Forum

Paypal vs merchant account & if track foreign shipments
 

I've used a merchant account on ebay for several years and no paypal.

I ship foreign with no tracking.

On ebay forums they say "you should track" then I explain that the cheapest tracking is registered mail that adds $11 those hypocries all go "that's gouging on shipping!" Maybe they think I'm supposed to magically make it free.

Well anyway, I ship foreign and dont track so my shipping is less. I've never had a chargeback for foreign. Instead, the people say to me if they didn't get the package, which is not very often. Then I just refund them. I used to use private insurance to do this and adding $1-2 for insurance was cheaper than $11 to track. I now self insure. My items are almost always under $50. If something got over $50, I'd probably track it, though. Speaking of that, I got one buyer who bought from like all of my accounts, pays fast, appears to like my goods. I could combine them all and ship express mail, but I keep my accounts separate. Though when people see their credit card statement DBA or return address, it's the same. If people ask I'd tell them we are friends IRL working together with people making their own ebay accounts in their name which you can't prove or disprove, but nobody really asks.

Thing is if I did it in paypal, I bet they'd just file a dispute and jack my account up. They just press a button and that's all so it's so easy.

But with credit card you call someone and they're like, "Did you try to talk to the merchant? No? Well you should do that first." Or maybe lots of people don't understand how credit cards work.


Anyway, anyone have thoughts, suggestions, advice on what I said above?

I like merchant accounts as well. Paypal is too easy to dispute with, so is a credit card but at least there are a couple hoops you have to jump through in order for the chargeback to go through. Merchant account all the way.

I agree. Filing a dispute is too easy. But do you fear a disgruntled buyer more than paypal itself? Btw google checkout doesn't have a dispute program but I really don't want to give them my ssn. I don't know why google has a silly $500 limit. Why can't they up that to at least $1500 for chrissakes? I used to use this dinky little company a few years back to accept online credit card payments and they had a $3000 a month limit. No id required. They just mail you something and you're supposed to verify online once you got it.