If I request a Paypal payment in this way, fine but there is still a
charge for 'accepting' the payment' of (as I remember) 30 cents plus
2.9% or in my case 3.9% as I am an 'International Account' holder -
that is, they have charged me an extra 1% for NOT confirming my address
and NOT offering any transaction insurance. This may have changed now
that they have added AUD to their list of approved currencies and local
offices.
What burns is that this fee is supposed to cover credit card fees and
the like but still applies if the money is simply transferred into my
account from another Paypal member's account, an operation which costs
them nothing. The English operation Moneybookers(?) makes no charge for
such a transaction.
Ebay's response to grumbles about their fees has always been that you
as the seller can build the fee into the price, an amusingly difficult
concept in an auction and a quaint bit of doublespeak given that they
are in the auction business and the price is not set. Traditional
auction houses do it but buyers on the net are not expecting it and
will object. They seem to have extended the principle to Paypal even
though they have declared the charging of a Paypal premium to be
'illegal' and will pull your listing if you try it and they spot it.
This is because they apply the California credit card laws to every
transaction (although they seem to operate financially out of Florida)
because it suits their purpose - and that law forbids a trader charging
a customer a premium for a credit card transaction. This is bizarre of
course when I buy or sell to someone in Europe and nothing but
cybercash goes anywhere near the US. Good luck arguing that point with
them - they suddenly cease to be an international operation when
there's a profit to be made.
In fact, good luck arguing anything with them. Their entire global
customer service operation seems to be based in the US rather than
locally, possibly outsourced, staffed by people who answer with stock
responses based on irrelevancies or inaccurate assumptions. It seems
governed by a policy that you will never be answered by the same person
twice and that each new respondent will not read the previous or
original messages. Such fun.
AndrewF
On 05/04/2005, at 5:22 AM, Piers Hemy wrote:
>
> No, not quite! There is no need for you (as seller) to suffer any FX
> loss,
> Chris - simply specify that you require payment in GBP (assuming that
> is
> what you want) whether by Paypal or any other mode. If the buyer
> chooses to
> use Paypal, then the buyer picks up the FX loss, and you get GBP.
>
> --
> Piers
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