PayPal from 5th March to hold all fees on refunded and returned payments

soolin

The new rules from PayPal about holding all fees from cancelled or refunded payments takes effect from 5th March. There is a neat little explanation letter but I’ll post that tomorrow when I’m on my PC, at the moment I’ll post the new user agreemenr

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/upcoming-policies-full?locale.x=en_GB&utm_source=epsilon&utm_campaign=A_EP_EMEA_202003_32472_B2C_B2B_Return_Fee_Global_Launch_Reminder_Impacted_Merchants_EMEA_gb&utm_medium=email

Rhino666

Yes, I got emails today for both personal and business accounts to this effect.
So informed by email on 16th March of an unreasonable change that took place on 5th March.
My problem is the extra cost incurred, as well as the hassle when an ebay purchaser changes their mind and asks to cancel.
I have a feeling this will be open to abuse and will be costly with high priced items.
'In line with industry practice and according to our updated policy, we will not charge a fee to process refunds, however fees from the original transaction will not be returned' - what industry practice? 

soolin

Rhino666 said:

Yes, I got emails today for both personal and business accounts to this effect.
So informed by email on 16th March of an unreasonable change that took place on 5th March.
My problem is the extra cost incurred, as well as the hassle when an ebay purchaser changes their mind and asks to cancel.
I have a feeling this will be open to abuse and will be costly with high priced items.
'In line with industry practice and according to our updated policy, we will not charge a fee to process refunds, however fees from the original transaction will not be returned' - what industry practice? 

I did wonder about the back dated bit- I knew this was coming, we've mentioned it in a few threads over the past year and it's been active in the US for about a year. However I was convinced it was May- so March took me by surprise.

I do get cancellations from buyers which as a business seller I have to agree, but it is a bitter pill to swallow when , as happened last month, buyer buys 2 or 3 things from me, then immediately within 5 minutes or so changes their mind and asks me to refund, and now that will cost me all 3 sets of fees (buyer bought each item separately).

I'm also not sure about industry standard either, the only other payment method I use as a proper business is Sum Up and their fees are lower and I had assumed they would keep it all if I refunded- but the costs are much less. 

This may push more business sellers towards ebay managed payments when it rolls out later this summer.

ballisticbrian

Rhino666 said:

In line with industry practice 

In line with industry practice = We see other banks screwing you over so thought rather than be a forward thinking, positive influence, and setting the standard, we will continue to find more ways to extract as much money from you as physically possible and sink to this low standard.

Rhino666

I joined ebay in 2003 and have used the then associated paypal from that time onwards as a convenient method for receipt of payments and payment, both personal and business. I can remember how easy it was in the early days of paypal to commit fraud which inevitably meant the badly protected seller lost money. In my particular case this amounted to several hundred pounds. Those days are thankfully over but the refund policy stinks! I was annoyed when paypal followed the US and started to charge 20p for a refund. This rose almost unnoticed, by me anyway, to 30p and now we have to pay all fees on refunded transactions although they have rescinded the extra 30p charge.
Lots of examples where this is unpalatable. I am surprised that this has been successfully implemented elsewhere but then again I could not believe they got away with the initial 20p charge.
In the early days Ebay charged listing fees and a final value fee of around 3% IIRC. At one point we were paying listing fees and around 10% FVF as the greed progressed. Currently, and for several years now I do not pay listing fees and there is a regular £1 FVF ceiling offer. Perhaps paypal would have given us a better deal if ebay still owned it?    
        

soolin

This does also throw up a possibly minor and unlikely- but possible scenario.In all my years of selling it only happened to me once and if malice can be shown then I'm sure (or rather I hope) that paypal would step in and assist as this did for me.

The scenario I encountered was a private buyer who messed me around, kept stalling about payment,and I wasted a couple of weeks waiting for his definite payment that never arrived  In the end after several warnings I sold to someone else. original buyer then paid and demanded item, so I refunded his money and lost the 20p (as it was then) fee. He ended up paying and having me refund his money about 6 times before paypal helped me block him from sending money again- they wouldn't refund the £1.20 he had paid me and confirmed that sellers can't actually block someone from paying .

From memory that item was around the £30 , so my fees if he had paid 6 times would have been annoying high if that happened now.

This is unlikely to be a problem on ebay as I don't think a buyer can pay once an NPB has been closed as they won't have your paypal ID. However it is possible for those sellers - whom I am coming across more and more now, that insist on cancelling a sale rather than doing an NPB - in that case the original pay button would be accessible. There is even the scenario of a disgruntled buyer who is told they can't have their item as it dodn't fetch enough money (again this is becoming a more common scenario) just keep paying for it to get back at the seller.

forgotmyname

I can see an issue for some sellers in that regard. I dont want to say it openly. Hint your a business and your email address is?

Know what I mean?