Ebay billing gripe [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

Vroomfunkel

12-08-2006, 01:52 PM

I just received this email today :

We are writing to alert you that your balance is not paid, because PayPal declined eBay's attempt to deduct your payment from your PayPal account.

According to the decline information from PayPal, this particular merchant agreement (your authorization for paying your eBay seller fees using PayPal) is no longer valid. Your PayPal information has been removed as automatic payment method on eBay.

...

Your eBay account may be restricted from bidding or listing until payment is received.

Of course, I was rather perturbed by this as I have several auctions running at the moment, and was worried that they would all have suddenly been removed. A quick look at my account shows this is not so - so I check my account status, and see that:

(a) eBay tried to deduct fees from a defunct Paypal account of mine on 1st December
(b) Paypal "reversed" this on 4th December - why it took 3 days for them to process the fact that eBay was trying to take payment from a closed account is anyone's guess.
(c) On December 6th, they took the fees from my registered credit card instead

My account is therefore in good status, and the only reason that there was any delay in the payment of their fees is because they are incompetent idiots. Furthermore, they have the cheek to send me an email 2 DAYS AFTER they have taken the fees from my credit card to threaten me with account suspension! Truly, their shitness knows no bounds. :bad-words:

scorch56

12-09-2006, 12:05 AM

I have you beat by a longshot. Here's a really sad story..

I've been an eBay member since 1999. During all these years I was 95% a buyer and 5% a seller.. so I had autopay set up with eBay directly from my bank account.. and it worked quite well.. no problems.

A couple of months my whole profile shifted 180 degrees. As I am currently in a pinch and have to sell my collection.. in the last few months that's reversed to 95% selling and 5% buying. The last couple of months I've had eBay invoices around $100.

On Sep. 31st I was invoiced for about $150 for my Sep. fees. On Oct. 2nd I decided that since I only accept payment by PayPal and ALL of my money passes through them anyway.. rather than go to the trouble of transferring funds INTO my bank from PP (Which usually takes a WEEK!) I would simply switch my autopay method to a direct debit out of PP (like you). Another thing.. keep in mind that evilBay ALWAYS had deducted their fees out of my bank on or around the 22nd of the month following invoicing.. for seven years with NO deviation. Sooo.. on Oct. 2nd I went ahead and made the change. It was relatively painless and eBay said in my seller account that everything was set up at that point.. no problems. On the 2nd.. in order to soften the blow of $150 I also made an "instant one-time payment" of $50 directly out of PP towards my Sep. balance and it happened flawlessly.. leading me to believe that around Oct. 22nd my fees would come out of PP. On the 15th of Oct. I had about $300 in my PP account and knowing that I had several credit card bills coming up (which I pay every month diligently.. but TOTALLY online, FROM my bank account as well) I split my cash in half among the bank and PP. I thought that this would give me enough in the bank for credit card payments and enough left in PP for eB. I went ahead and set up auto payments for my 4 or 5 credit cards before their due dates by the end of the month.

Now fast forward to the 22nd and I see NO fee deduction from PayPal regarding eBay. I didn't think too much even when two days went by and nothing happened.. figuring that it was just eB's refitting of my account. I hadn't logged onto my bank account in a week either.. :( . Around the 25th I logged into my bank account and see a negative balance and 3 returned electronic transfers! The 3 resulting NSF charges from my bank put me in the negative.. and the bastards didn't even honor the lousy requests which ironically.. were for even less than the NSF fees! (My credit limits with the cards are small so I have very small minimum payments.) Looking closer at the account (and calling a teller on the phone) I noticed that evilBay had indeed gone ahead and drawn their bill out of my bank account anyway! And.. they'd beaten the credit card companies ALL to the punch; so NOW eB had their "pound of flesh".. on time.. were happy.. and my credit card companies hadn't! PayPal HAD money for eB in my account.. but I can't pay the CC companies with them (even though I have a PP debit card) and I couldn't get the money in the bank for them.. it was too late. Some even resubmitted their payments and for every refusal.. another bank NSF fee (see where this is going?).

I called all my CC companies and told them payments were coming via "snail mail" but by then.. the damage was done. Some of the credit card companies charged me late fees as a result.. some charged me returned payment fees.. and since ALL of them were hovering around my credit limit as far as balance goes.. these fees tacked on put me "over-limit" so guess what? An OVERLIMIT fee as well!!! What was about $150 in bills has blossomed into about $400.. no lie! I finally made good with ALL of the CC companies but my frickin' bank is STILL waiting on me to bring my balance back into the black (They're LAST on the priority list.. bastards).

I contacted e-FUCKIN'-Bay (As you know eB has no phone #, so live chat with a billing rep was my best alternative) and complained about this. They were sorry.. but THEN explained to me that since I had changed payment method AFTER I'd been invoiced (by two whole days) the next billing cycle would HAVE to still go through the bank. Did they tell me or warn me when I MADE the change via "online form"? FUCK NO! So technically.. although I fault the incompetent fuckwads for my misfortune.. I didn't have a leg to stand on.

You think it's over? Oh noooo..

So November comes around and I'm just beginning to dig myself out of my black hole of circumstance. eBay assures me that in Nov. .. they WILL take my fees out of PP. As I'm selling stuff almost continuously now there's usually some kind of cashflow into my PP account. At this point I also had to stop paying my CCs online and opt for mailing money orders because I still haven't balanced out my bank account.. any $ I put in there (the next $100) would go towards fulfilling my debit to them. I start paying my credit card payments around the middle of the month and they run through the end (none are due before the 15th) so knowing this, I had money in PayPal with which to start buying money orders and I knew there would be additional money in there by the 22nd for eB. On the 15th of Nov I go to check my PP account for money and guess what? MTF'in' evilBay had gone and taken their fee out on the 15th! So's.. NO money for me to pay aforementioned CC companies on time again! this time I borrowed money from friends to keep the whole cycle from repeating.

At this point.. I'm fuming. I'm thinkin' letter bombs or white powder in the mail. Nah.. worse. I get on eB live chat again.. explain my situation to ANOTHER chat rep.. she checks my account.. says she "sympathizes" but there's nothing they can do.. because.. the payment method determines WHEN in the month.. fees are collected (just as much as your anniversary date). The way she explained it.. eB collects CC payments the first two weeks.. around mid-month they collect PayPal payments and towards the end.. they collect direct-debit bank payments. Oh.. BTW.. once again.. DID "EAT-MY-SHIT-BAY" inform me of this little scheduled payment date change as well when I made the switch? Uhmm.. whaddya' think?

I hate them. I hate them with every fabric of my being. I figure I've literally wasted $600 over all this now. My perfect payment record with my credit card companies is in the toilet. My reputation with my bank of 10 years (spotless before this) is shot.. and they're trying to hunt me down. All because of fuckin' eBay's inability to properly inform people of consequences of change. Oh sure.. ALL of this is probably mentioned somewhere deep within the rules, regulations and FAQs.. maybe. But when they lead you to believe that changing shit's about as easy as retyping a few words in and then clicking a button.. they should inform you THEN!

And the sad fact is.. here I am.. still selling crap on their fucking website. WHY? As we ALL know.. I don't even have to answer that.

When you're the ONLY game in town..