The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 08

[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

Is this fair?
Message #1 Posted by Matthias Wehrli on 26 May 2002, 12:04 p.m.

I won an auction on ebay.com... Now the seller and me are different opinions for the payment. I want to pay through paypal. In his aucion text the seller (not named by name) noted that paypal is ok. Now he wants me to pay the paypal fee without noting this anto the auction text... I did dozends of transactions throught paypal and the seller never wantet me to pay the fee. Now I ask you: What do you think? Does the seller has to note that the fees have to be paid by the buyer or not?

Matthias

      
Re: Is this fair?
Message #2 Posted by thibaut.be on 26 May 2002, 1:13 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Matthias Wehrli

Well, according to what you are writing, this is not fair.

I also experienced a few problems (but fortunately a very low %age of all my ebay transactions) with people who change up their mind after the auction is won. That's why I'm now only occasionally trading on ebay and really prefer to do the tradings amongst this community, where up to now EVRYBODY is really great.

      
Re: Is this fair?
Message #3 Posted by Ellis Easley on 26 May 2002, 2:08 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Matthias Wehrli

I think it is not fair if the seller didn't state it in the first place. I bid in one auction where the seller stated "buyer pays Ebay", I suppose he meant the commission. I won, and he never itemized the total payment - I imagine it is possible to look up the commission schedule on Ebay but I never did - it couldn't have been more than a couple of dollars. He was one of those sellers who say very little - mostly sells auto parts! Recently I bought something from a person who I bought from before in an Ebay auction. She is selling me some things of hers and also selling me some other things on consignment from someone else, on which she will earn a finder's fee. She asked me if possible, to please not use Paypal, because she would have to pay the entire Paypal fee and most of the sale is the items on consignment. I told her she was in luck because I don't use Paypal.

            
Re: Is this fair?
Message #4 Posted by Tedy on 26 May 2002, 6:50 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by Ellis Easley

In order for an EBay transaction to be fair, all disclosures must be mentioned upfront, not on the back end. I myself would never do business with a person that changed the sale terms on the back end. That is just wrong. I would back out of the sale and do two things. First I would make a remark about this person, and second I would make sure they do not give you a negative rating, even if they do, you can dispute it and have it removed for unfair sales reasons. Just the fact that the person did this to begin with, would make me wonder about the product I'm getting, or if I'll end up getting it at all. Make sure you print off all the pages that describe the terms that seller had described so you have proof it wasn't discussed. EBay is pretty good about things like this. Viel Glueck!

                  
Re: Is this fair?
Message #5 Posted by Thibaut.be on 27 May 2002, 3:25 a.m.,
in response to message #4 by Tedy

The main problem with ebay is the negative feedback. Often you are reluctant to post a negative or neutral feedback for someone who really deserve it because you're afraid of getting one in return. And don't beleive ebay will cancel the negative feedbacks. I have personnally been granted of 4 of these, and NO one is deserved : - 1st neg feedback : from a ripper-off who has been in the meantime excluded frim ebay. His feedback is now private but I know he had more negs than positives. I filed the fraud form, the insurance form, the ebay contact forms, all I got where electronic replies. - 2nd neg feedback : I won an auction for a US shipping only. The guy immediately posted a neg feedback "not respecting the sales terms". The fact is that 2 people of this community have kindly offered me their address as a US mailbox. He posted a "feedback review" apologizing, but ebay though contacted many times *never* canceled that - 3rd neg feedback : there has been a merging last year with a belgian auction site. For a really unknown reason, they consolidated the feedback systems of this prior site. I collected a negative feedback for something I was absolutely not concerned. Of course all my e-mails and letters remained unanswered. After having read the merging issues, I came to the conclusion that the criteras where a) e-mail address or b) credit card number. The people needed a valid credit card number to get a user ID. I am under the impression someone took my card number (it's quite easy as it's printed on each transaction voucher) to log in - 4th neg feedback : again, someone who was very friendly at first but did not want to ship abroad. I gave him the address on a fellow community memeber and saiud he wouldn't ship to an address that was not mine. Then he said I never paid for the auction. Of course, no answer from ebay yet.

So, you see, this feedback policy is useful to a certain sense and can really be pervert when you deal with unfair people.

      
Re: Is this fair?
Message #6 Posted by barry on 26 May 2002, 7:12 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Matthias Wehrli

i believe it is illegal for the seller to charge you the fees when paying by credit card; its also illegal for him to mention it upfront in the auction description. if the purchaser OFFERS to pay the fees then there is no problem.

            
Re: Is this fair?
Message #7 Posted by Mike McDonald, Leavenworth KS on 26 May 2002, 10:59 p.m.,
in response to message #6 by barry

The Paypal agreement you review and sign before becoming a user specifially prohibits you from creating customer "classes", and requires that all people regardless of payment method, pay the same amount.

            
Paypal User Agreement Re: Is this fair?
Message #8 Posted by Mike McDonald on 29 May 2002, 10:55 a.m.,
in response to message #6 by barry

For the record - Paypal's website has the user agreement, a section of which is shown below; =================================================== No Surcharges. Under Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express regulations and the laws of several states, including California, merchants may not charge a fee to the buyer for accepting credit card payments (often called a "surcharge"). You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as payment. This restriction does not prevent you from imposing a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services, as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge (in other words, the handling fee for transactions paid through PayPal may not be higher than the handling fee for transactions paid through other payment methods). ========================================================

      
Re: Is this fair?
Message #9 Posted by David Smith on 26 May 2002, 8:10 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Matthias Wehrli

Doesn't Ebay and/or Paypal have a rule against buyers being charged for the Paypal vig? I have seen lots of auctions where the seller wanted the buyer to pay the fee, but later added something along the lines of "Sorry, as per Ebay rules, I will pay the Ebay fee"


[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

Go back to the main exhibit hall