Advice: Paypal invoices.

[jane vakarian]

How do you prevent a client from marking the item as shipping needed, when its digital goods?
This never happened until recently, so I assume the invoices got somewhat of an up(down)grade.

Now, they want me to input tracking and shipping receipts.

Ive talked to the people who do mark it as needing to be shipped (or put in an address), and they said they dont realize thats what it is for.
I've been having to send them their money back and redoing the invoice, which honestly can take 1-2 times depending on if the client understands what they're doing.
I cant walk them through it since I haven't received an invoice recently to know what changed.

Will paypal be on my butt for not providing a tracking number?

EDIT: Thanks bros! So much useful advice.
I will check my preferences and settings since thats where the problems lay i guess. :)

Comments

[exo-formicidae.livejournal.com]

In my last invoice i recieved I had no option to choose "no shipping".
I asked the artist what to do but they wasn't sure either - so I sendt it as "no shipping required" in both the address field and in the field where you put a note for the seller. I haven't heard anything from them about it so I assume it went well

[ramthedragon.livejournal.com]

I do believe there is a way in your Paypal preferences to set that your services are digital and require no shipping.

[chaossal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, with all the invoices I have gotten there is no option for no shipping. I have read something in a journal thought that you the seller can mark it yourself as no shipping required.

[honeynuggets.livejournal.com]

I've never had an option to select 'no shipping' on an invoice, but I send them pretty regularly.

I make sure to include in the terms and conditions section that the customer/client will be receiving a digital file, and once the file has been sent off I go into the 'add tracking information' section for the invoice and mark the transaction as 'order processed' which is what Paypal says to mark items that don't require shipping.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Developers suggest (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4283251/disable-shipping-address-option-in-paypal-express-checkout) that adding "&NOSHIPPING=1" or "&no_shipping=1" as part of the link you provide to users may do it. Give it a go and see what you get?

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

When you send invoices you're not providing a link though? It sends the invoice to their email...

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Ah; I've always sent my own emails with links, such as those you put on a button, rather than doing it through PayPal's interface.

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

If you mark it as 'item shipped' you need to provide proof, yes.
If anyone does a chargeback you will automatically lose. If you tell paypal 'Well I didnt actually ship it, it's digital' you'll also get in trouble for lying/using the service incorrectly.

[doctater.livejournal.com]

Scroll down to 'Selling Tools' in and click seller preferences. From there, go to update your shipping preferences and then scroll all the way down to 'Display Ship Button'. Make sure all the boxes are unchecked (it seems like 'goods' is always checked by default). Save the settings and you should be golden!

[king-giga.livejournal.com]

Thank you ! I never knew about that and I fixed it ASAP. Now I shoudln't have any more issues.

[cat-flower.livejournal.com]

Thank you so, so much for this nugget of information.

[shariea.livejournal.com]

Ive been trying to switch to doing more invoices, but people seem to have a hard time paying them. Ive had two people ive had to direct pay me because they couldnt process the invoice. I also dont see a place to mark for no shipping... I guess any tips or tricks to invoicing in general would be great for me.

[sangieredwolf.livejournal.com]

This is probably awful advice, but I say just have people send you money as friends and family. They can't contest this charge and no shipping address is ever added. I know there's a rumor accounts get closed down for personal payments, but I personally haven't seen it happen.

I only use services and goods if it's a physical item.

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

This is horrible, horrible advice.
One, it's no rumor, quite a few artists had their accounts shut down. Two, this is like artists screaming 'Im a scammer'.

No one should ever pay via this method.

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

It is awful advice. The friends and family option does two things:

1. It shifts the fees to the buyer, which is strictly against Paypal ToS. If you are a merchant you are responsible for the fees.
2. It removes all protection the client has in the transaction. The item is a "gift". It is absolutely shady to purposefully remove the client's ability to contest the charge. While there are fraudulent buyers, it is used far more often by scam artists whom want to remove all ability for others to seek recourse when they don't deliver.

I strongly suggest no one advocate for this method. You will have your account taken action against if you purposefully use it to remove rights from your clients.

[timelapsedecay.livejournal.com]

Having known someone close who had their account closed for this reason exactly, I can also say this is really bad advice.
Just because you haven't ever seen it happen, doesn't mean it never happens. Paying this way is honestly never an option for someone who wants to keep their business as a commission artist.

[cat-flower.livejournal.com]

"Just because you haven't ever seen it happen, doesn't mean it never happens."

I cannot ^^THIS^^ hard enough. Alright, we'll say it's never personally happened to you or anyone you know, cool. Good for you. But if you happen to be somebody who has, that means jack all. Nothing sucks harder than doing paid work, and then not being able to collect aforementioned payment--with the possibility of also losing payment from past work if it's been a bit since you've transferred the money to your bank account. Paypal accounts are vital to many, many people, so having yours getting shut down from something that is EASILY preventable is such a silly choice when trying to dodge a very small fee. I wish more people would stop thinking that it's even remotely a good idea. :/

Edited because I forgot how2English.

[dodger-greywing.livejournal.com]

Yes please never do this.

As this community has shown, there are instances where the ability to contest a charge or do a chargeback are the only powers commissioners have should an artist decide to go AWOL. I would never trust an artist who insisted on gift payment, and I say this as an artist myself.

[kestral-kitsune.livejournal.com]

yeah what others say, its bad practice and I know myself and a couple other avoid artists that insist on paying as 'friends and family' or 'gift' as it used to be. because if something goes wrong the buyer is sol.

[ctk-hullo.livejournal.com]

I use invoices too, but haven't seen anything about disabling the shipping requirement. I just list the item as "Custom Digital Artwork" and hope that gets across, so far no problems. Thinking I might add "no shipping required" from what others have said, now...

[wuvvumsoc.livejournal.com]

Maybe I misunderstood it, but I never had a problem with the invoices and shipping. As I understood it, the shipping is just kind of there if you need to use it but otherwise I haven't had a problem processing any transactions. I also am able to pay invoices that ask for my shipping. Maybe there is only a problem when it might come to disputes? And if someone is disputing it and trying to exploit the shipping I think that might warrant a beware on them. D:

But I sure hope the shipping issue is not a problem because I prefer invoices. This stops people from sending me money as family and friends.

[ramthedragon.livejournal.com]

I checked the invoices I've done in the last 6 to 8 months and I never realized they all had a shipping address. And Paypal really never demanded anything from me? Maybe it's because I'm in Uruguay and they don't particularly care to enforce too much here, but still!

[wuvvumsoc.livejournal.com]

I'm in the US and no one has demanded anything from me, but I do wonder if it effects disputes?

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

From what I heard, the shipping info isn't an issue itself. But, someone may tell paypal you didn't ship anything, to scam you out of money, and with the info on paypal it'll look like you didn't ship like they said.

I use payment requests instead. Once I've been paid, I go to the main page of my payment, showing all my payments, and open up "add shipping info". The last option "in process" or something like that, it actually means no shipping required (it's explained on that shipping page). That pretty much saves you all the trouble right there. You may be able to do this with invoices too but I'm not sure!

You'd only need to do that for new payments, since if someone hasn't scammed you with the old ones already you should be fine.

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

You can disable the option all together. I just tested this with a friend to ensure it works, but folks are welcomed to fiddle with it.

Firstly, open your invoice template. It looks like so:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76717253/screens/Edit_template_-_comm_template_-_PayPal_-_2015-03-30_20.17.50.png

Make sure the text box is unchecked as that's what collects client information, and you don't really need that. Then click on the link. It will take you to this page:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76717253/screens/Recipient_information_-_PayPal_-_2015-03-30_20.18.38.png

Make sure "don't show shipping" is ticked. Now when a client receives an invoice they will not even be prompted to do anything with shipping.

[ramthedragon.livejournal.com]

This is really useful! Thank you!

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

So THAT'S how to do it...wow, thanks!

[darnhyena.livejournal.com]

Does this method still work today with how much the UI and such has changed up?

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

As far as I know yes, but I'll have to go back and fiddle with it later.

[darnhyena.livejournal.com]

Well, I did attempt to try with how the UI for it is now, but though the checkbox for [Save Address] is still there, the closest I could find for the other thing was just "don't show shipping address" which didn't seem to have any effect when my friend helping me test it go the invoice
-----
And from the payment side of the invoice when I sent one to myself, don't see any other option for address stuff being optional if using creditcard and sadly I don't have another paypal account to test and see what options I get by signing in to pay that way

[darnhyena.livejournal.com]

Any luck?

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I haven't had the time to do this. I'm sure folks can fiddle with the settings and get a friend to help with the experiment.

[cat-flower.livejournal.com]

I think a journal I wrote can help with this.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6525198/

[thaily.livejournal.com]

In additional to all the excellent advice already posted, I like to add it to my item description, i.e. "Digital art, 2 characters, b/w lineart, digital files, no shipping".

[spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com]

From a commissioner's standpoint- when I get invoiced, and it asks for a shipping address, I'll click the shipping address (it doesn't give me the option to put "no shipping required" on my end) and put in the note to seller "No shipping required" just to cover both our asses.