Paypal - am I being scammed?

Folks,
Is this legit? A transaction is leaving me a bit cold at the moment. The seller says he's packed the bike so can't give me the serial number on the frame. That may be fair enough but this extra request started alarm bells ringing and it's for a fairly high value item. Why would paypal hold funds for 21 days? Am I loosing any protection by paying as he's requested? His feedback looks ok though.

Thanks in advance:

From the seller...

"OK I got USPS and it is $70 but the insurance only goes up to $600 in coverage. However, its the best price because ups is 100 of coverage or insanly expensive.

Pay me by logging into paypal and using my email, XXXXXXXXX instead of just clicking pay for item through ebay. This will send me money but not put the hold on it, otherwise, I can't touch the money for 21 days. And, I need it for shipping.

thanks."

Is it like when you get money paid into your paypal account here, it takes a few days to transfer from paypal to your bank account? Perhaps it takes longer in the States (check for laundering or something?)

It's what Paypal/ebay does - it does it with my wife's account when she's sold things and I've put it down to a couple of reasons

1. She's a fairly new seller so needs to build up feedback to be 'trusted' by ebay.
2. Her Paypal account isn't directly linked to her bank account (ie no direct debit mandate) so Paypal couldn't attempt to extract the cash if good times went bad.

Ultimately, it's Paypal's way of trying to insure ebay payments without incurring too much risk. Payment is released within 21 days without a complaint from the buyer OR when the buyer leaving positive feedback, whichever is sooner. I agree it's crazy that they don't release the postage fund, as a seller you're out of pocket to start off with, made worse in your case due to the value of the postage.

This leaves you with two options. The first is to pay him the postage directly through Paypal and get him to remove it from the ebay charge. The other is for you to leave positive feedback just saying something like "All good so far, feedback left to release payment so item can be posted".

Either way, you're carrying a bit of a risk. Understandably, the seller doesn't want to carry the risk either and as the problem isn't of either your making, you're in a bit of a sticky position.

I guess there's a third option where you pay him half of the postage cost directly, meaning you're both carrying half of the risk.

Thanks both. I only buy and rarely sell so money coming in to a paypal account is unknown territory for me

Edit: Reading the Paypal Buyer Protection, If you don't pay by either "clicking through" from the item or linking to the item number when you pay via the www.paypal.com route (Which I assume applies the 21 day restriction as well?) you DON'T qualify for buyer protection.

Worth remembering. I've gone for the pay the shipping direct route. It will be interesting to see what the response is.

i had something similar happen to me.

won an auction for a hope ti glide hub for pittance, payed for it with buy it now.

got a msg from the seller the next day asking me to pay the money to a different paypal address.

i refused, he opened a dispute about non payment i stuck to my guns claiming it had been payed for with buy it now.

ebay could obviously see that the item had been payed for but payment had not been accepted.

he dropped the dispute but didnt send the item, but then didnt take payment either.

i wasnt going to send money to another paypal account as i would of had no protection as you say.

there is absolutely NO way i would pay into any pther paypal account other than the one linked to the auction.

this why i dont do pp :evil:

paypal is set up to benefit americans. it puts them first. beware. i don't believe they hold money if it is an american account.

juiceboxx":w0or3zpy said:

i don't believe they hold money if it is an american account.

Click to expand...

not true. i've seen it happen to americans.

He sent me an ebay invoice for the full amount last night so I've paid. I just have that gnawing feeling that there's something wrong with this sale. I just hope it turns out ok.