Paypal fee opinions please

T

tumbleweed

Well-known member
I'm curious as to why people expect the buyer to pay the paypal fee? Why not just ask for a few more dollars and pay it yourself? It reminds me of selling something for $99 because it sounds like so much cheaper than $100. Maybe it's just a marketing technique. I have sold a couple of items over the past few years and always felt like it was crappy to ask the buyer to pay the fee. I think maybe splitting the fee sounds fair. I'm curious to hear what others think about this. It's sort of like when somebody asks for crazy amounts for shipping. Tacking on a little bit to cover the box it's in seems fair but sometimes I see someone trying to sell a dvd or book and charge like $10 for shipping. What's up with that? Thoughts???
 
I agree with you. If the fees are such a big deal to the seller, they should either raise the price slightly or figure out another way to take payment.
 
tumbleweed said:
I'm curious as to why people expect the buyer to pay the paypal fee? Why not just ask for a few more dollars and pay it yourself?
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I think it's because most sellers are consumers and not business owners.
Many people would rather make $50 and not pay any fees than make $60 and pay a $5 fee.

It's a combination of not wanting to deal with it, and the psychological impact of "not having to pay any fees" on their end.

Stupid, yes...but very common.
 
tacking on a little for shipping and 'handling' is cool with me, but paying someones paypal fees im not totally down with. everything ive sold on here and ohter sites, i always pay the fees because they are my fees, not the buyers. the buyer has got plenty of options to go elsewhere and the fees are for MY convenience of being able to accept money over the internet and instantly be able to have access to it via ATM or just regular purchases.

imo, thats how i think its right. shipping can mean gas and time to go ship the thing, box and packaging price is fair too i think. if you wanna be the nickel and dime guy that is. i dont like being that guy either, i just want to make sure shipping is covered or close to it, cuz you dont wanna be taxing your self too much ;)
 
Every business passes all of its costs onto the customer in one way or another. If they didn't, they wouldn't make a profit. :)
 
Good to hear that I'm not alone. It just seems like more and more postings state price + paypal fees and I just don't care for it. Not to say I wouldn't buy something if it were a fair deal - it just puts a negative vibe on it for me.
 
I have a vacation house I rent out and accept paypal. I pay the fees, though once I made a customer split them with me, it made me feel like a tight wad. I just pay 'em now. No questions asked.
But if possible I try and do bank to bank intead. No fees.
 
I thought I read once that you actually weren't allowed to publicly charge the buyer specifically for paypal fees? is that not accurate?

Later,
Jason
 
The best answer is because paypal ends up being a service to the buyer. You get protection through the service and you know that your payment went through instantly. Compare this with writing a check where you have to physically mail the check to the person and then wait 3-10 days for the funds to clear and post...

It does make more sense to just charge a little more, but that being said, I usually charge paypal fees because I set my prices very reasonably when I sell something and the price I ask for is how much cash I want... Otherwise instead of asking for $50 I would ask for $51.50
 
There's a diffeerence to me between seeling as a vendor and selling as an individual. Tacking paypal on for an individual sale is sort of like throwing on tax or handling fee at a yard sale. It does put me off a little bit. I would think making it part of the price is a better option, especially since most people use paypal (I assume).

But actually "handling" fees bother me more since they are so nebulous. My company charges "shipping", which means that we charge what it costs to mail something, period. If you know you are doing business by mail, you know you have to box something up and ship it EVERY TIME. So just make that a part of the the price, just as you would any other part of your profit margin. We don't say "The video file is X, but if you actually want it on a DVD, well that's gonna cost a DVD transfer fee" It's part of the package.

Nothing worse than thinking you are paying one price, and finding out at checkout that it's significantly higher. I was going to buy brads from the Writer's Store and (IIRC) the shipping was more than the brads.
 
Jason Ramsey said:
I thought I read once that you actually weren't allowed to publicly charge the buyer specifically for paypal fees? is that not accurate?

Later,
Jason
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I too remember reading that charging the buyer for paypal fees is not allowed. But, obviously nobody listens......
 
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