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There is no seller protection, nor buyer protection for intangibles with PayPal. Typically if you write "non-tangible/service" in the shipping info boxes in a d

There is no seller protection, nor buyer protection for intangibles with PayPal. Typically if you write "non-tangible/service" in the shipping info boxes in a dispute it'll be closed in your favor -- the only reason you get to that point is that the buyer claimed the product was a tangible when it wasn't. Sometimes, through deliberate miscategorization by the customer and unlucky assignment of customer service reps to your case, you'll lose anyway. You'll take some losses no matter how you take payment, unless you get people to start mailing in cash. It's a cost of doing business, factor it into your pricing. Your situation would have been no better had you been paid with Stripe or anyone else. The S2Member website says they support Google Checkout and Authorize.net. You should set up at least one of those as a backup. It won't prevent you from losing money to lying customers, but you shouldn't let PayPal be a single point of failure for your business anyway.

graeme 14y ago
Thanks, that's really good advice about using an alternate service as a backup. I'm not quite clear on one point: 'non-tangible/service' is something we enter in the shipping info box pre-dispute, right?
- dangrossman 14y ago
  I meant in the dispute, after it's escalated to a claim. If someone disputes one of your payments, they're asked whether it was for an eBay good, a non-eBay good, a service or a gift, IIRC. If they tell PayPal it's for a good even though it's actually your LSAT prep service, PayPal asks you to either provide a tracking number of a shipment, other evidence of shipment, or to accept liability and refund. Since there's no good place to write that the dispute was miscategorized, I click on the option to provide a tracking number for the shipment, and write "SERVICE/NON-TANGIBLE" in the box. Sometimes it works, the PayPal rep that reviews the case recategorizes it and the buyer doesn't win because there's no Buyer Protection Policy for services.
  - graeme 14y ago
    Excellent, thanks, we'll do that for all future chargebacks.

graeme 14y ago

Thanks, that's really good advice about using an alternate service as a backup. I'm not quite clear on one point: 'non-tangible/service' is something we enter in the shipping info box pre-dispute, right?

dangrossman 14y ago
I meant in the dispute, after it's escalated to a claim. If someone disputes one of your payments, they're asked whether it was for an eBay good, a non-eBay good, a service or a gift, IIRC. If they tell PayPal it's for a good even though it's actually your LSAT prep service, PayPal asks you to either provide a tracking number of a shipment, other evidence of shipment, or to accept liability and refund. Since there's no good place to write that the dispute was miscategorized, I click on the option to provide a tracking number for the shipment, and write "SERVICE/NON-TANGIBLE" in the box. Sometimes it works, the PayPal rep that reviews the case recategorizes it and the buyer doesn't win because there's no Buyer Protection Policy for services.
- graeme 14y ago
  Excellent, thanks, we'll do that for all future chargebacks.