PayPal improve echeque notifications

by Sue Bailey

If you’ve been paid by PayPal echeque in the last couple of days, you’ve probably received a nice email from PayPal explaining that it’s going to take nine days to clear, and that you need to communicate with your buyer and let them know you won’t be shipping for a while: “teaching your grandmother to suck eggs,” as one shooting star PowerSeller commented to me this morning.


click to embiggen

But the good news is the email that your buyer is getting. Finally, buyers are being given accurate information about how long UK echeques take to clear: “around nine working days”. Better still, they’re being told why their payment has gone through as an echeque: either their card has expired, or they never added a card in the first place. And best of all, buyers are being encouraged to fix it, with a great big link to add or amend their card details.

Sellers will still need to ensure they keep their buyers up to speed on when their item will be shipped, but this is a very welcome, if rather overdue, change from PayPal.

Tags for this post: ,
Author: Sue Bailey
Posted at: Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Filed Under Paypal
 

Comments

18 Responses to “PayPal improve echeque notifications”

  1. Josordoni on August 20th, 2008 7:31 pm

    Yeah I got one this morning. Except there are no echeques that I can see in my Paypal account, nothing showing as pending in eBay, and nothing in the email at all to indicate who it is from.

    So who is this supposed to help?

  2. Gill on August 20th, 2008 7:47 pm

    Well, as you know (no names, no pack drill!) I wasn’t impressed by the email as a seller - I am very pleased though that buyers are finally getting a clear email from PayPal about what are echeques are with a realistic estimate of clearance times.

  3. DGS on August 20th, 2008 8:12 pm

    I too received this email this morning, but couldn’t find any echeques that it related too.

    The messages states “You’ve just received an eCheque payment through PayPal”, but I haven’t (or have I but not shown on my paypal account)

  4. canvas prints on August 20th, 2008 8:13 pm

    We had this too.

    We haven’t paid by e-cheque in 3 years….

  5. keithf on August 20th, 2008 8:17 pm

    I got one today, don’t know for which item. The item’s in the post, whichever one it is (low value).

  6. Andy Toogood on August 20th, 2008 9:34 pm

    We got an email like this too but it appears to relate to a sale 3 days ago - that’s the only echeque we’ve had in a week.

    At least they’re communicating with buyers.

  7. Chris Dawson on August 20th, 2008 9:36 pm

    Which PayPal employee was it that once said “We hate echeques as much as sellers”? Maybe the sentiment has at last filtered up high enough for some action to be taken :D

  8. Eddie (AuctionChex) on August 20th, 2008 9:46 pm

    I have had the same email - andZERO recent echeque payments, so I forwarded the email to spoof@paypal.com and got this reply :

    Thanks for taking an active role by reporting suspicious-looking emails.
    email you forwarded to us is a phishing email, and our security team
    is working to disable it.

    :roll:

  9. Don on August 20th, 2008 11:12 pm

    Yep, I forwarded it to spoof too and it was confirmed to be a phishing email

    :lol:

  10. ebuyerfb on August 20th, 2008 11:24 pm

    So this only took about 6 years from when eBay purchased PayPal?

  11. Super Max on August 21st, 2008 12:11 am

    You could forward all the legitimate emails to spoof@ and they would still call half of them phishing emails.

    if its addressed to you by name, and has no links to dodgy login sites then its not a phishing email its a ebay glitch.

  12. ebuyerfb on August 21st, 2008 1:08 am

    #8

    To test them send the verification message that it was a spoof message back to the spoof address.

  13. Sue Bailey on August 21st, 2008 9:28 pm

    Just to say that we have confirmed with PayPal today that this is not a spoof.

  14. Josordoni on August 22nd, 2008 3:55 pm

    Amazing, I had asked CS at Paypal about it, rather than just sending it through to spoof.. reply this morning:

    Dear

    Thank you for contacting PayPal in relation to email received.

    >From reviewing your email, please disregard the email you have received
    regarding echeck payment into your account, we are aware of this email.
    For information on Suspicious Emails, follow the steps below:

    Security Tips:

    Click ‘Security Centre’ at bottom of any PayPal webpage
    Click “Online Safety Essentials.

    etc etc”

    They should get their story together….

  15. John pemberton on August 23rd, 2008 12:05 am

    Sounds like paypal have been on a customer service course ;) Can’t knock ‘em for trying !

  16. Sue Bailey on August 24th, 2008 1:39 pm

    And for those who still need proof:
    http://forums.ebay.co.uk/threa.....8;start=46

  17. Emma on September 3rd, 2008 6:04 pm

    ABOUT TIME TOO!

    “you need to communicate with your buyer and let them know you won’t be shipping for a while”

    That is rather patronising. What do PayPal think sellers were doing before this change was made? We were doing their job for them!

    Lets hope PayPal actually do what claim they will.

  18. Jenny on September 16th, 2008 7:52 pm

    received an echeque notification today for large amount from a buyer, now our account is subject to limitations and money laundering ! fantastic! definitely not sending the goods

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