posted on January 10, 2001 10:33:12 AM
I know that a CC Surcharge is illegal, but does this include adding a charge to Paypal users? Ever since paypal started charging sellers, many have been posting auctions with additional fees just for paypal users. It really isn't much, and is usually less than many handling charges out there, but I was just wondering if it's illegal.
Thanks.
posted on January 10, 2001 11:35:18 AM
This has been brought up fairly frequently here recently.
No-- You cannot add a surcharge to a particular payment type, it's against eBay's rules, and will get you suspended if a buyer/potential buyer complains.
However, you can increase your "s+h" fees accordingly to offset this. If 100% of your payments are via paypal then increase it 1:1, if 50% are, then only increase it as needed.
Note: As part of the new "FeeAdvoidance" policy, eBay themselves gets to determine what is "excessive" s+h fees, so the best I could say is "be careful". Definitely don't word it like "S+H is $3.45 plus 3% of bid price".. Rather prefigure what the item sells for and add in about what you expect it to sell for. If it goes higher, then just eat the little difference..heck it sold for higher than you though anyway. "S+H is $4.25".
The jury is still out whether any of eBays terms are violate if you "offer a discount for cash, mo...etc... payments". You definitely can't phrase it as "discount for non-paypal", but this is subject to intrepretation. Big stores seem to get away with it for the visa/mc thing, but dont know if it would fly on eBay if someone complained.
I know i put this in most of my replies, but make it easier on yourself, shorten your EOA notice and TOS and simply stop accepting PayPal. You *WILL* be burned eventually by someone paying you with a stolen credit card and spend months trying to get it resolved and your legitimate money out. Your auctions will not go down, as far as I can tell mine are the same or higher after I stopped accepting PP.
[ edited by mrlatenite on Jan 10, 2001 11:42 AM ]
