Seller is surcharging for PayPal- reporting them

Fuzzy_2

A seller, I'm watching, is surcharging 4% for accepting PayPal, I know it's against the rules. If I report the seller would they know it's me that has done it? I would like to bid for the item(s) but don't want to jeopardise the experience by reporting them.

soolin

You can report them and they won't know it is you. Just follow the 'contact us' box on the ebay help page and follow the menus and you'll find a category for reporting sellers that surcharge.

However, don't be surprised if ebay doesn't do anything, surcharging seems to be one area that does not get acted on very quickly.

Soo

seroxat_chick

Hi,

I reported a seller for stating that a surcharge of 5% would be added to the winning bid if paying via PayPal on Friday 8th April.
The item was removed from eBay yesterday, which I thought was pretty rapid.

The downside of reporting is that you won't be able to bid if the item does get removed, so I guess you'll have to weigh up the pro's and con's.

ukbill69

Its illigal in the UK for private sellers and business through 3rd party payment gateways like paypal and nochex to charge customer fees for using the service. Businesses with merchant services can charge for accepting cc and debit cards.

robowen

Fuzzy wrote:

A seller, I'm watching, is surcharging 4% for accepting PayPal, I know it's against the rules. If I report the seller would they know it's me that has done it? I would like to bid for the item(s) but don't want to jeopardise the experience by reporting them.

I reported a user for shill bidding and they found out it was me. So don't be surprised if they find out it's you reporting them.

Anyway, if you don't want to pay the surcharge, then don't bid. or include the fees as your bid amount.

Paypal have a free acount that enables payments to be made free, but this all changes when credit cards payments are made. The seller is FORCED....to upgrade to the next level where fees are involved.

It really annoys me that paypal can't be offered on it's own without credit cards.

MarkyMarkD

It's not surprising they knew it was you reporting them for shill bidding - presumably you were the bidder they outbid, or whose bid they pushed up by shill bidding!

It's not the same as reporting something on an auction you haven't bid or done anything else on.

Fuzzy_2

I did report, and when I checked again 2 hours later the auction had gone, so sadly I won't be able to bid on the item. However the sellers other auctions are still there with the 4% statement, you'd think that would have made him/her change the rest of their items, or by some miracle Ebay would have pulled all their auctions.
Oh well I know they'll be plenty more items like that so it's not a big loss.

beachbeth

Rather than reporting them couldn't you first send a friendly email to them to point out that it is against ebay rules to add fees for Paypal? I did this to a seller and even sent him the link to the Ebay page where it stated that you can't do this. He hadn't realised that you werent supposed to and said he would stop doing it. So sometimes a friendly approach works and its worth a try before reporting people.

MarkyMarkD

Good point, beth. Some people are just ignorant about eBay's rules, although most people who are breaking the rules either know it or are downright fraudulent (like the "bid for a photo of a camera" scamsters.

Bargainbabe_2

beachbeth wrote:

Rather than reporting them couldn't you first send a friendly email to them to point out that it is against ebay rules to add fees for Paypal? I did this to a seller and even sent him the link to the Ebay page where it stated that you can't do this. He hadn't realised that you werent supposed to and said he would stop doing it. So sometimes a friendly approach works and its worth a try before reporting people.

I did this once when Billpoint was around and i was a newbie. (many moons ago now!) I emailed the seller asking why they were charging 50p extra for me using BP when it was against the rules. The reply was a very long, lecturing email going on and on about eBay making money outta them etc etc....at the end they said I was on their blocked bidders list and not to darken their doorstep again! LOL :rolleyes:

You win some you lose some.

These days, If i see someone surcharging for PP I just don't bid!

Fuzzy_2

I think if the seller had an auction pulled because they were surcharging for Paypal, say for example if they "didn't know the rules", whilst not excusable, could be believed if they subsequently altered all their other auctions as a result. However this seller hasn't done so on the other few items they have for sale, which probably means they know what they're doing, and whilst they can get away with it, and sellers are prepared to pay the surcharge, they will continue to do so.