Paypal gift -- potential problem?

I have been tempted to ask someone buying a knife from me to send the payment via Paypal as a gift to avoid the fee. Is that legal? Am I asking for trouble by doing that?

It is against their terms of service... But it is done all the time. Keep in mind it leaves the buyer with out any protection via paypal.

Keith Neal said:

I have been tempted to ask someone buying a knife from me to send the payment via Paypal as a gift to avoid the fee. Is that legal? Am I asking for trouble by doing that?

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Keith,

This came up tangentially during a discussion of pricing items in B/S/T. The PayPal user agreement reads thusly:

4. Receiving Money.

4.1 Receiving Personal Payments. If you are selling goods or services, you may not ask the buyer to send you a Personal Payment for the purchase. If you do so, PayPal may remove your ability to accept Personal Payments.

I know of at least one person who has run afoul of this provision.

Rick

I've been using paypal for years and never had an issue sending or receiving gifts. Not to say that it couldn't be an issue, but I always presume its a given doing knife transactions to send it as a gift. If it's to a vendor, obviously I send it as normal transaction. I trust all of the old timers around here enough to send as a gift. If I was to buy from a newer member, I'd probably request to do it as an invoiced transaction and pay the extra fees myself.

When I was buying a lot of knives on another forum, where EVERYBODY demands "paypal gift" or "paypal + 4%" or "$250 net to me," I eventually got an email from paypal saying "You've reached the maximum number of gift payments for this time period. Any more and we'll suspend your account." They didn't say what the time period was.

Sellers who demand paypal because it's quick and convenient, then demand that buyers pay the fees for this convenience, are just rude in my opinion.

If it's done a LOT then PP will flag your account. If it's done occasionally then they don't notice. If you buy knives from 30 different people in a month and send payment all as gifts, they'll wonder what's up. If you buy a knife or two every so often they don't notice.

I suspected the situation might be something like that. I wonder, however, about asking for a payment as a gift in an open forum. Isn't that likely to stir up a problem? Or perhaps Paypal is too busy to bother with KKF.

I think the paypal costs should be considered by the seller, and calculated in when selling the price. Sending the money as a gift is a bit risky if it's an unknown person, since if something goes wrong, paypal will not assist in the dispute. I wish paypal fees weren't so high, but using paypal is a lot better than waiting for a check to arrive, and then for it to clear out of state, or to send a money order (what used to be SOP on ebay . . . ).

Paypal gift question was recently discussed on another thread here on KKF

I've never had an issue.

I have had forum members ask if I wanted paypal payment sent as a gift.
I said no because;
#1 if they have a typo and send the money to the wrong email the money is lost.
#2 they give up any recourse if the item they paid for does not arrive.
#3 when they send the payment as a gift it does not record any shipping info.
When sent as payment for goods paypal automatically transfers the shipping info and has a link to print the shipping label and postage.
Doing the shipping like that you get a discount on the postage and it gives a link to the tracking info so the buyer and seller can check the tracking easily.

Keith,

As a vendor. I prefer that the payments are sent as payment for item. This allows me to print a label and the buyer and myself as the seller have more protection from fraud or any issues with lost or stolen packages, etc.. through PayPal's protection plans. and stuff. .

As stated already. Its rude to expect the buyer to either eat the fees or assume responsibility if there is a problem later.

If its your friend your doing this deal with then I dont see a problem. once in a while. otherwise. I would steer clear.

Sending payment by PayPal "Gift/Family" is so rampant now I'm wondering if PayPal would or could do anything about it. PayPal has worked hard to get online retailers to offer PayPal as one of the payment methods. If they cracked down on all of the inappropriate usage by individuals it would be kind of like shooting themselves in the foot. Close the accounts of those misusing PayPal and then those people wouldn't be able to pay using PayPal which is what they're hoping people will use.

It's not like PayPal is stupid. It wouldn't take much investigating on their part to find plenty of transactions that violate their "Gift/Family" policy.

I see it as buyer's choice. If I want 100.00 for knife, buyer can gift 100.00. If buyer wants protection he can pay 104.00 for goods/services. I don't care - but I want 100.00. I stipulate that shipping is included in the 100.00. Will insure more expensive knives, cheap ones if asked nicely. My 2 cents.

If I am buying from a vendor I prefer to keep it legit; probably gives them better records for taxes, etc., too. If I am buying from an indivdual I do not know I typically want the protection that comes with Goods and Services. If it is someone I know, or have seen enough on a forum to feel comfortable with them, I will offer to pay as a Gift.

people are so cheap... just pay the damn fee!

There are definitely two sides to the fence, and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Burl Source said:

I have had forum members ask if I wanted paypal payment sent as a gift.
I said no because;
#1 if they have a typo and send the money to the wrong email the money is lost.
#2 they give up any recourse if the item they paid for does not arrive.
#3 when they send the payment as a gift it does not record any shipping info.
When sent as payment for goods paypal automatically transfers the shipping info and has a link to print the shipping label and postage.
Doing the shipping like that you get a discount on the postage and it gives a link to the tracking info so the buyer and seller can check the tracking easily.

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lus1: