Email says "Amount paid" but actual amount paid is different. Why?

[haidaway]

I get an email that says, Paid: $49.00

But in actuality, the customer did not pay that amount, they paid $36.75. Why is ebay telling me that $49 was paid, when that never happened? I seem to remember it used to say "Order value" which was more cryptic but accurate. This is not accurate. Besides misleading sellers, what is the reason for this?

[slippinjimmy]

@haidaway 

You received less than what the buyer paid because eBay has taken their fees.

Seller Hub -> Payments Tab -> All Transactions

Find the sale and click on Transaction Details for a breakdown of fees deducted.

Also if you purchased a shipping label via eBay the money for that has also been taken from what the buyer paid.

FYI - There are no longer monthly Invoices, all fees are deducted from the buyer payments, costs for Postage, Listing Fees, Store Fees etc are taken from your pending funds or if you have no pending funds a debit from your bank account, PayPal or Credit Card (backup funding method).

[haidaway]

No, the amount is less because I offer a volume discount when they buy more than one lot. The fees were not taken out there, they are taken out here (see picture). The customer never paid $49, they paid $36.75. Why did ebay tell me they paid $49?

 

[coffeebean832]

Because $49 is the total before the order discount was applied and eBay's not reflecting any discounts in the e-mail.

I have one that's even more puzzling for you. When buyers buy multiple different items with a charged shipping cost within the same order, eBay shows within e-mails the item total, then the prorated shipping. Let's say they bought 2 different items items for $40 and $60 respectively, and a total of $15 combined shipping. The e-mail for item 1 will say paid $100 and $7.50 shipping. The e-mail for item 2 will show $100 and  $7.50 shipping. Makes no sense.

[haidaway]

I guess they're trying to make it seem like we are making more money than we actually are. The buyer NEVER PAID $49. I should not be notified that they paid $49 and then have to go somewhere else to see what they actually paid. That's purposeful obfuscation, just like your example above.

[haidaway]

I am especially concerned about the $600 limit of reporting to the IRS in 2022. I can guess they're counting $600 GROSS (so shipping, taxes, and fees are part of the calculation of our 'earnings'), not $600 NET, but are they also going to include prediscount prices in this amount as well?

[asset_liquidators]

Yep I understand exactly what you are saying. I had that happen to me also. When giving volume discounts ebay will tell you the buyer paid the original price x however many items they bought. This is why I quit doing volume discounts on anything which I know isn't feasible for a lot of sellers but in my case it just made more sense to not offer discounts.

[haidaway]

Yes, it makes me want to discontinue it. Most people don't take advantage of it anyways. Maybe 1/12 people, if that...

[asset_liquidators]

Wow, it gets worse. Follow me on this one. I just purchased some items from a seller that does volume discounts. The items are $9.99 each with a volume discount of $1.00 per unit, so $8.99 each for buying three units. 

I purchased three units and proceeded to pay my total amount due of $27.69 (ebays math; $29.97 + $2.22 - $4.50 discount = $27.69). Okay that makes sense right? Or does it?

The actual discounted item price was $8.99 per unit.  Three units x $8.99 = $26.97 + $2.35 tax = $29.32.

I was just UNDER charged $1.63 as the total I owed should have been $29.32.

And this is the same company that is "managing" our payments. Wow, just wow!

[haidaway]

Wow, I...and I can't even check if they did the math incorrectly because I closed the listing since I just gave that buyer the rest of the roll, she got extra, but in my head I thought, she paid $49, who cares?! LOL. Joke is on the ebay seller, as always. Yeah, how do we know their are not doing their funny math on every single transaction, or at least every "volume discount" purchase? Why would we trust people this inept (since it's a computer program that's doing the math, not a human) to handle our money correctly?