People paying with Paypal friends - family & putting an address in comments??

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Vince

Vince

Member
Jun 22, 2020
177
12
CA, United States
Perhaps I'm overly concerned, but had this happen multiple times now where people buy something from the classifieds. I provide them my Paypal address and instead of sending me a regular Paypal payment they send a payment using 'friends and family' and then they put their delivery address in the comments.... 

( i have no problem eating the Paypal fee, and do not ask for a F&F payment, but i get them, with a delivery address in the comments.)

These payments often seem to be from buyers that have perhaps a dozen or so postings. 

I have been refunding these payments, and have been requesting a regular Paypal payment for both seller and buyer protection, since from what I've read a seller could really get screwed by chargebacks and locked Paypal accounts (since Paypal can easily see that this a payment for merchandise, not a gift.)

Is this a common thing happening here? Experiences? 

Thanks :)
 
For some people If they don’t use f&f when they sell something they can’t get access to the money for 20-30 days that’s why we use f&f, if your buying or selling talk on the phone first use your instinct (gut feeling) and proceed with the deal, And if ya look at the seller’s or buyers profile you can see how long they have been on AGN , if they just joined tomorrow and don’t have feedbacks use caution,
 
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I'm not a scammer and have now had maybe 4 or 5 great buying/selling transactions here on AGN. When buying, to prevent the seller from having to pay a fee, I often pay using "friends or family" if I trust the person. I also tend to add my address and a brief description of the transaction in the comments/notes in order to prevent any confusion.

Not saying you haven't run into a scammer...just sharing my experience based on your post.
 
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So it does not matter if the money is used for buying an item the friends and family is do you or do you not trust the transaction and since PayPal now does not honor protecting buyer or seller for airguns why pay for a none existent protection 

mid not then as Michael has suggested use a broker
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I wasn't aware of that, but if I'm a buyer I use the Amex. As the buyer, trusting Paypal to protect you is a fool's bet. I guess if Paypal won't protect the seller on air guns, I'll take a check, or I'll take their credit card through my office merchant account. Thanks for the heads up on that one. 👍
 
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I generally only use PP G&S now as my credit card company started charging me a 'cash advance fee' if I pay via PP F&F. If I have to pay an additional 3-3.5% to the seller to cover the PP fees, so be it.

I also only have a credit card as the source of funding attached to my PayPal account. I've had situations in the past (not from any purchases from AGN members) with fraudulent sellers. Tried to get money back through PP and after a lengthy 'investigation' on their part, they have told me that there was nothing they could do since the seller didn't have any money in their account.

So I will just respond 'that's O.K., I'll just contest the charge through my credit card company.' Suddenly, miraculously PayPal refunds my money. 

I'm sure this is something which PayPal hates. Hence they are always trying to have you attach a bank account to your PP account. If one did it too often (I've only needed to do it 2-3 times in maybe the past 10 years), PP would probably terminate your account. But I like having the option in my back pocket if needed.
 
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I believe that using PayPay “friends and family” to avoid the PayPal charge to be unethical. If someone doesn’t want to pay for using PayPal’s service, don’t use PayPal.
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If paypal ever figures out or notices that the F&F option is being used to circumvent the fees, then either they’ll reduce the amount you can send or more likley, stop that option altogether.

I agree with Tipton, using F&F to avoid the fees is wrong. Either eat the fees, raise your price to include the fees or use another payment method. 
 
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 There has been countless stories about "buyer protection" being worthless with air rifles, so you are just throwing money away. There are always going to be the guys show off being on their high horse, telling members the should pay more worthless fees to giant corporations, just because it is the "moral thing to do" or some crap like that. Anyway, there is a dollar fee for all F&F anyway now so the corporations will be getting their cash on every transaction anyway. 

Besides, is it up to paypal to decide that AGN members are not "Friends" on the forum. Is Tipton1947 really saying AGN member who have know each other for years, and trade and bought numerous airguns from each other aren't "friends". It is crusty Karens like him who need to shut the hell up! 
 
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Hello I was not going to reply to this but felt I needed to. I have been buying on these forums for awhile now and have been scammed once. I have learned to check sellers backgrounds and other posts and ask for images of said items with my name and a date on them before purchase. I made an offer on a certain item and the seller agreed to pay pal friends and family and my mailing address. I included it in notes as it was my work address since I work and no one is at the home address during the day and he said he received it and would ship the next day. The next day I received a pm from him stating since I put my address in notes he was going to refund my money. I was a little baffled but ok. It took 8 days before pay pal refunded that money to me. I mean no disrespect to anyone but after all the checking and asking for images then do as the seller wants it just baffles me how some people react.
 
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