I have heard many folks rant about the payment system referred to as poopal and I didn't really fully understand it. But, I just sold a boat on ebay with a deposit paid through that entity and the Bas$$ads took $15 to send me $500, then charged another $1.50 to mail me a check. Never again! I understand payments as I was in that business, but that is outrageous. POS SOB's.

:-)
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Did you read the payment terms on the site before deciding to use it to collect a sale? They are not hidden. Seller pays 2.9% + $0.30.

Sellers that don't want to pay the fees usually tell the buyer to tack on 3% to cover it.
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PP charges are about the same as VISA or any other electronic payment system. They favor paying you via electronic funds transfers -- which are fast and free. $1.50 to mail a check is pretty cheap, when you consider all the costs involved. Just my :-)
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When using that site, it's important to look at them as a pmt processor. Much like MasterCard & Visa, PP charges a fee to the seller - generally a percentage of the transaction. The 3% you paid to them is pretty standard - it's how they make their money. It doesn't make it suck any less, but you wouldn't get a much better deal elsewhere unless you did a cash transaction with the buyer.

You can also avoid the check fee by linking your bank account to your PP acct and transferring the money directly.
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Yep, they are offering you a GIGANTIC convenience in the modern world, and most people get so caught up in using it
that they tend to forget what a 'favor' they are doing you. If you were as old as me, you would remember a time when
informal business was stifled by the sheer inconvenience of doing business by check. You couldn't sell crap on the internet
peer to peer.
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You could have let them pay by Discover card. They charge 10% now.
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You all are correct and I know; sorry for the rant. I didn't even calculate it this morning, just thought it was high for accepting a deposit. I'm not used to being a retailer and I know they pay these discount fees all the time.
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OH ITS HIGH, baby, ain't no doubt about it. I just thought that it was kinda the way things are.
Why else would everyone tell their friends to lie and say a payment is a gift? :-)
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I see both sides of the point.

What gets me is the 10% or so percent you pay to fleabay then get hit with the poopal fees. Selling a $100 item nets you less than $87. Even worse if you offer free shipping and you cover that cost, too. You pay to play.
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Still better than listing it in the paper or Craigslist and dealing with calls from a bunch of morons. :-)
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All in all I should have expected it; just surprised me when I went to withdraw the $500 and I got hit with a $1.5 for the check right after they took $15. A buck fifty may be cheap for a check but that should have been covered by the 3% fees in my mind. Just hit me wrong at the wrong time. I see merchants pay these fees all the time, just not MY money. I paid eeeebbay $125 to sell the boat plus listing fees of about 25 and that didn't bother me. All in all it wasn't bad to have hundreds of people across the nation look at my boat and find me a buyer.
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Didn't know there were Morons that monitor CraigsList Tom?:-)

Now Imbeciles...:-)
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It sucks when you get hit by fees that you didn't anticipate.

Many companies (not picking on my pal poopie, but ...) are said to rely on people not reading the terms and conditions, especially in regard to fees. I've seen similar happen for sites that offer backup services where they claim to own any data stored on their servers, but bury this info in the small print. This is similar to the FB terms where basically you give them rights to anything to put there.
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I don't know what your options were but I would NEVER sell a high ticket item with PP as an option. If the customer complains, you are screwed. It's a well known scam that some play- order an item, claim some defect and the buyer is refunded 100% and the seller loses the item. I'm not saying it will happen to your boat but other people should beware.
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It was just for the $500 deposit. I needed some way to get a deposit quickly to hold the item. I wouldn't accept that method for the purchase price.




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PP has gotten much wiser about processing customer complaints; they to take the money back while they do their research, but the customer does not always win. Part of the problem is that there are disreputable sellers out there too.

While in the cash-and-carry market it's "Caveat Emptor" (buyer beware), that philosophy is not accepted in the electronic world.

Just my :-)
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