Rant time as you may guess. Gonna try not being judgmental but if it comes out, .
Just received an order placed long ago, more than 3 months old in fact, a precision tweezer set worth $2.68. Around a month ago I submitted an “item not received” claim and got my money, although the seller kindly asked me to send him/her the payment if I were to receive the item later.
Went to PayPal to see how much was the thing worth. I paid €2.47 to get $2.68 back in February (4% fee), then this April these bastards reimbursed me €2.31 which, according to my math, means they swindled me another 4% just because @#$% thee (!). If my mind is right (and I know it is) this was not this way in the past. When did these bastards started behaving like this? :-|
Suffice to say I am right now displeased with @#$%.
Question in case any of you knows, do sellers straight lose the money in “item not received” claims?
When i sold my leds, the buyer paid me in AUD instead of USD, so I refunded him so he can make the payment again in USD. I received amount after fee, but Paypal charged me full amount when i made refund. So yes, seller do lose the fee even when the money is refunded
You usually end up eating forex fees on returns like this, whether or not PayPal is involved. It’s the same with many credit card returns. I’ve lost significant sums from US-based sellers “helpfully” issuing refunds and asking me to purchase an item again because it was quicker and easier than amending the original order and they had no idea it would cost me money.
They do it because they can. Personally I think they have an monopoly. You can’t buy without them when shopping in China.
As you stated they also use a bad conversion rate when you initially buy the product/service(4%). But someone on this forum said when you use an debit card you can get a better exchange rate.
And let’s not talk about their bad practices like stopping payments to Wikileaks, Usernet providers, Protonmail, VPN providers etc.
Get a US$ credit card. I got one, for the sole purpose of using it for Paypal. Works great, and no currency fees. I fund it from a US$ savings account, so any non-US money I transfer into that account has much lower fees than what Paypal or credit card companies charge.
I suppose I could skip the US$ credit card, and just have Paypal use my US$ savings account directly. I just don’t like the idea of linking a bank account to Paypal, though.
first, paypal always uses a bad exchange rate for converting currency, so you end up paying just a bit more. Solution: Get a creditcard that has no fee when used in a foreign currency und use that to pay in $ instead of letting paypal exchange your € to $ (you can set up paypal to charge your creditcard in the original currency)
second, there’s just bad luck with the exchange rate. 5$ are always 5$, but when the exchange rate going up or down, you loose or win. If you pay in a foreign currency paypal gives you the return in that currency, so you can wait until the rate goes back in your favor (or use it for the next payment in that currency).
We can do lots of stuff which we don't because of good reasons. I mean, lessons learned. They do not have a monopoly, I can buy in AliExpress with my debit card and let me say things are going pretty fine for me. Just an example.
Speaking of monopolies let me say the idea in itself can be good. However, as with everything else for things to work conscious support is paramount. At some point the monopoly idea started looking bad because of whatever evidence. Evidence or truth is created and manifested, and each one of us is a co-creator. We must choose responsibly where and how to use our energy, how to believe. Consciousness matters. If we buy onto the drama of others, embracing their disempowering beliefs, we then become cannon fodder as them. There is no mastery in that.
Instead of monopolies we then have lots of independent businesses each one on its own competing against, which can involve cooperation. With enough cooperation competitors unite, so we end up in the aforementioned.
Cooperation, like unity, in itself is a high, heavenly idea. We need to fix our beliefs with whatever thing which spoiled it. We need to fix our beliefs with lots of things, becoming more and more conscious in the process. That's it.
Just wanted a thread to chime in that VISA (and Mastercard) are also skimming money via exchange rates. I bought an MF01 Mini (paid in USD thinking the exchange rate might be okay, it’s generally better than Paypal’s) but cancelled after learning of issues. I lost AUD $5 on a full USD refund as the exchange rate appears to be artificially low on either side. I will always pay in local currency where available from now on, I hate losing money to the “banksters”.
That also applies to even banks in certain countries at least. There are Buy-in rate and Selling rate. The gap between the two rates can sometimes be as much as 20%.
some banks use their own (=worse) exchange rate and not the “official” ones from visa/mastercard. Just learned that myself.
I’m not sure what you mean with local currency, but there can always be a loss due to changes in the exchange rates, even without additional fees and ripoffs from those banksters. (Can go the other way as well)
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