Im a little worried about this transaction.....

[nightowl]

so i sold an item of jewellery (im pretty sure i put on that particular listing that paypal was the only acceptable form of payment). buyer contacts me the next day saying their paypal is playing up and asking for my address for a cheque.

cheque arrives, have yet to bank. out of curiousity i checked this persons feedback and have found a number of comments along the lines of him saying he hasnt received items and then claims back paypal, also that he sends out faulty items and doesnt refund. he had lots of ratings mutually withdrawn, lots of comments that he hassles by phone too.

the item is being sent by royal mail special delivery next day which has to be signed for according to their website.

i have a bad feeling about this. am i covered?

all I can tell you is that chq can be bounced up to 6 weeks after you've banked it. Send it back and ask for postal orders?

make sure you don't send it until the cheque is banked. take pics of it before you send it - form every angle, make sure it's well packaged/bubble wrapped, and also make sure you ahve the correct amount of insurance on the item jsut in case (SP del can go to £500 iirc)

I prob wouldn't risk sending out but would send an email staing that it's paypal only. or if you ahve a dormant bank account use that for transfers - althou that in it's self with that sort of a FB would make me weary.

can it really?? I thought it was 5 days or something?

the chq thing - I asked at the bank and the said the drawing bank can take up to a month to process it properly and until that time it can be returned unpaid in which case your bank will take the money out of your account.

i heard that you see cargirl on another thread, any way i can get out of this?

I agree that you return the chq stating that you can only accept pyt by paypal or postal orders... i work in a bank and whilst funds are released after 5 days it can take up to 6 wks for a cheque to be returned unpaid (this is why people have been scammed by buyers sending chq for higher value than item being sold and asking for the difference to be sent to them then 6 wks later chq bounces and buyer out of pocket)

sorry ... forgot to add that if buyer does not / cannot pay by paypal then you can also look to mutually not complete sale and i believe that you can get your fees refunded - can't quite remember where the details are but the community boards may be able to tell you how to do this!

can someone explain to me about postal orders? i have no idea what they are about.

You get postal orders from the post office. You can bank them like cheques but they don't bounce. Not sure but I think you can take them to a post office and just get your money

basically the person buys the postal order (so it is worth so much money - however much you want) so it can't bounce.

You can just cash them over the counter

There are 2 types of postal orders - crossed and uncrossed.
Crossed ones are like cheques and have to be paid into a bank account belonging to the payee only. However, unlike cheques, these can't bounce as the person has already handed over their cash at the po.
Uncrossed cheques are ones that you can cash at the post office when you go to post your parcel.
I always ask if people cannot pay by paypal, to send me an uncrossed postal order as I don't get to the bank regularly.

if you have a tracking number you have nothing to worry about but I agree with cargirl with regard to the cheque