it's in my best interest to make sure the customer walks away happy in as may scenarios as I can. When word of mouth spreads, they'll judge you based on their personal interaction with them. I want that word of mouth to state that "SERPWoo cares about their customers - current, new, and even old."

PayPal would simply get in the way of the I handle my customer support - and freezing money randomly cause you all of a sudden are making too much money - yeah that's a huge turn off. That's happened in the past. You look in your account, it takes 45 mins to get a rep on the line, and your money is frozen, you can't pay people to do the work, you can't make payroll, you can't refund, and are just stuck until some random person on their side makes a decision if they are going to destroy your business and reputation or not - No thanks. Don't put your business in the hands of a 3rd party, especially on important matters like how you get paid.

 

[Samwise89]

I'm sure they have a reason to do this, but I think they are going to find that their dispute center ends up chock full of fraud cases. I'd say that 45 to 90 days would have solved the problem a lot better than a half a year. I get that it brings things closer to the normal lengths that some physical stores go to, especially for electronics or appliances, but it opens the doors for massive fraud for digital products. I hear Clickbank is real bad about people buying a digital product, downloading it, then immediately applying for a refund. Nobody can prove they were dissatisfied. I guess businesses have to account for this kind of theft in their financial planning.

 

[SteelBlue]

The good part for services is that the buyer and the seller are protected in some form. The buyer is protected from the stalling game as mentioned before, and the seller will have had a quicker turn around time and will be able to document all communication.
Also, he'll know the person's website (when it come to SEO services) which is kind of a protection that never needs to be brought up. Unfortunately, it's also another way that they can scare people into not leaving negative reviews or doing chargebacks.

 

[lion1978]

paypal doesn't allow refunds on digital delivered products though so if your selling a non physical product you can still use paypal if you want to

 

[RomesFall]

paypal doesn't allow refunds on digital delivered products though so if your selling a non physical product you can still use paypal if you want to

True... Although if the person pays with a Credit Card they can still screw you on this. This happened to me to the tune of $8,000, also when I found the dispute that stressful morning, turns out that what was originally marked as being for services had been changed to being for goods and perhaps deliberately. PayPal asked me for several weeks for a tracking ID - despite the fact that I had already categorically proved to them that this was for services rendered, not a product/goods.

Absolutely hate PayPal...

 

[MoneyStalker]

Credit card transactions trough other competitive third party is a starting solution !

Cause Paypal do what they like and time for us to support their competition.

 

[Golan]

Cause Paypal do what they like and time for us to support their competition.

If there only was a strong Paypal competitor like Stripe that works with non US sellers.

 

[localcasestudy]

Stripe works for non-us sellers, not every country, but the list is long and growing. So does Braintree.

 

[Andrewkar]

That's some scary move from Paypal. Actually I call it ridicules. Unless... there is some really big change ahead in the ways they process $. That being said, I'm going to give out my left hand that "The Gov" is pushing them hard a lot these days

Let's be honest here, this is 100% retarded stuff going on here. Doing business via PP is becoming now like awaiting a lethal injection.

80% of my $ comes via PP. My customers and clients are happy but still, I will not accept that 180 days. Especially now when I want to move into reoccurring payments. Probably this change won't affect me at all, because I have virtually no refunds (just two during the years) but the fact alone that they might be able to keep my money locked for 180 days...? My gut just don't like it.

This is unacceptable and I'm going to look for a new provider. Honestly, PP never was cool but this move right now is just a tip of the iceberg in my opinion and it shows where they are going with their politics... To take as much control over our money as they can. At least from my point of view. Not good...

 

[RomesFall]

That's some scary move from Paypal. Actually I call it ridicules. Unless... there is some really big change ahead in the ways they process $. That being said, I'm going to give out my left hand that "The Gov" is pushing them hard a lot these days

Let's be honest here, this is 100% retarded stuff going on here. Doing business via PP is becoming now like awaiting a lethal injection.

80% of my $ comes via PP. My customers and clients are happy but still, I will not accept that 180 days. Especially now when I want to move into reoccurring payments. Probably this change won't affect me at all, because I have virtually no refunds (just two during the years) but the fact alone that they might be able to keep my money locked for 180 days...? My gut just don't like it.

This is unacceptable and I'm going to look for a new provider. Honestly, PP never was cool but this move right now is just a tip of the iceberg in my opinion and it shows where they are going with their politics... To take as much control over our money as they can. At least from my point of view. Not good...

Longer hold periods = more interest for them... That's what this has written all over it.

 

[Andrewkar]

Longer hold periods = more interest for them... That's what this has written all over it.

Good point about Paypal. Scams and money laundering.

But I don't think it's just that simple... It's a major change in the way they do business and it will affect a lot of people (somewhere during the way). We let them go with this one and next time they will ask for our websites...