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PayPal Surcharge

I have noticed alot of people add a (3% or so) PayPal fee to their items and I wonder if everyone is aware, that is against the user agreement. It seems that PayPal looks at sellers as "merchants". This is cut from the Paypal website:

-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.
dill
vectorman67
42 posts
 
I've noticed that, on Ebay, this restriction has always been more strictly monitored. My guess is that, in the end, this restriction is really geared more for those whom have made it a business to sell online, rather than for those of us simply selling off personal merchandise.

But, since I'm a buyer most of the time, I'm with Thsalmon... 3% discounts!!! I don't know why sellers just don't factor the fee into their pricing, and as Thsalmon notes, simply offer a discount for other methods of payment. This way, the Buyer would at least believe he's getting a deal.
rockvirgo
587 posts
 
Thanks for your post. My gut reaction when I see the Paypal surcharge in an ad is problematic, nickel-dime seller. It becomes especially ridiculous on items priced under a couple of hundred bucks.

Credit card processing is an arcane and labyrinthine set of rules and procedures. Believe it or not, but compared to merchant services companies who impose monthly statement fees, monthly minimums as well as hefty interchange fees for sub-optimal transactions, all on top of their own 2 - 3% discount fees, Paypal is an amazing bargain for the occasional seller.

In my experience, no matter how fair a listing is, most buyers jostle for a deal. Competition works. Our transactions are already complicated with haggling over price, shipping and insurance. Streamlining the process by eliminating the upcharge issue makes good sense. If a seller offers the convenience and timeliness of Paypal up front, he/she ought to take the fee on the chin as a cost of facillitating trade.
prlscs
40 posts
 
I am a PayPal member. You can register yourself to receive payments into your checking account only. There is no 3% charge assesed to anyone. It is totally free. If you register to accept credit cards as payment, the 3% fees are then charged to the seller.
pmkalby
130 posts
 
PayPal has no jurisdiction here. Who cares if they say you can't add a surcharge? They're not monitoring emails about classified ads- are they? Sellers can say whatever they want, and in Audiogon's classified ad dominated sales culture, we can all agree on whatever terms we want with buyers and sellers. PayPal trying to dictate this to us is ludicrous.

As for sellers being nickel-and-dimers if they say they want the buyer to pay, that's a matter of personal opinion. We're all (well mostly) adults, do the math and decide if it's still worth it to you to sell or buy the item if you have to eat the surcharge.

Personally, I see idiots emailing sellers to ask "how much to ship to me?" or "will you include shipping in the price" !without! including their zip code in the message or having the brain cells to click the link to shipping costs so thoughtfully included by Audiogon as a much bigger annoyance.
jetkitty
53 posts
 
Rockvirgo, you took most of the words out of my mouth. I agree that when a seller offers Paypal as an option, he or she should be the one absorbing the fee, not the buyer. This is strictly enforced on eBay, where I have made a number of Paypal purchases.

Other forms of payment are more time consuming and have the potential for additional headaches - especially for the seller. Since the final selling price of an item is almost always negotiable, it would follow that seller should just factor Paypal fees into his/her negotiations.

The 3% discount idea makes me smile, though!
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