Advice on buyer not following process on Flippa

Hi there guys! I'm looking for some help as to what the hell to do about a site I just sold on Flippa. And I guessed you guys would be the best place to ask.

I sold a website on Flippa (For the second time, first time buyer fell through) for $455. So not a lot of money. But enough that I don't reaaalllyyy want to be scammed. It wasn't a flipped site, it was a site I owned for a couple of years but didn't really need to do any work on it. I said in the auction I would only accept Flippa Escrow.

Auction ends. Buyer is someone who has 100% feedback, has Buyer Certification, and has 20+ transactions totaling 28k+. All seems normal.

I start the Escrow process. Buyer immediately cancels it and sends the full amount to my Paypal (I think?). I suppose he can see my email on the auction screen so.. he just sent the money there. The email of his Flippa account DOES NOT match the email on the paypal account. Now I say I think, because weirdly enough, Flippa seems to have made a transaction to immediately withdraw the success fee from my Paypal. I'm not sure how they would do that if the escrow got cancelled. It looks like this :



http://i.imgur.com/gZjoFPc.png

Anyway. When I go to the escrow page, it says "Transaction has been cancelled. No payment will be able to be made. Please do not deliver 'Flippa listing #123456'. If this cancellation is unexpected, please contact support.". And I can't do anything on the page. Ontop of that, I never got an email saying that escrow was cancelled or WHY it was cancelled or who cancelled it etc. Seems like very very poor user experience.

I've messaged the buyer asking why we aren't doing Flippa Escrow. But with Xmas etc, I don't expect a response right now. (He also asked for me to snail mail him an invoice which I found slightly weird... I am literally on the other side of the world from him).

My question is where to from here? I've opened a ticket with Flippa to ask why Escrow was cancelled. But have you guys ever run into this? Where the buyer just decides to not use escrow for whatever reason? The buyer seems to have a lot of legit feedback. So I'm unsure if I should just send him the site anyway....

That seems really strange. Asking Flippa Support is your only real answer. I have sold a lot of websites on Flippa, and a few times, the buyer had a different paypal than his contact email. That is totally normal. I am the same way. My PayPal and Flippa emails are totally different.

If the buyer has a good track record like you say, there may be a reason as to why it is going on this way. Every buyer/seller is different. I would wait for Flippa to respond and see what happens after the Christmas holidays. Good luck!

To save yourself the heart ache, zip the website files, burn it to a dvd and ship it to the buyers address. Ensure you password the archive. inform the buyer you have shipped the file to him just as a backup and send him the password. If the buyer ever does a dispute all you need is the tracking ID of the shipment you made and your would not have issues with paypal.
regards
ozz

I had a buyer hack someone else's account once and do this and I have had people buy from me and then dispute the Paypal months down the road after they sold the site

I've ran into this before. Usually the buyer just wants to pay via Paypal because it's easier/quicker for them. If the buyer does have 100% feedback, I wouldn't be too worried he's going to scam you for a small amount of $.

You may be overthinking this. I've done over 100 transactions on Flippa and sometimes buyers just prefer using the payment method that they are use to. I had a buyer pay me through Flippa escrow and I cancelled it. I asked him to pay through PayPal and he did. I transferred the site and we both was happy. Your buyer have positive feedback and hopefully no disputes. You can see their disputes on their profile page. If everything looks fine, you should just transfer the site before the buyer files a PayPal dispute.

takers said:

You may be overthinking this. I've done over 100 transactions on Flippa and sometimes buyers just prefer using the payment method that they are use to. I had a buyer pay me through Flippa escrow and I cancelled it. I asked him to pay through PayPal and he did. I transferred the site and we both was happy. Your buyer have positive feedback and hopefully no disputes. You can see their disputes on their profile page. If everything looks fine, you should just transfer the site before the buyer files a PayPal dispute.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think so too. He messaged me and said that he thought it was faster to just send through Paypal. I've transfered the site to him, although with it being the Xmas period things have moved slowly. But with his feedback and no disputes, I feel somewhat safe.

Thanks everyone I'll let you know if it ends in tears.

Flippa escrow is a lengthy method and i have also experience with some buyer that they prefer to pay via PayPal, A Buyer with Good transaction history and feedback seems legit.

You should not be worry about it.

What i am really surprise is to is "Commission" I never face this problem, flippa can't deduct amount from your paypal account if buyer is sending payment directly to your paypal id. Ask Flippa Customer Care that how they deducted amount from your paypal account without your permission.

Buyer seems legit don't worry about it. He has already sent payment and has good reputation then why are your worried.