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PayPal Refunds or Rebates Risky?

by EliteAffiliate
5 replies
I did something that is such a normal no great deal thing to do, and if I was in control of everything it'd be no problem. Though PayPal is control of everything these days if you use them.

I offered a limited amount of people a full rebate on a product if they sent me the receipt. Low cost, about $8.

Though it wasn't until after I started receiving the receipts did I start to think, would issuing these as refunds raise any flags with PayPal? Even though it's not a great amount of refunds, maybe the close proximity would.

So maybe I should send them as separate pay transactions instead of refunding the first transaction. Thought ok that should work. Then I thought, what if that also raises any suspicion cause of sending money to the same emails that sent me money in the same amount soon after?

So I thought it'd really be best to send the small payments through my other non business PayPal account perhaps. Though that one doesn't have any funds in it and isn't linked to my accounts cause I haven't used it in awhile. I could send funds to it from my business account, though that might raise a flag!

I can't do anything in PayPal without being paranoid and scared anymore. Even everytime I withdraw money I get scared, issue a refund I get scared, get a dispute I get scared, open a dispute I get scared, send money to a friend I get scared, buy anything of high value I get scared. Even scared to ask them any questions about anything without doing it annoymously!

It sucks! Can't wait until a true good competitor takes a great market share.

They've limited my account for the slightest things in the past, dozens of times. Sending money to my other PayPal account, logging in on a different computer, and the last two times it happened when I was trying to use them to reload my prepaid data plan. Account was fine and then limited as soon as I tried to check out for it. So only use my CC for that now!

What would be my best option to get the money to these people without too much risk from PayPal?
#paypal #rebates #refunds #risky
  • Profile picture of the author stoltingmediagroup
    Originally Posted by EliteAffiliate View Post

    I can't do anything in PayPal without being paranoid and scared anymore. Even everytime I withdraw money I get scared, issue a refund I get scared, get a dispute I get scared, open a dispute I get scared, send money to a friend I get scared, buy anything of high value I get scared. Even scared to ask them any questions about anything without doing it annoymously!
    Ah yes, PayPalPhobia, It's a common emotional problem amongst marketers.

    There's some really good medication for it on the market today ya know...

    But seriously, regarding your issue, I guess it's too late to ask why you didn't simply give them a mega discount off the top, or simply asked them to email you and you simply giving them the product free, as opposed to now dealing with rebate processing hell via PayPal.

    For now you will have to decide between using the send money feature, which I think would be better than refunding all your purchases, which is your second option.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Honestly, your idea is never something I would ever attempt through Paypal. You are going to raise suspicions either way you do that and rightly so. It's just not normal behavior.

    Paypal are not a bad company, they are just trying to protect their company and their payment processors reputation. I like the fact they do that otherwise no one would want to use them. The problem here is you. Having people buy something on the condition they get some of the money given back to them is just not how normal businesses operate and looks very shady.

    Paypal will be fine and won't do anything bad to you unless you give them reason to. Things like this are definitely giving them reason to freeze your account.
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    • Profile picture of the author EliteAffiliate
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      Honestly, your idea is never something I would ever attempt through Paypal. You are going to raise suspicions either way you do that and rightly so. It's just not normal behavior.

      Paypal are not a bad company, they are just trying to protect their company and their payment processors reputation. I like the fact they do that otherwise no one would want to use them. The problem here is you. Having people buy something on the condition they get some of the money given back to them is just not how normal businesses operate and looks very shady.

      Paypal will be fine and won't do anything bad to you unless you give them reason to. Things like this are definitely giving them reason to freeze your account.
      Great! Well I thought these same things, though Unfortunetely not until after I sent the offer impulsively without thinking about it from Paypal's perspective. So I'll never offer anything like that again, though I still need to follow through on my promise to everyone and give them the money I owe. So need to figure out how to.

      Normal businesses give rebates all the time! Though I'll never offer a full rebate given so quickly again. I knew it was a bad idea as soon as I started thinking about Paypal, though wanted to ask here to make sure I wasn't just being paranoid!
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      • Profile picture of the author WillR
        Originally Posted by EliteAffiliate View Post

        Normal businesses give rebates all the time! Though I'll never offer a full rebate given so quickly again. I knew it was a bad idea as soon as I started thinking about Paypal, though wanted to ask here to make sure I wasn't just being paranoid!
        Normal businesses do occasionally offer rebates but we are not talking online digital goods sold through an online payment processor. The risk online is way bigger than that offline and you need to keep that in mind. Scams have the ability to be scaled much faster online so if Paypal don't catch on to problems in their infancy, their potential risk is much bigger.

        Paypal can only judge things based on the information they have at hand. If you are sending a lot of refunds then it looks like your product or service is crap. If you are sending a lot of small payments back to people who have just sent you payments then it looks like some kind of money laundering, currency trading or the like.

        Just think about things logically. Before you do something ask yourself this. If I were Paypal would I find this activity suspicious. The fact you wrote this thread means you did have second thoughts about doing this and so you should always listen to those instincts.
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        • Profile picture of the author EliteAffiliate
          I didn't get second thoughts until after, if I got them before I would of listened.

          I wrote PayPal to ask about it and this was their response:



          "On 04/05/2013, at 2:55 PM, <webform@paypal.com> wrote:

          Thank you for contacting PayPal.

          We do not have policy against issuing refund or rebates to your customers.*As long as the reason for refunds is not*due dispute cases, then there's nothing that you have to worry about.

          You may check our Acceptable Use Policy for more information. Here's the link:

          https://cms.paypal.com/au/cgi-bin/?c...locale.x=en_AU

          Thank you for choosing PayPal.

          Sincerely,
          Jerri
          PayPal


          Form Message
          customer subject: legacy
          customer message: >Topic: 'Sending/Receiving Money'
          >Sub Topic: 'Coupon/Redemption Code'
          >message: 'Hi,
          >
          >I'd like to know, is it ok to have special offers with customers and send them cash rebates through PayPal after they pay you? Up to ###% rebate sent back to them? Or is that something that is against PayPals policy? I need to know first cause I don't want my account to get flagged later from either issuing refunds or sending payments to someone who sent me a payment in the same amount of that payment shortly after. This is only for my promotion, though it's not worth it if it hurts my account with PayPal."


          So they say there's nothing to worry about with it. Doesn't mean there isn't as their system is based on a bot algorithm, though at least if something happens I have that email for my defense. It's only like 17 refunds so it should be ok.

          Creepy thing is I emailed them while logged out and used a different email address not linked and never have been linked to any of my PayPal accounts, and they STILL knew and addressed me by my full name!
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