Ebay are providing false and misleading information about fees payment

competitionscafe

I have just paid my ebay fees by making a one off payment by paypal.

On the screen it said the amount would be charged to my paypal balance. It also clearly said that I would be able to confirm payment on the next page. However when I clicked continue it said payment had been made and had been charged to my card not my paypal balance as expected.

This has now resulted in my bank account going overdrawn and will
result in me being charged a fee of £25 by my bank. Why was the amount
not taken from my paypal balance as expected (there are sufficient funds)?
Why was I falsely told that I would be able to confirm the payment on the next page when this was not the case?

I have just wasted an hour on ebay chat and trying to contact paypal by phone. Both are completely useless. Is there any way of contacting a human by phone or an email address I can complain to?

frivolous_fay

Very odd... the only possible reason I can think of would be unclesred funds, ie. an echeque or payment on hold?

DaveAshton

Are you a new seller? If you are, Paypal hold the money until the buyer leaves positive feedback, or 21 days have passed since the payment date.

As it's being held, you can't withdraw / spend it, so you can't use it for your ebay fees.

competitionscafe

No I am not a new seller - have had both the paypal account and the ebay account for years. Paypal balance has been there for ages.

£1.45 seller fee has cost me £26.45 thanks to going overdrawn by less than 60p. :mad:

jakes-mum

depending on what bank your with you could try going direct to them and kicking up a fuss about 'unfair overdraft fee' shovelling on how you've been a fabulous customer of theirs for years and the one time you go overdrawn through no fault of your own 'explain the situation' you've got charged £25. Also point out that alot of banks give you a £5 waiver where they wont charge you if you go overdrawn by under £5. I did this with my bank when I had a charge because my phone bill DD got taken a week early and my bank did relent and return my fee.
Worth a shot if your getting nowhere with paypal or ebay, doesn't make it any more right, but may ease the frustration and the strain on your wallet

competitionscafe

Thanks - got email replies from both ebay and paypal but the were both generic reples that totally avoided answering my questions! Ebay also said not our fault take it up with paypal and paypal said I should take it up with ebay. :rolleyes: (They are owned by the same company anyway aren't they?) Would love to cancel both acconts in protest but I guess we need them more than they need us...

RFW

Have you checked your Paypal balance, to see if it has been reduced by the amount paid? There is an ambiguous screen when making payment that says something along the lines of 'your payment will be taken from bank account/credit/debit card when you have insufficient funds in your account', it always looks to me like they'll be taking it from my account but they don't.
If they have taken it from your bank account it usually doesn't get claimed for a good few days.

lightisfading

Which bank are you with? HSBC promise that their charges won't exceed the amount overdrawn, you could maybe try pointing that out to them and that a £25.00 charge is frankly ridiculous. Also, tell them what the charge came from - an error by paypal. Be nice and polite and talk to someone in branch - I used to work in a branch and yelling and screaming won't get you anywhere.

Ebay - persist with emailing them. From my experience the first email always gets a generic reply, but if you keep badgering / replying to the generic ones eventually a real person might reply. Wherever possible copy and paste bits of their own terms and conditions back at them as this seems to have more effect!

Auntie-Dolly

Paypal always takes funds from the balance before the card, even when it means emptying the account & then taking the balance from the card. Are you sure there was money there?

competitionscafe

Auntie-Dolly wrote: »

Paypal always takes funds from the balance before the card, even when it means emptying the account & then taking the balance from the card. Are you sure there was money there?

That's what I thought and hence why I was making the payment (as I knew that taking the funds from the card would make me overdrawn but taking them from the paypal balance would not). Yes there was/is money there and the sum is larger than the fees owed. Paypal said the money was taken from the card because the paypal balance is in US $ and not pounds but I thought the payment was taken from the balance regardless (as it always has been in the past).