Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Minor restoration of faith

Amazingly, I’ve actually now found TWO things I think Paypal is good for!

I’m normally a staunch critic of Paypal, in particular the integration with eBay – as far as I’m concerned, eBay’s attempt to force users onto Paypal is at best 3rd line product forcing. The next thing you’ll see is Woolworth’s announcing you can only pay via for purchases via their official Woolworth’s credit card. The last time I looked, cash was still legal tender – from Wikipedia: "legal tender or forced tender is payment that, by law, cannot be refused in settlement of a debt". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender)

Incidentally, according to the RBA (http://www.rba.gov.au/currencynotes/legalframework/legal_tender.html) that definition has apparently been lifted directly from Concise Oxford Dictionary… J

Where it gets interesting is this:

“It is the Bank's understanding that, although Australian currency has legal tender status, it does not necessarily have to be used in transactions. Under the legal tender provisions of the Currency Act 1965 and the Reserve Bank Act 1959, refusal to accept payment in legal tender notes and coins is not unlawful. This is the case even where an existing debt is involved. However, a refusal to accept legal tender in payment of an existing debt, where no other means of payment/settlement has been specified in advance, conceivably could have consequences in legal proceedings, i.e. the creditor may be unable to enforce payment in any other form.”

I wonder if this gets the bastards off the hook? I still don’t like being forced to use Paypal, nor accept it. From now onwards, my auctions will contain a “Paypal fee” in the shipping – if the charge is going to be levied then I’m passing it on to the buyer. If they don’t like it, then pay via direct deposit, which I would prefer, and I’ll discount the fee.

As a genuine use, Paypal is useful for overseas purchases – no hassles with currency conversions.

In this case though, I have successfully used a Paypal claim to force repayment from a little turd who flogged me a dodgy mobile phone. I had the thing less than 48 hours before the keyboard started to play up, and it now only responds after total removal of the battery – and then malfunctions shortly afterwards. eBay of course won’t let you lodge a dispute with them for at least another 10 days, designed to frustrate you into sorting it out for yourself, or hoping you’ll give up. Luckily Paypal has no such time limitations, and has ruled that full repayment is in order.

I'm also putting the seller on watch in eBay for any new items he lists, and if he relists the phone without suitable warning to potential buyers then I'm reporting the auction to eBay.

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