1st sale thru PayPal... payment not received

blackirisstore · Posts: 5

This is my first sale on eCrater, and using PayPal (as a seller).
I received my order but not my payment for the item. (checked both my Paypal acct, and mail with which it's associated)
Q: When does the payment show up in your Paypal account?
Q2: How do I know it's not a "fake" buyer?

thanks in advance!

acread · moderator Posts: 11986

When you get an actual paypal order you should receive an email message from eCrater. This would mean an actual order has been placed. If you open your eCrater account and look at "Orders" you should see the order. Otherwise it is not from eCrater.

Usually payments appear pretty fast at PayPal. (hopefully you have a merchant account and not a personal account. In that case if the customer paid with a credit card it would wait for you to upgrade your account to a merchant account to accept the money. In any case you should be able to see the transaction record. Completed or waiting for your action).

There is no magic way to check if an order is real or bogus. Look at the name and address. Does it sound real? At least it is not a name like Mikey Mouse or Ojslkjdj lksajskjdk. You can check it at White Pages website to see if there is such person at such address. Same with phone number. You can also look at the IP address in the eCrater order info to see if the location of the computer matches the address (or close enough in the reagion).

But whatever it is make sure you actually received the money before mailing the item.

thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat · Posts: 10159

There are still buyers who can't figure out ecrater checkout. They may think they have paid because they checked PP. If the order looks legitimate and your PP account is set correctly, go to PP and send the buyer an invoice with just a note that they did not complete checkout.

blackirisstore · Posts: 5

I actually have a personal acct on PP not a merchant one and I wasn't sure how the buyer paid (using credit card or not), so I sent a PP request to the buyer and got paid that way, and it was a confirmed address. Hopefully it's all OK.

Thanks for all the help!

acread · moderator Posts: 11986

LOL if the customer paid with a credit card sending an invoice is not the right action. The money is already taken from the buyers account. She won't put in a second payment for it when the first one in unclaimed.

The only thing you can do is upgrade to premier account. You will need to sooner or later. A lot of buyers pay with credit card.

If you want, you can have one of each, a merchant account and a personal account.

cydonian · Posts: 4

I have a similar problem and don't know what to do...yesterday evening I received an order, but no payment. Order indicates payment would be Paypal. There is no checkmark that usually appears on the order page that shows payment was made. I logged into Paypal, to make sure, still no payment. The address of the buyer is legitamit in whitepages. The item is still active and viewable by others. I was thinking of just using the "delete" link on the order page.

acread · moderator Posts: 11986

cydonian · Posts: 4

Thanks AC...I just sent an invoice, so will see what happens. It doesn't look like the buyer is even registered with Paypal - only their email address is showing up on the "Name" column of my overview page, usually their actual name appears if they are registered.