Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Make Sure You are Protected with Online Tranasctions {thanks roxy!}

Roxy discusses a very important topic today over at her amazing "Effortless Anthropologie" blog. It is definitely worth reading her "Alert! Protecting yourself from online tranasction scams" post.

While I am at it, I want to remind readers about an older post from GigiOfCa (from the fantastic "Gigi's Gone Shopping" blog) that is also worth checking out: "GigiOfCa's "Tips for a successful sell/swap experience" :)".

My own advice (for what it is worth), is to always use a third party like PayPal to send money. This way both parties have a resolution center they can go to work out any differences/ disagreements. Also ask for an invoice to be sent as "merchandise", with the item being purchasing described in the notes section. Sometimes, a Seller will ask the Buyer to send money as a "gift" to avoid charging the recipient PayPal fees. I advise against this (unless you really, REALLY know the other party to be reliable). Under this scenario, the Buyer forfeits the ability to dispute or file a claim. Lastly, if things go wrong contact the other party early on! If that doesn't work out, escalate the situation by filing a claim in a reasonably quick time frame. (In a personal story from a purchase on eBay, I was suppose to get a refund. I waited 5 days and heard lots of excuses. I filed a claim with eBay + PayPal and got my money that same day. No excuses once that happened.)

The JCA's Great Weekly Exchange is a wonderful weekly resource to sell / purchase items from J.Crew's current & past seasons. However, you should always make sure you are protected during any transaction.
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5 comments:

  1. ElaineSeptember 14, 2011 at 3:57 PM

    Great info! I always feel weird asking people to send me an invoice, but when I sell I always use Paypal's invoice system. I don't like their fee-skimming any more than anyone else does, but I chalk it up to being the price I have to pay to have recourse should I need it.

    I'm happy to say I can count on one hand the number of mishaps I've had in 13 years of buying and selling on eBay, but I do remember getting stiffed with bad checks in the pre-Paypal days. Ugggghh. I don't miss that at all.

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  2. Alexis {J.Crew Aficionada}September 14, 2011 at 4:11 PM

    Elaine: I totally agree. I am not a fan with how much PayPal charges, but it is a small price to pay for security. It is the same reasoning I use for adding tracking when mailing a package. It might cost a dollar, but it definitely helps if an issue comes up. :)

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  3. Melissa@AllThingsSimplifiedSeptember 14, 2011 at 4:12 PM

    Thanks for the reminders Roxy and Alexis! :)

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  4. jcrewphdSeptember 15, 2011 at 1:59 AM

    Great tips and hope everyone here understands why people demand to be sent an "invoice" via paypal. I've had positive experience via JCA exchange.

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  5. patmosjdSeptember 15, 2011 at 9:33 AM

    ITA with the comments here. Thanks for the security reminders. I have had great transactions on the JCA exchange, so thanks as always Alexis for this great community. :)

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