# eBay and Paypal while snowbirding.



## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

Those of us who spend time out of Canada may from time to time wish to buy items off eBay. These days, many eBay sellers will only accept Paypal. That never used to be a problem, but now they will only ship to an address that is same as one on Paypal account. As a result, Canadians cannot buy from many US eBay vendors. They lose our business.

Same thing occurs with other stores that sell on-line. They will only ship to addresses that match the credit card address. They lose our business.

Only solution I found in past, was to get a US resident to buy the item for me. 

I asked Paypal about this and this is what they said:



> Thank you for contacting PayPal Customer Support. My name is Laxmi and I am happy to assist you with the options regarding the purchase to be made in US through eBay.
> 
> I understand you are currently residing in US and are having the PayPal address of Canada. I would like to inform you that we do not have an option to make a transaction for the customer staying in US who is from Canada


I found the items I wanted to buy on Amazon.com. No problem using them in past, so that should work.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

I have 2 separate PayPal accounts using 2 different email addresses. My US PayPal is connected to my US credit cards and banks. I cannot even connect a US PayPal account to a Canadian USD bank account. This is probably for PayPal to comply with international laws

amazon is very convenient when travelling in the US now because they have installed pickup boxes in many grocery stores. I also ship amazon to hotels all the time, and it's very common when you see the hotel receptionist looking though a stack of packages to find mine.

I have 2 amazon accounts - US and Canada. They are separated probably for the same reason that paypal has to be separated. amazon.ca doesn't ship to US and amazon.com doesn't ship to Canada etc. I was able to transfer accounts like apple, spotify to the US though


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

m3s said:


> I have 2 amazon accounts - US and Canada. They are separated probably for the same reason that paypal has to be separated. amazon.ca doesn't ship to US and amazon.com doesn't ship to Canada etc. I was able to transfer accounts like apple, spotify to the US though


I have 2 as well. They are intertwined. If I change the shipping address on one, the other changes too. Credit cards appear on both even although added on just one.. There is no problem buying on Amazon.com and having goods shipped to Canada. There is often a better selection on the US site and sometimes lower prices for same thing!

Regarding the items I wanted to buy when in the US - they were car parts that I could not find on either eBay.ca or Amazon.ca - I ordered from RockAuto and the parts will be Fedexed to me by Monday - Cost US$10.00! Overall will cost me more, but at least I will have them before we head South.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

RockAuto is amazing I've been getting car parts shipped to US hotels for years

When my amazon.ca prime expired I started the new one on my (original) amazon.com account. Maybe I didn't need the 2 accounts anymore if you were able to switch (wonder if that works for prime)

amazon prime in the US for example had streaming services before Canada, and now they stream sports etc which complicates broadcasting rights with Cdn television conglomerates etc


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

Something strange here...I use Paypal to pay for stuff (mostly boat parts) & ship to my Hawaii address...I have my CIBC Visa & checking account attached to my Paypal account. I buy a lot on Costco.com & ship to US address using Canadian credit card. I have bought items on my USA Amazon account & shipped to Canada...no big deal.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

When I had issues with PayPal and contacted them - they said there is an undisclosed algorithm that determines risk

For example if you're showing country x internet location shipping to country y while using a card from country z it can flag the transaction.


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

Eder said:


> Something strange here...I use Paypal to pay for stuff (mostly boat parts) & ship to my Hawaii address...I have my CIBC Visa & checking account attached to my Paypal account. I buy a lot on Costco.com & ship to US address using Canadian credit card. I have bought items on my USA Amazon account & shipped to Canada...no big deal.


It may depend on the vendor. Some like Autohaus Arizona (for car parts) specifically say they will only send to same address as the credit card address. ( Some others don't require that). 

What has happened, is - credit card info has been stolen; Parts ordered on-line using card info; shipping requested to a different address; Vendor gets paid by CC company before shipping; crook gets the parts and disappears; card holder is left having to pay; card holder files complaint & gets refunded; vendor loses. (When we had an on-line business, this happened to us - as good customers, bank gave us back 50%, but didn't have to)

On eBay many vendors say that only Paypal is accepted and shipping address must match Paypal address. Some on-line vendors same, including payment with CC.

In past, I too have used Paypal and had items shipped to a rental condo in the US. It likely depend on the vendor's rules. Recently everything I was thinking of buying when in USA had this restriction. Except for Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. No problems with them.


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

m3s said:


> When I had issues with PayPal and contacted them - they said there is an undisclosed algorithm that determines risk
> 
> For example if you're showing country x internet location shipping to country y while using a card from country z it can flag the transaction.


You saw the email response I received. Mind you, those customer service responses are sometimes suspect!


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

Ah the joys of progress. Gone are the days when you walked into a place that sold what you wanted to buy and just handed over some............wait for it...........cash. LOL


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