A discussion for folks who use paypal

FastFly67

FastFly67

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Sep 18, 2008
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Folks don't seem to read user agreements nowadays. This is a direct excerpt from Paypal's user agreement.

4. Receiving Money.

4.1 Receiving Personal Payments.

If you are selling goods or services, you may not ask the buyer to send you a Personal Payment for the purchase. If you do so, PayPal may remove your ability to accept Personal Payments.

4.2 Use of PayPal on eBay. Sellers who offer PayPal as a payment method in their eBay listings must follow these requirements:
  1. Accept PayPal if the eBay listing includes PayPal as a payment method.
  2. Accept all PayPal Payment Methods from a buyer, including but not limited to eCheck and credit cards.
  3. Have a Premier or Business account or be willing to upgrade to a Premier or Business account upon receipt of a payment.
  4. Accept international PayPal transactions if the eBay listing offers shipping outside the US.
  5. Sellers may not charge a surcharge for accepting PayPal as a payment method.
I guess it can be a bit tricky because we (as in folks who sell on AC) aren't selling on ebay. Does this mean we CAN charge additional for folks who want to use Paypal?
Is a "gift" thru Paypal considered a personal payment?
I personally don't understand why folks don't just up the price of their merchandise by a few pennies (or dollars for bigger ticket items) to cover paypal fees.
I know when looking at Aquabid auctions, I'll automatically passover the auctions that say "shipping is $5, handling is $3, $2 box charge, $1.50 for a heatpack and add 3% of winning price to cover paypal fees. Why not just roll it all together and label is $10 for shipping.
I would just like this thread to be an open discussion about paypal and your feelings on such things. It's not here to call anyone out or get anyone in trouble.
 
I don't sell much (yet, hopefully will have plants in the future) but as a buyer I hate the nickel and dimeing of adding $1 or so to use paypal. It's not like $1 is a ton of money, it's just the principle of the matter, so I usually won't buy an item that has that stipulation. For a lower dollar item, I've sent paypal as a gift, though it does make me a little nervous as there is no recourse if the seller is untrustworthy and decided to not send the product but keep the money.
 
FastFly67 said:
Folks don't seem to read user agreements nowadays. This is a direct excerpt from Paypal's user agreement.

4. Receiving Money.

4.1 Receiving Personal Payments.

If you are selling goods or services, you may not ask the buyer to send you a Personal Payment for the purchase. If you do so, PayPal may remove your ability to accept Personal Payments.

4.2 Use of PayPal on eBay. Sellers who offer PayPal as a payment method in their eBay listings must follow these requirements:
  1. Accept PayPal if the eBay listing includes PayPal as a payment method.
  2. Accept all PayPal Payment Methods from a buyer, including but not limited to eCheck and credit cards.
  3. Have a Premier or Business account or be willing to upgrade to a Premier or Business account upon receipt of a payment.
  4. Accept international PayPal transactions if the eBay listing offers shipping outside the US.
  5. Sellers may not charge a surcharge for accepting PayPal as a payment method.
I guess it can be a bit tricky because we (as in folks who sell on AC) aren't selling on ebay. Does this mean we CAN charge additional for folks who want to use Paypal?
Is a "gift" thru Paypal considered a personal payment?
I personally don't understand why folks don't just up the price of their merchandise by a few pennies (or dollars for bigger ticket items) to cover paypal fees.
I know when looking at Aquabid auctions, I'll automatically passover the auctions that say "shipping is $5, handling is $3, $2 box charge, $1.50 for a heatpack and add 3% of winning price to cover paypal fees. Why not just roll it all together and label is $10 for shipping.
I would just like this thread to be an open discussion about paypal and your feelings on such things. It's not here to call anyone out or get anyone in trouble.
Click to expand...

Absolutely you can, section 4.2 only applies to eBay, not to any other public or private websites.

Yes, a gift is a personal payment. So are Payments Owed, Cash Advances, Living Expenses and Other categories. Non personal payments are for Goods, Services, or eBay purchases.
 
Personally, I don't like using paypal, and as far as I'm concerned, its a convenience for the seller, so if they're that picky so as to not cover a fee for using the service, I'll find my goods elsewhere. I have yet to pay a seller-imposed "extra percentage" fee, and likely never will.
 
Agreed. I feel like as a seller you have to be prepared for eating partial shipping costs - unless you overestimate from the get go, which I don't like to do.

Same with PayPal fees - don't try to pinch it out of your buyer! I mean, eBay charges you a list fee, when you sell something on here it's pure profit, if you calculated the shipping just right. You never see eBay sellers saying "add extra 3% for PayPal" because eBay has made PayPal mandatory, like it or not. So I don't see why I should ask people to cover my PayPal on here when I got to list it for free, but not eBay where I had to pay to list...
 
platytudes said:
Agreed. I feel like as a seller you have to be prepared for eating partial shipping costs - unless you overestimate from the get go, which I don't like to do.
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i don't eat any shipping costs. If i am using the medium flat rate box, I know it's going to be just about $11. I've paid for bags, styro, heat packs (during the winter) and then whatever type of insulation. So I'll round up to $15. Still might be eating a bit but I know I'm not gouging my customers. Case in point, I sold dwarf water lettuce for $5 shipped. I ended up PAYING some money to ship this stuff out. But it was my own fault and I ate it.

Same with PayPal fees - don't try to pinch it out of your buyer! I mean, eBay charges you a list fee, when you sell something on here it's pure profit, if you calculated the shipping just right. You never see eBay sellers saying "add extra 3% for PayPal" because eBay has made PayPal mandatory, like it or not. So I don't see why I should ask people to cover my PayPal on here when I got to list it for free, but not eBay where I had to pay to list...
Click to expand...
The way I see it, I'm using their service and therefor paying for it.
 
Sellers may not charge a surcharge for accepting PayPal as a payment method.
Click to expand...

its against the rules to charge for paypal. do people do it? yes.

It's not like $1 is a ton of money,
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it does add up though.

the way i do it is have a base charge for shipping. if you want like a heat pack its extra but i charge enough where for the most part it covers the foam too.

there are other options out there too.
 
I usually include packaging, heat packs, surcharges and the like in my total shipping cost. I dont charge extra for credit cards or paypal, or debit. My prices stay the same for everyone. Using paypal is convenient for the seller, but also protects the buyer from possible fraud and malicious activities.

A merchant is required to be PCI compliant to process credit card transactions online. which means they have to meet government baking guidlines regarding the storage and protection of credit card numbers used to make purchases. By letting a third party such as paypal, or moneris, or several others, the merchant does not handle the credit card transactions and no credit card numbers are stored on the store's servers and databases. Using a 3rd party processer eliminates the need for the merchant to meet PCI complaince.

Paypal is convenient for buyers who have paypal accounts because they arent giving their credit card info to every fly by night web store. Only paypal has your credit card info, the merchant never sees it. If you use Paypal as a credit processor, that is to handle a credit card payment without having a paypal account, the card information is only temporarily kept till the card is processed, or the funds are captured or released.

Many web stores use paypal, because paypal's made it very easy to incorporate their payment processing, and shopping cart process into most any website. A true merchant account is a much more difficult, and usually requires the work of a professional web designer that is very proficient in php, many require SSL, and still require you to be PCI compliant.

While I havent had any traumatic failures with Paypal, I know there are many people that have had issues with them. I have had a commercial account with paypal for about 5-6 years with no real issues.
 
It is a part of what is called "the cost of goods sold". When you "bring" in something to sell or you grow something to sell, you need to figure all of your costs into the price you are charging for the item. For example: you have 10 bn plecos to sell, you paid $1 ea for them, you had them in your tanks for 3 weeks and fed them $.25 worth of food (dividing your food by the amount given daily by the amount of fish eating it, multiplying that by 21 days). So now your bn has cost you $1.25. Add in the cost of the amount of insul board for the box it is going into - another $.50, a bag $.10, tape, ink, paypal fee, etc. You bn now cost you $2.50. To sell it and make 30% you multiply $2.50 by 30% and then add that number to the original $2.50. So now you list your bn at $3.25 and charge the customer the actual shipping charges. Then all of your costs are covered.
 
When I purchase something and the seller, at the last minute, says "oh include $1 for PayPal charges" I will pay the charge and will not use the seller again or I will nullify the purchase. Any extra charges should be disclosed in the ad and made obvious. If someone is having a tough time with money and asks if I could pay an extra $1 for PayPal charges, then I think that is okay, if it was explained and I agree to pay the extra $1.

When I sell something, I add all my costs together and put it into one price under shipping. I count the costs associated with shipping such as the insulation, heat packs, tape, PayPal charges etc., for the total that I charge for shipping.
 
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