PP etiquette?

Let’s say that a seller asks for $X shipped without explicitly stating anything else on the price.
PayPal charges a fee for the transaction, regardless of whether it’s “goods and services” or “family and friends”.

1. Should the buyer pay as much as needed for the seller to actually receive $X or should they pay $X, so the seller actually receives less. I assume that for a person thinking “I see this nice light for $X” having to pay more could be disappointing. Equally, when a seller thinks “I will part with the item for $X” receiving less may feel unfair. Is there an established etiquette on who pays the fee?

2. When the buyer trust the seller, I suppose the choice between F&F and goods is “whatever is cheaper”. I’ve seen a recent thread on the topic stating that fees for goods are lower. But there was yet another fee hike since then and I don’t know whether it still applies. So…what is the best option now?

3. Is there a fee calculator that:

  • covers international transactions
  • is being kept up to date

?

The way I see it is if you are selling something and take Paypal as a payment option, you should know what fees will be charged and asking price should be set accordingly. Once you sell something and receive payment you can’t go back and cry about the fees, know what you’re getting into before selling.

You might consider this opting for the easiest way out, but if I want something, I pay what they ask.
If they ask me to pay to F&F, I’ll pay the surcharges. If they don’t ask me, I don’t pay them.

Besides, if I buy a physical item from someone, it is a matter of “goods and services” for me.
And I assume that this person has calculated and included all PP surcharges in the amount he/she asks.

There used to be a calculator in the PP app. That’s gone now.
Last time I tried to come to an estimate of how many EURO an item in a foreign currency would cost,
I ended up on the website of XOOM.
Seems to be part of the fantastic and improved service PP can offer you. (pay $1.99 extra).

From what I have experience in my hobbies, this is something the seller should state explicitly in the sales prospect. With the exception of ebay, nobody would otherwise know this.

In the vast majority of cases my sellers have assumed the fees (I strongly assume they absorb them in the sales price). Very rarely have I seen a seller who came back with additional requests for fees.

Also, there is a chance the seller and buyer can split the fees 50/50 - which sounds fair to me.

In personal sales, I will do what the seller asks. On BLF, I ask explicity before payment if the seller has not already laid out the terms.
In general, I would assume “goods and services” and that the seller has already accounted for fees in the asking price. But like I said, I prefer to ask.
If the seller asked for F&F, but I did not feel comfortable doing F&F for some reason, I would counter-offer the seller to pay “goods and services” and to increase my payment amount to account for fees. If they didn’t accept this, I’m not sure I’d trust them.

You know this forum has a sticky on this subject, right?

This^

Seller is responsible for the fees of a sale. Seller should price accordingly.

F&F - if you have a relationship and you work together often and feel comfortable doing so, do it.

If you want to just take care of fees for a friend, but don’t want to take away your protection, add 1-3% to the cost of the transaction.

Additional PP etiquette

No more than 3 shakes or….you know the rest.

My experience has been there’s only a fee using F&F if you use their credit services for the buyers end, otherwise there’s none using an existing balance or linked funds.

Seller should spell out how they want the transaction to be handled up, to be sure their end goal total is met.

There’s always a comedian in the crowd! :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley:

I just paid paypal a 4.7% fee on a transaction that came from overseas
my fees are also higher when the buyer pays with a credit card. The lowest paypal fee Ive seen is 3.3%

plus I paid 26.2%!!! of the sale price in postage

that means 30.9% of the sale price was fees and postage I had to cover out of the sales price (well, the buyer had to cover it actually)

I had a profit of 2.4% on the transaction (I was not trying to make a profit)

the easiest way to increase my profit, would be to sell the item for stated cost, and I pay the paypal fees, but make the buyer pay for shipping… in that scenario my profit would be 28.6%, but that is not what I did in this case. My goal was simply to help BLF friends save money

Oh, and btw, I do NOT ask people to use FF, I tell them to use goods and services, so they are protected.

and no, I do not go back and cry to the buyer that I charged them too little and made no profit… I just suck it up.

I was thinking it had to do with the standard rules:

1. Get in, do it, wash hands, get out
2. No loud noises, laughing, or funny business
3. Don’t make eye contact
4. Maintain maximum spacing possible
5. Aim well
6. Don’t pull your pants all the way down
etc…

On the paypal thing, I think it largely depends on whether the seller is a private seller or a business. I have a business, and I have to pay credit card fees for each transaction (not in paypal, but through my CC processor). I account for these fees in the price of my goods and services. If I feel inclined, I offer a discount for check/cash payments as these don’t have the same fees associated.

Around here, I’d typically ask first as I don’t know if the seller is a business or a person. I understand the pain of paying fees because of my business, so I check first in case they hadn’t thought of it. I bought some SW45K’s recently, and the seller proactively told me his preference. I think communication is key to proper etiquette here.

We each agree to not charge a premium for using PP for a transaction.
We agree to this when signing up to use PP in the first place.

Going in later and talking about fees and who pays them is just B.S. as we already agreed that we would not do so.

The Seller is responsible and if you need to charge enough to cover your entire cost of a sale then just do so from the start.

How is there any Gray area with this?

As a buyer I will not pay a fee.

Well, there are some fees that PayPal charges to the buyer directly in the process of doing the transaction. PayPal will charge those to you over the top of whatever amount you agree to send to the seller. How do you deal with those? Cancel the transaction? I simply pay those fees.

Which fees are these?
I don’t think I have ever been charged fees directly as a buyer?

Off the top of my head, I can think of two: Currency exchange fee and a fee for using a credit card instead of cash account.

Well off the top of my head it seems that neither of these fees are imposed by the seller in any way?

So there is really no etiquette call here,if you don’t want to pay that type of fee just do not buy internationally or from a CC account.

Yeah, I specifically said PayPal charges those fees. I wasn’t trying to imply that the seller has anything to do with it. But it still is a consideration when purchasing from someone using PayPal. OP wasn’t talking specifically about the seller charging a fee for PayPal usage. He was talking about PayPal fees and asking who should pay those.

Understood but there is no Etiquette consideration involved with the Money Handling Fees imposed by the international Monetary System that would be unexpected or in any way part of the deal between you and a seller.

Likewise there is no Etiquette decision really with the Fees charged to the Seller for using PP and they are already agreed to not pass them on whether they choose to follow through with that or not.

So in the end if the Seller tries to impose fees then it is yours to decide about going on with the deal anyway but there is no real alternative to the fees charged by PP or Banks for using finds across international borders and if those are a deal stopper for you then do not use the service that way.

Again not an Etiquette thing at all,is it?

God you’re smart.
Here’s your gold star.