Complete Guide to Selling Your PS3 on eBay (PayPal will FREEZE your account!!)

I wish that I had this a week ago when my headaches began. So, having sold two on-hand PS3's, and just now successfully completing the two different account resolutions needed for them, I have a rough guide for you to walk you through the process. I hope to be as complete as possible, but I'm sure you can chime in if I forget something.

BTW, if you are wondering... YES, PayPal is STILL freezing accounts for any sale of PS3, Wii, or TMX Elmo as of topic creation. So, with that in mind...


PART I - Protecting Yourself


1. Clean out your account beforehand to your checking account. They will freeze your entire PayPal account, no matter how much money is unrelated to the PS3.

2. Do NOT ship to anything but a confirmed address.

3. Make sure you have a tracking number, get SIGNATURE confirmation, and insure the package for the full amount of the sale. This, with Step 2, will give you Seller Protection, which will help protect you.

4. Be extra safe. Take a short video (from your camera even, if it has that feature) of you actually shipping the PS3, and then zoom into the receipt with address on it before you cut.

5. Don't ship the sales receipt just yet. Do what I did. Have the buyer recieve and sign for the PS3, then politely ask them to send you an e-mail through eBay afterwards saying the following: "I have received item #XXXXXXXX and it is exactly as was described in the auction. I am completely satisfied." Then ship their original sales receipt to them Priority Mail. That clears you from any possible SNAD (Significantly Not As Described) scams, while giving you the protection of being in possession of the original sales receipt if they do try to pull something on you.

Part II - Your Account... Han Solo style


1. Your account will be 'limited' when you complete the PS3 sale and receive the money.

2. Make sure that you are as verified as you can get with their website. Become verified, verify your address, take pictures of various parts of your body and fax them, etc. Whatever they have listed for you to do under your account when you login, DO. This will ease the process and make you more trustworthy.

3. The first thing you will have to do is login to your account and submit the tracking number associated with the Playstation 3 you shipped.

BUT... WARNING WARNING!!!!

Do NOT submit the tracking number before it shows as 'delivered' with the company you shipped with. If you do, then someone will review your account, judge that the PS3 has not reached the buyer, and send you a nice little email with the following message:

Request for Additional Information

Unfortunately, the tracking information you provided does not yet show
delivery. As we are unable to confirm the destination address with the
tracking provided, until the merchandise is delivered, we cannot take any
action until delivery has been made. Please contact us again once your
tracking information confirms delivery so we may complete our
investigation.

Unfortunately for you, they don't provide any links for you to click, or any real way for you to tell them that the package has arrived. There's no link to submit your case for re-review on their site, and nothing you can do if you wind up in this situation short of calling them and personally asking a customer service rep to put your account back into review (which I had to do).

4. In addition to verifying your tracking number shows 'Delivered', ONE of THREE other things has to happen too:

-The buyer has to leave positive feedback.

-The buyer has to respond to an e-mail stating they received their PS3.

-The buyer has to answer their phone when PayPal calls, and confirm they received their PS3.

WARNING WARNING WARNING!

You would assume that calling the buyer would be the first thing that PayPal would do. Not so. Take this conversation I had with a customer service rep over the phone. Note how he has no real clue how his company operates: (p.s. their number is 1-402-935-2050, and their operating hours are 4:00 AM PST to 10:00 PM PST Monday through Friday and 6:00 AM PST to 8:00 PM PST on Saturday and Sunday)

(after waiting on hold for 30 minutes after navigating their automated menus and choosing 'Dispute Resolution')

"Hi, I recently sold a PS3, and my account is locked and I received an e-mail stating that it will remain so until the buyer verifies that he got the PS3."

"Right"

"So, what means has PayPal used to contact my buyer?"

"Umm... well, they usually e-mail them, or sometimes it's through their PayPal account, or maybe call them. But they probably e-mailed him."

"Ok, so what if my buyer doesn't check his e-mail for an extended period of time? What then?"

"Well... this is the internet, and people are expected to regularly check their e-mail. So... it'll get released when he checks it."

"Wait a second, so you're telling me that if this guy doesn't check his e-mail for 3 months, PayPal will continue to hold my money?"

"Ummm... well, no. It'll get resolved eventually. It's just..."

"Ok, sir, nevermind. Listen, your answers are somewhat vague on this, and I'm going to need to talk to a Resolution Manager."

Those are the magic words that will get you to the first level of customer service who actually has any idea what your problem is or how it might be resolved.

Of course, you will wait on hold for another 45 minutes to get to them.

I, personally, was then informed that they had not yet called the buyer. Your experience may differ. To be fair, the lady I talked to (the Resolution Manager) was very polite and knowledgable. Also, once she saw that PayPal had not yet called the buyer, she offered to do that for me immediately by putting me on hold.

I was lucky. My buyer was able to reached at 8:00 at night. You may not be so lucky.

If so, then the problem goes into... grey waters. I'll let some of the more disgruntled offer their advice past that point.

Part III - When Things Get Ugly


I found these links in my searching. I did not have to resort to such measures. Your experience may differ. They are here for reference only.

I have the eBay member sell_it_all84 to thank for the following info:

Here is the website for the BBB division that deals with paypal in San Jose: www.bbbsilicon.org

Not only can you file an online complaint, but you can view the stats of claims filed against them in the past.

The website for the California Attorney General is http://ag.ca.gov/

The California AG will be very interested to hear from you as Paypal's current practices are in DIRECT violation of the settlement agreement that they made in the last class action lawsuit.

Ok, so I hope this info helps you clear up your Playstation 3 woes! Good luck everyone!