Dear Ebay: How do you justify charging the full FVF on sales tax- money that we sellers never see??

[forwardtechsurplus]

Can someone from eBay please articulate your justification for including sales tax- money that we sellers never actually possess- when calculating the final value fee?  If you have a compelling argument on why it's necessary, other than basic greed, we sellers would love to hear it. I thought it was bad enough when Paypal started doing this, but at least their overall fee was on par with industry standard at 2.9%.  But charging us an 11.5% fee (or more) on sales tax is absolutely outrageous. It's tantamount to price gouging, and is unscrupulous at best, if not possibly illegal.  Ebay, you are BEGGING for a class-action lawsuit if you do not change this unfair predatory fee structure. I understand you have an obligation to your shareholders to make more money, but your lack of other viable strategies to do so should not be your seller's burden to bear. Simply jamming your hand a little deeper into our pocket to pad your own reflects a laziness to think of any other long-term revenue solutions, and frankly, shows a blatant disrespect for your sellers. As a long time member of the eBay community, a Top Rated seller, and power seller, I respectfully submit that if you care one iota about your the sellers (you know, the people actually making all that money for you), you will reconsider this egregious money-grab and END fees on sales tax.

To my fellow sellers:  Please make your voice heard. I encourage you to call eBay, write your own post, and reply to this one to share your objection to eBay's unfair skimming of our hard-earned money!

[donsdetour]

PP was charging you a fee on all of that also. were you griping their??

[18704d]

My buyers pay all of my fees.

fwiw,

Lynn

[slippinjimmy]

They justify it by REDUCING the overall fee rate.

Old (via PayPal)

10% on Item+Shipping, 2.9% + $0.30 on the total including Sales Tax

$10 Item with 8% Sales Tax = $1.00 + $0.61 = $1.61 total fees

New (via Managed Payments)

12.35% on Item+Shipping+Sales Tax

$10 Item with 8% Sales Tax = $1.00 + $0.61 = $1.63 total fees

Managed Payments is 2 cents more.

Now think about this....do you ever do any of this:

- Partial refunds for combined orders.

- Orders cancelled by buyer after they have paid.

- Refunds for INR or SNAD claims

Currently NO fees are refunded on partial refunds from either eBay or PayPal

Currently NO Paypal fees are refunded on buyer refunds (full or partial)

In Managed Payments all fees are refunded on Partial refunds.

In Managed Payment all fees except the 30 cents is refunded on full refunds.

I do some partial refunds for combined shipping and every once in a while a full refund. The fees that MP refunds will more than compensate for the tiny increase.

Sales to States with no Sales Tax or a rate less than 8% will be lower through MP than PayPal.

International sales where there is no sales tax will be lower through MP than PayPal.

Sales to buyers in States with Sales Tax but the buyer is exempt will be lower through MP than PayPal.

BOTTOM LINE

MY fees will be slightly lower under Managed Payments plus I won't have to deal with PayPal ever again (that alone is worth money).

[forwardtechsurplus]

Because, as I said in my original post, with Paypal I was being charged 2.9% on the sales tax. Now I'm being charged 11.5% on that same sales tax.  SlippinJimmy is right that on low value items the difference isn't that big, but many of my items are priced at 500$ or more. It adds up.  And might I add, defending eBay by saying "Paypal was doing it too" kind of misses the point. Regardless of who's charging it, it's unfair. Remember, AT NO TIME ARE WE SELLERS EVER IN POSSESSION OF THAT SALES TAX.  It should not factor into the FVF!  The FVF fee is eBay's commission for providing a selling platform, and it was always based on the value of the sale. That's fair- they're entitled to be compensated for providing their service. But the sales tax isn't part of that. Why should we be charged a fee for money we never touch and is not part of our proceeds?

[luckythewinner]

Can someone from eBay please articulate your justification for including sales tax- money that we sellers never actually possess- when calculating the final value fee? 

eBay does not have to justify their fees to sellers, any more than sellers have to justify their selling prices to their buyers. 

It's tantamount to price gouging, and is unscrupulous at best, if not possibly illegal.  

It's not illegal. Etsy does the same thing. 

Ebay, you are BEGGING for a class-action lawsuit if you do not change this unfair predatory fee structure

Someone would have to find a law firm that thought it was illegal. Let us know if you do. 

[gwzcomps]

The math is the same regardless of the value.  If memory serves correct it is 0.5% more or less on average.  This is one of the few things about MP I am worried about.  There are better battles to fight.

[forwardtechsurplus]

Can someone from eBay please articulate your justification for including sales tax- money that we sellers never actually possess- when calculating the final value fee? 

eBay does not have to justify their fees to sellers, any more than sellers have to justify their selling prices to their buyers. 

In a marketplace where they continually struggle to compete with Amazon, it would behoove them not to screw over their sellers, or at least present a compelling excuse when they do.  PS-  "But Etsy does it too" isn't compelling.

It's tantamount to price gouging, and is unscrupulous at best, if not possibly illegal.  

It's not illegal. Etsy does the same thing. 

Pointing out other companies that do the same thing is missing the point. Credit card companies and banks charged exorbitant fees that people probably assumed were legal too, until enough people complained loudly enough. They'd still be doing it today, if everyone took your attitude that we should all just take it.

Ebay, you are BEGGING for a class-action lawsuit if you do not change this unfair predatory fee structure

Someone would have to find a law firm that thought it was illegal. Let us know if you do.

Yeah, what law firm would be interested in what would surely be a high-profile, high damage lawsuit??  LOL Monsanto didn't do anything illegal in selling Round-Up, and yet mysteriously I see lawyers on tv begging me to sue them every single day.  Litigation is costly for both tangible and intangible reasons, even when you prevail. The point is, it would be in eBay's best interest to avoid that.

[valueaddedresource]

I would encourage everyone to do some comparisons over time.  MP will work out well for some sellers and not so well for others. For larger sellers especially, adding the tax in to the fees can quickly eat into the "savings" of MP.  

Here is what I found after analyzing our numbers for August.  It is definitely nowhere near the 25% average savings eBay was touting in many of their marketing campaigns for Managed Payments.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/Comparing-New-Managed-Payments-Fees-to-Old-eBay-PayPal-Fees/m...

[buyselljack2016]

My wife's account had a sale of nearly $61. Selling price +shipping + sales tax.

Her MP "simplified fee" was $0.06 more than if the transaction had gone through PP, and the old pre MP eBay fees.

Just got a Lowe's card.  Seems the rate on that for a carried balance was quoted in excess of 29%.

[forwardtechsurplus]

PS-  @luckythewinner   One needn't break the law to have a civil suit brought against them. 

[3eyedfishcatcher]

Do you know that for most categories non MP sellers is about 2 percent lower than for MP sellers. There is a fee page for non MP sellers and a separate for MP sellers. For now the overall fee's for MP sellers is about 1 percent less but everyone know eBay raises fee's yearly.

[kensgiftshop]

As long as I don't have to deal with the sales tax, I don't mind paying them a little fee to handle it.

[slippinjimmy]

---

@3eyedfishcatcher wrote:

Do you know that for most categories non MP sellers is about 2 percent lower than for MP sellers. There is a fee page for non MP sellers and a separate for MP sellers. For now the overall fee's for MP sellers is about 1 percent less but everyone know eBay raises fee's yearly.

---

Everyone does NOT know that! Other than the increase over a year ago for the Media Category eBay hasn't changed their fees in about 5 years back when they increased Store rates from 9% to 9.15%.

I don't know where you are getting the 2% lower for non-MP sellers. Must be that you are ignoring the payment processing fees that PayPal charges which are INCLUDED in the MP rates.

[slippinjimmy]

---

@forwardtechsurplus wrote:

Because, as I said in my original post, with Paypal I was being charged 2.9% on the sales tax. Now I'm being charged 11.5% on that same sales tax.  SlippinJimmy is right that on low value items the difference isn't that big, but many of my items are priced at 500$ or more. It adds up.  And might I add, defending eBay by saying "Paypal was doing it too" kind of misses the point. Regardless of who's charging it, it's unfair. Remember, AT NO TIME ARE WE SELLERS EVER IN POSSESSION OF THAT SALES TAX.  It should not factor into the FVF!  The FVF fee is eBay's commission for providing a selling platform, and it was always based on the value of the sale. That's fair- they're entitled to be compensated for providing their service. But the sales tax isn't part of that. Why should we be charged a fee for money we never touch and is not part of our proceeds?

---

In my $10 example the difference was about 2 cents, on a $500 sale the difference would be $1

If your total sales are One Million per year you might pay $2000 more but first deduct all the fee refunds that are available under MP that are not available under PayPal (partial refunds, cancelled orders, returns etc.) It would not take a lot to recoup that extra $2000.

Add in the sales that don't include Sales Tax and you will recoup the rest.