After receiving an email from Ebay saying I get 50 listings for free, I decided to sell some items I no longer use.
During the listing process which takes a while if you want to be accurate, it offers up-front payment from the buyer through Paypal. Knowing I did not have the money to pay for shipping some of the larger items, I went ahead and clicked for up-front payment. Also during the process, it shows at the bottom of each listing the fees for that item. It even lets you click on the amount to calculate and give you a breakdown of the fees. All items said $0.00 even after I recalculated.
After two items sold, I was going through my account information to confirm that everything was up to date and I saw I had unpaid fees. I called and said there must be a mistake because I was using my free listings and I went through the distributor directly for shipping costs. I was informed that each item has a percentage that is charged and it can vary per item and account. She then pointed out a very small disclaimer at the bottome of the listing page. I asked a lawyer about this disclaimer and he said what this states legally is that they can charge any percentage they want on your item and it can vary until the item sells.
I then asked what the amount for a listing is and I was told $0.35. In my mind, relative to a 10% fee from selling your item, a listing fee is pretty much already free. Even if you listed 50 items, you are saving $17.50. I guess it is a deal, but not one I would be super pumped about knowing what I know now. Assuming you sell an average of $10 an item (which is probably low), you are going to pay $50 in selling fees plus shipping fees (which still have not been explained). If you sell anything worth some serious money, that 'free' listing starts costing you a lot of money.
After all this, I went to my paypal account to pay the crooked fees I had occured (which I was led to believe would be zero during the entire process) and my Paypal fees were witheld as well. I was told because I was a 'casual' seller I would not receive the funds for some time. I had already shipped the items assuming I had been paid in full. I have a very strict budget and I could not afford to front $50 in shipping costs for multiple weeks while this was resolved.
I called the service center to talk about these issues and I was told that the fees were final and my Paypal funds would not be released. I was told they 'understood' my plight but it was very clear that I would pay an exact 10% on the items I had sold and that I should have known they would hold my Paypal funds even over a week after the item had been delivered.
DO NOT USE EBAY!!!! I have seen different posts reflecting my issues and I hope one more will help anyone avoid the same money-grabbing mentality that got me. Hopefully we will get away from Ebay and start using more customer/seller oriented sites.
