Is it Within Guidelines to Surcharge on Paypal?

[14 of spades]

i'm thinking of bidding on an auction - but the guy says if you use paypal, you have to add 2% to the total. i know i've seen several sellers do this, but is this within ebay/paypal guidelines?

[Kevin Boyd]

No, e-bay does not allow you to put it in your auctions.

 

The above text is a reference to an additional charge for bidders who pay by credit card or a separate payment processing service. This surcharge, which is an added cost to the buyer over and above the final sale price and reasonable shipping and handling costs, is not permitted on eBay.

 

Additional charges that are an added cost to the bidder over and above the final sale price are not permitted by eBay. Currently, the only fees that may be added to the final price of an eBay item are reasonable shipping and handling fees, escrow service fees, and certain currency exchange fees. More information about these fees can be found at the bottom of the eBay listing policies page:

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-list.html

 

Currently, we do not permit sellers to charge buyers an additional fee for their use of ordinary forms of payment, including acceptance of checks, money orders, electronic transfers, or credit cards. Such costs should be built into the price of the item. This policy reduces the potential for confusion among bidders about the true cost of the item.

 

In addition, some forms of payment surcharges, such as credit card surcharges, are forbidden under the laws of many states, including California. For more information please see:

 

http://www.mastercardintl.com/faq.html#b_cust_serv

 

We encourage you to review all of your listings to ensure full compliance to our guidelines. If found to be in violation of one or more of our guidelines, your current listings will be subject to further disciplinary action, including the cancelation of your listings. If after reviewing your current listings, you do find that they are in violation, you may modify them by following these instructions. Specifically, you will need to remove any reference to a payment processing fee from your listings, or place additional information in the item description portion of your listings stating that such a fee will not be charged.

 

As an alternative to a payment surcharge, you may offer a discount to buyers who pay by money order or check. If you would like to use this option, the discount would need to be taken off the winning bid price after the auction closes. This way, the bidder is not charged any additional fees.

 

For a better understanding of our listing guidelines and how they affect the way you list your items, please visit the following URL:

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-list.html

 

For information on infringing or illegal items, as well as information on other eBay listing guidelines, please visit the following URL:

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-items.html

 

For more information on why eBay has ended an auction, please visit:

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-endauction.html

 

Future listings that demonstrate a pattern of violations may result in the termination of all of your listings, and repeated occurrences may jeopardize your eBay account status. We sincerely value you as a member of our trading community and look forward to a continued successful relationship. To ensure this relationship, we must respectfully ask that you abide by our guidelines and User Agreement in the future.

 

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

 

Regards,

 

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)

eBay Inc

 

 

 

[Rickdogg]

It is obviously against ebay rules, but if the seller is an awesome guy...I wouldn't mind paying via check/money order

[Tomega]

As others mentioned, it is against eBay rules but it is also against the law in a lot of states to charge a surcharge on credit purchases. Here is an excerpt fromthe Paypal user agreement "

No Surcharges. Under Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express regulations and the laws of several states, including California, merchants may not charge a fee to the buyer for accepting credit card payments (often called a "surcharge"). You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as payment. This restriction does not prevent you from imposing a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services, as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge (in other words, the handling fee for transactions paid through PayPal may not be higher than the handling fee for transactions paid through other payment methods). Nor does this restriction apply to Pound-denominated transactions by sellers residing in the United Kingdom listing items for sale on a UK-based website

 

So if you want to cover your Paypal fees then charge extra for handling. I charge an extra $1.00 sometimes in the shipping and handling to cover Paypal expenses - which Paypal is mentions in the above excerpt.

Tom

[Kevin Boyd]

Because I occasionally sell for someone who absolutely refuses to pay for paypal fees I now list money order only as the payment method accepted even though I do think it hurts the auction. Many people don't want to go to the hassle of paying by money order.

 

However, when the auction ends and someone says is there any way that they could pay by paypal then I tell them why I don't accept it (i.e. the owner won't pay the fees) but I do have a paypal account and if they want to add the fee amount to their final auction total then I will accept it. Many do prefer to pay by Paypal anyway, and no one has been upset about it because it is entirely their decision.

 

If I do list my own stuff I always accept paypal even though I lose money by accepting it. It's simply a part of doing business on e-bay. Although it does annoy me that now that e-bay owns paypal that they are essentially double-billing on auctions.

 

Kev

 

 

 

 

[Crowzilla]

Many people don't want to go to the hassle of paying by money order

 

Yep - I agree. Early on, I actually got a couple of (deserved) negatives and neutrals for being lazy and not getting money orders in time. But since paypal has come along, I almost exclusively bid on items that accept paypal (or at least credit cards) as payment and am certainly willing to pay a little more for that convenience.

 

On a side note, I pretty much have zero tolerance for sellers who whine about the fees - either accept it or not, don't whine about it. Every merchant that accepts credit cards pays these fees - it's part of the cost of doing business. Do they whine at the restaurant when you go to pay with a credit card, when you pick up your new DVDs at Best Buy, do they tell you they'll have to charge you an extra 2% if you pay by credit card? Of course not. It's part of doing business, and if you're going to be a dealer and accept paypal, don't whine about the fees.

 

[Kevin Boyd]

Not that I disagree, but most sellers are not Best Buy or Wal-Mart or whatever that can afford to lose 2-3% for card fees because they sell at a rate higher than what they buy at.

 

And I've been in many small restaurants and businesses (like used book stores)that don't accept cards because they don't want to pay the fees. When asked why not they usually are quite willing to whine about the fees.

 

Kev

[Crowzilla]

that was kind of my point - if you decide not to accept it - then fine whine all you want. But don't decide that will take credit cards and then whine about the fees, you know about them when you sign up and you also know that your average tickets are far more likely to go up as a result of you taking them.

 

Almost every comic store I've ever been in accepts credit cards and I wouldn't exactly call most store owners rolling in the dough (or almost any other small business I frequent. When you run a business there are just certain steps you take to try and insure that customers are likely to spend money with you (like have heat in your store in the winter or offer napkins in restaurants), it's all a cost of doing business.

 

[Kevin Boyd]

Except that most sellers are not even on the level of a comic shop.

 

But I do agree that the formula is simple: don't accept credit cards if you don't want to pay the fees even if it has the potential to hurt your auctions.

 

Kev