What's the best way to handle PayPal?

[Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd)]

On 3 December 2016 at 18:31, John Morris <johnjeff at editide.us> wrote:
> Hi David Kirkby,
>   Thanks for your quick response.
>
>> My worst ever nightmare was buying a portable vector network analyzer for about $17,000 from the test equipment division of Agilent via eBay.  There were all sort of firmware issues with this, and then a hardware fault. I'd lost all confidence in the unit.  Agilent agreed to take the item back for a "full"  refund. The problem was that by the time this was all sorted out, it was outside the period that PayPal accepted refunds (it was 90 days, but I think its now 180 days).
>
>  I almost never deal at the same order of magnitude as you.

That was an unusually large transaction for me. It was also paid
before I set up a business, so it was from my personal pocket. That 's
probably part of the reason Agilent gave me the £500. Many of their
staff were on my side, but nobody had the authority to do anything
about it. But finally, after some pretty heated negotiations, Agilent
gave me the £500.

The test equipment division, now Keysight is very good. They are not
cheap, but the service is excellent. I can rarely fault them, and they
are always polite and helpful, but clearly someone had to account for
the fact they were taking an expensive unit back, and paying not an
insignificant sum.

> Also, my worst experience with PayPal was a little different from your experience with Agilent. I purchased an item for about $500 on eBay from an individual seller. The item was plainly not as described, so I immediately requested a refund. The seller was nowhere to be found, so I initiated the claim process well within PayPal's limit. However, because the seller was unresponsive, PayPal simply rejected the claim,

<snip>

> This is the lesson that taught me to keep my buying and selling accounts separate.

I wish I had your confidence this is safe. PayPal will know the two
accounts are linked to the same person, and I suspect could block both
if they want. Although I can't verify this story, I was told by
someone that when he had a large dispute with PatyPal, the PayPal
accounts of 3 family members were frozen too.

I tend to enourage wire transfers, by giving cheaper prices.

>> 5% was a round number, but it is certainly higher than what you describe.

< ship>

>> Where I think I can gain a bit, is if I start selling more in USD, then get paid in USD. Then I keep those dollars there to pay for items from anyone that wants paying in USD. It will save a fair bit on currency conversions.
>
>   It does sound like this could be worthwhile if you are both processing and spending significant amounts in USD. However, I think you could only get the lower fees we are experiencing if you had a US physical address and US tax ID.

No doubt. But saying 3.5% currency translation fees in both directions
is an 7% saving. Any reduction in seller fees is not going to be more
than 2.5% at the very best, so stopping the double currency conversion
is probably worthwhile. It depends on the accounting costs of this
though. It's okay saving a bit of money, but if my accountacy fees
rise a lot, it could outweigh the benefits.

> Best,
> John

Dave