Postage and payment method

[fedelmar]

I have just asked for a combined postage on a few items from the same seller.  The answer was that the postage price was dependant on whether or not I paid by direct deposit or Paypal!!!

Is the seller entitled to pass on their PayPal fees to me under the guise of postage?

[bigbrickshop]

No, the seller cannot pass on PayPal fees as part of the shipping cost.

It may be that if PayPal is used your seller is including the cost of sending the items with tracking and possibly also signature on delivery. This ensures they have Seller Protection from PayPal claims of Item not Received.

Some sellers only use tracking if a buyers pays with PayPal. I don't know what that means if the item is lost in transit and the buyer has paid by bank transfer. Do they not replace or refund the buyer?

[fedelmar]

The seller mentioned that ...

I cannot get the weight from the seller and I suspect that it would be under 500g.

[fedelmar]

Apologies ... I forgot to say thank you ...

[*sparklz*]

The answers here will be same as the answers in the Answer Center.

[fedelmar]

Yep ... got that ... thanks 🙂

[leader-of-the-band]

The answer was that the postage price was dependant on whether or not I paid by direct deposit or Paypal!!!

Is the seller entitled to pass on their PayPal fees to me under the guise of postage?

Based solely on your Opening Post, I don't think we can conclude that they are passing on their PayPal fees.  They are probably offering you a discounted postage rate if you do not use PayPal.  This is allowed by eBay so long as they are only offering accepted forms of payment, with Bank Deposit being an accepted form of payment.

Question 33 of the Marketplace Policy Tutorial states "Sellers cannot charge eBay buyers a surcharge (additional fee) for use of ordinary forms of payment, including acceptance of cheques, money orders, electronic transfers or credit cards. Such costs should be built into the price of the item" and "Sellers can offer a discount to the buyer for preferred forms of payment, but can not charge buyers a surcharge (additional fee) for their use of ordinary forms of payment".

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/tutorial/marketplacetutorial/js_tutorial.html#

So, if a seller offers reduced postage costs (i.e. a discount) for Bank Deposit payment they may be okay.

[fedelmar]

I have to admit to being a little confused.  After the buyer said to me that the cost of postage depended on whether or not I paid by paypal or DD I said I fail to see what influence PP or DD would have over Australia Post.  The answer I got was this: "Paypal makes us do registered & they charge fees on postage & full payment".

This is a new one on me both as a buyer and a seller so wanted to get an opinion from someone else as I had a look on PayPal and couldn't find where this was.

[bigbrickshop]

Sellers would include an amount in the sell price of each item to cover their total PayPal fees. eBay does not allow sellers to discount the sell price of any item, only the postage, so it could be, as leader-of-the-band said, that they will offer that amount as a discount if you pay by bank deposit.

You could ask for shipping totals for both payment methods and then decide whether you're happy with either, and if not, buy elsewhere. Remember though that there is no buyer protection with bank deposit payments.

[fedelmar]

Thanks ... I would have thought that the fees would be incorporated in the sell price. 
I would never pay by direct deposit and by the same token don't include it as a seller.
It just seemed all a little strange to me and the postage price is a bit high for the item.