PayPal Seller Policies

General
1

My problem isn’t with the policies themselves - it’s with sellers who refuse to cover their own seller fees. “Ff or u pay fees” is rampant all over the social media sites and I’ve lost purchases I had made because a seller springs “pay the fees if you do GS” on me as I’m about to pay them. When I ask if they’ll pay them due to the fees being seller fees (not buyer fees), the answer is almost always no.

For reference, PayPal’s User Agreement under Selling and Accepting Payments states:

"Receiving personal payments

If you use your PayPal account to receive payments for the sale of goods and services or accept donations, you must not ask your buyer to send you money using the “send money to a friend or family member.” If you do so, PayPal may remove your PayPal account’s ability to accept payments from friends or family members.

No surcharges

You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as a payment method. You may charge a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge and is not higher than the handling fee you charge for non-PayPal transactions."

It’s disappointing as an honest buyer/seller to deal with people who aren’t as concerned with the policies they agree to, and I’m not willing to pay a buyers fee.

With that said, what’s the right approach here? Am I looking at this incorrectly? Please share your thoughts!

2 Likes
2

I also find it ridiculous when people say ff or you pay the fees.

3

I don’t know why those people just don’t figure it into their pricing.

That said if you want to play ball just play ball and then report them if you care enough to. Report that 1. they are offering to accept F&F for G&S transactions as well as 2. charging surcharges. I’ve never done it but I’m sure paypal would have some way to report an account.

4

Yeah, this is something I don’t get. I understand that if the card is extremely cheap, the $0.30 on G&S can really eat into your margins, but like gotta said, price accordingly!

5

I believe that this topic has sprung up before on a previous post, but i share your concerns on sellers asking (and sometimes demanding) the buyer to pay additional fees to cover the Goods & Services fee.

Essentially the buyer is paying for insurance on the card, to make sure that they will not be scammed which any reputable seller should cover in the first instance.

The clue really is in the name; Friends & Family - if the seller/buyer does not fall under this category, then they should not ask for payments to be sent via these means.

Policies are there for a reason, it’ll take one BIG public example of someone being banned from using PayPal’s service to stop other sellers from utilising the more cost effective (and riskier) F&F method.