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Paypal fees

Do you think it is ethical to be asked to pay to cover paypal fees?

  • Total voters
    27
  • Poll closed .
I'd lean toward no, the seller should suck it up but I also don't think it's a black or white thing either. I usually just swallow it, it's the price of business but I did have one repeat buyer that wanted to send me a money order so I wouldn't get hit with the PayPal fee and I said yes to that. But we'd done business before and I trusted her to send the money order and she was the one to suggest doing that.
 
I ran an online business for awhile and relied heavily on paypal. I sucked up the fees, it is a very small fee for the convenience of being able to safely accept credit cards when you otherwise would not be able to. Anywhere you use a credit card the merchant pays a fee.

The first time I buy snakes from a breeder I purchase as a good, and have the seller pay fees. That is for my protection, if they disappear and never send me the snake I can still get my money back. I probably will pay as a gift in the future to breeders I have worked with before and trust, as I know how much the fees suck. But I'm not going to put myself in a bad position and potentially loose money from someone I haven't worked with before.

I do expect breeders to include the cost of the box and such with shipping, and would be ok if they threw a couple dollars from the fee in too. The snakes price is for the snake, shipping and box goes on top of that.
 
There is one slight problem with using the gift option to make a purchase. Plain and simple it's fraud. Now that's one option I will no longer pursue. The $$ amount determines what class felony.
 
I have a friend that runs a brick and sticks store, she pays an 8% fee for each credit card transaction and then a one time payment for the card reader that was fairly expensive, so I don't think the PayPal fee is much to be able to take debit or credit cards.
 
kathylove said:
I can't really vote because I don't see it as a question of ethics at all. It is a question of PayPal rules. If you don't follow their rules, somebody will eventually complain and PayPal will threaten to drop you if you don't comply.

Personally, I feel ANY agreement about fees / payments is ethical IF it is stated up front - and both buyer and seller agree. Everything in life is negotiable, IMHO.
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Sorry Kathy but I disagree, it is about ethics. Is it ethical to knowingly violate a written policy?
 
I was thinking of the question as to whether it is ethical to expect a buyer to cover the fees, and not considering whether PayPal would allow it or not.

Considering whether it is ethical to violate written policies o a private company brings in another aspect that I was not thinking about in the question. I am still not sure how I would answer that (ethics of violating the policies of a private company). Maybe I would ask the question as to whether it is ethical for PayPal to override the "natural order" (in my opinion) of free enterprise for buyer and seller to personally negotiate the details of each sale. When buying real estate, for example, sellers and buyers may each traditionally pay for certain items and fees, but in the end, it is all negotiable and often depends on whether it is a buyer's or seller's market. To me, that is the proper and most ethical way to negotiate a sale. PayPal (and other credit card providers) short circuit that ability with their policy. Is it an ethical policy or not?

I don't ask buyers to pay PayPal fees because it is against their terms and because I know they will enforce it - not necessarily because I think it is ethical. That is the same reason I obey a lot of laws that I don't necessarily think are logical or ethical.

Although the following is not TOTALLY relevant, I think it does show that credit card providers don't make their fee payer policy just based on whether the seller or buyer paying the fees is more ethical, one way or the other.

I have noticed that credit card companies that normally prohibit seller fees (not sure if PayPal is among them) don't seem to mind that many government agencies that accept credit cards DO charge "customers" to pay by that method. So obviously those companies have made an exception to their policy in SOME cases (again, not sure if those companies include PayPal, or just various Visa and Mastercard providers). If their policy was based on ethics, they wouldn't allow an exception to government agencies.
 
I thought the same way Kathy did when I first read the question but I see your reason for using the wording that you chose. I've never asked for additional fees. If I truly objected to eating the fees I would ask for Postal MO's as sole payment.
Merchants routinely absorb the fees associated with credit card transactions. That is why very few stores accept AMEX. Their fees are much higher than everybody else's. Followed closely by Discover. And paying with cash will frequently allow one to bargain for a cheaper price.:)
Ethical or not I have heard people complain about vendors adding Paypal fees on to purchases.

Terri
 
Personally, I believe it is on the seller, not the buyer, to cover the fees. I've always paid the fees when people were purchasing from me, and I've never really had any issues about having sellers ask to cover the fees.
 
It was the specific use of the term ethical that made me vote yes, and I had a whole reply written out, but the iPad ate it, last night. Today, in light of the comments about the payPal rule prohibiting charging the fee to the customer, I might have to revise my position. Although nothing keeps them from just making the price 4% higher.
 
Nanci said:
It was the specific use of the term ethical that made me vote yes, and I had a whole reply written out, but the iPad ate it, last night. Today, in light of the comments about the payPal rule prohibiting charging the fee to the customer, I might have to revise my position. Although nothing keeps them from just making the price 4% higher.
Click to expand...

That's it in a nutshell. The seller's asking price should simply cover the PayPal fees if those dollars are so important to him/her. And shipping quotes should include the box charge/etc in it. I personally hate "hidden" fees so if a seller starts tacking on PayPal fees, box fees, gas fees, etc, I'm apt to cancel the sale or at the very least, never purchase from that seller again. With the current economy and the huge drop in the corn snake market, I'm very glad to be able to sell anything and will gladly "eat" the PayPal fees and most of my expense to ship (the extra $1-2.00 I round shipping charges up to doesn't cover the almost 2 gallons of gas I use round trip to take a package to FedEx).
 
Well, times are tough for both the buyer and the seller. I suppose if someone makes a drastic price cut on their snakes, then they don't want to lose what little profit they have left.

Supply and demand!
 
"...Although nothing keeps them from just making the price 4% higher."

EXACTLY! Obviously, such expenses will have to be built into the price, just as any other expense. So it is not that the buyer is actually saving money. Really, only the total delivered price compared to other seller's prices matter. But I do agree that I hate not knowing the full price because of a pile of additional charges - like today's airlines and car rental companies. People tend to complain more about all of the small add on charges than they do total price. So the proper business strategy is to market your product (whatever it is) according to what the customer finds most appealing. It is all about supply and demand, and marketing to whatever your customer most wants in a way you can supply it profitably.

I still say that ethics is about being honest with your customer so they can make their own decision. The actual details of what you offer is more about marketing - as long as you are honest and upfront.

BTW - have you noticed that some gas stations offer a few percent discount for cash customers? It accomplishes the same thing as charging the extra percentage points for credit card customers, but the discount is allowed (by card companies) while the extra charge is not. A cash discount is more appealing and better marketing strategy than charging extra for credit purchases. Sellers of other products could use the same discount ploy. But is the cash discount more ethical when it is really the same thing?
 
Susan said:
That's it in a nutshell. The seller's asking price should simply cover the PayPal fees if those dollars are so important to him/her. And shipping quotes should include the box charge/etc in it. I personally hate "hidden" fees so if a seller starts tacking on PayPal fees, box fees, gas fees, etc, I'm apt to cancel the sale or at the very least, never purchase from that seller again. With the current economy and the huge drop in the corn snake market, I'm very glad to be able to sell anything and will gladly "eat" the PayPal fees and most of my expense to ship (the extra $1-2.00 I round shipping charges up to doesn't cover the almost 2 gallons of gas I use round trip to take a package to FedEx).
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more, and that's exactly what I did. A quick sale could've been made, now that will never happen. Sometimes it just seems like pure & simple greed.:shrugs:
 
I eat the fee. When I say "X" snakes is "Y" dollars that's what I expect the buyer to pay; shipping, price of the box, whatever fee PayPal charges etc is all included in "Y"...

The PayPal fee to me is just the price you pay for a convenient way to accept payments for goods :)
 
I have to agree that the convenience of being able to take paypal is worth the fee for sellers. I feel a buyer would get turned off by too much fine print over that kinda stuff. I'd be less inclined to buy from someone with extra charges for packages other than the snake and the shipping. If those costs are making such a difference to a seller, he or she should just price the snake a little higher to begin with so the paypal fees/ cost of packing materials/ gas to go to fed ex/ whatever other miscellaneous expenses are covered.
 
A bit different but goes along with it. I'm trying to find an Internet provider for my Dad. And if he didn't actually need to have one, I'm about ready to throw my hands up in the air and wish them all to the Devil. About every time I think I've got the finished monthly price figured out, I notice one more add on that will need to be factored in, so what starts out as $19.99 a month is actually going to be about $45 or more a month with all the additional fees that are added on. It wouldn't bother me if it just said a flat $50 a month, everything included but I'm ready to not bother with them for how many times the projected price has climbed and the fear that I've missed some other hidden fee in the fine print. That kind of thing is definitely not a good marketing strategy!
 
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