Managed Payments First Sale Fees Cost More - DEFINITIVE

[waddingtonfirstaid]

As expected, our first ever sale under the new Managed Payments cost us more in fees.

The whole hype about it being better for us, especially the claims about being cheaper, are utterly and definitively FALSE as noted by our very first sale.

You would have thought, with such a grand change to the way eBay went about this change, they would have ensured everyone shared in a financial benefit. But no, we've been difinitively conned. This is the true face of the entity we deal with which put manager bums on cushy chairs, the very people who rely on their own exisitance is us, the sellers, who have been totally and shrewdly conned. We had it pretty well worked out in a thread several months ago and obviously eBay management couldn't have cared less, but now it's definitive.

$24.95 sale on 7th June 2020 just before Managed Payments switched on:

eBay FVF (Final Valuation Fee): $2.61

Paypal Fee: $.95c

Total of Fees: $3.56

Amount instantly appearing in my Paypal account on 7th June 2020: $24.00

Amount I actually received after eBay fee statement paid: $21.39

$24.95 sale just after Managed Payments switched on:

eBay Managed Payments Fee including FVF: $3.60

Amount I'm due (eBay "Payout is on it's Way" email notification came in 4 days after the sale and advises it will be another 3 - 4 days until I have the money in my bank account) in a week or more time: $21.35

.04c mightn't seem like a lot but we are talking about a very modest sale. Where the .04c speaks volumes is how a large entity like eBay, couldn't have the decency to ensure it would be at least a .04c saving rather than an impost that goes against all the Managed Payments hype they landed upon us. If they were really intent on making things beneficial for us, they would have made sure it really was.

Not only am I paying more in fees, I have to wait over a week for the money I'm left with (yes, we have it set to "daily" transfer as per eBay assistance during a lengthy phone call from eBay to us. Moreover, the Managed Payments come through in lump sums, an absolute nightmare for reconciling against individual invoices. For sellers who may use Xero Accounting, there is no mention of an eBay-Xero developed reconciliation portal for this to be reasonably automated. This alone will force a lot of sellers out of eBay.

[joz15au]

PS - I am not seeing the "you have access to these funds" status in the Payments section.  Under available funds I just have those sales for which I have been paid, and the unpaid ones are still shown as "Processing".   Not sure if it might be showing differently for stores who are registered as business sellers as I am not.

[wide-world-of-stamps]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

It looks to me that the sticking point is the length of time for funds to clear to ebay before ebay transfers those funds.

...

The funds clearing to ebay has no bearing on the time taken for ebay to transfer the funds to your bank account.....they will not transfer them till they have cleared.

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I snipped the middle as these were the only two points I wanted to reply to.

If the buyer's payment doesn't clear instantly, I presume it doesn't shift to the "awaiting postage" section, unless eBay is going to be happy to cover all payments that bounce after telling sellers to post items without them actually receiving cleared payment, so the funds clearing to eBay is not the bone of contention, rather it's the amount of time it takes for cleared funds to become available to sellers to initiate a transfer to their bank account

I've only been on MP since Thurdsday (was switched later Wednesday night), and all of my payments since then, while cleared (in the sense eBay told me they're ok to post), but none of the funds have become available to transfer. Going by some other posts / info, it seems I should expect Thursday's funds to become available on Monday, and Friday's to become available on Tuesday, at which point they will pay out to my bank account and take X time to hit that (mine is being paid to a Commonwealth account, so I expect it will be in the next day). 

That is extremely slow in comparison to other systems established elsewhere. On Et*y, for example, the funds become available to transfer the next day, without fail, even over weekends, and even if the order was made one hour before it's the next day (at least, for sellers who have been operating for 3+ months. New sellers have to wait 7 days for funds to become available, for the first 3 months). Over there, you can also receive orders where - for one reason or another - the payment doesn't instantly clear, and in that case it's marked with "not Paid" in red, and you are advised not to ship (there aren't awaiting payment and awaiting postage tabs like there is here, unless you create them and manually shift unpaid orders over). 

This is actually an issue with eBay - the verification of an online payment either happens instantly or it doesn't. If it happens instantly, eBay obviously tells the seller to post. If it doesn't, then it should be either a declined payment, or awaiting payment (orders that were paid for via eCheque prior to MP were always in "awaiting payment" until the eCheque cleared, then they shifted to awaiting postage). 

I've mentioned before that this isn't an issue for me, but I feel that's a relatively lucky position to be in, and while waiting up to around a week to have access to cash may not be a huge imposition for some, for others it has at least the potential to make things harder, and in any case, it's a fairly big step back from the availability / accessibility of funds via PayPal. 

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That's the confusing part - awaiting postage, processing, funds being held temporarily - it says something different depending on which page you're looking at.

We also assume that eBay will cover all payments as they have told us to post, but nothing is certain.

The processing time is a bit much, although we do receive the funds quickly once the transfer is actually initiated.

[hobby_cds]

When you sell an item under MP the first thing you see is this under the view details page

"You've received payment for this item and have access to these funds. Print Postage

Pretty clear with a blue shaded backdrop. Depends though on what you are looking at....or not

[wide-world-of-stamps]

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@hobby_cds wrote:

When you sell an item under MP the first thing you see is this under the view details page

"You've received payment for this item and have access to these funds. Print Postage

Pretty clear with a blue shaded backdrop. Depends though on what you are looking at....or not

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That's one we haven't seen.

We've looked at order details in seller hub, the old all selling, and also the sold page.

We're not selling as a business, so maybe that's the difference.

[joz15au]

Not seeing that either, maybe business vs non-business is the reason.

[waddingtonfirstaid]

Having just come from a phone call from eBay this morning (yes, Sunday morning), I can confirm that eBay management appears to be walking away from the term - "Managed Payments" and is now seeking to say it is just a "FVF" Final Valuation Fee. If anyone tells me otherwise, then it's not what I was led to believe about Managed Payments.

If a seller has payment made via cash, direct bank deposit or PayID, then it is the seller who is managing the payment and therefore should not be charged a loaded fee (no matter what it's called) , quite possibly around 3%, incorporating a financial payment fee elected by the buyer, such as a Paypal payment service fee. eBay are now seeking to suggest there is now only a flat-rate .30c associated with the actual "Managed Payment" which is the sum total of what would be refunded if the seller managed the payment outside of eBay's system. This was borne out by a sale situation today whereby a buyer bought two items and I tried to find the split fee amounts. 

Ten days ago, I had it confirmed by eBay support management that my first sale documented here in this thread was definitely paid by the buyer using Paypal. I discovered it in another data area of eBay too. eBay would not have paid Paypal only .30c for handling that transaction.

eBay can't start back-tracking on the way their monster was created and its effect on us, both financially and emotionally.

Side Notes:

- It was very complex today trying to find the clear fee information as to how multiple purchases present individual Managed Payment fees.

- I have direct hardcopy evidence that FVF and Managed Payments are the one and the same, even when the .30c (+.03c GST mind you) are applied. It's not a true and honest representation of what we were led to believe Managed Payments was because it seeks to obfuscate financial payment fees that don't exist, making it look like the actual financial payment fee is no more than .33c. This is not a true and honest representation for built-in financial service fees we should not be paying if we receive payment by cash, direct bank deposit or PayID. eBay are seeking to profit from non-existent financial service fees in these managed payment cases.

- The "Download" button in emails purporting to present a Tax Invoice for a month of transactions and fees, now doesn't present automatically as a Tax Invoice. You have to go in and out of several webpages to get the Tax Invoice showing eBay's ABN. It still shows eBay's address in the header as :

eBay Marketplaces GmbH
Helvetiastrasse 15/17
3005 Bern
Switzerland

Then directly under that it states;

This is not a payment address

ABN: 64 652 016 681

What rubs more salt into the Managed Payments wound, is the additional loaded/built-in financial services fee % eBay now takes for managing payments (including the fee taken where no third party financial services fee exists, most of that extra money appears to be going off-shore and not used within Australia to support locally based sellers, locally based industries and our Australian governments and the fair go services they provide to all Australians.

[Anonymous]

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@waddingtonfirstaid wrote:

Side Notes:

- It was very complex today trying to find the clear fee information as to how multiple purchases present individual Managed Payment fees.

The fees are clearly set out if you bother to read them. Your accounting skills seem pretty deficient but even you should be able to understand it they way it's presented.

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/ebay-stores-selling-fees?id=4809

This page shows you a few examples that proves some sellers will benefit from lower fees overall:

https://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/managed-payments-fees

- I have direct hardcopy evidence that FVF and Managed Payments are the one and the same, even when the .30c (+.03c GST mind you) are applied. It's not a true and honest representation of what we were led to believe Managed Payments was because it seeks to obfuscate financial payment fees that don't exist, making it look like the actual financial payment fee is no more than .33c. This is not a true and honest representation for built-in financial service fees we should not be paying if we receive payment by cash, direct bank deposit or PayID. eBay are seeking to profit from non-existent financial service fees in these managed payment cases.

Ebay has always been upfront about this and hasn't hidden anything.  What you used to pay to paypal is now included as part of your final value fees.  

Managed Payments is just the name of the system that collects and disburses the fees.  It's not the name of the fees themselves.

What rubs more salt into the Managed Payments wound, is the additional loaded/built-in financial services fee % eBay now takes for managing payments (including the fee taken where no third party financial services fee exists, most of that extra money appears to be going off-shore and not used within Australia to support locally based sellers, locally based industries and our Australian governments and the fair go services they provide to all Australians.

I have no idea what you're talking about when you say a financial services fee but they're no different to paypal or anyone else collecting a fee for their service of collecting money.  If you're worried about the money going offshore and not being used here, why are you using the site?  You're using it because it suits you to, same as everyone else.

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[waddingtonfirstaid]

Displaying the eBay Managed payment Fee on tax Invoices is now happening on all, in-line with how we show Paypal and Visa fees, which provides the customer with a true and honest representation of where their money is going in loaded up prices as well as a true and honest representation of the money coming through to us from eBay for the actual sale. We also display the cost of postage at a 100% discount or in-line with what the eBay buyer selects The eBay Managed Payment fee amount will look really bad if a customer uses a fee-free payment service such as direct bank deposit or PayID.

For anyone saying money transfers can't be immediate, they obviously have never used the OSKO banking network, Paypal (LOL) or PayID.

I really do get tired of eBay apologists on these discussion boards. Why they come here and defend a bad, broken system, is anyone's guess but it strikes me as totally bewildering given the way managed Payments has been done.

[davewil1964]

I doubt too many are defending the system. Seems to be more explaining how it works.