Thoughts on sellers passing on paypal fees?

I'm seeing more and more people with ads that state if the buyer wants to pay via paypal to add the 3% for fees.

Aside from it being against paypal's TOS, shouldn't it be considered good business ethics to price your animal to cover those fees? Should the buyer really have to cover the fees for the convenience of the seller getting paid instantly? Are these people really too broke to pony up $10 on a $300 sale? (Or similar..)

Personally, I think this is tacky and will run screaming from any seller who uses it. It's a cost of doing business.

Thoughts?

I agree... it also eurks me when people charge $2000+ for an animal then ask the buyer to pay for shipping. (Sorry to take it off track, but somewhat related?)

Originally Posted by MagickalMorphs

I'm seeing more and more people with ads that state if the buyer wants to pay via paypal to add the 3% for fees.

Aside from it being against paypal's TOS, shouldn't it be considered good business ethics to price your animal to cover those fees? Should the buyer really have to cover the fees for the convenience of the seller getting paid instantly? Are these people really too broke to pony up $10 on a $300 sale? (Or similar..)

Personally, I think this is tacky and will run screaming from any seller who uses it. It's a cost of doing business.

Thoughts?

I agree in a fashion...

I believe that the buyer should not have to pay the PayPal fees. The Sellers are the ones that initated using Paypal, and it's the seller that agreed to the terms and conditions of using the Paypal service. In my opinion, passing on the fees to the buyer is just "tacky." I would hope that many buyers would recognize this as an "iffy" ethical practice and avoid those sellers.

HOWEVER, the seller could simply bump up their animal prices to cover it as you suggested, so there's actually no way to know who is doing this and who is not (except for the ones that are upfront about it).

So actually how is it unethical? "Bump up the prices vs Charging the fee outright?"

I don't think that the prices should be bumped and I don't think that the buyer should pay the fee.

Originally Posted by Utta

I agree... it also eurks me when people charge $2000+ for an animal then ask the buyer to pay for shipping. (Sorry to take it off track, but somewhat related?)

So you think shipping should be free after a certain price?

What do you thing that the price of the animal should be/ the ceiling before shipping should be included?

At least if they're bumping up the price by three bucks for every hundred, they aren't outright stating in the ad that the buyer pays the fee. I think that's where the issue is. I don't agree that the buyer should be paying that, either, but I also think that the sellers should be pricing their animals so that they aren't having to ask the buyer to cover it. Not sure that made any more sense.

Like, if the animal is $300 and they don't want to pay the fees, for gawd's sake bump the price up to $325 and leave out the grabby hands "you pay the fee" wording.

Just a pet peeve I guess. I've got a lot of them, but this one's making me itchy tonight.

Originally Posted by deborahbroadus

So you think shipping should be free after a certain price?

What do you thing that the price of the animal should be/ the ceiling before shipping should be included?

Honestly, I don't know. But let's take Prehistoric pets... they'll charge you 15grand for an animal, then still ask for the shipping. That just sends a twinge down my back.

Steve having the "free shipping on orders over $500" is a good way to go imo. Even $1000 is passable.

Originally Posted by deborahbroadus

So actually how is it unethical? "Bump up the prices vs Charging the fee outright?"

Charging the fee is a violation of PayPal's TOS. Period. Charging shipping, handling, packaging, etc is not....as long as the same fee applies regardless of payment method.
Nobody will know if people are "bumping" the price to cover the fee, because it's built into the price. I don't concern myself with the fee when I'm selling - it's a cost of doing business & instant payment is a benefit. (There are similar fees involved with taking credit cards, plus a monthly fee that can be a prohibitive expense if one does sporadic selling.) If the $30 cut on a $1000 sale is going to break the seller, they should just charge $1050, IMO.
That said, I have no problem with a seller asking how payment will be made when discussing the purchase - I'm sometimes willing to go a little lower for a cash deal, because there aren't any extra fees to consider. *A discount for cash is not the same as charging a fee for using PayPal.

As for shipping costs - I have mixed feelings about that...
I don't have a specific statement in my Terms regarding that, because not every situation is the same. For example - if I trade a few snakes (which I value at $1500) for something, and later sell it for $1100, should I automatically eat the $50-$80 for shipping? What if I pay $2000 for a snake this year, decide I don't want to continue with that project after a year, and can only get $1000 for it...why should pay for shipping when I'm already losing my a$$ on that sale?

Originally Posted by MagickalMorphs

Personally, I think this is tacky and will run screaming from any seller who uses it. It's a cost of doing business.

Originally Posted by MagickalMorphs

Like, if the animal is $300 and they don't want to pay the fees, for gawd's sake bump the price up to $325 and leave out the grabby hands "you pay the fee" wording.

Originally Posted by hhmoore

Charging the fee is a violation of PayPal's TOS. Period. Charging shipping, handling, packaging, etc is not....as long as the same fee applies regardless of payment method.
Nobody will know if people are "bumping" the price

Originally Posted by Utta

Honestly, I don't know. But let's take Prehistoric pets... they'll charge you 15grand for an animal, then still ask for the shipping. That just sends a twinge down my back.

Steve having the "free shipping on orders over $500" is a good way to go imo. Even $1000 is passable.

With larger companies like Prehistoric pets, one must take into account how much business they do. Lets say they ship out 300 high end animals per year. If they offer free shipping...at (for ex) $30 a head...they're out 9k. It adds up. Having said that, yes...for 15k I'd offer free shipping

I refuse to pay the 3 percent...I'll pay more from another seller before I shell out a lousy 10 bucks to cover *fees* to someone who can't be considerate enough to m ake my transaction the easiest it can be.

Buyers like to feel as if they got a good deal. Even if the actual price is a little higher, FREE shipping always sounds better than plus shipping. So why not add the 40-50 bucks to the cost of the animal.

Although, I have and will pay shipping, it's pretty much expected. But NO on the 3% thing...it's very rude

Originally Posted by polasian

With larger companies like Prehistoric pets, one must take into account how much business they do. Lets say they ship out 300 high end animals per year. If they offer free shipping...at (for ex) $30 a head...they're out 9k. It adds up. Having said that, yes...for 15k I'd offer free shipping

But if you factor in how much there "over pricing" their animals, it'll make it even, no? (Ex: if they charge 500 for a normal retic, and the normal rate is 50, I think they can afford to take that "9k" catch my drift?)