This is the “Real Deal”

Looking for a user review of Nochex? Looking for a UK alternative to Paypal? Read on.

I’ll give a positive shout here for the Nochex SELLER ACCOUNT. We use it on our site for small parts orders, but it is limited to £100 per transaction, and UK cards only unless you open the Merchant Account.

DO NOT open a Nochex Merchant Account. We got stung this way when asking them for a larger transaction limit on our seller account (trying to escape the awful Paypal). They ask you your likely monthly turnover, you tell them, and they then want to retain that much forever as security against chargebacks! This means depositing maybe thousands of pounds with them, and then just kissing it goodbye as long as you use the account (ie forever)!

They tried to sting us this way. They don’t tell you all this until you have opened the account and they have had your £50 setup fee. I asked them to revert the account back to seller status when I found this out; they wouldn’t. So I closed it and my wife opened another the same day.

They then held our money in the old account frozen for 6 months in case of a chargeback (that we have never had anyway). Big thumbs down for the Nochex Merchant Account.

However, the basic seller account, for small orders from UK customers below £100 each, is not too bad. That said, there is a £1000 a week withdrawl limit. They charge less fees than Paypal, have a UK call centre, the money is in your account faster, and no account freezing or silly chargebacks like Paypal as well. If you are a small UK seller with UK customers, the SELLER ACCOUNT is just fine.

We use Paypal for some larger and overseas transactions, but currently have hundreds of pounds reversed, frozen or whatever they call it, for spurious chargebacks where we can prove the item was delivered by courier. I am seriously searching for a viable alternative to Paypal, preferably one that doesn’t have the fraudulent chargebacks that Paypal allow people to get away with.

When selling with Paypal, you must accept that there is always the possibility that you will be giving the stuff away. If you can accept that, then Paypal is for you. Why is this? Because they will take your money back at the drop of a hat on teh slightest whim of any buyer. If it isnt in your account, they will steal it from any linked accounts. (Hint: never load a Paypal account from a card or account if you are a seller, or if you must, use an empty account, one you intend to close or a card you can cancel or “lose” and get a replacement [with a new number] tomorrow). Paypal WILL steal your money. It’s not a matter of “if” — its a matter of when, how often and how much. Can you afford that risk? I cant.

Here is Eddie in case you encounter him:

EDDIE ANDERSON, 23 SKYE PLACE, RAVENSWOOD, CUMBERNAULD, G67 1PF.

His email address is:

eddieanderson1027@btinternet.com

His ebay ID is:

scottish-boutique

His phone number is:

01236 731515

As a seller, what can you do about this? Well, often times, it seems to be the same miscreants over and over again who are stiffing sellers. I think it must be a hobby for some of them. Google is your friend, and sellers are starting to Google. Many sellers are incorporating the blocked bidder lists of others to prevent these people from stiffing them over too. Block them before they bid.

Did you know you can block people buying or bidding on your eBay auctions? eBay do not trumpet the facility but after a dozen or so clicks in the help pages you might find the page. Here, let me make it easy for you, it is here: Block eBay Bidders (You may be prompted to log in to see the page).

After three days go to “Advanced Search” from any eBay page, then “Find Contact Information”. (You need to have 2 windows open to copy and paste the details from one page to the other — they make it hard on purpose). Then fill it in and you will get an email with their contact info on.

Call the punter up, introduce yourself, make some story about how you are “going away” and want to get all your sales mailed before you do. They are the only one of many who hasn’t paid despite reminders. Be polite. You want to help them to get their item quickly as you are going away. You care about your reputation blah blah……

Expect a bunch of excuses about dead dogs, sick relatives, volcanic ash, relatives bidding on their behalf, broken computers, changed passwords and all kinds of other crap. Laugh along and agree with them and make sure you end the call with a plan of when they will pay. This type usually pay within the hour then.

Some folks have non reachable numbers or permanent answer phone numbers lodged with eBay — assume these are serial non payers and revert to the sub £25 plan then.

The sub £25 and/or after 4 days plan: After four days exactly you go to “Open Unpaid Item Case / Cancel Transaction” from the item listing, select “The buyer has not paid for the item” [if the listing does not let you select that option wait until the time of day the sale ended has passed -- it must be 4 days EXACTLY]. From the drop down menu select “Buyer is unresponsive”. Then “Submit”.

Now, we cant expect that all eBayers actually have a reasonable command of English — they simply don’t. Some of them no doubt think this bastardised form of English is trendy computer speak and is acceptable. Its the text message culture spreading onto eBay.

As we know, addresses all in lower-case are hard to read. But addresses all in capital letters are easier to read. So the simple route is to convert the garbled crap they sent you to something we can all read automatically.

Top of the list of bad eBayers is slow and late payers. Oh, and non payers.

As a seller, we write a nice listing, try to describe it as honestly as possible, we photograph the item, we calculate what we need for shipping and handling to various places, we pay eBay their listing fees, their final value fees and then – when paid – the Paypal fees. That takes time and effort. You don’t think about it, but all those fees often equate to around 17% of the price you pay.

We sit around for anything from one day to ten days for a listing to end and you are the winning bidder. Great! Congratulations. Now you need to pay.

We wait around a day or two. We send you an invoice; we send you a payment reminder or two. These are all sitting in your email inbox – go and look! Don’t be a deadbeat that pays late or doesn’t pay at all. People eBay for all kinds of reasons. Some people run their businesses this way and some just sell off their old crap and there is every variant in between.

Whatever kind of seller we are, we want to be paid. It doesn’t matter if it is £1 or £1000 – we want to be paid, and pretty quickly please. Within 24 hours will be just fine.