discuss Questions re: BIN buttons using PayPal and Stripe

[AlphaToday]

Hello everybody,

I'm planning to put some Buy It Now buttons on my landing pages using PayPal and Stripe.

1) Any thoughts/advice/suggestions regarding your own use of PayPal or Stripe to receive payments from buyers?
2) Anything I should watch out for or avoid?
3) Anyone have experience with chargebacks and wish to provide some advice?
4) Any thoughts on the minimum time I should wait after receiving payment before transferring the domain to lower the likelihood of a chargeback?
5) Any thoughts on the maximum dollar amount to use for PayPal and Stripe BINs before moving up to an escrow service?

Your time is much appreciated.

 

[Gerryhereandnow]

This is a common thing customers ask us. 'How do I pay?'

We always say you pay through Paypal and this is our Paypal address. PP buttons are no use to us because the final payment total all depends on what the client is ordering and they sums vary a lot.

 

[Michael]

PayPal's Seller Protection only applies to physical goods, so they won't cover you there. The only thing you can really do is keep your email correspondence with the buyer, especially where you coordinate the transfer, and take screenshots of transferring the domain to them. Also make sure the item name says something like "ExampleDomain.com with no website." That way if you do get a chargeback you have plenty of ammunition to dispute it.

I believe the buyer has 45 days to do a PayPal dispute if the funds were from the balance or a bank account, and 180 days for credit card payments. But given that you won't know how he paid, you'd have to go with the bigger number. Nobody is going to wait that long and you'd be better off just using escrow.

If the buyer doesn't have a verified account you might be concerned, but otherwise it's very, very unlikely for a buyer to do a chargeback as if he received the domain it would amount to fraud.

And even if that happens you still have a chance of recovering the domain, although it may not be worth the effort. You might consider insisting on a push instead of a transfer out though, as then the domain is frozen at the registrar for 60 days and it is much easier to recover. It is harder to get a domain back once it has moved. It doesn't protect you for the whole chargeback window of course but it is better than nothing.

 

[Gerryhereandnow]

Regarding cashbacks, we only received one and it was very nasty. As you know our business sells custom made wigs/hair pieces.

A guy ordered a custom made piece, paid for it and we sent everything to the factory. We then used his money to pay for the making of the piece. A piece takes 6 weeks to make.

However, a week before we were due to send the customer his 'wig', he issued a cashback request and we lost £280 just like that, taken from our Paypal account by his credit card company. We asked for it back, but were refused by Paypal.

So it we were asked to challenge the credit card company's decision to take £280 out of our account. The customer had lied and said he had received his wig and that he wasn't happy with it, so the cashback referred to a 'not as described'. BUT, he hadn't received his wig so we said he couldn't get his money back. We had paid the factory for a custom made piece we cannot sell to anyone else. Top and bottom is we lost the case and also the £280.

Not happy with this we challenged the lying cashback claim and went to financial-ombudsman. We then setting out why the credit card company were in the wrong. Top and bottom of it is the credit card company had used a specific code number to take the money off us, but the not described thing didn't apply to this case so they were wrong to do it. Anyhow after two months WE WON and we got our £280 returned.

My advice, never give up if you know you're right. Many people told us you cannot win against Paypall. You can if they are seen to be doing things wrong. And likewise with credit card companies.

 

[AlphaToday]

@Michael thanks for the very detailed and useful response.

You might consider insisting on a push instead of a transfer out though, as then the domain is frozen at the registrar for 60 days and it is much easier to recover.

This makes sense. Thank you for the insight. I imagine the buyer would be more likely to accept a push if the domain is at a well known registrar like GoDaddy.

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I was hoping someone would share their experience using Stripe payments. Stripe's interface is much better than PayPal's and with Stripe you don't have to leave the website to make the payment as there is a pop up window for payment details right there.

Also, anyone else care to share how long they wait after receiving a credit card or paypal payment before releasing the domain?

Thanks