8mm Forum: Ebay takes money from the shipping !!..GOSH ....we cannot be honest people !!

This is topic Ebay takes money from the shipping !!..GOSH ....we cannot be honest people !! in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on April 13, 2012, 03:36 PM:

I am a regular buyer at Ebay and I really hate if a seller takes an advantage from shipping.

So I listed my records, and in the description I stated clearly "WHATEVER CANADA POST WILL CHARGE THAT WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO PAY".

I didn't even take money for handling fees (although I still can tolerate this since people need to buy bubble wrap and card board).

I don't need to charge those handling fees because:

1. I live near a supermarket which every day they throw away box and box card board which I can re-use.

2. I bought many records, and I just recycled the bubble wrap

3. The post office is just cross my street, so no fuel or parking or whatsoever

4. I like packing and to make everything tidy. This is just a hobby so my buyers will get surprised when receiving their package

So I listed all my LPs started at $0.09 or $0.99 just to clear out what I don't like or multiple LPs.

To ship one LP to Canada/USA is $9...no media mail here! an expensive country to live.

Then some buyers won my auctions at starting price and I sent the invoices. When I received my money I noticed:

- Paypal takes the percentage from all amount sent (that is still OK)
- Ebay takes the percentage from the final price (that's still OK too)

and

- Ebay takes 9% out of my honest shipping cost !!

This is outrageous....when I am trying to be honest with the shipping, even without any handling fees, Ebay takes the advantage.

So because my LPs were sold at starting price, I didn't get anything and in fact I had to subsidy the buyers on shipping!!

So next time, I cannot longer be honest seller and must mark up the shipping cost to about 10%. So when Ebay takes money, I can still buy the stamp from whatever leave in my account.

At the end...no seller can be honest in Ebay world nowadays.

Did you notice this?

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on April 13, 2012, 04:42 PM:

Anybody who doesn't like what ebay does shouldn't use ebay is what I think.
[Smile]

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on April 13, 2012, 05:43 PM:

I noticed it and adjust my shipping accordingly. I don't mind breaking even just to sell an item. But, It's not going to cost me money to sell it other than the normal which are also ridiculous. Ebay realizes they are the biggest auction site and take full advantage of it. I have tried 2 other site with NO results at all. [Confused]

Posted by Zechariah Sporre (Member # 2358) on April 13, 2012, 06:04 PM:

I agree somewhat with Michael. Although, what I find frustrating is that they used to be alot more seller friendly. I would be okay with it if they had always had their fees like they are but it just keeps getting steeper and I'm almost to the point I don't like selling films on there anymore.

Posted by Wayne Tuell (Member # 1689) on April 13, 2012, 08:24 PM:

It has been that way for some time now Winbert. They do have a phone number where you can voice your opinions and concerns. I use it about once a month for one reason or another.

Ebay's answer is to just add shipping into the price and offer free shipping to make people think they are getting a deal. Their reasoning behind it is to avoid having sellers sell items for a penny with huge profits in the shipping end where ebay didn't collect fees. They ARE about making money. And IMHO they don't care if anyone else does or not.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on April 13, 2012, 10:33 PM:

Wayne, absorbing shipping into the total price is a good strategy for high value items, but for LPs that I am going to get rid off....well who is going to buy Poco or Neil Diamond for $10 even with free shipping.... [Big Grin]

quote:
Anybody who doesn't like what ebay does shouldn't use ebay is what I think.

Mike, this is not about "take it or leave it"......

My point is that it was Ebay that used to warn sellers NOT to take money from shipping...but now it is Ebay doing that! it is so hypocrite to me.

My second point is that we cannot longer be an honest seller with this Ebay system. As my description says "WHATEVER CANADA POST WILL CHARGE THAT WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO PAY", and even to stress my honesty, I stated "if you find the stamp is less than what you paid, ask a refund from me".

But now I cannot do that anymore and have to mark up the shipping cost and delete all statement above.

This has created a world with no longer honest people!

ps: a bit off topic, Ebay must think that Google and Facebook may become its tough competitor once they set auction sites. Think about buying from Facebook members that you meet with real person with real names and real friends, so no strange or pseudo names. This is much safer for buyers.

Or Google with their google map and street view, can locate precisely the sellers/buyers' address so no fraud or cheaters.

cheers,

Posted by Wayne Tuell (Member # 1689) on April 13, 2012, 11:42 PM:

Winbert, that has been speculated for some time that ebay is trying to squeeze out the small time flea market type of seller. When you start putting all the pieces of the puzzle together, you see the big picture. Do you think the Hunt Brothers are their inspirations?

The rest is a rant so you can stop here if you like. [Big Grin]

Get a phone bank person on the line one day and hammer them with your feedback. You will have them thanking you for being such a good user, then you will have them at a loss for a competent reply to a hard question or you just get a stock answer how it is the marketing team...blah blah blah. You can spend a half an hour bitching at them how they are running the small guy out of the selling loop, and you will get an ending reverting back to what a great seller you are thank you for sharing your input...good bye...

The short end of the long story is they do not care a damn about you or me since we are not churning out thousands of dollars a week for them to take their entitled shares from.

Next, just wait for the PayPal fees to go up again. If you remember when PayPal started, it was a free service. In their Q&A's Q: how can you provide this service for free? A: we make enough money on the daily compounded interest off all funds combined that we do not need to charge a fee. Then one day they tried out a small fee...since it was such a great service surely no one would mind paying their small share that helps them so much...then as greed would have it...make up an excuse and raise fees just a percent or two and we (paypal upper management) can have that vacation home we are entitled to. <--that part is speculation. Then the ever growing giant ebay see this hitch hiker company making money off of their auction by streamlining payments...how can we capitalize on this??? GOT IT, we buy them, all but outlaw any other types of payments or make them so difficult no one will use anything but PayPal AND we raise the take percentage up even higher citing some operational cost BS.

Why do I say the fees will go up again? PayPal in their ultimate wisdom wrote it on the wall and no one saw it. In a message they put out to all users, and I'll guess most did not read, they claimed to be trying to be transparent. They claimed that they were accused of holding moneys being transferred to bank accounts for 3-4 days as a way of making extra interest on those moneys before being transferred. They say it was to have a safeguard buffer against fraud and charge backs. And NOW they will hold moneys in non-interest bearing accounts just to show they are not the bad guys here just trying to make a few extra $$$. That was a horrifically stupid move IMHO. Now when you just cut off one of the hands that feeds you and your overall net profit just sank in the tank, what are you going to do to recover so your stock holders quit screaming??? My guess is blame it on the polar shift at the end of the year and raise fees just a percent or two...gawd I hope I'm wrong... [Mad]

By the way, there is webstore.com who has ZERO fees, and you can take multiple types of payments, they even have a celluloid section...but they have very little traffic and or sales.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on April 14, 2012, 02:11 AM:

quote:
Mike, this is not about "take it or leave it"......

Sorry, Winbert, but it is.
Ebay is unfair in many ways. I don't let it bother me. It is what it is. If it bothered me too much I wouldn't use it.
However, it's still the best place around to sell films, forums included.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 14, 2012, 12:37 PM:

I agree with you Zechariah, ebay used to be much more friendly with the seller. Now, the seller has very little power if any and really is at the whim of ...

1. Ebay
2. The customers "whims"

I didn't know that ebay even takes a share of the shipping costs though ... gee, aren't they making enuf already?

The funny thing is that, why would ebay be more buyer friendly than seller friendly. It's the seller that makes ebay a success, not the buyer, as, without the seller, there would be no buyers. However, if there were only buyers and no sellers, there would be no profit whatsoever for ebay and no buyers in the first place.

Of course, this is an old argument, and I agree with Micheal, in that, "well, you don't have to use ebay", which is true, but it doesn't hurt to vent occasionally.

I'm with Winbert on this however, and when ebay allows for it, I do charge a little more than what it actually ships for, but it's not to make more profit, it's to make sure that there is enuf leftover after everybody dips there hand in, to ship the item ... so I'm also with Passquale as well!

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