mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@sakic92710 wrote:You tell me, if I charge $30 for S/H & eBay takes $4.00 of that money, what service are they providing me for that $4.00. Go ahead.......... lol
The ability to print your shipping label from home at a discount over retail pricing. I'm not saying I like the FVF on shipping anymore than you do. It is just an old dead subject. Ebay isn't going to change it otherwise they would have over a decade ago.
Your question in your post I responded to was "They do not have an answer for why the fee attached to the shipping is justified." I shared with you that they did when they made the change some eleven years ago. You may not like their reasoning or what they said, but that doesn't mean they didn't say anything. And they sure aren't going to keep defending their position every time someone on the threads ask the question after all this time. That is an unrealistic thing to expect. Clearly you do expect them to do that, but also clearly they aren't going to do it.
@sakic92710 wrote:I know why they started taking a % of the shipping money. Instead of punishing the 1% who were trying the scam, they decided it was in their best interest to punish the other 99% & make more money off of everyone.
Yes and no. That was part of it. This is one of those things that Ebay said they did it because it is industry standard, which it is. Other similar sites to ebay had been charging the fee for a long time before Ebay did.
Then there is also that if they did not make this change it would punish all those seller that do Free Shipping because they are paying FVFs on the shipping because it is in the price of the product.
They pull this industry standard reasoning out when it suits them. But they haven't made that statement regarding the full FVF on sales tax because it is not industry standard. The argument could be made if they charged just the money processing portion of the fee on the sales tax, but no other site charges their full money processing fees and their selling fees on sales tax.
@boomersbiz46 wrote:Have you added up all these charges yet. I got 16.00 + on a 100 sale? Almost 20%. And I think it is closer to 25% if you promote.
Using Promoted listings is a choice as it the additional FVF percentage a seller is willing to pay for a sale.
"EASY Solution (technology has changed):
Charge the processing fee on the total transaction.
Charge the FVF on: (Item Cost + Shipping Cost) - Actual Shipping Seller Paid"
Not all sellers purchase their shipping on Ebay, so Ebay doesn't always have access to what the seller pays. And as strange as it sounds, there are sellers that still take their stuff to the PO to ship out and they pay Full Retail pricing.
Some online providers of shipping do provide Ebay with the tracking number for a particular order and others do not. To my knowledge the ones that do communicate to Ebay with the tracking number don't provide Ebay with the costs as they would have no need for that info at this time. That is likely something they could change relatively easily.
