topic Re: Charging a fee for cancelations... in Selling

Charging a fee for cancelations...

lemony_gem_toys — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:03:18 GMT

Ebay SHOULD charge buyers a fee for cancelations. The amount of people that cancel each month because their "child" made the purchase without permission is extravagant. It costs me between 30$ and 50$ a month in paypal fees. If ebay wants to stream line their payment method then maybe they should cover the costs.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

kopenhagen5 — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:19:10 GMT

When you refund a PayPal payment there is a fee reversal so it doesn't cost you.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

lizzys-allsorts — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:24:05 GMT

Ebay don't need to, they have a perfectly good system in place called an unpaid item dispute for non payers requesting a cancellation... buyer doesn't pay... seller gets fees back

I cannot understand why more sellers aren't using it...

I know it's a pain waiting the 8 days out, but i'd rather wait than lose my selling fees.. and I get a slight bit of satisfaction that I'm contributing to limiting the regular habits of these tyre kickers

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

kopenhagen5 — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:33:20 GMT

lizzy, OP has immediate payment set so buyers are paying otherwise they cannot buy.

Hence you cannot open unpaid cases.

But still with cancellations you get the eBay fee back and also the PayPal fee which is why I don't understand OP saying they are charged PayPal fees.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

digital*ghost — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:42:28 GMT

@kopenhagen5 wrote:

But still with cancellations you get the eBay fee back and also the PayPal fee which is why I don't understand OP saying they are charged PayPal fees.

Because issuing a full refund to a buyer means that while the 2-odd percent fee rate is refunded back by PayPal, the seller pays the flagfall, which is retained by PayPal (it used to be refunded, but hasn't for a couple of years now).

That's 30c per transaction- you can refund a buyer less that 30c, but not via an eBay cancellation because that triggers a full refund... It might be possible to refund minus expenses, then process an eBay cancellation though (I've never tried it this way).

I get maybe two cancellations a month on average, so for me it never really costs more than $1 a month in fees thankfully, so I write it off as just another one of those expenses buyer incur that are unrecoverable. (i.e. cost of doing business).

I can imagine if someone was getting so many cancellations as to rack up $30+ in fees (100 or more a month ? ), the situation would be exceedingly frustrating.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

kopenhagen5 — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:49:51 GMT

Ah yes, of course. Thanks, forgot about that fee.

100 cancellations per month seems excessive for the amount of listings OP has.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

davewil1964 — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:54:10 GMT

@digital*ghost wrote:
@kopenhagen5 wrote:

But still with cancellations you get the eBay fee back and also the PayPal fee which is why I don't understand OP saying they are charged PayPal fees.
Because issuing a full refund to a buyer means that while the 2-odd percent fee rate is refunded back by PayPal, the seller pays the flagfall, which is retained by PayPal (it used to be refunded, but hasn't for a couple of years now).

That's 30c per transaction- you can refund a buyer less that 30c, but not via an eBay cancellation because that triggers a full refund... It might be possible to refund minus expenses, then process an eBay cancellation though (I've never tried it this way).

I get maybe two cancellations a month on average, so for me it never really costs more than $1 a month in fees thankfully, so I write it off as just another one of those expenses buyer incur that are unrecoverable. (i.e. cost of doing business).

I can imagine if someone was getting so many cancellations as to rack up $30+ in fees (100 or more a month ? ), the situation would be exceedingly frustrating.

And would tend to indicate they have a look at their business practices.

I realise that MIGHT be a small percentage of their sales. But that would mean it is a small issue.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

clarry100 — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:54:17 GMT

Wow. The OP must be doing some pretty good sales to be racking up around 130 cancellations after payment each month. Takes about that number to click up $40 lost in 30-cent transaction fees to PayPal.
With the number of cancellations we do after payment is made we just never worry about the odd 30-cents lost.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

lizzys-allsorts — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:57:20 GMT

@kopenhagen5 wrote:
lizzy, OP has immediate payment set so buyers are paying otherwise they cannot buy.
Hence you cannot open unpaid cases.

But still with cancellations you get the eBay fee back and also the PayPal fee which is why I don't understand OP saying they are charged PayPal fees.

Oh, my bad I thought OP meant buyers asking to cancel prior to paying. I don't think PayPal give you 100% all the fees back.. I think there is a fixed fee of $0.30 non refundable per transaction... I guess with a large volume of cancellations it would soon add up.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

digital*ghost — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 11:04:39 GMT

True, but costs can also depend on when the cancellation is requested.

I used to only mark items as posted when I got back from the PO, but - because it seemed in a buyer's mind, as long as it's not shipped, a cancellation is a simple matter of asking for it - now I mark it once everything is packed and I'm about to go, because that's the point where I've incurred all the additional expense (packaging, postage etc - I wouldn't necessarily refuse a cancellation after that, and/or an order change, though).

Edited to add: I realise the OP is referring exclusively to PP fees, so went a little off track there 😄 I wonder if maybe the way PP show the fee reversal is confusing things, because they wouldn't be the first to interpret it as PP retaining the fee rather than refunding it back to make up the buyers full payment.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

kopenhagen5 — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 11:09:28 GMT

That's what I thought initially.

The way the fee reversal in PayPal is shown could be misinterpreted.

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

*tippy*toes* — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 13:05:46 GMT

I haven't done a cancellation for awhile now, but last time I refunded (minus the 30c), then sent the cancellation request. The buyer accepted it and it was done and dusted (I may or may not have fabricated a few lies along the lines of, you need to accept the cancellation request as soon as you can, so neither of us get a black mark on our account. Seems to scare them into submission).

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

fixnwear — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 13:40:26 GMT

*tippy*toes*

Seems to scare them into submission

You can't be serious!

There is no one on the planet who is possibly scared about a "black mark" on their account! What account? Ebay account?

What is this - now I have heard everything!

Ebay is here for buyers & sellers convenience - not the other way round.

This is a joke - right?

Re: Charging a fee for cancelations...

*tippy*toes* — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 14:11:31 GMT

No, it's not a joke. If someone wants to cancel, the least they can do is accept it. I shouldn't have to wait 8-10 days before I can close the cancellation because they decided they didn't want it any more. If they accept the cancellation, I can relist straight away. It's a 2 way street. There are plenty of people who are worried about black marks on their account, especially low feedback buyers, who seem to be the ones that change their mind after they've paid. If they change their mind and haven't paid they get hit with an UPI.