eBay & Paypal - Policies and Practices

[lotuz]

I just called my banker about this, and she suggested opening another checking account to deal exclusively with E-Bay.
Which I did.
Which led to total confusion.
However, I clicked on CALL ME, E-Bay called within ten seconds, and we straightened the whole thing out in about 7 minutes.
Now, to see if it works. I have an auction that just ended, the money for it should go into my new account, BUT, it may take 2 days to get there. That's what bugs me.
At least this way, E-Bay has no access to any of my other bank accounts.
PayPal had access to my bank account for over 20 years, was owned by E-Bay, and I never had a single problem with Pay-Pal, so I am not too worried.

I did the exact same thing. Took me 10 minutes at the drive-up window at my bank to open a new account and another 5 minutes when I got home to link it to eBay. I don't expect to save a damn dime on fees and such but I'll admit the whole thing was easier to do than I thought.

Good point about PayPal! I've had my eBay account since 1999 (back when it was practically the Wild West - no credit cards or confirmations necessary to start an account, sending checks as payment was common, and you could leave anybody feedback for any reason ) and my PayPal account since maybe 2002, with nary a security issue from either one of them, ever. Clearly I still don't trust eBay enough to link my main bank account but at some point I have to give them credit where it's due

[herbertwest]

Real question : what is the deal with sharing your banking details with ebay?

Besides tax reasons, I dont see any reasons given that they wont pick in your money.
For tax reasons, I am pretty sure thazt if you sell a significant amount of money, they will still be able to declare it to the government given they probably have your other details (name, address, etc)

[DoctorZaius]

I just called my banker about this, and she suggested opening another checking account to deal exclusively with E-Bay.
Which I did.
Which led to total confusion.
However, I clicked on CALL ME, E-Bay called within ten seconds, and we straightened the whole thing out in about 7 minutes.
Now, to see if it works. I have an auction that just ended, the money for it should go into my new account, BUT, it may take 2 days to get there. That's what bugs me.
At least this way, E-Bay has no access to any of my other bank accounts.
PayPal had access to my bank account for over 20 years, was owned by E-Bay, and I never had a single problem with Pay-Pal, so I am not too worried.

I have always had a second checking account to do my selling and book buying on PayPal, and now on ebay - I keep limited funds in it. This has worked well for years.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

E-Bay is getting sneaky.
They offer free re-listings, and then they sneak a MAKE OFFER tab into the re-list!
I had to politely refuse two offers this morning. I do NOT take offers.
I had to go through every one of my auctions, and sure enough, revise about 4 or 5 MAKE OFFERS.
I HATE the new format, but every time a website makes "improvements" I go through this period of wrath, get used to the new format, get comfortable, and then they make more improvements! A vicious cycle!

[DoctorZaius]

E-Bay is getting sneaky.
They offer free re-listings, and then they sneak a MAKE OFFER tab into the re-list!
I had to politely refuse two offers this morning. I do NOT take offers.
I had to go through every one of my auctions, and sure enough, revise about 4 or 5 MAKE OFFERS.
I HATE the new format, but every time a website makes "improvements" I go through this period of wrath, get used to the new format, get comfortable, and then they make more improvements! A vicious cycle!

Funny thing is, I tend to get offers even if I don't make the listing read that way. It's kind of frustrating that people don't just stick to how the listing is in the first place. Ebay too.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

That's true, I also get offers for bid only items.
I just tell them there are other people interested in the auction, but I will keep you in mind.
Once in a while though, I'll sell to someone who does that.

[cit74]

Just FYI - this came out from Venmo today:

We’re making some updates to Venmo and the Venmo User Agreement , including changes to 1) the visibility of your friends list and your visibility in other users’ friends lists, 2) the Venmo Purchase Protection Program, 3) the fees charged for instant transfers, and 4) the fees charged for receiving payments that are identified by senders as for goods and services.

1) You can now select a public, friends, or private setting for your friends list, and opt out of being seen on the friends lists of other Venmo users. Review and manage your privacy controls by going to Settings > Privacy in the Venmo app.

2) Effective July 20, 2021, the Venmo Purchase Protection Program will expand eligibility for payments received into a user’s business profile or that are identified as for goods and services. To be eligible for the expanded Purchase Protection Program, sellers will need to meet additional requirements described in our User Agreement .

3) Effective July 20, 2021, users who receive payments that are identified by senders as for goods and services will be charged a seller transaction fee of 1.9% + $0.10.

4) Effective August 2, 2021, the fee for instant transfers will be 1.5% per instant transfer ($0.25 minimum fee, $15 maximum fee).

[cit74]

My main question is with #3:

Effective July 20, 2021, users who receive payments that are identified by senders as for goods and services will be charged a seller transaction fee of 1.9% + $0.10.

Does anyone have any idea how Venmo is identifying senders for goods and services to charge this fee? And if so how do we avoid it?

Here is link from that email that goes to "fees" page:

https://venmo.com/resources/our-fees/

And this is portion from that page under sending money:

Spending or sending money
Online purchases
$0.00
No fee for online purchases.

Sending money to people
(using your credit card)
3%
There’s a fee for sending money to people using your credit card
.
Sending money to people
(using your balance/debit card/bank)
$0.00
No fee to send money to people using your Venmo balance, debit card, or bank account.

So my guess is this will change on 20 July - but the initial email is pretty vague

[herbertwest]

I guess that your answer is in the question, no?

"Effective July 20, 2021, users who receive payments that are identified by senders as for goods and services will be charged a seller transaction fee of 1.9% + $0.10."

[Randall Flagg]

Not ebay, but Bank of America.
Effective 8/20/2021 I can not write a check from any savings account.
What next, no checks from checking?

[RC65]

Speaking of Bank of America and Venmo, I had to stop sending payments via Venmo soon after starting, and I found out that my Bank of America credit card -- that was the only payment vehicle attached to my Venmo account at that time -- was treating these Venmo payments as cash advances and were charging me $30 per transaction, regardless of amount...a $5 payment would have been $35. I bitched loud enough (after first misdirecting my anger to Venmo, who directed me to BoA for the answer, as the Venmo rep was puzzled as well) that BoA wrote off the fees for that period, but warned me that they would be legit moving forward. So an FYI to anyone who may be thinking of linking a BoA credit card to their Venmo account...don't do it.

[herbertwest]

From paypal : commercial transactions between EEE and UK may have an additional 1.9% fee

[darkseer]

Ebay has got pricey to use. The sales tax they collect is added into the total fee I pay and it takes longer to get my money than it did with paypal.
It takes like 5 days to get my money.

[2ndGenFan]

Ebay has got pricey to use. The sales tax they collect is added into the total fee I pay and it takes longer to get my money than it did with paypal.
It takes like 5 days to get my money.

It really has. I sold a book for $300 and only saw $252 of it ($238 after I bought the shipping label). That was on Sunday, and I finally see the money in my bank today, 4 days later. With PayPal, I could’ve gotten the money within minutes. I try to price items to account for the sky high eBay fees, but who wants to pay $350 for a $300 item?

I’m definitely going to have to evaluate my other options when I sell something for more than $100 or so. That sucks, because I feel that some things are more likely to sell on eBay than through other methods, since eBay’s been around for so long, and so many people are familiar with it.

[Kingfan24]

Books have the highest fee of all items I believe at 14.55%

[darkseer]

Books have the highest fee of all items I believe at 14.55%

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Anyone else having a problem with E-Bay sold or completed item searches?
All the results are shoved to the left side of my screen and I can't change it back to normal.
I don't know if it's my PC acting up or an E-Bay problem.

[Br!an]

Anyone else having a problem with E-Bay sold or completed item searches?
All the results are shoved to the left side of my screen and I can't change it back to normal.
I don't know if it's my PC acting up or an E-Bay problem.

Mine is normal.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Damn, it must be something I did, and it's driving me crazy!

EDIT - I fixed it! Somehow I un-clicked the INCLUDE DESCRIPTION box! My advice - don't do that!

[herbertwest]

Not related to ebay/paypal per se, but regarding shipping.
I don't think there is a thread about shipping tips, do we?

I recently sent a book through UPS. Everything went fine and I am happy with it.
When I recieved a printed bill afterwards, it however reminded me that I paid for a next day delivery with an extra option for saturday delivery (70 euros). Given it was delivered a few days later, on a weekday, I wanted to see if I could claim the saturday option back.

They were quick to reply with a link to their "money back" page in which they said among other conditions, the claim should be done within 15 days of the planned delivery date.
After recieving the document, I did put it aside for a few days waiting a better time to deal with it. And that delay has unfortunately passed.

But I figured that the info could interest some other persons here

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

As soon as a certain buyer returns an item I sold him on E-Bay, for a totally bogus, irrelevant reason, I am going to perform my first block buyer procedure. If he'd given me an honest reason for the return, such as , "I regret spending the money," I could believe him, but the reason he gave is so ludicrous it is beyond forgiveness.

BTW -- it has nothing to do with this place, or even hardcover or paperback or limited edition books. It is a similar item though. And it's no one here, of course, or no one I ever heard of either until the buy went down.

[Br!an]

As soon as a certain buyer returns an item I sold him on E-Bay, for a totally bogus, irrelevant reason, I am going to perform my first block buyer procedure. If he'd given me an honest reason for the return, such as , "I regret spending the money," I could believe him, but the reason he gave is so ludicrous it is beyond forgiveness.

BTW -- it has nothing to do with this place, or even hardcover or paperback or limited edition books. It is a similar item though. And it's no one here, of course, or no one I ever heard of either until the buy went down.

Let us know who to avoid once everything is completed.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

It seems E-Bay's NO RETURN policy is a joke, although don't quote me on that because I couldn't get ahold of an E-Bay rep to ask about it today.

[herbertwest]

What excuse did he give for asking a return?

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

What excuse did he give for asking a return?

He said the item wasn't "authentic" and he paid a "graded" price for an ungraged item.

Neither statement makes any sense since the item in question is obviously 'authentic' whatever he means by that, and nowhere in my auction did I mention grading. I've sold five of this particular item and never had a return or problem. They were all the same and every buyer was very pleased with them. One even asked me if I had another and I had to say that was all I had.
This better be in the same condition as when I sent it!