Chris Pirillo » paypal

How to Buy and Sell on eBay

Chris — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:23:42 +0000

How to Buy and Sell on eBay is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Like many of you, I’ve purchased and sold things through eBay auctions. However, the experience wasn’t nearly as clean as it could have been. Have you tried making a killer eBay page to sell something? It’s impossible on your own – so maybe this software can help. GarageSale gives you easy templates that will help you set up a professional looking eBay page in minutes.

GarageSale is a slick, full-featured client application for the eBay online auction system. With GarageSale Mac OS X users can edit, track and manage all their auctions with one single application – easily and fast. Use GarageSale’s intuitive and reliable interface to create eBay auctions conveniently. Stop waiting for eBay to lead you through endless web pages step-by-step.

They have integrated iPhoto, so that you can drag-and-drop your images into your auctions. There are over 150 design templates, which can be changed while you’re designing with the click of a button. I have a feeling many Windows eBay sellers may switch to a Mac after seeing this. If you want to sell your items on eBay, you want your auction to stand out and look good!

The same people who brought you GarageSale, also bring you GarageBuy. GarageBuy is a slick, full-featured client application for all of your search and purchasing on eBay. GarageBuy can save your eBay searches, tracks your watched auctions and lets you bid on auctions without hassle.

GaragePay lets you download, view, search and archive all your PayPal transactions without having to log into the PayPal website. It handles incoming as well as outgoing money transfers.

If you’re an eBay buyer or seller (or both!), be sure to check out the offerings from the folks over at iwascoding.

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Do You Have a Problem with PayPal?

Chris — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:19:18 +0000

Do You Have a Problem with PayPal? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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On my birthday, $450 worth of iTunes gift certificates were transferred from my account to someone else’s, on account of my account being compromised. I logged into my PayPal and sent in a report. My request for my money to be returned was denied by PayPal. Mesiox sent in some tips for all of us, to hopefully help us keep our PayPal accounts safe.

The first thing, it all starts with a clean computer system. A computer system with viruses or keyloggers may be the cause unauthorized people to be inside of your PayPal account. Use security programs on your computer.
Make sure the site you are in is the verified PayPal site, and not a Phishing site. You can check this out by checking the domain name in the browsers url bar. You should see PayPal’s actual site address, and not something else.
Don’t keep large amounts of money in your PayPal account, because people can easily send your money to other accounts in a blink of an eye if they gain access to it. Instead of keeping it on PayPal, keep it inside your bank account.
Check your Paypal history on a daily basis. This way, you can stop money from being transfered if you see it happening when and where it shouldn’t be.
This may be common sense, but use a strong password! Use a mixture of lowercase, uppercase, symbols, and numbers. Make it harder for a hacker to guess to begin with! Reading this post by Chris may help.
When you’re buying something with PayPal, be sure to check that the site you are on is secure. Do this by checking the url bar. The site should contain “HTTPS”. This will help you determine if the site is fraudulent or not. You can also do research on Google about certain sellers that you may not be sure of.
Shop with well-known companies who have established a good reputation.

My biggest piece of advice to you if something does happen, is to be vocal about it. Tell your story. The more times and places you tell it… the more people will hear and pass it along.

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PayPal Denies $450 of Unauthorized Charges

Chris — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:38:47 +0000

PayPal Denies $450 of Unauthorized Charges is a post from Chris Pirillo

On my birthday last Saturday, I received a “present” I wish I never had. Due to some lax security policies that Apple has thankfully since updated, someone was able to use my birth date to obtain my iTunes password, and get into my account. They then managed to use that information to give themselves a nice little gift of $450 worth of iTunes gift cards… courtesy of my PayPal account.

Apple has worked with me to straighten this out on their end. As far as I know, they have since made some changes to their password retrieval process, which is an excellent thing. Of course, that doesn’t get me my money back.

So, I turned to PayPal, and opened a case in their Resolution Center. I followed all of the necessary steps, and provided them with complete information. The wait then began for me, checking my PayPal balance daily to see if my $450.00 was back in my account yet.

Tonight, I received an email from PayPal’s lovely Resolution Center.

We have completed our investigation of your claim and have determined that this is not an instance of unauthorized account activity. At this time, your claim has been denied. Through careful research, it has been determined that the correct course of action would be to cancel the Preapproved Payment Agreement from your Profile. The merchant will be notified of this change and will no longer be able to make charges to your account.

Wait, what??? “This is not an instance of unauthorized account activity”. What the HELL are they thinking? My password was obtained illegally. My money was taken without my consent… again illegally. How exactly can they determine that this was not an instance of unauthorized anything?! This is complete insanity. Apparently, PayPal is so focused on making money for themselves that they cannot be bothered to care when ordinary people like you and I lose ours via illegal means.

Thanks for nothing, PayPal.

eBay and PayPal Security

Chris — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:12:27 +0000

eBay and PayPal Security is a post from Chris Pirillo

Gary may just save your skin with this security tip…

Good morning, afternoon, or evening whatever it happens to be in your area. I don’t know if you’ve heard of these 2 accessories that Paypal uses but I know from your eBay videos that you and your family have both eBay and Paypal accounts. Paypal has 2 new items the first Item I’d like to mention is the Paypal Security Key. This item adds an extra level of security to both your Ebay and Paypal account. You must purchase it through one of the sites however it can be activated on both services.
To get it go to www.paypal.com/securitykey or www.ebay.com/securitykey. The device costs you $5 – this includes shipping. What you get is a small little device with a keychain attachment at the end of it. How it works is simple each time the button is pressed the small LCD on the device will generate a random 6-digit #. You first activate it by going to the sites I mentioned above and following the instructions under activating it. Once you do this after entering your Ebay or Paypal user ID and password you get presented with a 3rd screen which tells you to enter the 6-digit code from the security key and click the button. Then you are logged into the respective account.
This helps protect you if you gave your information to a fraud email or a virus or Trojan happens to get your information They may have your ID and Password but they can’t use the same 6-digit code the key generated the last time you logged in. The 2nd thing I’m mentioning is the Paypal toolbar. This Feature helps you when you are buying stuff online it allows you to use your PayPal address and contact information to fill in order forms when on a shopping website. The toolbar also allows to generate Single or mult-use MasterCard #’s which are tied to your Paypal account thus allowing you to use your Paypal funds on a site where paying with Paypal isn’t an option. Anyone wanting the Paypal toolbar can just go into their Paypal accounts and under enhance account click Paypal toolbar. Hope these items help you or follow lockergnome subscribers or YouTube subscribers alike.

Dude, that’s an amazing tip! Thanks!

PayPal Fraud Protection

Chris — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 01:25:19 +0000

PayPal Fraud Protection is a post from Chris Pirillo

James Scott just caught the eBay Fraud Victim tale I shared a few weeks back:

I have witnessed firsthand PayPal taking $427 from a seller’s bank (checking) account and refunding just $200 to the buyer, stating to the buyer that the $200 was all that could be recovered. I was the buyer. If the seller and I hadn’t been communicating, neither of us would have known what was going on. In this particular case, a claim was filed (by me — the seller hadn’t communicated and I was worried about not getting what I’d paid for); however, I *did* eventually get what I’d paid for, but not until after PayPal had processed the claim. I got $200 in my account; the seller told me she’d had $427 taken from her checking account.
Only through several phone calls to PayPal representatives was this situation resolved. And only because the seller/buyer were communicating were we able to figure out that we were being told two different stories and that there was $227 sitting somewhere in-between the buyer and the seller when it should not have been.
How many times does PayPal tell a buyer that they’d been able to recover “just $200″ but had actually been able to obtain/retrieve more from the seller? Not all of these scenarios are genuine fraud — in my particular instance, this was a situation caused by a non-communicative seller (who happened to be moving and in-between Internet connections). We figured it out. Even if it is genuine fraud, perhaps PayPal merely froze the seller’s account and any money in it. If there’s $800 in the account, do they still send the same message saying they’d only been able to recover $200?
Another bad PayPal scenario. If a seller mails something to a buyer that does not have a tracking # and the buyer files a claim saying they did not receive the item, then the seller is required to provide a tracking # or PayPal will automatically resolve the dispute in the buyer’s favor. Whether or not the buyer actually made the claim in good faith. In other words, PayPal’s “claims” process enables fraud. They don’t ask, they don’t require, they don’t care whether or not the buyer is making the claim in good faith. Lesson for sellers I guess is to always provide a tracking #, but still — who knows how many buyers have figured this out and make false claims. Given the volume of transactions and human nature in general, it has to happen.
My piece of advice for any transaction online that’s gone bad — the buyer and seller need to communicate with each other (assuming this is possible). They need to overcome any emotional issues related to shipping something in good faith and/or not receiving an item within a reasonable window of time. They need to both communicate to each other about how PayPal resolves that claim because there’s evidence to suggest that PayPal isn’t telling both sides the same story. I for one would be curious to know if this is a wide-spread practice. If the honest buyers and sellers can work together to see into both sides of the PayPal mess, perhaps some transparency can be achieved.
After seeing these two scenarios play out, I don’t believe PayPal is a trustworthy broker and they shouldn’t be handling anybody’s money. But that’s just me :)

Well, the good news is that at least Google and Amazon are starting to play in the world of micropayments. Not sure they’ll ever replace PayPal outright, but at least consumers have more than one option (even if those options may not be as convenient).

Mechanical Turd

Chris — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 23:32:10 +0000

Mechanical Turd is a post from Chris Pirillo

I don’t really wanna poop on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) program, but I have a huge problem with it: you can’t sign up to deploy the service unless you give them your bank account information first! Are we living in 1990 or something? Have they ever heard of PayPal – or a credit card, at least? Undoubtedly, Amazon is trying to verify that I have the proper funds. I do have adequate funds, but I’m not going to give them access to my bank account to prove it! If Amazon doesn’t want to use PayPal because it’s eBay’s brand, they’re cutting off their nose to spite their face. FWIW, PayPal has a Web service, too! I really want to test some ideas with MTurk, but not if I have to jump through a flaming hoop to do so. Jeff, can you please smack some sense into your employer?

The Blogosphere Has Jumped the Shark

Chris — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 06:17:14 +0000

The Blogosphere Has Jumped the Shark is a post from Chris Pirillo

eBay now has blogs. Here’s how you can expect an average entry to read: “I just sold something. I’m auctioning something else today. Hey did you want to buy something? Check my feedback. They all say I’m an A+ seller except for that one guy. I wish I could buy more things. Send money to my PayPal account. I thought about selling something else, but I’ve been too busy buying things on eBay. Hey would you like to buy a watch? I have tons of them on hand. Ha ha – get it? Okay, now I need to put something in my watch list. I can’t wait to buy something else I don’t need. I’m totally addicted to eBay and I thank them for giving me the opportunity to write about all the things I’m buying and selling. Do you like auctions? Hey, if you like auctions please comment and look at my auctions on eBay. I’m going to sell something else now, and then I’m going to buy something. Okay, we’ll see you later. Hey, remember to give me positive feedback on my ratings or I won’t be able to blog again on eBay. Bye!” Feh.

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.