I cannot pay for goods purchased using Paypal

[keeshyakat]

Hi.    I have been trying to pay for an item purchased today but ebay keeps telling me that there is a problem to pay this person or persons.

I advised the vendor who has told me they are having a problem with ebay &/or Paypal and tebay have advised them to tell me to pay it directly to Paypal using the vendors email address for reference.  Is this safe & would I still be covered by Paypal if the goods don't arrive or if they are scammers ?  

Thanks all

[keeshyakat]

On this advice I asked the vendor to resolve the problem & said I was happy to wait. Today I checked & still unable to make payment through ebay check-out system and on contacting him to update he has told me that ebay has said they cannot change the payment method now the item has been sold and therefore payment can only be made through paypal using his email address for reference. I cannot see anything on his original listing to say anything otherwise or different to my listings. May be a genuine seller but very difficult to know for sure.

[red_magpie]

I wouldn't place too much trust in what the seller claims eBay told them to tell you! Claiming problems with a PayPal account is often the prelude to an attempted scam. It's up to sellers to sort out any problems with their PayPal accounts. 

If you pay the seller direct by PayPal, PayPal's buyer protection policy will apply to the transaction - provided you're not talked into making this as a family and friends gift payment. There is no buyer protection for making gifts.

However, unless you pay through eBay's checkout the purchase won't be covered by eBay's money back guarantee. This has a number of advantages over PP's buyer protection policy, so it's much better for you if eBay's MBG applies as well.

In your position I would tell the seller that you wish to pay through eBay, for the reason above. If they refuse, you can report this to eBay here: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/report-trading.html

If they open an unpaid item case you can appeal this to eBay.

[keeshyakat]

Thank you. Tbh I don't feel comfortable about using any payment method in ebay except through the normal ebay checkout process but wanted some feedback in case I was being over anxious rather than (potential) scammer aware.