Amusing criticism of eBay in his auction

[StartTheBiddingLow]

Go down to the Seller's Payment Instructions, near the bottom.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tem=8133431824

[farfel]

PAYPAL IS OWNED BY EBAY,THEY CHARGE YOU LISTING FEES THEN FINAL VALUE FEES AND THEN HAVE THE NERVE TO CHARGE YOU AGAIN FOR PAYPAL




and the reason people add the fees to their shipping cost. This guy's charging 8.50 pounds and I don't blame him!

[Griking]

Well he is right in his criticism. Ebay charges you fees upon fees and then talks out of its ass by saying that seller's aren't allowed to add a surcharge to the buyer for convienance of using Paypal.

So who's going to be the first to report him?

[SoulBlazer]

I'll report him.

Don't like the fees? Don't sell on EBay or offer PayPal. Simple as that.

I do not BELIEVE that it is FAIR or RIGHT to charge ANY of my sellers for the fees! I charge for honest shipping and that is IT.

I just wish everyone did that.

Really, in the end, how much do you loose? When I sold my NES Top Loader on EBay and got paid by PayPal last year, I ended up getting $63 out of the $70 I sold it for. Fine by me.

[Aussie2B]

That's exactly why I refuse to upgrade my PayPal account. If people can't pay with an eCheck and are too lazy to transfer some cash to their PayPal balance to do an instant cash transfer, then tough-tiddlies, pay me with a money order. Unfortunately most buyers are too stupid to actually read the terms of an auction they win, so I still end up declining a million credit card PayPal payments... :/

[sisko]

Unfortunately most buyers are too stupid to actually read the terms of an auction they win, so I still end up declining a million credit card PayPal payments... :/

Thats one of the main problems I had, but I would decline them too. In fact, I still wouldn't have upgraded, but they changed their TOS and made it so non-premier/business accounts no longer had seller protection. Now I use one account for ebay and credit cards, and another for balance/bank transfers. That way I don't get stuck paying bullshit fees all the time.

If ebay and paypal didn't have such a strangle hold on the market, I would definitely not be using either of them.

[tholly]

i totally agree with him....

i still offer paypal when i sell stuff and i dont ever charge extra, but, he is 100% right and paypal should not take fees for ebay auctions, only for other $$ transfers

[SoulBlazer]

While I happen to agree with you, I still won't pass those fees on to the buyer. It's not right.

[BeckjNeo]

Way I see it, if he wants to charge let him. If you dont like it, dont bid on it and find your stuff elsewhere. I dont blame him one bit. I have to pay 5$ to insert something, extra if it goes over a certain amount, more if someone pays with paypal. Stop being childish and reporting something, and go elsewhere if you do not like it.

[SoulBlazer]

I would only report it if it was a MAJOR AND HUGE violation of policies. This is aganist the rules, but not major enough to warrent reporting it. As you said, if you don't like it, find another item.....but if it was a rare item and the fees added up, then maybe I might report it if I wanted to bid on it, or more probaly ask the seller to be resonable.

[Mayhem]

Actually shipping that bundle via Parcelforce (I'm calculating approx weight in my head) plus insurance plus if he charged for packing materials would come somewhere quite near £8.50 he's asking for shipping. Just in the UK.

[NESu]

While I happen to agree with you, I still won't pass those fees on to the buyer. It's not right.

I would ask the bidders that it is optional that you pay the surchage, and then I'll politely ask only for bidders who can be so modest.

[jonjandran]

Way I see it, if he wants to charge let him. If you dont like it, dont bid on it and find your stuff elsewhere. I dont blame him one bit. I have to pay 5$ to insert something, extra if it goes over a certain amount, more if someone pays with paypal. Stop being childish and reporting something, and go elsewhere if you do not like it.

Nice, friendly first post.

[number6]

Way I see it, if he wants to charge let him. If you dont like it, dont bid on it and find your stuff elsewhere. I dont blame him one bit. I have to pay 5$ to insert something, extra if it goes over a certain amount, more if someone pays with paypal. Stop being childish and reporting something, and go elsewhere if you do not like it.

Well you are entitled to your opinion, but it is not childish to report someone for breaking the rules on ebay. If you don't like ebay rules then don't use ebay to sell stuff.

[StartTheBiddingLow]

Well you are entitled to your opinion, but it is not childish to report someone for breaking the rules on ebay. If you don't like ebay rules then don't use ebay to sell stuff.

I don't think it's up to me (as a user) to police eBay.
If there is someone deliberately trying to mislead bidders, OK, but this bloke was just letting off a bit of steam - no big deal.
If I see something that I think is a bit off, I just don't bid.

[suppafly]

paypal is greedy, as all corporations. If people want to avoid paying fees, then make all your auctions BIN, and raise the price 3% without letting the users know.

[farfel]

I'I do not BELIEVE that it is FAIR or RIGHT to charge ANY of my sellers for the fees! I charge for honest shipping and that is IT.

Every store you visit adds their costs of operation like mall rent, employee wages, electric/heating costs, credit card transaction, yada yada yada = aaded "fees" to the customer's bill. $5 Levis cost $30 on the retail ticket.

Or amazon.com. They charge $4 for a book that only costs them $1.50 to ship. The other $2.50 is for hidden fees.

In every case the buyer pays the costs of business not the seller

[Vroomfunkel]

I have no problem with Paypal charging for payments. All credit / debit card processing companies do this. The problem that I have is with Ebay denying sellers the right to pass those fees on. Under UK law, you are legally entitled to pass such fees on if you wish. So Paypal deliberately changed the wording of their TOS to make it that when you use your credit / debit card on Paypal you are deemed to be purchasing "electronic money", and then imposed their rules on the use of that "electronic money".

This is plain and simple evasion of the law - obeying the letter but deliberately undermining the spirit. As such, I feel no obligation to honour their rules at all.

I quite understand people who object to having Paypal fees passed on to them. They are perfectly entitled to object. But as far as I am concerned they can demonstrate their objection by bidding on other items, or paying through a different method. Choice is a wonderful thing.

The problem is that on the whole, most places that accept credit / debit cards have fixed prices. They can (and do) set those prices to cover the costs of accepting card payments. Thus those people who use cash or cheques etc. are effectively subsidising those who pay with cards since they are paying the hidden surcharge.

Ebay want their sellers to do this, since it encourages people to set higher prices for their goods. Some people do this, and others bump up the postage .. which has the same 'hidden surcharge' effect. However, I start all my auctions for £1 and charge postage at cost. I prefer to give people the straight choice of whether to pay the card charge or pay a different way - rather than just hiding it and thereby charging it to everyone willy nilly.

Of course, some people argue that having Paypal is somehow so beneficial to the seller that they ought to be happy to pay for the privilege. Which is bollocks. I am more than happy to accept any and all other forms of payment. I provide Paypal as a service to the buyer, not to myself.

Therefore I now only allow Paypal for international bidders, in recognition of the fact that there isn't really any other reasonable way for them to pay. UK bidders can request to use Paypal if they wish, I and I will accept their request if they volunteer to cover the fee.

This way I am technically not breaking ebay's spurious rule, which can only exists through their own devious manipulation of the law anyway.

** Stands down from Soap Box **

Vroomfunkel

[Ed Oscuro]

This is plain and simple evasion of the law - obeying the letter but deliberately undermining the spirit. As such, I feel no obligation to honour their rules at all.

Electronic money, huh? I'm not surprised. All the same, by U.S. law you can't issue your own currency...hmm.

I've got an article about eBay that some folks will like to see, no doubt. Scan it in when I'm up to it.

[farfel]

Really, in the end, how much do you loose?

$3 times some 200 sales last year = $600 lost if I had not padded the shipping with ebay/paypal fees