Money Order & Personal Check Payments
In the event of a bad transaction (non-delivery, false description, etc.), buyers have less recourse when they pay with money orders or personal checks than they do with PayPal or credit card payments.
Because of this, sellers must meet one or more of the following qualifying criteria to
accept personal checks or money orders through the AAPK member store
platform:
- Seller must be an AAPK member in good standings for at least one year with a post count of 100 or more
- Seller must have 10 or more positive feedback on sales made through the AAPK platform left by non-duplicate buyers
- Seller must be approved by an AAPK administrator based on offsite feedback & sales activity at places like eBay or equivalent.
Reasoning for the higher standards Expounded:
AAPK sellers have three payment methods that they can accept from their customers through the AAPK member store platform. These payments include PayPal, credit cards by way of Square or merchant accounts, & personal checks / money orders.
We highly recommend to AAPK sellers that they accept PayPal and/or credit card payments & we highly recommend to AAPK member store customers that they use PayPal or credit cards as their form of payment when available.
The reason for our recommendations is based on the fact that buyers are not as well protected from fraud when paying with personal checks & money orders payments as they are with PayPal & Credit card payments. Sellers can also be disadvantaged if they ship items before payments clear.
Built in PayPal Protections:
If a buyer pays for an item via PayPal, but delivery of that item is not made or there is a problem with the item, the buyer can file a complaint with PayPal. We have found that buyers are well protected via this route if a transaction goes bad. For more information, you can read more at PayPal's Business Resource Center.
Built in Credit Card Protections:
If a buyer pays for an item via credit card, but delivery of that item is not made or there is a problem with the item, the buyer can file a dispute with their card issuer. These disputes will require the buyer to provide a description of any problem & the onus to prove delivery of correct item will generally fall onto the seller. If the seller cannot prove they delivered the correct item (s) purchased, the buyer will receive a permanent credit.
Each credit card issuer handles the specifics of this process in their own manner. For exact details of the process any given card issuer uses, you will need to contact them or find the information on their respective website.