greedy ass ebay

[slide_advantage_redoux]

I have been using ebay for 6 years or so. Today they really chapped my ass.

I had listed a couple of things, and in the body of the ads I typed: "paypal accepted, but add 3% to offset fees"

So now I receive an email from ebay saying that my auctions were removed because I was 'cicumventing' their fees. WHAT? All I was doing was asking the buyer to cover them.

These bastards are really getting greedy now. They double dip on fees as it stands now anyway. Paypal is owned by Ebay, and they charge you for listing fees and after sales fees too. They get you on each end.

Okay I feel better (a little bit anyway)

[J.A.W.]

As far as I know charging PayPal fees to buyers in eBay auctions isn't allowed ever since eBay bought PayPal.

Did they at least refund your listing fees when they cancelled your auctions?

[Dave Garrett]

Yeah, this has been a no-no for quite some time. There are exceptions (I believe UK-based sellers are allowed to impose Paypal surcharges), but in general it's a similar situation to surcharges on purchases made with a credit card, which are illegal in some states and at any rate are prohibited by some major card companies like Visa and MasterCard. Some merchants skirt the letter of this prohibition by offering "cash discounts", but I don't think that will fly on eBay.

Basically, as an eBay seller you have two options: accept the Paypal fees as part of the cost of doing business, or refuse to accept Paypal and alienate a whole lot of buyers who have no interest in dealing with checks or money orders.

[Jim Alfredson]

Or just have a slightly higher reserve to offset the fees. And yes, asking the seller to add an additional 3% to cover Paypal fees has not been allowed for quite some time.

I don't see what the big problem is: Paypal is providing you with a service that you could not do on your own (ie, the ability to get cash instantly from various sources including credit cards) and charging a nominal fee for the service. Trying to pass that cost onto the consumer after a price for the item has already been established has always been a little shady to me. Before eBay outlawed this type of behaviour, I would not buy from sellers who tried to pull that.

[Stereojack]

Paypal is operating the same way every credit card processor operates. There are processing fees for every transaction. The processor makes money providing the processing service to the seller. Retail stores pay a percentage for every credit card purchase they take, and chalk it up to the cost of doing business.

As a retail store owner, I learned a long time ago that these were necessary evils. For a long time we did not accept credit cards, simply because I didn't like the idea of paying fees. All it took was enough customers walking because we didn't take cards to realize that we couldn't afford not to take credit cards.

[slide_advantage_redoux]

I had seen several ads in which sellers asked for the 3%, so I assumed it was okay. I just now started to do it and was surprised to be told it was taboo.

For so long I kept getting stuck with extra postage costs, etc, and I tried to defray some of the expenses by covering paypal fees at least. The suggestion that I have a slightly higher reserve is a good one, thanks.

It is either that or not accept paypal payments at all anymore.

[Claude]

In my experience, by observing Ebay prices on certain hard to find discs, I noticed that the final bids are often substantially lower when Paypal payment is not possible. When a OOP Mosaic set is sold at an unusually low price, you can be sure that it was an US-only, no-Paypal auction. So at least with sought-after items, offering Paypal pays off in the end, despite the 3%.

Edited April 12, 2006 by Claude

[Tjazz]

Some people increase their shipping fees to compensate for the paypal fees. The shipping fees are not part of your ebay commission. If you increase your reserve, ebay will also get an increased commission.