How to make PayPal work for you and your customers

I have heard about a lot of bad situations involving PayPal. Customers wanting to place deposits or pay remaining balances then retracting the fund for those deposits when they change their minds or even balances after they have gotten their item (puppy in the cases I am referring to).

We have always had positive outcomes with PayPal and I think it is because we ALWAYS use an invoice and the wording in our invoice is very specific. 

I will show you what your invoice needs to say, and for those of you who do not know how to create an invoice, I will walk you through that process as well, in a later post!

  OK PayPal, where is my commission for this?!!!

• As long as you request funds via an invoice, and have the words “non-refundable” and/or “all sales are final”, your buyers will not be able to retract those funds. 
• When a potential customer wants to place a deposit, I recommend sending them an email that states you will send them an invoice, via PayPal, for the non-refundable deposit. In that email, I always include a copy of our contract and advise them to read the contract and the terms and conditions of the invoice PRIOR to paying the invoice.

This is what our invoice looks like.

The invoice

1. We like to use the name of the dam, the month the litter was born, the year the litter was born and the puppy #.         Test092017.4    
2. This will auto populate as today's date. 
3. We put the purchaser's name here
4. This will also auto populate as today's date. Change this if you have and specific arrangements
5. Enter the purchaser's email address. This is where this invoice will be sent
6. This is what the purchaser is paying for. We put deposit, the description and the puppy #. You could enter non-refundable deposit if you want.      Deposit for Red Merle female #4   
7. PayPal will charge you a fee. It is typically a %. We usually absorb a portion of this fee and pass a portion along to the purchaser.
8. We like to make clear the remaining balance due, when it is due and how.
9. This is the section that is VERY important. ***All deposits are NON-REFUNDABLE***. I suggest keeping this section short and to the point. It is the "legal" part of your invoice. 

The email

I feel that this is a very important item. It is the first official step in the transaction. It is your opportunity to clearly communicate your expectations so that there aren't (or shouldn't be) any surprises for the purchaser. This is also something that I would suggest keeping simple and professional. The less information, the less chance in creating confusion. These are the items that we like to include, not typically in outline form but you might choose to.

• All deposits are non-refundable
• This puppy (or whatever you are selling) will not be reserved until this invoice is paid and funds have cleared
• Please review the attached contract(s) PRIOR to paying your deposit
• Please ask any questions you might have prior to paying your deposit                   

Remaining balances

We follow the same steps for remaining balances or payments in full the only differences are
   1.   Test092017.4remaining
   ​6.   Remaining balance for Red Merle female #4 or Payment in full for Red Merle female #4
   7.   Change this value as you see fit
​   8.   Update the notes
   9.  Update your terms and conditions to reflect “all sales are final” keep it short and to the     

Issues

We all hope that we do not have to deal with this but if you do have a purchaser that try together their funds back

• PayPal will contact you via email
• You can view the details of the dispute online through the resolution center
• Call PayPal ASAP 1-888-221-1161 but first follow this link below and they will provide you with a one time access code
  • https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/contact/call
    
• Let them know you are calling in regards to a disputed transaction and that you would like them to review the terms of the invoice. Most often, they will resolve the dispute and release the funds back to you right away.
  
• If they do not resolve the issue right away, let them know that you would like the dispute to be escalated to a claim. 
  
  • At this point you can go online to the resolution center and upload supporting documentation. Upload the email!
    
• Go through the process of calling in again. Call in and ask to have the uploaded documentation reviewed.
  
  • We have never had a claim go past this point.                                                                  

Questions

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments below. I do NOT work for PayPal and I never have, these are just details regarding how we handle our transactions and we have never had any issues with money being taken back that should not have been.

Chickens

I realized, after putting this together that there were also a lot of "chicken folks" wanting to know how to do this. Same concept with a few tweaks!

1. Invoice number will auto generate once you have created one. We typically use chicks, the year and a number. Chicks2017.0001 the next time you creat an invoice it will auto populate as​​ Chicks2017.0001
2. #6 We write out line items for each item, rather than a deposit line we do the total
   
3. #9 we state that "all deposits are non-refundable. The deposit is 50% of the total". If someone pays the invoice in full and then backs out, we will refund 50% if the total paid. 

​This is also effective when a dispute is filed with PayPal.