What about 3% PayPal Surcharges?

Why are there so many sellers in the classifieds section selling items

at a 3% surcharge is you use PayPal? I know PayPal charges a fee, but

if you agree to use their service, you agree to eat the fee. You

cannot charge the extra 3% according to your user agreement with

Paypal. And you run the risk of being reported to Paypal.

 

Normally, I could care less. People posting items with a 3% surcharge

tacked on for using Paypal will simply NOT get my business. It just

irks me when someone says they accept Paypal, I contact them, and

suddenly your price goes up by $50 because I want to send them money

via PayPal for their full asking price.

 

Folks - just build the 3% into your price if you are going to offer to

accept paymanet via PayPal. It's a cost of doing business - whether

you are selling an item from a business, or selling it privately.

Credit Card surcharges to sellers are also around 3%, but I guess these sellers don't have merchant accounts and aren't accepting credit cards. There are also costs involved in handling cash or checks. Probably the cost of handling a check or cash is higher than 3% on the average. photo.net doesn't accept checks anymore because in fact they are a big hassle. "Big hassle" means that they chew up time, which translates to cost. And they are more prone to error: getting lost, being incorrectly entered, etc. Then more time and goodwill is chewed up resolving these problems.

 

I agree that the costs of the payment methods should simply be built into the price, and to keep it simple, it doesn't make sense to charge different prices according to how the buyer plans to pay. Buyers paying by the most expensive method for the seller are being subsidized slightly by the other buyers, but it isn't enough to bother with in most cases. There are plenty of other subsidies like this in commerce. Every feature of a product that some people don't use and others do represents a kind of subsidy from the first group to the second. Everybody doesn't get a different price based on which features they are going to use. It is one product. Why should payment methods be any different?

 

But when it is a non-dealer selling a one-off by a classified ad, they don't look at it this way. A check doesn't seem like it costs anything as long as the check is good, and the delays associated with mailing and depositing checks and waiting for them to clear aren't something that the seller is bothered about. It is the buyer who feels the delays. Such a seller might feel like saying: I don't want to have to pay for your convenience. You should have to pay for it.

 

I probably wouldn't buy from a seller that who was going to tack on 3% because I used PayPal: it shows a kind of chisel-every-last-nickel-and-dime mentality that would make me think the seller is probably a jerk and is likely to be unfair or hard to deal with if anything goes wrong.

 

But photo.net doesn't interfere with what people do in the classifieds, as long as it isn't fraudulent. So sellers can do what they want. So can buyers.

The sellers charging the extra 3% doesn't puzzle me. What puzzles me is why people buy from them.

 

If you know in advance that a seller doesn't feel obligated to abide by agreements that he entered into with others why do people think that he will take agreements with them seriously? I have the same problem with sellers that say they will falsify customs documents for tax purposes (probably a felony).

 

The fact that PayPal or Photo.net doesn't do anything about it doesn't make it right. To agree to do one thing while intending in advance to do something else certainly seems fradulant to me. If it isn't I don't know what the word means.

Paypal will do something about it if they are notified of the infraction. They send a warning, or will suspend the sellers account.

 

With the number of people who disagree with the practice of passing along the 3% surcharge in addition to the final sales price, I'm surprised as many people get away with it as they do.

 

BUT - to be fair - I think many of PayPal's users are not aware that it's against the rules to require a buyer to pay the Paypal transaction fees.

 

It would be nice if Photo.net had a pop up box when someone posts and ad. It's not really photo.net's responsibility to do this... or maybe it can be posted in the classified's section somewhere.

Actually, if someone can point me to the section in the PayPal Agreement where it states that as a seller you cannot make a surcharge for paying with PayPal, I will make and try to enforce a policy of removing ads that by their plain text violate that.

 

PayPal has been a big help to photo.net over a long time and has always treated photo.net right. I think it is only fair that we not cooperate with people trying to break their PayPal agreements.

From here: https://www.paypal.com/row/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_payments<div></div>

While as noted above, credit card merchant agreements and some state laws forbid surcharges for the use of credit cards, many states (and I believe merchant agreements) do allow discounts for cash. Same net effect, except that the "advertised" price is available for credit card users.

 

No doubt there are people out there who are just as "irked" by having to pay 3% more so that others can use a credit card.

 

As to "building in the 3%", I see a bit of a distinction between a business and a private seller. But I'm not incensed, when buying from a private seller, as long as the terms are clearly stated up-front.

 

Personally, if selling I see the 3% as preferable to having to deal with a check. At least on the value of items I have sold (none have reached the 3%=$50 level).

Can't you just bump up the price and then offer a discount for cash or money orders/certified checks?

Yes, it's perfectly legitimate to offer a discount for cash, which means the entire discussion is fairly stupid.

 

Businesses are not able to advertise one price and then charge more for credit cards. But between two individuals, whether something costs $103, or whether it costs $100 plus $3 for a surcharge is not exactly a federal case.

I'd just ask for $105 and take whatever payment was offered!

Paypal charge nearer 4% than 3%. For �100 they charge me �3.80.

 

Either build the cost into your sale or accept the cost for what it is - a service charge. Saves going to the bank with a cheque.

<P>The answer is simple: <em>don't use PayPal</em>. When I sell stuff on eBay or

here, I prefer money orders. I personally can't stand the PayPal system, after hearing so

many stories about it. However, if a buyer <em>wants</em> to use it, then they should

be prepared to absorb the cost of <em>their</em> convenience.

 

<P>Now, if a seller offers <em>only</em> PayPal and they charge a surcharge, they

don't deserve business.