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Ebay/Paypal forcing me to upgrade to business account, options?

Old 10-12-06, 04:08 PM
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Ebay/Paypal forcing me to upgrade to business account, options?

First off, I did a search, and realize that while this specific question hasn't been asked recently, it has probably been discussed several times in the past. But I'm new to selling on ebay, so please forgive me.

I rarely sell on ebay, maybe once a year on average. But I have sold 6 or so things in the last month or two, subtly asking for no credit cards in the description. I did receive a couple of credit card payments, declined them, and had the buyer switch to a checking account paypal payment.

But today, I received another paypal credit card payment, and paypal does not give me the option to deny it. The deny box is grayed out, and a popover tells me that all ebay sellers are obligated to accept all paypal payments.

I understand that the monopoly wants to get as many fees as possible, but I want to avoid having to "upgrade" to a business account if possible.

Is there any way around this?

I guess I could set up a separate paypal account just for receiving credit card payments, which will hopefully be extremely rarely.

I imagine that asking buyers to pay extra is a no-no and against ebay policy.

Any other thoughts or options? I refuse to deal with personal checks (bad experiences in the past). And aren't there problems with money orders too?

Last edited by Trevor; 10-12-06 at 04:11 PM.
Old 10-12-06, 04:13 PM
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You definitely cannot ask buyers to cover the fees. But according to the TOS, to sell on eBay and accept PP, you do need to accept ALL forms of payment, including CC funded ones. They look to be begining to substantially enforce the rule.
Old 10-12-06, 04:23 PM
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Yep, it looks like they are really cracking down on it now.

Maybe one of the two people I asked to switch payments complained on me?

Or maybe paypal looks at your accounts if you deny more than one payment in a certain time frame?

I'm hoping that the current buyer has the option to cancel his payment......
Old 10-13-06, 09:25 AM
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Tyler, I found this:

Amendment to the User Agreement and policies
Notice Date: September 20, 2006
Effective Date: October 12, 2006
Beginning October 12, 2006, Personal account holders may receive up to 5 credit card, debit card or Buyer Credit funded payments per 12 month period without having to upgrade to a Premier or Business account. Personal account holders who receive a card or Buyer Credit funded payment will be charged a fee of 4.9% + $0.30 USD for domestic payments and 5.9% + $0.30 USD for cross border payments.

You probably exceeded the 12 month limit for CCs.
Old 10-15-06, 05:25 PM
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They are really pushing the upgrade, you are SOL. I had to do it about a year and a half ago because i'd hit the 'personal account' ceiling very quickly.

-p
Old 10-15-06, 07:05 PM
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I had been doing what you did avoiding credit card funded payments for a while. Then I was tired and sick of denying payments and inconveniencing my buyers that I said "screw it" and upgraded my account.

Yes, they take about $0.30 + 2.9% on ALL form of payment. I see that it's part of the cost of doing business on ebay. You can always charge a little more on the shipping and handling to cover part of this fee (as long as it stays reasonable).
Old 10-15-06, 07:12 PM
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Yay. As a buyer, I've not bid on auctions before because the person said "Yes, I take paypal, but not CC-funded PP accounts", and that was my method of payment.
They're a hell of a lot cheaper than getting your own merchant account from Visa or MC. I upgraded a couple years ago and have no regrets. But I also got the debit card, so I get 1.5% back when using it, and it's now linked to my bank account, so I have basically an interest-earning debit card.
Old 10-15-06, 10:54 PM
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Originally Posted by DVD Josh
Tyler, I found this:

Amendment to the User Agreement and policies
Notice Date: September 20, 2006
Effective Date: October 12, 2006
Beginning October 12, 2006, Personal account holders may receive up to 5 credit card, debit card or Buyer Credit funded payments per 12 month period without having to upgrade to a Premier or Business account. Personal account holders who receive a card or Buyer Credit funded payment will be charged a fee of 4.9% + $0.30 USD for domestic payments and 5.9% + $0.30 USD for cross border payments.

You probably exceeded the 12 month limit for CCs.
They're charging 5% on credit card transactions now?!!!! When did they start doing that? I remember it being between 2 or 3 % the last time a checked.
Old 10-15-06, 10:57 PM
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For personal transactions.
It seems like if you don't upgrade, you get charged a higher fee to accept CC transactions, up to 5 a year; if you do upgrade, you get charged a lower fee, on every transaction. Sounds fair; it allows the personal accountholders to pay a premium for the occasional CC acceptance.
I think for Business or Premier accounts it's still the 2.9% plus 30 cents or something like that.
Old 10-16-06, 01:50 AM
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Can you get a new paypal account?
Old 10-16-06, 03:15 AM
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Originally Posted by dtcarson
For personal transactions.
It seems like if you don't upgrade, you get charged a higher fee to accept CC transactions, up to 5 a year; if you do upgrade, you get charged a lower fee, on every transaction. Sounds fair; it allows the personal accountholders to pay a premium for the occasional CC acceptance.
I think for Business or Premier accounts it's still the 2.9% plus 30 cents or something like that.
The thing is that they are not giving me the option to stay personal. I've accepted maybe 10 payments in the last 7 years, always non-CC.

But now, with this latest CC attempted payment, I don't even have the option to deny it. I must accept it and become a business member.

I think I'll just bite the bullet and do it, adding another $1 to my S&H charges in the future, which I use to just break even on postage, ebay, and envelope costs, but now having to add paypal fees to the mix.

Thanks for the input all.
Old 10-16-06, 10:06 AM
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Originally Posted by eau
You can always charge a little more on the shipping and handling to cover part of this fee (as long as it stays reasonable).
What is the best way to report unreasonable s&h? I am seeing more and more low bids with way high shipping. For example: A DVD set like Buffy for a BIN at 99 cents and a shipping price of $29.99 for Media mail.

I have reported this in the past, but nothing happens. I still see the same merchants doing it. This is wrong to do correct?
Old 10-16-06, 03:04 PM
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Originally Posted by RedBull7&83
What is the best way to report unreasonable s&h? I am seeing more and more low bids with way high shipping. For example: A DVD set like Buffy for a BIN at 99 cents and a shipping price of $29.99 for Media mail.

I have reported this in the past, but nothing happens. I still see the same merchants doing it. This is wrong to do correct?
They are trying to reduce the FVF by jacking the shipping. You are right, it is totally against eBay rules (as is excessive shipping).
Old 10-17-06, 07:42 AM
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Originally Posted by RedBull7&83
What is the best way to report unreasonable s&h? I am seeing more and more low bids with way high shipping. For example: A DVD set like Buffy for a BIN at 99 cents and a shipping price of $29.99 for Media mail.

I have reported this in the past, but nothing happens. I still see the same merchants doing it. This is wrong to do correct?
Just don't bid on it..What's the big deal?????
Final price is still the same..
DG
Old 10-17-06, 07:51 AM
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A. The seller is violating at least two policies that they voluntarily agreed to when listing an item.
B. They are being hypocritical--they want to make as much money as possible, but try to prevent Ebay from making their profit--which the seller already agreed to; which often is linked to a sense of entitlement [the 'internet should be free' and all that crap.]
C. If the seller will try to cheat Ebay out of their, what, 1.00-3.00, who's to say they won't cheat me out of my purchase price?

Some people still believe there's a right way and a wrong way to do business, and prefer to do business with honest business people. And some people resent people ignoring the rules they agreed to, when the first people play by the rules.

Red Bull: Down at the bottom of the auction listing page below the bid form under "What else can you do" should be a hyperlink that says "report this item", it should take you to a screen where you make a couple drop down selections to report the item. If the auction has fewer than 2 or 3 days left, I wouldn't bother, odds are they wouldn't get to it in time, especially if they're weekend days, but if it's more than that, report away. After I report it I bookmark the auction to see if it gets pulled--if the S/H is egregious enough [like in your example] it usually is, though it may take a couple days.
Old 10-17-06, 10:36 AM
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Thanks dtcarson.
Old 10-18-06, 04:14 AM
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Good luck with reporting listing violations on eBay. I reported one seller for several auctions of obviously pirated music software and this seller continues to offer the same discs each and every week to this day. eBay seems to turn a (willfully) blind eye to such auctions and they don't seem to care too much about the inflated shipping costs since there are thousands upon thousands auctions with such jacked up shipping costs.
Old 10-21-06, 09:21 AM
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Originally Posted by RedBull7&83
What is the best way to report unreasonable s&h? I am seeing more and more low bids with way high shipping. For example: A DVD set like Buffy for a BIN at 99 cents and a shipping price of $29.99 for Media mail.

I have reported this in the past, but nothing happens. I still see the same merchants doing it. This is wrong to do correct?
A while back I saw a seller try to sell high grade CGC graded 1960's comics. He had the first ten issues of the Sub-mariner all graded at 9.6 to 9.9. He had a low starting bid ($9.99) but in the fine print there was an $8,000 "handling and service fee" for them.

I reported it to ebay and it was taken down with 4 hours.
Old 10-26-06, 05:57 AM
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Any further updates on this situation? I've also managed to avoid accepting credit card-funded paypal so far, and have been scared to sell anything on ebay ever since I heard of the new hyper-aggressive steps being taken to force paypal users to upgrade our accounts (whether we want to or not)...

Last edited by Gypo66; 10-26-06 at 06:15 AM.
Old 11-03-06, 02:49 PM
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BAH! I just had to upgrade my paypal account too. I have sold maybe five times on ebay over a course of probably just as many years, and have never been hit with a credit card as far as I can remember. Then someone pays with debit, and I can't decline, and have to upgrade... stupid me too, because I told them I couldn't take the card (in an email after payment) and now realize even if they had backed down, what could I do? Can't deny. Got them all mad for no reason, thinking I was trying to scam them somehow. But it sucks to have it eat into my Final Payment! GAH!
Just wanted to rant.
Old 11-03-06, 10:55 PM
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I just upgraded. Shame too as I had a $125.00 payment sent to me for the purchase of 4 DVDS. Oh well....was fun while it lasted.
Old 11-04-06, 01:30 AM
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Wow... were they Criterion's or something? $31 a movie seems pretty steep. Not bad for you though
I had a TMX Elmo for $103 after shipping. Took it down $3. Disappointing, but, what can yah do?

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