Was shocked to see my promotion fee percentage jump from 3% to 14%

[saw3904]

I opted into promotions and set my rate at between 2% to 4% and when I added the promoted listings column to my Active Listings view I saw that the percentage jumped up as high as 14%! Thant's in addition to the final value fees. So I called eBay and they said there's a range of percentage setting. What??? Its not mentioned anywhere on any page that explains promotions and its hard to navigate to but I got to it with the help of the eBay agent and the range was set from 2% to 14% and he said that even though I set my promo percentage at 2% it could go up to the high range on the setting any time. Of course I eliminated the range option altogether in favor of a fixed percentage applied to all of my listings but before that 18 out of 70 listings had risen from my settings of 2% - 4% up to 9.7% - 14% in just 3 or 4 days from listing the items.  The only info offered while listing was that the trending percentage was 5.7% with a minimum participation of 2%. Can you believe the balls on eBay? I couldn't find the word range  on any eBay page as it relates to promotion fees and when I asked the agent, who knew all about the range setting and said so early in the conversation, to show me any mention of it other that on the page where the range setting exists he couldn't find anything either.  He spent several minutes combing through eBay pages looking for it and even got back to me and asked if I could give him a few more minutes.  "Take all the time you need, by all means!"  Nothing.  And this agent was very knowledgeable with answers for everything else instantly.  But I stumped him.  Of course my only knowledge of promotions was from what I gathered while listing items.  There certainly wasn't any mention of any range setting when I opted into promotions while listing.  With eBay sending payments at random I could have wound up paying them 34% (as a percentage of the price I get for my items since eBay takes a cut of the total amount of money paid by the buyer which includes sales tax and shipping) or more without ever knowing it. I thought I was getting a good chunk of listings popping up from searches as promoted listings for just a few points and now I know why-I wasn't seeing all of my listings promoted because of the 2-4% I thought I was paying but because eBay hiked the percentages up to 14%!  Any thoughts on this?

[saw3904]

So right after posting the above, I watched eBay's blockbuster, "Reach New Buyers with Promotional Listings" where they state "You're in control of how much you want to spend.  You set the percentage of the sale you're willing to spend."  Not one word about any range of percentages setting.

[ebooksdiva]

@saw3904 

If you are using Promoted listings Standard and you select Automate suggested ad rates the rates will change to the maximum you selected. 

But if you select Apply Fixed Ad Rate they will stay at what ever rate YOU select.  

[saw3904]

I had selected an ad rate within the listing page unaware of any range of rates.  I hadn't set a range of rates and when I first learned of the range settings it was pre set at 2-14%.  During listing only the minimum was divulged as "5.7% trending with a minimum of 2%" without any mention of a maximum, let alone one of 14%.

[ebooksdiva]

I did that way in the listing page but I prefer to be in control of the percent used to promote.  

To change it go to your seller hub click marketing then Advertising dashboard. Next click the blue button that says create new campaign. 
In the next screen select standard create campaign again. Then scroll to Apply Fixed Rate put whatever amount you feel comfortable with. I use 2% it never changes until you change it. 
Good luck.