So whats wrong with Money Orders????

[ofblong]

im sorry but I would REFUSE to accept a money order on ebay.

Why?

Because they are VERY easy to make look VERY real even though they can be VERY fake. That is why ebay is doing that. You cant get a refund from someone who paid with a fake MO because there wasnt any money exchanged in the first place. Now if you were to say you will hold the items for 60 days or the MO clears then I can see how that would not be a bad thing. If I was to take a MO I wouldnt give any item up that I was selling until 60 days (or is it 90 days now????) is up that proves the MO was valid.

 

[oceaninabox]

I can appreciate that, but I NEVER send the corals until the checks or M.O.'s clear the bank.

im sorry but I would REFUSE to accept a money order on ebay.

Why?

Because they are VERY easy to make look VERY real even though they can be VERY fake. That is why ebay is doing that. You cant get a refund from someone who paid with a fake MO because there wasnt any money exchanged in the first place. Now if you were to say you will hold the items for 60 days or the MO clears then I can see how that would not be a bad thing. If I was to take a MO I wouldnt give any item up that I was selling until 60 days (or is it 90 days now????) is up that proves the MO was valid.

 

[ofblong]

Just sell on your web-site...accept any form of payment you want and just let people know that the MO must clear before you ship. They say they want a more secure way to pay, but have you ever tried to have Paypal give you money back after being ripped off. Rarely happens, they always have one excuse after another. Put the money in your pocket and since you have such nice stuff, I don't think it would be a problem.
E-bay has turned into a monopoly....wait until people get used to using it and then start hitting them with fees and such....hey, that sounds like my darn debit card too.

you have a bad debit/bank card then.... I have ABSOLUTELY NO fees with my debit card and I have been with this bank for 9 years and used their debit card from day 1. ok I think it took 7 days for me to get it once I opened the account so from day 7 but still lol. Seriously people need to leave those banks and move to a credit union. Fees are less, interest rates on loans are less, you have MORE of a chance of getting that loan for whatever it is you wanted, less of a chance the cu will go under (unlike some recent big banks). I say less of a chance because even during the GD CU's survived better than the reg banks. That doesnt mean a cu isnt a risk because no matter where you put your money its a risk.

 

[ofblong]

I can appreciate that, but I NEVER send the corals until the checks or M.O.'s clear the bank.

lol you posted in between my postings lol. If your willing to wait for the MO to clear than thats awesome. I myself am not willing to wait....

 

[joefish]

I dont have the traffic or market share. I was talking with someone about this just the other day. I can put the most bomb acan on my website with a fair asking price just to watch it sit for 2 months and then it still may not even sell..

I can put it on ebay and start the bid at a penny and get 20% higher than what I would have sold it for and it' almost always is guaranteed to sell. My website sits stale with product and I always have to update it (well, not lately cuz im busy) but eBay is no fuss no muss and I move a lot of product.

A buddy of mine was haveing the same issue with his indian artifacts. After doing some changes to the meta tags and search keywords hes getting a lot more traffic.

 

[Ladipyg]

It's not my bank that charges...but if I'm out of town and want to get cash from a different bank, then they want to take on a "service fee". I keep a small account with a bank that has branches all over the country where I travel, Florida, Arkansas and Illinois. Just before a trip I'll transfer money into the account and be good to go..

After more than 23 years in law enforcement, I have seen just about every scam imaginable. Computers have made printing phony money orders and even bank cashier checks easier than ever...even the watermark can be faked. It takes forever for a money order to clear...unless it's clearly marked and you can call the issuing agency. But I have seen the phone number on MO's changed to throw away cell phones that are ditched after "confirmation" of funds and the MO goes thru. Postal money orders are a little harder to fake and call for federal time as it's a federal crime. Either way, the tougher the times are ecomonically, the harder and smarter the bad guys get to rip you off. You have to protect yourself...unfortunately, if someone steals your identity...it's upon you to prove that it wasn't you. And after all this time on the job, I have personally, NEVER, EVER, EVER seen a credit card company willing to prosecute the bad guys for stealing credit. They chalk it up to the cost of doing business and pass the cost onto the consumer.
Here is a Thomas Jefferson quote from 1802..makes a lot of sense in todays economy...he rivaled Nostradameus in seeing the future and he has called it spot on!

'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

 

[ofblong]

It's not my bank that charges...but if I'm out of town and want to get cash from a different bank, then they want to take on a "service fee". I keep a small account with a bank that has branches all over the country where I travel, Florida, Arkansas and Illinois. Just before a trip I'll transfer money into the account and be good to go..

After more than 23 years in law enforcement, I have seen just about every scam imaginable. Computers have made printing phony money orders and even bank cashier checks easier than ever...even the watermark can be faked. It takes forever for a money order to clear...unless it's clearly marked and you can call the issuing agency. But I have seen the phone number on MO's changed to throw away cell phones that are ditched after "confirmation" of funds and the MO goes thru. Postal money orders are a little harder to fake and call for federal time as it's a federal crime. Either way, the tougher the times are ecomonically, the harder and smarter the bad guys get to rip you off. You have to protect yourself...unfortunately, if someone steals your identity...it's upon you to prove that it wasn't you. And after all this time on the job, I have personally, NEVER, EVER, EVER seen a credit card company willing to prosecute the bad guys for stealing credit. They chalk it up to the cost of doing business and pass the cost onto the consumer.
Here is a Thomas Jefferson quote from 1802..makes a lot of sense in todays economy...he rivaled Nostradameus in seeing the future and he has called it spot on!

'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

aahh I only use credit unions to transfer money out of my account so no fees :D. But by fees I thought you had ment things like after so many transactions you get charged like 50cents a transaction or somethign.

 

[Angel2626]

I just got finished with a bunch of Ebay auctions and I did accept MO's on a couple of auctions. If you're going to accept them that doesn't mean that you have to announce it in the description, trust me, if someone is interested in what you have and they want to pay with MO...they will ask you if that is ok.
I've always got my auctions set to "prefers PayPal" and I still have people ask me if I will accept MO or Personal Checks (I don't do personal checks thru mail but will do the e-check that the buyer can intiate through Ebay).
EBay is a pain in the butt, however you can work around what they're telling you.
Hope this helps...good luck.

 

[Angel2626]

I dont think they will let you take checks anymore either?! TOTAL monopoly.:sure:

Yeah, I just had 2 auctions go off a couple of weeks ago that came via E-check. I think they frown on having you wait for a personal check and letting it clear, etc. Just like they don't like it if you sell something on Ebay and allow local pick up. They just don't like anything that can potentially take money away from them. Terrible.

 

[Raptor]

I dont have the traffic or market share. I was talking with someone about this just the other day. I can put the most bomb acan on my website with a fair asking price just to watch it sit for 2 months and then it still may not even sell..

I can put it on ebay and start the bid at a penny and get 20% higher than what I would have sold it for and it' almost always is guaranteed to sell. My website sits stale with product and I always have to update it (well, not lately cuz im busy) but eBay is no fuss no muss and I move a lot of product.

Thats the reason i dont buy from ebay. People are sick when it comes to bidding. Bid wars dont help anybody but the seller. I know thats in youre best interests, But i'll stick to the sites i know a price and getting it for that price.
BTW i have bought from your site. ;)

 

[flricordia]

Just sell on your web-site...accept any form of payment you want and just let people know that the MO must clear before you ship. They say they want a more secure way to pay, but have you ever tried to have Paypal give you money back after being ripped off. Rarely happens, they always have one excuse after another. Put the money in your pocket and since you have such nice stuff, I don't think it would be a problem.
E-bay has turned into a monopoly....wait until people get used to using it and then start hitting them with fees and such....hey, that sounds like my darn debit card too.

I have been ripped off 3 times since being with paypal buying on ebay and they have gotten my money back each time, usually within 2 weeks. I also have a paypal credit card and a couple times when getting gas and paying at the pump at a Texaco I was charged an extra $80. Each time I called paypal about it happening they refunded the money as I was still on the phone without even checking with Texaco.
One time I used the card to make a purchase from a south FL company and 15 mintues later ran to the pet shop for dog food. The card was locked. Kind of frustrating but I later appreciated that paypal did that. If someone had stolen my credit card then they wouldn't have made off with much.
I have no problem with paypal. Don't much care for ebay dealings, but I think that mostly has to do with some of the sellers there. SOME of the sellers. I have gotten some really good deals as far as dry goods go on ebay.
Livestock? I would rather buy from fellow reefers and local reef shops. Fellow reefers get some much needed cash and get some nice livestock and local reef shops stay in business.
Yes, ebay fees are high for sellers, but look at local reef shop prices and even most of the vendors online. They charge 100% above what they pay for an item. Some charge even more.
The curses of being human.

 

[ofblong]

good point I completly forgot about my paypal debit card. So much that I dont think I even know the pin # lol.

 

[Spiderwoman]

I try to avoid buying from eBay as much as I can. I don't like to *compete* for a piece of coral that I know I want, but at the same time I don't want to pay double the price either. Sometimes I've noticed that there are several bidders that are jacking up the price and they have nearly brand new accounts. I'm not saying that these are created by certain sellers, but it's a bit suspicious.

One note for anybody who has an online store and isn't seeing the results from sales. Make sure that your site looks the best it can. Most of you use a off-the-shelf ecommerce package and that causes everybody's site to look *the same* and cheap. Also make sure that your photo size is optimized... thumbnail should be just that, a thumbnail (sized 100x100, 150x150 or what ever), and the page should load fast.
For anybody who is looking for high end corals, a cheap looking site is a huge turnoff, no matter how expensive and unique your corals are. There are only a few sites as sponsors here that have an attractive and unique looking site.

I know my opinion is most likely not agreed by most, but I design and develop online applications for a living, so I see what works and what doesn't work. Cheaply designed and developed is never going to bring you great rewards.

Just my $0.02 worth

 

[Gimili the Great]

ebay is a huge joke for most things, i surf to look for good deals on blu-ray,dvd, and video game stuff.

usually come up with nothing (the pawn shop is a much better bet)

it really sucks that they have come down to telling people how they can pay for an item

EBAY you fail :/

 

[alw041]

It is so that ebay can get their listing fee + final value fee....AND since they bought paypal, they get more money by the fee paypal takes.

pretty messed up