Here's what you do. Accept the money order .. be sure you wait until the money order clears .. then ... and only then do you send the merchandise .. no matter how many days it takes. Be sure and make this clear to the buyer.
The only problem with "waiting until it clears" is it is hard to do. The bank can only hold a check for so long per federal laws (Expedited Funds Availability Act of 1987) before they must make it available in your account. Unfortunately, it might take longer than that to actually clear. The money might post in your account, you send the item, only to find out that a few weeks later the MO was no good.
Thanks for all of your opinions. I learned a lot. I sent him a message informing him that a paypal account won't cost him anything as a buyer and asked if there was a problem opening one. I'm weary of him because he hasn't bought anything and has not been too responsive to my messages. I'll let you know how her responds. Thanks again. bob
One thing I hate... Sellers communicate, and buyers just think they can get by without saying anything... Everytime I send out a message, I expect to get a message back, as I send messages back to all my sellers, if they say the item is gonna be shipped, I say, got your message, thank you. It really is not that hard, I can't stand these kind of buyers, just like the ones who don't leave feedback, or even tell you that the package has arrived safely
Take the MO but tell him it has to be a Postal Money order and when it arrives take it to the post office. They can tell you if it is good and if it isn't too large they can cash it on the spot. There is no violation of ebay rules so that is a moot point. The only question is whether you want to go through the trouble of relisting your auction and filing to get your fees back, or waiting for the MO to arrive by snail mail. Somehing I find interesting is that everyone likes to complain about paypal, how terrible it is , the fees are too high and thy are gouging the sellers, but when the first person asks if they can use a Money Order everyone suddenly rushes to the "protection" of Paypal and insists that everything has to go through them. And they talk of canceling the auction rather than accepting a form of payment that a few years ago they would have gladly if not eagerly accepted.
Hello, It is ok to accept money orders from buyers so long as the buyer requests paying for item in this manner. Sellers are not allowed to post that they take checks or money orders in their auctions, only electronic payment options, but if a buyer asks you, you can accept other payment types. Personally I hate Ebays Paypal policy and have started selling most of my items on another site which is fee free. I know Ebay has lost alot of sellers to their new policy, they may be changing the policy in mid June not requiring Paypal payments but not for sure on that. So in summary- it's ok to take checks or money orders but you can't mention that in your auction listing.
Here's what I did: I sent him a note asking telling him that paypal will not cost him anything, it is free to open and send money. I asked him if he could do that. After almost a day, I asked him to repond so that we can figure out what we can do. Here is his note: Hi How Are You Doing I Want To Cancel This Order Because I Cant Afford Paypal Right Now. Thanks Again You Been A Big Help To Me Bye-Bye.... It would always take over a day for him to respond. I don't think he ever intended to pay. It is a shame that buyers do this. Bid my coin up then don't pay. Of course, I will not get the same price as the first one of these got a high premium.... No big deal, though, as the 2nd place guy purchased a 2nd chance, but it is still frustrating... bob
Taking a day it respond is not realy a big issue after all the guy might work shifts have been out of town for the day!! the main thing is he responded to you. A lot of people both sellers and buyers do not like using paypal we hear it all the time here on the site, your buyer might not have a bank account so coudnt open a paypal account. Now if the item was not high value then I would have personaly told the buyer that a postal money order would have been ol but that I woudnt ship the item until it cleared, or if he wanted to send cash in a registerd letter that too would have been ok. I agree that he should have contacted you prior to bidding but if he is a 1st time buyer again one needs to make allowences. I dont agree with stoping anyone with 0 feedback from bidding but what I would say is that if they have 0 or less than 10 for them to contact you 1st. After all if all sellers used the zero feedback no bid idea then how many of us would now be ebayers?
