Paypal E cheques

[deniser]

Is there any way of switching off the facility to accept E cheques?

Customers always send them by mistake never intentionally, then wonder where their goods are and ring up, then pay over the phone meaning I have to recredit them when they do clear or if they don't mind waiting, my stock database doesn't deduct the item until the funds have cleared by which time someone else has bought it and then I lose a sale.

All a nuisance I can do without.

Can I set my account so it just takes normal credit/debit card payments?

[FAB Enterprises]

Yes you can switch it off, it's in the payment preferences somewhere. Personally I'd keep it on, rejected e-cheques causes just as many problems. Customers get an unfriendly message saying that their payment has been rejected by you, with no mention of e-cheques, it somestimes says you don't accept a particular currency, sometimes the error messaging completely different and unreleated. You'll then spend ages trying to find out why the payment was rejected. I find it's much easier to send the customer a template email about e-cheques and alternative payments and doing what your are doing now that switching them off totally.

Mason

[ginantonic]

E-cheques are a problem when I'm bulk buying on ebay - if I use the paypal option to send multiple payments, it's fraud snooper picks up on it and sends them all as e-cheques. I have to send them individually to avoid this.

[WillWynne]

Yep, you can definitely turn it off. We have one lady who put through £500 worth of flower orders over time and then all the echeques failed. We didn't realise the option existed but as soon as we did we turned it off..

[Steve2507]

We stopped e-cheques as we were finding 75% of them failed.

[Grassman]

I email anyone who pays by eCheque just to let them know we will not dispatch their order until we receive notification of cleared funds from Paypal.
As has been said, most don't even realise they have made this type of payment. I believe it is often as a result of the customer no longer having a usable credit card listed within their paypal account.

[deniser]

We stopped e-cheques as we were finding 75% of them failed.

I wouldn't mind if they failed because I don't need to do any work then; I have only ever had one fail, all the rest go through.

I am going to switch it off now - thanks for all the responses.

[Mat_D]

We stopped e-cheques as we were finding 75% of them failed.

That many? :eek:

Did you manage to identify why so many were failing?

[DIY Accounting]

I have paypal e-cheques enabled and while I have had the ocassional non payment the percentage has not been significant. It is a potential risk area for my business as clients who pay by paypal including e-cheques are returned by paypal to my website immediately after payment to download the accounting software they have bought.
Consequently if the payment is subsequently cancelled it leaves me in the position of having supplied the goods but not received payment.

My own non payers using paypal e-cheques are probably under 2% so not a big problem but certainly if that percentage was significant then the e-cheque facility would have to be disabled.

[SillyJokes]

Ah, the pleasures of paypal. Reminds me why we dumped it.

[WillWynne]

We actually use PP for nearly all our payments (including credit cards). Apart from the echeque thing we've found it very good. A lot better than Google checkout, for instance. Fraud is virtually nil when people pay with PayPal (vs the bane of the chargebacks that come from credit card payments...)

[full disclosure: I used to work at eBay, owner of PP, so know them very well. But that doesn't affect my view of their product and support, which have both been outstanding for the last two years.]

[logi.bear]

(Yes you can uncheck in your prefs in paypal to answer the question in OP)

In 3 years of online trading I have never had an echeque not clear though... most people are completely unaware when they pay by paypal that they have made an echeque payment rather then an instant one..

In my experienence its beneficial to contact the buyer and explain echeques... and to point them to the most often reason WHY its come through as an echeque rather then instant... a quick 2 line email saves negs in online auctions and dissatisfied customers online in general



*paypal will issue any transaction as instant with an up to date debit / credit card - but as if often the case - customer has been issued a new card with new end by date and hasnt thought to update details by paypal so they treat it as a bank transfer instead*


Hope that helps :-)

[Mat_D]

We actually use PP for nearly all our payments (including credit cards). Apart from the echeque thing we've found it very good. A lot better than Google checkout, for instance. Fraud is virtually nil when people pay with PayPal (vs the bane of the chargebacks that come from credit card payments...)

[full disclosure: I used to work at eBay, owner of PP, so know them very well. But that doesn't affect my view of their product and support, which have both been outstanding for the last two years.]

You own PayPal? :|

[lewisuk]

I have to admit, as much as I despise the things, I do use them. There is a reason for this though- our bank (RBS) won't give any sort of plastic (apparently company law says you can't have debit cards at all for a limited company?!) until we have been trading for 6 months at least and so this is the only option open to us. It is a complete pain in the arse, but my point is that there is often a bona fide reason behind their use.

[Daisymay]

Just wanted to agree with previous ones,
most customers have no idea what an e cheque is, and I always send them an email explaining fully how it may have happened, using a couple of previous customers examples, expired card details, forgot to change their name (marriages)

and more importantly, stress they will probably have to wait a lot longer for it to clear, this I find has been the key !

Everytime without fail, the customer is always delighted to find this out and I have never had a single problem resulting from it. Infact my customers always think they have received exceptional customer service, which of course they are getting!!!!

[Jimmi]

(Yes you can uncheck in your prefs in paypal to answer the question in OP)

In 3 years of online trading I have never had an echeque not clear though... most people are completely unaware when they pay by paypal that they have made an echeque payment rather then an instant one..

In my experienence its beneficial to contact the buyer and explain echeques... and to point them to the most often reason WHY its come through as an echeque rather then instant... a quick 2 line email saves negs in online auctions and dissatisfied customers online in general



*paypal will issue any transaction as instant with an up to date debit / credit card - but as if often the case - customer has been issued a new card with new end by date and hasnt thought to update details by paypal so they treat it as a bank transfer instead*


Hope that helps :-)

I had something very similar recently. The payment was instant but about 10 days later it was taken back and my Paypal account frozen. The buyer had not linked their new card to their account so it bounced.

[Christiane]

Thanks for this thread, never knew you can turn it off!

I also tend to send an email to the customer to explain why the goods won't be despatched until the echeque has cleared. They usually accept the situation but are unhappy they weren't informed (sic). Customers always want their goods ''yesterday''! However this is time consuming on a an admin point of view and not very productive, also problem with stock as mentioned, etc.

I'm going to switch off as a trial and see if I get any complaints, ...or more payments through protx as a result.