Ebay charges fees on shipping and when you refund, they keep the final value fee!!!!

[purpledreamdesigner]

yup, thats right, it was bad enough when ebay started charging final value fees on shipping costs, but since ebay and paypal split...and possibly before...they don't automatically refund the fees when you refund shipping to your buyers.  to make matters worse there is no fix...if you have items of different types in your store, like I do, there is no way to set up shipping discounts that will be reasonable for buyers and sellers.  I have contacted ebay on numerous occasions about this and of course it falls on deaf ears.  

feeling super bummed

[dhbookds]

They never have refunded fvf on shipping refunds...........

[fern*wood]

If you choose to refund some of the shipping costs, figure the fvfs you must pay into the equation and just refund the difference after subtracting them out. 

[megadestroyers]

On the plus side, ebay doesn't charge you a fee (guess it might actually be called a "tax") on the return shipping cost you'd pay for a..................return.

Yet.  Details on guarantee delivery program still cloudy.

[copper.boom]

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@fern*wood wrote:

If you choose to refund some of the shipping costs, figure the fvfs you must pay into the equation and just refund the difference after subtracting them out. 

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Yes, this.

You can also encourage buyers to use the shopping cart and request total from seller before paying. Cart doesn't always work, but most of the time it's been okay for me.

[chrysylys]

Most of your items show shipping in the $4-5 range with a few exceptions. You're talking about 40-50 cents or maybe a little more in some cases. If you're getting enough returns for that to be a burden, you may have other problems.

[anthology-of-treasures]

The worst part of the story is that they charge a final value fee on shipping when there is no technical reason to do this. Yes, we've all heard the horror stories of sellers trying to avoid eBay fees by listing items for $1.00 and charging $50.00 in shipping when they ship the item in a flat rate envelope.

eBay could easily compare the cost of a eBay / PayPal shipping label to what the buyer is being charged and then only apply the final value fee to the difference. Doing this would also encourage more people to use eBay labels as opposed to shipping direct from a retail outlet where eBay has no idea how much the seller was charged. Since sellers would be paying less that means lowered costs to buyers. Since eBay/PayPal labels generally are far more efficient that means buyers get their packages faster.

This also applies to refunding eBay fees on refunds generated by sellers to their buyers. PayPal does this - its all automated within their system. All these new policies would need to be implemented at eBay is writing additional computer code to modify eBay's system. Surely eBay is interested in faster shipping and less cost to sellers, and thus buyers, are they not?

[dhbookds]

Since eBay/PayPal labels generally are far more efficient that means buyers get their packages faster.

Can you give a basis for that statement?

You are not conceiving of how many methods of shipping there are, ..........and how loudly sellers would scream that ebay is "forcing" them to use the few shippers they offer.......

[pbphoenixaug]

Since eBay is unwilling to respond to below ten issues we ask the community.
eBay is very customer unfriendly and does not care about real customers concern issues. Customer service representatives seems to be trained to answer just about what is written in their manuals anything above standard inquiries are respond to with deceptive phrases, which have nothing to do with actually inquiries.

1. Why does an eBay charge 10% on the shipping cost occurring for the seller?
2. Why is eBay keep the Value on a returned item?
3. Why is the eBay schedule for USPS postage ALLWAYS being wrong?
4. Why does eBay not release as minimum the shipping cost to the seller, rather holds that back for certain time?
5. Why is eBay not paying a reasonable percentage to the seller for holding fees?
6. Why does eBay does not protect its buyers against products sold but actually being stolen?
7. Why does eBay not make any fair investigation when a buyer claims that the product was supposedly broken but was proven not?
8. Why is eBay always site with the users who has the most powerfully status?
9. Why does eBay not provide proper professional communication via email?
10. Why does eBay not respond even to Certified Mail send?

I have since 1998 an eBay account and only made mostly negative experience with eBay. Of over 100 items sold 75% had negative and from 200 items purchased 90% where negative as well. All these above issues evidently base on negative experience and eBay claims now that it protects the seller as well as the buyer but all of the above issues have not be resolved by eBay. If it would setup professional ethic and morale values would be a different consideration. Right or wrong is not of value only financial gain is important at any cost. Professional ethics or morale are not interesting anymore so eBay created a society of cheaters and liars like itself. But eBay has over the years turned into a callous monster trying to demand the marked and is been lead by lying leaders directed by Wall Street and does not care about its initial faithfully users. eBay’s initial concept was good but what it made of it deserve only shame, no praise.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

@anthology-of-treasures

The fees are the fees. If Ebay stopped charging FVF on the shipping they would raise the percentage on the sale price. When they extended the FVF to shipping they DROPPED the percentage for some sales and started offering free pictures and free listings.

It's totally unrealistic to think Ebay would stop charging FVF on shipping and take less in fees. It's not going to happen. Ebay likes the fees it charges sellers just fine. Why would they ever voluntarily charge less?

[*eponymous*]

#1-10. Huh?  None of us are eBay so all we could do is speculate...but why would we spend the time?

7.  Buyers are always right.  If the buyer says it's SNAD, it is.

2.  As already stated, eBay has NEVER ISSUED FVF CREDIT FOR A PARTIAL REFUND.  Ever.

Why are you still using eBay if it doesn't meet your expectations so much of the time?

[critter_mama_2007]

I had a buyer request to cancel a purchase, so i did.  Paypal and ebay kept all the fees and paypal charged me to refund.  bad deal all the way around for me.

[anthology-of-treasures]

"Can you give a basis for that statement?"

Yes, eBay labels are far more efficient and cost effective that buying such labels at a retail USPS location.

"You are not conceiving of how many methods of shipping there are, "

Nothing to do with other 3rd party shipping services at all. Back in day I worked for a large local wholesaler, which was UPS's largest local customer. We used UPS, USPS, and our own trucking routes. I also sell via other venues which use other shipping label services. I've used quite a few shipping services over the years and created my own shipping calculator application for Mac & Windows.

"..........and how loudly sellers would scream that ebay is "forcing" them to use the few shippers they offer......."

This has nothing to do with eBay forcing anyone to use specifc shippers. My post was about eBay charging final value fees on all shipping fees when they could instead only charge final value fees on the amount of shipping over the actual cost of a label. Nothing technically preventing eBay from doing this. This of course would only apply to shipping services that eBay offers through its site or PayPal. It would not apply to retail since eBay has no way to verify what a seller paid. It would also not apply to 3rd party shipping services not integrated with eBay since eBay would not have any way to retrieve shipping label costs from the 3rd party service.

[18704d]

"eBay could easily compare the cost of a eBay / PayPal shipping label to what the buyer is being charged and then only apply the final value fee to the difference."

---------

Many of us believe one of the main reasons eBay started the FVF on shipping,

was to 'motivate' sellers to use 'free' shipping.

fwiw,

Lynn

[copper.boom]

@anthology-of-treasures Your initial statement was:

Since eBay/PayPal labels generally are far more efficient that means buyers get their packages faster.

You reply did not address your comment "that means buyers get their packages faster". How on earth would an eBay or PayPal generated label ensure a buyer got their package faster than the countless other options for purchasing labels?

As to your statement in above post about cost-effective, yes we all know they are more cost-effective than purchasing at USPS retail rates, but you can get the commercial base pricing from so many other sources. The discount is not exclusive to eBay or PayPal.