Originally Posted by triciakos

I also utilize PayPal and appreciate the link from post #19 I believe regarding the client disputing his charges. I have since transferred the money to my bank account.

Hate to break it to you but transferring the money to your bank account does not guarantee that a client can't retract their payment and remove the money from your Paypal account, and particularly a credit card payment - but any payment...if you've already deposited the funds and a payment reversal comes through Paypal puts a hold on your account for that amount, until the situation is resolved (ie - either they find in the payer's favor and refund the money to them, or they find in your favor and allow you to keep your monies previously rec'd thus lifting the hold on your account.)

AND because our work is not a tangible item there is even more difficulty in proving 'delivery' because there is no tracking number, no postal service receipt - just an invoice with tracked hours and projects.

I had a client who taught writing classes - there were payment policies all over the website and throughout the signup process plus in the email the students rec'd after paying. One girl didn't make it to the class (no fault of my client's) and she asked for her money back. The policy was that she had chosen to miss the class, so she had forfeited her funds. She took it up with Paypal and her credit card company and unbelievably they found in the student's favor - even though she'd missed the class (admitted to us and them that she'd missed the class for whatever reason) and we sent proof of policy etc, to Paypal.

I also recently had another client pay me via Paypal with an account that was set up with a closed bank account, an oversight on her part...she just had forgotten to update her account. But I had already accepted the funds and deposited to my account. Her BANK issued a reversal and then she realized what had happend and paid me again with the correct account - but I had a hold on my Paypal account until I'd gotten the money back into my account to go against the hold amount. It was a real pain to say the least....the worst part? Paypal acted like I had done something wrong and kept insisting that I needed to show proof that I'd 'sent the item to the buyer' (like we were on eBay or something!) I kept explaining to them that it was the *client's* mistake in paying from a defunct account - they basically didn't hear a word I said....it only ever got resolved when the funds had been put back to the client's previous bank but in the meantime I had to deal with numerous emails and back-and-forths from Paypal.

Just something to be aware of.

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