Ebay Scam on BILLING

[Kung Fu Master]

I been always suspicious of Ebay billings but really never cared to take the time to look it over the billing statements in the past because most of items were small, but always seem liked it was over charged. Few days ago I sold an item on ebay which sold for $145 and ebay and paypal charge me $30 for this transaction. I have broken it down and here it is. First, they stated they will charge me around $4 to list my item which sounded reasonable but still a bit high. I decided to relist the item because it didn't get sold. Second time around I got it sold. Here is the lay out of the statement. That first time listing fee of $4 fee has moved up to $8 and relisting cost me another $8 plus some hidden charges of $10 because I got it sold, then paypal took $13 for their services. I have talked to Ebay online and they have given me the turn-around pretty much. This is ridiculous!! And I just sold a $400 cue yesterday on Ebay. I wonder how Ebay and Paypal will charge for that?

 

[nick serdula]

Stop using paypal

If you don't use it they can't charge you for it!
Nick

 

[Nine Ball]

Billing Information

eBay charges something like 3.5% for a final value fee. I believe it used to be 2.9% until they got sued by the state and had to pay out a few million. Turns out they were rounding numbers up and collecting an extra few cents from every seller. As you can imagine with all the people that sell on there that would be a ton of money. Example, You owe $0.08 cents, they would round it to $0.10 cents. They got caught and had to pay out. That's when their prices raised. Go figure. You pay your listing fee and if the item doesn't sell you can relist it. If it sells the second time around they are supposed to refund the listing cost for the second time you listed it. So you paid $4 and it didn't sell. You relist it for another $4 which makes you owe $8 now. If it sells the second time they knock off the $4 for relisting and your back to paying the original $4 plus the final value fee. I sold a Schon on there recently for $350 and it cost me a total of about $20. It cost me $6 and something to list it and then my final value fee was about $12. The prices on there are turning out to be too much and I have basically quit selling on there unless I have to. As long as people continue to go along with the high prices nothing will change. I'm sure in the future eBay will be raising their prices again. I just don't mess with eBay anymore really. On top of that with all the fake auctions and hacked accounts. It's just more trouble then I care to deal with. As far as paypal goes. They have their own seperate fees. I forget exactly what they are but you can easily look and find out. I think it's 3%. I hate to accept a paypal payment because of the fees. So now if I sell something and the buyer wants to pay through paypal they must cover the fees. If you look in to it further I'm sure you'll find out they are not adding more to your bill then you really owe. Sure wish I was the one who thought of eBay.

 

[ShaneS]

I agree that the fee structure is pretty bad. However, eBay is still one of the greatest innovations to come from the 'information revolution'. The problem is that eBay has a natural monopoly over the auction type market; and therefore are able to dictate practically any price they want to. What else can you expect from a business? They know exactly what they are doing. Sure, they might lose some customers from their fee increases, but their profits are only going up. And that's the sole motivation for any company.

-Shane

 

[spankman8]

Personally I think its ridiculous the way their fee's are. I mean come on if you sell something for $600 you then owe them $20 for final value fee's. In most situations ebay makes more money for doing nothin but allowing you a lil bandwidth to list your item than what the seller makes. Also if you pay close attention if you start an item out at say $500 and then have a rerserve of $1500 or so then you have to pay the $4.20 insertion fee(cause of starting price) and also $4.20 reserve fee price for a total of $8.40 for insertion before other charges which I think is bullshit having to pay it twice like that. Ebay is nothing but a big legal scam that has the market cornered and can charge what they want. Also as everyone knows ebay owns Pay Pal as well and if you list in your auction that the winning bidder is to add 2.9% to the total if paying by pay pal then ebay will remove your auction listing which is another big bunch of bullshit. Only thing ebay is doing is making it great for buyers and saying screw the sellers(personally I think the buyer should be the one responsible for the 2.9% anyway in my opinion). Thats just my 2 cents worth.