So I noticed something odd today in my payment confirmations from PayPal for my eBay sales. PayPal offers a “Seller Protection Policy” (SPP) which guarentees transactions provided certain criteria are met with the payment, and sellers obey certain rules in shipping and fulfilling orders. I’ve only ever had to use it a few times to get back money when a buyer filed a chargeback against me that I felt was unfair. But it’s nice to know that it’s there and it provides sellers with a sense of protection.

For a long time, when you receive a payment received notification from PayPal, it would show whether or not the transaction was eligible for the SPP in that email. In the following screen shot, you can see an example of this. Click on the screenshot for a larger, clearer version. There’s a section labeled Seller Protection Policy, next to that it says Eligible, and then below it has a simple summary of the SPP. I’ve blocked out all private information in the following screenshots.

Since May 27th, I have not received a single email that showed that a transaction was eligible. I only just realized this today. In that same spot on the following email, you’ll see that it says Not Eligible next to Seller Protection Policy (again, click for a larger, clearer image):

However, if I go and look at the transaction details page inside PayPal, it shows that the transaction is Eligible. The eligibility status is in the upper right hand corner of the screen shot:

I’ve checked dozens of payments in the last hour, and in every case the email says that a transaction is Not Eligible, and the payment details page says that the transaction is eligible.

This isn’t just confusing, it’s potentially problematic for sellers who may end up in an argument with PayPal about the eligibility of a transaction for the SPP. When a chargeback or reversal is filed on a payment, PayPal removes the SPP section from the transaction details page. The entire entire “Okay to Ship!” section, with the SPP status, address and address status are all removed from the transaction details page when there is a problem with a transaction. I’ve personally seen this multiple times. All of that information is is replaced with the following very brief note:

So, in my case, if I end up with a reversal on any of these transactions, my original payment email is going to tell me that the transaction is Not Eligible for protection, and any information to the contrary will have been stripped out of the transaction page. This is deceptive and unfair to sellers.

One thing I have to note is that I’ve ended up using those original payment emails to prove to PayPal that a transaction is eligible. I’ve done this as recently as last month. I thought for a moment that perhaps there was some limit to the frequency that one could use the SPP, but after checking the official User Agreement for PayPal, not so. Section 11.2 states that, “There is no limit on the number of payments for which you can receive coverage.” So that doesn’t seem to be the case.

It’s also possible this is just a glitch in the system, it certainly wouldn’t be the first one I had seen with PayPal’s notification system.

Regardless of the reason behind this, it’s another reason that PayPal needs to stop removing the SPP status of a payment when there is a chargeback, claim or reversal filed against it. Sellers have the right to know that status.

eBay Australia is hosting several Q&A meetings with eBay users to discuss the new policy. According to APCmag.com, an eBay executive dropped this gem on the crowd when asked why sellers couldn’t offer choices to their buyers:

We’re not allowing people to offer unsafe choices, just like in this democracy you can’t go out and buy heroin on the streets. – Simon Smith, Regional VP for eBay Australia

Classy.

Occasionally, you may need to print labels for shipments that weren’t paid for through PayPal or purchased through eBay. PayPal Multiorder Shipping allows you to create new United States Postal Service labels, but not UPS. It’s also a hassle, slower than the normal PayPal shipping screen, and can’t print some types of labels. Sure, you could just go to USPS.com or UPS.com, but I find printing labels through PayPal to be significantly faster than using either individual site.

There is an easy solution though. Just log into your PayPal account and then enter the following address.

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

This will bring up the normal shipping label creation screen for PayPal, but without any information filled in and not affiliated with any payment. Presto, easy label creation.

Apparently, lots of people reported that PayPal massively under-delivered January’s money market dividend payment. The correct dividends started to be deposited in the last few days. I had missed this until I saw it mentioned in passing in a CNN story last night. Full disclosure, I do have a PayPal money market account. But, I didn’t keep much money in PayPal during January, so I expected (and received) a very small dividend payment.

Mulitple threads in the eBay forums, one at Slickdeals, and another at the Auctionbytes forum can provide in-depth discussion on the issue.

This ties directly back into yesterday’s post regarding eBay’s glitches. eBay keeps hammering sellers with the message that they must help restore buyer trust in the marketplace. But, eBay and its subsidiaries undermine that message (and general trust in the company) each time a problem develops and they don’t effectively communicate with their members. Money market account holders should have been notified of the problem when it was discovered. Instead, hundreds (or more) had to contact PayPal and pester them until they received an explanation for the incorrect dividend.

To eBay and PayPal: Help build trust. Be forthright with your members.