XTR
F-TR obssessed shooting junkie
I see a lot of folks who post stuff for sale request that you use PP gift/friends-family to pay. Obviously they do this to avoid paying the 3% fee. I've personally never done this. I always add the 3%m to the total if I'm going to use PP.
Other than the fact that this is ever so slightly dishonest, and if you use a bank acct for funding PP gets no fee on the transaction it puts you, the buyer, at substantial risk.
Now a little story that is playing out right now to illustrate that. I am the owner/admin of a cigar BB (onlinehumidor.com) that much like this board has a very active "for sale" section. About 15 days ago someone posted up a bunch of very hard to find, and very good, and expensive cigars at what was a good, but not immediately unbelievable price. Kind of like someone posting up a new NF Comp for $1750, screaming deal, but not impossible.
Well it seems that a lot of people jumped on the opportunity, and all was good until deliveries didn't happen as expected and some guys started comparing tracking #s, and they were all the same.
I don't know right now how many guys got burned, but the total haul is looking like it may be approaching $10k. This was from an account/poster with a 5 yr track record and fabulous feedback, not some new guy who just popped up.
Now the bad news, all of them that used PP gift (seems like all of them at this point) are getting the "we're sorry, it was a gift, there is nothing we can do" answer from PP.
There may be some recourse if the PP charge went to a CC and the buyer can contact them with the fraud/didn't receive goods claim, but that's an end around that may or may not work. We're waiting to see how that one turns out.
Some guys are looking into another alternative with PP and their fraud department, and PP seems to be playing along, but that's probably because it's going to be a group of charges to one acct.
Bottom line, if you send money by PP gift, it's a gift, you have no recourse.
Other than the fact that this is ever so slightly dishonest, and if you use a bank acct for funding PP gets no fee on the transaction it puts you, the buyer, at substantial risk.
Now a little story that is playing out right now to illustrate that. I am the owner/admin of a cigar BB (onlinehumidor.com) that much like this board has a very active "for sale" section. About 15 days ago someone posted up a bunch of very hard to find, and very good, and expensive cigars at what was a good, but not immediately unbelievable price. Kind of like someone posting up a new NF Comp for $1750, screaming deal, but not impossible.
Well it seems that a lot of people jumped on the opportunity, and all was good until deliveries didn't happen as expected and some guys started comparing tracking #s, and they were all the same.

Now the bad news, all of them that used PP gift (seems like all of them at this point) are getting the "we're sorry, it was a gift, there is nothing we can do" answer from PP.
There may be some recourse if the PP charge went to a CC and the buyer can contact them with the fraud/didn't receive goods claim, but that's an end around that may or may not work. We're waiting to see how that one turns out.
Some guys are looking into another alternative with PP and their fraud department, and PP seems to be playing along, but that's probably because it's going to be a group of charges to one acct.
Bottom line, if you send money by PP gift, it's a gift, you have no recourse.