Hi: I have sold 3 motorcycles recently and bought a 2009 R1200rt and I love it. Often I get people who call and want to buy my bike using Pay Pal. I have used Pay Pal for many items up to about $500. I was always unsure of selling a bike for $10,000 ON PAY PAL, didn't want to get scammed, but it seems it would be difficult on Pay Pal. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with large ticket items on Pay Pal. I know they always warn about wire transfers and cashiers checks. thanks Woody
-
Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password. If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?
-
Beginning April 1st, and running through April 30th, there is a new 2024 BMW MOA Election discussion area within The Club section of the forum. Within this forum area is also a sticky post that provides the ground rules for participating in the Election forum area. Also, the candidates statements are provided. Please read before joining the conversation, because the rules are very specific to maintain civility.
The Election forum is here: Election Forum
using Pay Pal for selling a Motorcycle
- Thread starter woody99
- Start date
natrab
New member
Not sure if this applies to big ticket items, but the old Paypal scam used to be that someone would buy something from you using their credit card through Paypal. You'd ship the item, then they'd dispute the charge with their credit card company that would take the money back from Paypal. Paypal had no recourse except to take the money back from the seller (yes, they would pull it back out of your bank account). I know a lot of people who got burned by this and it caused me to avoid Paypal for a while. I'm not sure their terms have gotten much better so beware.
jandhumphreyme
Member
I've used PayPal to sell a bike, worked well for me. Transaction was smooth, the buyer even arranged a shipping company to come pick up the bike, that went flawless as well.
Yes,
My wife bought her Triumph Daytona and used paypal to pay. The seller wasn't sure how it all worked, but we've used PAypal since they were their own entity (pre ebay purchase) and have never had issues. Man she bought it from was a cop so he probably felt pretty comfortable with the deal. lol. I also sold a vintage guitar recently and accepted Paypal on that (over $8K). Perfect transaction. With
Ebay using it as their main payment method for years and years, it can't be too bad I guess.
To top it off, I own a woodworking business and process all my financials through a paypal webstore on my website.
I'm really not sure how someone would "scam" someone else using Paypal. They have an investigative process they go through for normal sales if there's a dispute.
I guess there are ways to do it, but I imagine if you vette the buyer and feel comfortable with it, it can open some doors for potential sales.
It's a pain having to wait up to 3 business days to transfer from paypal to a regular bank account when you want to buy something NOW.
My wife bought her Triumph Daytona and used paypal to pay. The seller wasn't sure how it all worked, but we've used PAypal since they were their own entity (pre ebay purchase) and have never had issues. Man she bought it from was a cop so he probably felt pretty comfortable with the deal. lol. I also sold a vintage guitar recently and accepted Paypal on that (over $8K). Perfect transaction. With
Ebay using it as their main payment method for years and years, it can't be too bad I guess.
To top it off, I own a woodworking business and process all my financials through a paypal webstore on my website.
I'm really not sure how someone would "scam" someone else using Paypal. They have an investigative process they go through for normal sales if there's a dispute.
I guess there are ways to do it, but I imagine if you vette the buyer and feel comfortable with it, it can open some doors for potential sales.
It's a pain having to wait up to 3 business days to transfer from paypal to a regular bank account when you want to buy something NOW.
Ah, OK so that's what would happen. So yeah, maybe the friends and family method of accepting payment would be the way to go. I don't think those can be disputed.
natrab
New member
The friends and family method is often the one scammed as there was no actual product delivered. If you had proof of delivery on a payment for goods, then you would have some seller protection and Paypal could at least investigate. I honestly don't know if the scamming is still going on lately. My experience with it was several years ago.
Let me tell you a way! My '09 12GS had a rear ESA shock go bad. BMW sent a new one under wty. I decided to go with new Wilburs. Kept the shock un-opened in the box. A rider traveling in Bolivia lost his rear shock and posted on several BMW sites. I sold him my new in the box rear shock for $525 + $37 shipping. About 1/3 of what they sell for. A month later he went to PP and claimed the shock was bad. They had him ship the shock back to me. What arrived was his broken shock. PP tried to get the money back from me. I sent pics of the broken shock and had the svc. mgr at BMW dealer send a letter stating that the shock was new in an un-opened box when shipped. PP ignored all this and is now sending me collection letters. I can no longer use PP and my credit is being dinged.
Sadly the rider does not live in the US so I can't visit him.
dennisarner
New member
PayPal for a deposit only. The balance as USPS M/O. Paypal dings you for 3%.
Holy smokes that's just ridiculous. I figured paypal would have some decent seller protection but it really doesn't sound like it in this case.
I hate that there are so many scams/scammers out there. I know I get hammered with them any time I listed something on Craigslist, but I always figured paypal had a better system in place what with it being the ebay payment method.
On the plus side of folks NOT accepting paypal, I'd be riding a Yamaha FJR right now if the seller did. Thought it was "the one". Went home to transfer funds and stumbled across the BMW for sale.
ponch1
Ponch
May be he sent back the one he had and got yours for free in the process. This is a good cautionary tale.
195153
New member
Cash is King
I have sold motorcycles, RV's, and jet-skis and every time I used Craigslist and included that "the financial transaction will occur in a bank." That is, buyer gives cash money to my banker and banker notarizes the title and hands it to buyer. If the buyer can't or is unwilling to those terms, no sale. I had one guy hand me 10 $100-bills to hold the RV for two weeks till he came back with the rest of the cash. I gave him a hand written receipt. He came back in 2 weeks with more $100 bills. The sale was flawless.
I have sold motorcycles, RV's, and jet-skis and every time I used Craigslist and included that "the financial transaction will occur in a bank." That is, buyer gives cash money to my banker and banker notarizes the title and hands it to buyer. If the buyer can't or is unwilling to those terms, no sale. I had one guy hand me 10 $100-bills to hold the RV for two weeks till he came back with the rest of the cash. I gave him a hand written receipt. He came back in 2 weeks with more $100 bills. The sale was flawless.
Of course that's what happened.
deilenberger
A bozo on the bus
What happened to Marty isn't uncommon. Paypal tries to convince buyers to use it (forcing the sellers to offer it) by making it very easy for the buyer to protest a sale. I had a number of items where a buyer contacted me after the sale was done looking for a discount/refund on part of the sale price and threatening to dispute the sale with Paypal if I didn't give in. Since I knew how Paypal operates - they DO go right into your bank account to get the money back - I usually offered some nominal discount and tried to forget about it. Big ticket items? Not a chance..
As far as telling Paypal it's a gift - that's fraud pure and simple. If there is a problem - you can bet that Paypal is not going to support you for accepting it as a "gift" and trying to avoid their fees.
What works? I believe a wire-transfer bank to bank is irrevocable, and avoids the problem with bogus cashiers checks. The bank makes certain the money IS in the buyers account before wiring it to the other bank (no money really moves - it's all done via the handling houses AFAIK).. and you can immediately withdraw the money from the bank it was wired to (or move it to another account.) I've bought/sold several cars that way - and it went flawlessly.
As far as telling Paypal it's a gift - that's fraud pure and simple. If there is a problem - you can bet that Paypal is not going to support you for accepting it as a "gift" and trying to avoid their fees.
What works? I believe a wire-transfer bank to bank is irrevocable, and avoids the problem with bogus cashiers checks. The bank makes certain the money IS in the buyers account before wiring it to the other bank (no money really moves - it's all done via the handling houses AFAIK).. and you can immediately withdraw the money from the bank it was wired to (or move it to another account.) I've bought/sold several cars that way - and it went flawlessly.
ponch1
Ponch
What would have happened if you deleted your pay pal account when tried to blackmail you?
Sent from my iPhone, inspected and certified by the NSA
I did that and kept the money. So I broke even but I get collection letters and my credit is dinged. Since I'm 78 and finance nothing, I could care less. Only real loss to me is I can no longer use pay pal or e-bay. I'll survive.
Paladinwest
New member
My experience is that Paypal works well if everyone is honest. Paypal's dispute mechanism seems to me to be some kind of computerized "magic fortune telling ball" that pops up a random "resolution". I had a dispute "resolved" in less than 30 seconds after filing, there was no possibility that they could have looked at any facts of the case in that time, let alone make an informed decision. Once they have "resolved" the dispute they will, as Martyhill says, go into your account and claw the money back. I use them when I must but I don't give them access to any bank accounts even though their procedures try to force you to do that (even implying that you cannot continue without banking info). There are many people who have experienced problems with Paypal and are quite vocal about it. For big transactions I would stick with the banks or cash, face to face. There are too many "less than honest" people out there who know how to play the system.
Buts tu claim my inheritence and share my good fortune with you. i only need the small some of $2,000.00 us so for me to get the papers filed.
OM
