Unfair PayPal fees

[syaoran123]

I'd like to vent my anger at PayPal for ripping off customers for quite some time.

A customer purchased an item from me on ebay. Before sending the item out, the customer did not agree with the terms. So a refund was given to the customer through the ebay website. 

The customer was given the full amount back, but I was slugged 30c from stupid paypal fees (fixed rate portion). For something that was not my fault, I shouldnt be the one incurring this fee. I know 30c might not seem much for one person, but if you add up the number of transactions and the number of PayPal sellers involved, the amount adds up. PayPal is generating substantial profit from this.

I made a complaint to PayPal, and to their defence they replied back stating it is in the terms and conditions. Still furious, I told them I will not be issuing any more refunds from now, and they said customers can file a dispute against me if I do that. THIS IS ABSULUTE HORSE SHYT!!

End of rant.

[clarry100]

It's called a transaction fee and any payment gateway institutions I have had any dealings with have such a fee of around the same amount. If you use their service at all you have to pay that and its non-refundable under any circumstance once a transaction has occurred.

It's in their T&C's as they say. If you choose to dump them and go to another payment provider you will still face this same fee.

Part of doing business and accepting payments this way.

[phorum_junkie*]

This is no secret, it came into force a while ago and everyone received notification that Paypal were no longer going to refund the 30c. What you should have done then is work out what percentage of transactions were likely to end up with refunds and then add an amount to each item you list to cover that eventuality.

[syaoran123]

Charging fees for a transaction that didnt go ahead only discourages sellers offering full refunds.

Why cant they be like ebay and refund the whole fee amount when you cancel a transaction.

If PayPal think it's okay to make their own rules, I will make my own rules about my refund policy and charge my customers $20 refund fee. 

[*tippy*toes*]

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@syaoran123 wrote:

Charging fees for a transaction that didnt go ahead only discourages sellers offering full refunds.

Why cant they be like ebay and refund the whole fee amount when you cancel a transaction.

If PayPal think it's okay to make their own rules, I will make my own rules about my refund policy and charge my customers $20 refund fee. 

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If a buyer has paid and you then refund, PayPal has still provided you a service. Therefore, they are well within their right to keep the 30c. Charging a $20 refund fee because you lost 30c is going to give you lots of bad feedback. Enough of those and you won't need to worry about PayPal keeping 30c.

[davidc4430]

slight difference between you and paypal,

paypal multinational corporation worth billions

you, small (tiny) ebay seller.

try charging a $20 refund fee, can you come back and let us know how it works out for you.

i need a good laugh.

[digital*ghost]

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@syaoran123 wrote:

PayPal is generating substantial profit from this.

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They'd only be profiting if it costs them nothing to process a transaction - I have no idea what it costs them to do so, but I assume it costs them something (probably not 30c) since the flagfall applies to all commercial payments they process, regardless of the amount. 

eBay refund FVF on cancelled transactions, true, but FVF is comparable to the 2.6% fee on the full amount PayPal take, and PayPal refund that. The flagfall is comparable to the insertion fee that eBay charge (where applicable) and eBay never refund that for a cancelled transaction.

You're not alone, plenty of other sellers feel it's the buyer who should be paying the 30c, and some sellers will deduct that from a refund - I have no contest with that POV personally, however in practice, if I cancel a transaction I issue a full refund, so the 30c comes out of my pocket, as such, but all told such refunds probably cost me about $10 a year, so to me it's just a minor business expense that is covered by my other sales (the reality is, buyers consistently cause all manner of non-refundable costs, so I just consider this one of those). 

[audio-spot]

The good thing here is that your customer didn't agree with your terms before you sent the item out.

Hence, it's only cost you 30c. It could have cost you a lot more if you sent the item and the buyer decided they wanted to return it, INAD, not recieved etc.