PayPal no longer covers any knives. Just called them.

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andre1

andre1

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I recently purchased a knife from a member here on forums and he informed me that PayPal no longer gives seller protection on knives. I kind of thought he might not be exactly right about that. Today I called PayPal because I have someone wanting a couple very expensive knives I have for sale. I was told by the customer service rep. and later his supervisor that yes you get seller protection when you sell but if a claim is made against you its considered a weapon and you will loose the case.

Is that absolutely crazy or what?

I researched on line and see that many knife stores like Blade HQ and others no longer take PayPal. Have I been living under a bush and missed something.

Any information would be appreciated.

I do believe the buyer to be honest but will still use common sense to protect myself.
 
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Old news. Been this way a long time, which is why I posted what I posted in the site announcement section with the new buying/selling rule. Why people insist on G&S when paypal offers no protection on guns or knives I'll never understand.

Going forward I just won't accept paypal anymore.
 
A bit more info.

PayPal encouraged me to still go ahead and use there services because the buyer would probably not file a claim and I would be covered.

Speechless
 
I would just go USPS money orders they are not tracked as income such as the way Pay Pal handles things. These are hobby expenses for most of us, but I seldom have saved receipts to document purchase price.
 
Are you sure this policy pertains to all knives, or just certain types of knives? (ones that are restricted in the buyer's or seller's jurisdiction) I just looked on their site for information and found this:

"What types of weapons and knives does PayPal prohibit?
PayPal prohibits transactions for certain hand weapons or knives that may be illegal or restricted in some jurisdictions.

Weapons – PayPal generally prohibits transactions for these types of weapons:

  • Nunchaku.
  • Brass or other metal knuckles.
  • Leaded canes, staffs, crutches or sticks.
  • Zip guns, shurikens or throwing stars.
  • Hand grenades or metal replica hand grenades.
  • Billyclubs or batons, sandclubs, sandbags or slungshots (also known as saps or blackjacks).
For other hand weapons, sellers must ensure the weapon is lawful in both the buyer's and seller's jurisdiction before completing the sale.

Knives – PayPal generally prohibits transactions for switchblade knives and disguised knives. A switchblade is any knife resembling a pocketknife with a blade that can be released automatically or by use of a trigger. Other names for switchblades include spring-blade knives, snap-blade knives, gravity knives and butterfly knives.

A disguised knife is a knife designed to look like a harmless item. Examples of disguised knives include belt buckle knives, cane swords, shobi-zue, lipstick case knives, air gauge knives and writing pen knives.

Other Related Items – PayPal prohibits transactions for destructive devices and the sale of military equipment or supplies that violate laws or regulations in the buyer's or seller's jurisdiction."

There are a number of things that Paypal prohibits, but there is no mention of items that are allowed to be sold, but buyer/seller protections are nullified. :confused:
 
Here is what their site says below.

Prohibited Activities
You may not use the PayPal service for activities that:

  1. violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation.
  2. relate to transactions involving (a) narcotics, steroids, certain controlled substances or other products that present a risk to consumer safety, (b) drug paraphernalia, (c) cigarettes, (d) items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity, (e) stolen goods including digital and virtual goods, (f) the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory or the financial exploitation of a crime, (g) items that are considered obscene, (h) items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity or privacy or any other proprietary right under the laws of any jurisdiction, (i) certain sexually oriented materials or services, (j) ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories, or (k) certain weapons or knives regulated under applicable law.
  3. relate to transactions that (a) show the personal information of third parties in violation of applicable law, (b) support pyramid or ponzi schemes, matrix programs, other "get rich quick" schemes or certain multi-level marketing programs, (c) are associated with purchases of annuities or lottery contracts, lay-away systems, off-shore banking or transactions to finance or refinance debts funded by a credit card, (d) are for the sale of certain items before the seller has control or possession of the item, (e) are by payment processors to collect payments on behalf of merchants, (f) are associated with the sale of traveler's checks or money orders, (h) involve currency exchanges or check cashing businesses, (i) involve certain credit repair, debt settlement services, credit transactions or insurance activities, or (k) involve offering or receiving payments for the purpose of bribery or corruption.
  4. involve the sales of products or services identified by government agencies to have a high likelihood of being fraudulent.

I'm skeptical this means what the CSRep and Supervisor stated as FYI for the future as that's not what the above says.
  1. It specifically mentions Ammunition and Firearms, yet says "certain weapons or knives regulated under applicable law." It doesn't just say knives which would mean just that.
  2. Has anyone been involved in a transaction where seller protections have been invalidated just by the fact of selling a knife or is this just a hypothetical?
  3. I've read about many sellers using PAYPAL seller protection on their transactions and don't remember all of them losing because they are weapons?
  4. There are still online knife companies with "Knife" in their name still taking PayPal, I would doubt they would do that if all their transactions had no protections with them.
 
I read all of PayPal rules and decided to call for clarification. I ask about specific knives and they clearly told me all knives can be considered a weapon and they would not cover me if a problem arises.
 
andre1 said:
I read all of PayPal rules and decided to call for clarification. I ask about specific knives and they clearly told me all knives can be considered a weapon and they would not cover me if a problem arises.
Click to expand...

That’s the problem. PP decides if your knife is a weapon with no guidelines or clarification on what their decision is based on despite the wording they used in their terms.
 
andre1 said:
I read all of PayPal rules and decided to call for clarification. I ask about specific knives and they clearly told me all knives can be considered a weapon and they would not cover me if a problem arises.
Click to expand...

That is such a joke! Anything can be considered a weapon if you use it as such... hammer, tv remote, car keys, etc.

They should stick with their written policy quoted above which makes it pretty clear items designed to be weapons are weapons (like cane swords and the other items they mentioned)
 
Thanks for noting this. No more paypal for knives for me unfortunately.
 
There are so many legitimate knife retail businesses on FeeBay which only use PayPal.
I would imagine if there was a big issue here, those businesses wouldn’t exist .
I cannot stand PayPal and their disgusting practices and policies, but the majority of their problems have been centered around firearm, ammunition, magazine etc sales.
 
We still accept Pay Pal on our site and have very rarely ever had a problem. We did however very recently have a claim filed against us. A customer said they did not receive their knife and filed a false complaint. We showed Pay Pal that we did ship with signature confirmation to the Pay Pal confirmed address. They resolved the issue and sided with us with in 24 hours. We even gave them a link to the exact knife we sold. There was not one issue or question about the fact that it was a knife.
 
Has anyone actually experienced PayPal denying a claim for a knife transaction?
 
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