Question regarding listing.

doingwhatican

Just a quick question really. I sell some cheap bits and bobs on ebay, and in order to help keep the costs down I decided to offer a discount to the buyer if paypal wasn't used. Now I know that it would save me the cost of the paypal fees and the cost of the recorded delivery which I could pass to the buyer, but ebay don't agree with this and have pulled my listings for avoiding fees. But they have stated that I offered postage, which was not at an inflated rate, as the reason for the listing being pulled and have not mentioned the discount thing at all, although I suspect that this is the real reason the auction was pulled.
Do you think they are right to pull my auction for offering a discount for a non paypal transaction.
Please don't flame me over this I just want some opinions

bleugh

it's a 'grey' area decoding radios

and NO, they can't 'technically' pull your auctionfor offering discounts for non-paypal transactions (i write post at BELOW cost for non paypal transactions)

in practice, ebay do what they want anyway, if you get pulled, reword and relist

a word of warning though is that anyone using paypal can legitimatley do a chargeback if you email the software as you have no tracking number to prove receipt

meerustar

I remember reading a while back that you were not allowed to add extra for people paying by paypal because of the paypal charge...

Therefore, saying you will reduce if not using is the same as adding if you do use paypal and that is why it has been pulled.

doingwhatican

yes, but if i do take paypal I am not adding more - but like most people who accept paypal you have to ensure you price your item to cover your fees - the extra to send by recorded to stop a charge back and the extra to cover paypal fees. This takes a £1 item upto £2 - doubling it.
Do you think I would be able to offer a discount for people paying by nochex? - I could drop the cost of the recorded delivery then. Or do you think they would pull the item.
I suppose I will have to do seperate listings, one with paypal at the higher price and one without paypal and really try to advertise nochex for payment method, as the reduced price.

doingwhatican

bleugh, I see your in double mode today. You have managed to get the decoding radios into a couple of answers and to also mention about emailing and paypal chargebacks.

bleugh

doingwhatican wrote:

yes, but if i do take paypal I am not adding more - but like most people who accept paypal you have to ensure you price your item to cover your fees - the extra to send by recorded to stop a charge back and the extra to cover paypal fees. This takes a £1 item upto £2 - doubling it.
Do you think I would be able to offer a discount for people paying by nochex? - I could drop the cost of the recorded delivery then. Or do you think they would pull the item.
I suppose I will have to do seperate listings, one with paypal at the higher price and one without paypal and really try to advertise nochex for payment method, as the reduced price.

as i said, ebay do pretty much what they want, and when they want, often without justification

ANY slight deviation from the norm will bring you to the customer support braindead robot's attention and anything can happen

i'm lucky and have never been pulled for offering postage below cost to non-paypal users

doingwhatican

Well here is a quick update.
I contacted ebay to ask them why my listing had been withdrawn. They finally got back to me apologising for withdrawing it and they have reinstated my auction. Good news for me. So it seems that you can offer a discount, but you can't pass on the charges.