posted on August 21, 2001 07:24:39 PM
I just got this mild chastisement letter from a customer who might have been just a tad irritated that I did not want to accept Paypal for a $3.00 item. He was nice about it though.
[i]Hi!
I have found that some sellers do not advertise that they accept PayPal but
will do so when asked,so that is why I asked you.
I ship about 1500 packages a year to eBay buyers and I have found that the
cost to me using PayPal is balanced out by not having to make trips to the
bank to make deposits,stand in line,etc,and I don't have to wonder if a
check is going to bounce,which to my mind justifies the fees charged by
Paypal
Yes,they cetainly do charge but close analysis shows that the fees save me
money in the long run.Also,I ***offset*** the fees by increasing my opening
bid and shipping certain items at a flat rate ***somewhat above ***my actual
cost to ship.
So,there are ways to retain your bottom line and still accept the instant
purchase programs such as PayPal.
Checks are so darned old fashioned,inefficient and terribly slow for both
buyer and seller,that it seems odd to my mind that that any company would
use the internet to sell their product while at the same time refusing
internet methods of collecting payments for the products sold.
However,as you have indicated a preference for checks.....so shall it be...I
will send you a check.
Thanks,
xxxxx[/i]
____________________________
About a minute later, I kid you not, I get this short and sweet email from someone else:
do you accept paypal?
Paypal, if your objective is to drive me insane, it's working.
posted on August 21, 2001 07:43:05 PM
I never have taken paypal. I get the "you've got cash" emails at least once every month or two. YUP, they want to drive you insane unless you use their service.
posted on August 21, 2001 08:19:32 PM
nice sales job, hope you told him no......something about that gets under my craw.i do not accept paypal, for the record. that letter strikes me as just a bit too arrogant. i would have a hard time not responding in a sarcastic way.
do you accept paydirect or any other free service? i take paydirect, why can't people use that service, there is amex and visa, whay not paypal and paydirect(maybe not a good analogy but i think you get the idea)
i love it when people talk about waiting in line at the bank, guess they don't have drive thru banking in nebraska
posted on August 21, 2001 08:26:31 PM
I just had a book close at $5.50. Shipping to Canada $10 (Very heavy book being sent air mail - choice of the customer)
posted on August 21, 2001 08:35:37 PMAlso,I ***offset*** the fees by increasing my opening bid and shipping certain items at a flat rate ***somewhat above ***my actual cost to ship.
Thank you for your suggestion, but many of my customers comment on my low shipping charges compared to other sellers. If I sign up for PayPal's merchant account, my expenses go up, and I'm trying to keep the shipping charge as reasonable as I can.
Also, as most of my customers pay by check or money order, I don't think it would be fair to raise my shipping cost to accomodate the occasional PayPal payment. PayPal and eBay do not allow a separate additional charge to use their payment service, and I don't think it would be fair to all who pay by check or money order to charge them for a service they are not using.
posted on August 21, 2001 09:28:47 PM
Lets see...... $3.00 item, I'm assuming a $1.50 cost, that's a GP of $1.50, ebay fees take .45 so that leaves 1.05.
Assuming that shipping is $1.00 the paypal total is 4.00 *.029 = .12 + .30 = .42
.42/1.05 = 40% of profit lost to paypal.... I work MUCH TO HARD TO ABSORB THIS.
EXPENSIVE convenience to the buyer. I really wish paypal would explain THIS!
I love the idea of paypal, but don't love the BS that goes along with it. This is a PERFECT example of why I had to stop accepting paypal on sales below $10.00. It just takes too high of a percentage of the profit
posted on August 22, 2001 02:19:09 AM
Some fine points, and I'm thinking a lot
about this after reading through the thread.
I don't use PayDirect because Yahoo MADE ME
sign up for it last year to continue using
Yahoo auctions. I resent strong arm tactics
so I never activated it and refused 2 or 3
payments that arrived that way (politely).
If the service was that good, then they
wouldn't need to force people to sign up for
it in order to sell there!
As for PayPal, yes there are problems (the
fees are higher than they ever said they
would be), but I have had ZERO problems
otherwise (knock wood).
I noticed that CitiBank has a new service
called C2it that is FREE to sellers (the
buyer pays the fee). You might want to
consider that.
The other idea that sticks with me from the
thread was from the last post (no PayPal
for items under $10). That is a darn good
idea. I'm going to think about it today
and I might add that to my TOS. Thanks!
Z
---
"Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not
know, so cannot say". -- Zathras (Babylon 5)
posted on August 22, 2001 05:44:05 AM
I love it when I get a Yahoo PayDirect payment! Why can't everyone who wants to pay electronically pay me that way??
I absolutely HATE IT when someone wants to pay by PayPal or BillPoint and I view the fees! BillPoint for under $15 transactions is nice though.
posted on August 22, 2001 05:52:20 AM
zathras11i agree about companies using strong arm tactics, i would not use a service that tried to pull that crap with me either BUT i do not use yahoo auctions, i find them to be a waste of my time as a seller. as a buyer they may have a few deals, very few mind you but overall even then i find their auctions to be way overpriced and identical items available on ebay for much less.........ebay is still the best venue for a seller evfen with all of its problems, too many to lsit here
BillPoint for under $15 transactions is nice though. 