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Asking for the 3% PayPal fee

paying for something through ebay is going to default to 'goods' since.. well that's all anyone can buy via ebay.

I used the gift/payment owed option when doing a payment plan a few times, then another time I sent someone $1000 gift and I got an email from paypal asking me to clarify why I sent someone that amount and was it really a gift (it was). I am not sure if it was the number of times I used that option or if there is an amount threshold, but using that option does open one to some scrutiny from paypal. so just a heads up
 
btbutler said:
Now days, paypal will ask the buyer if he/she wants to pay for the selling fee; I just did it the other day. Out of courtesy for the seller, and to ensure he got the full amount he was wanting, I decided to cover it. I feel it is a nice gesture, and I do it every time I buy from someone. I think that it is nice if other buyers do the same.
Click to expand...

I just bought some zinnia seeds on Ebay and Paypal didn't ask me anything like that.
I do not any longer deal with people who ask an add-on for fees. And I refuse to purchase something if the seller demands that I pay as a gift. I was paying for a custom aquarium piece of equipment one time and the seller asked. I refused. Just told him 'I don't do that.' He accepted a regular Paypal payment.

If a person would screw Paypal, they would screw you too. My 2 cents.
 
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Part of the cost of doing business is the small fee being paid by the seller.last I seen it is against paypals tos to ask a buyer to pay that fee.personally I would walk away from a seller that asks me to pay the fee.
 
I know I have made the personal decision to not ask a person for the pay pal fee any longer. It's been a long time since I have, but either way after reading everybody's reasoning for it I know I am on the band wagon. This has turned into a very informative thread.
 
I have to say I agree with most of you on the not asking for the fee thing. I also am against the paying for shipping supplies, I have never asked for either and will never, you factor it in to your cost and that's it. As far as the sending as a gift, if I remember correctly you are not protected by paypal when you send it as a gift.
 
LOL, I just did a search in the classifieds and the first AD I opened stated "Paypal preferred" and then "please add 3%". So its the preferred payment choice and please add 3% ...

Yeah, OK penalize me for using your preferred method of payment. No thanks.
 
I'm curious as to why people don't just throw amazon giftcards at each other or something. There's no fee if it's an ecard and they go up to amounts far higher than anyone would ever need. Paypal is a terrible, awful service and after the Derek Beando fiasco (among others), it seems like people would shy away from it.

Still, I agree that it's unprofessional, tacky and terrible to ask a 3% fee from both the seller and paypal.
 
AbsoluteApril said:
You are not alone Nick. I skip ads that specifically ask for the fee. Isn't it against Paypal's policy anyways?

The seller should understand the fee is the cost of using the benefits of the service and if it's that much of a deal breaker, factor it into the sell price up front. (I kind of feel the same way about people that want to charge the box fee.)

I will add on some extra when I pay just because I think it is a nice gesture.
Click to expand...

After re-reading, I think April has the right idea. If you don't like it, add it into your total cost.
 
Inret said:
I'm curious as to why people don't just throw amazon giftcards at each other or something. There's no fee if it's an ecard and they go up to amounts far higher than anyone would ever need. Paypal is a terrible, awful service and after the Derek Beando fiasco (among others), it seems like people would shy away from it.

Still, I agree that it's unprofessional, tacky and terrible to ask a 3% fee from both the seller and paypal.
Click to expand...

For me, the giftcard idea wouldn't be practical (at least most of the time). For the most part we use the money for bills or stick it in savings until we want another animal or supplies, so unless I had something specific I needed from wherever the gift card was for, it would be more of a hassle. I have thought about setting up the ability to take cards myself but I'm not sure how practical that would be outside of shows since I am not sure how many buyers would be willing to give out their card number via phone or email. I think Google Checkout was mentioned a while back as an alternative to paypal, but I've never really looked into it.
 
FireStorm said:
I have thought about setting up the ability to take cards myself but I'm not sure how practical that would be outside of shows since I am not sure how many buyers would be willing to give out their card number via phone or email.
Click to expand...

Just to give you some feedback on that without taking this to far off topic, I will just mention if you want to add that to your payment options you can set that up for free and easy and no monthly fees.

I made a thread about intuits service "Go payments card reader" here
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310740

It also gives you the option of processing the cards with a virtual terminal online. Not the website version which charges fees and you have to setup a checkout on your site but just a quick pop-up window to process credit cards online.

http://intuit-gopayment.com/free?ci...Broad&ef_id=Tn9Pv@CNgKYAAEwa:20120525194205:s

https://merchantcenter.intuit.com/qbms#

https://gopayment.intuit.com/GoPayment/site/login

Worrying about practicality would be gone because it costs nothing to sign up and not much time to invest in signing up. Plus you get the free credit card reader for your phone. You can have the payments sent to your bank account or a prepaid Visa card with your name on it. Of course the fee is a little higher by typing in the credit card vs swiping.

Of course you could just type the credit card number into the phone too.

Anyways, just putting that out there...
 
The 3% fee is just a part of doing business for a seller. Charging for the paypal fee is the same, IMHO, as charging an electricity fee, feeding fee, and caging fee. All of these expenses should be built into the price. Asking a customer to deliberately forfeit their buyer's protection (what little exists with PayPal) comes across as unprofessional and points to a business that cares more about a few dollars then their customers. Perhaps they don't understand that customer loyalty and having a positive image is priceless.

Dennis, thank you for the info, both here and on the other thread, about the Go reader. I think I'll give it a try.
 
I've been walking away from purchases because of that 3% for years. I generally inform them that requesting that additional payment is a violation of their user agreement...there have been a few times that I just sent the agreed upon price, and disregarded their request that I cover the fee. The latter approach can actually be kind of fun, because if they refuse to send you your purchase; a claim gets made & they get to explain to PayPal why they are violating the user agreement in that manner. Generally, though, if the person doesn't agree to waive that charge, I simply look elsewhere.
 
hhmoore said:
I've been walking away from purchases because of that 3% for years. I generally inform them that requesting that additional payment is a violation of their user agreement...there have been a few times that I just sent the agreed upon price, and disregarded their request that I cover the fee. The latter approach can actually be kind of fun, because if they refuse to send you your purchase; a claim gets made & they get to explain to PayPal why they are violating the user agreement in that manner. Generally, though, if the person doesn't agree to waive that charge, I simply look elsewhere.
Click to expand...

I guess that is one way around it, however not very polite, regardless of whether the seller is breaking the rules or not. You should inform the person politely, then if they still insist on the fee, just walk away. Simple as that. There is no reason to go all the way through filing a claim, if it can be avoided, unless you are that bored and need excitement I guess. :rofl:
 
If the person has the money for the animal + shipping, the ball is in their court....
They can IMMEDIATELY refund the entire payment & lose the sale, they can honor the purchase & send the animal, or they can insist that they be sent the extra money.
(I've only followed through with making a claim in that situation one time...and I would do it again if faced with the same conditions.)

What I used to do - if the statement was made in the ad, or initial contact - is just make a lower offer than I would otherwise would have. That covers the 3% on my end, while getting me a better price; and they think they're still getting the extra money.
 
Dennis Hultman said:

Just to give you some feedback on that without taking this to far off topic, I will just mention if you want to add that to your payment options you can set that up for free and easy and no monthly fees.

I made a thread about intuits service "Go payments card reader" here
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310740

It also gives you the option of processing the cards with a virtual terminal online. Not the website version which charges fees and you have to setup a checkout on your site but just a quick pop-up window to process credit cards online.

http://intuit-gopayment.com/free?ci...Broad&ef_id=Tn9Pv@CNgKYAAEwa:20120525194205:s

https://merchantcenter.intuit.com/qbms#

https://gopayment.intuit.com/GoPayment/site/login

Worrying about practicality would be gone because it costs nothing to sign up and not much time to invest in signing up. Plus you get the free credit card reader for your phone. You can have the payments sent to your bank account or a prepaid Visa card with your name on it. Of course the fee is a little higher by typing in the credit card vs swiping.

Of course you could just type the credit card number into the phone too.

Anyways, just putting that out there...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. That looks like it might be perfect for me!
 
Ive encountered people asking for the 2.75% credit card fee. What bugs me is that I know they aren't charged that much by the CC processor in the first place.

I scratch the fee collectors off the list and move on.
 
chrisga said:
Ive encountered people asking for the 2.75% credit card fee. What bugs me is that I know they aren't charged that much by the CC processor in the first place.

I scratch the fee collectors off the list and move on.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are charged that much when accepting credit cards. :(
I recently started using Square & that is the fee.
 
The whole adding in shipping cost brings up a question for me. Would it be possible to pay for the shipping, through the shipping service? To SKIP paypal so that the percentage of money that is charged that 3% fee is less, so the seller loses less money? Its something i would happily do for the seller if it helped.

Just a thought.
 
I think its pretty easy to send someone a shipping label thru SYR...so I think that would be an option. That would work even if the buyer wasnt fedex certified.
 
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