PayPal no longer returning seller fees on refunds

[sammyc]

Apologies if this is old news & everyone already knows it but me. PayPal emailed me yesterday about the change - which came into effect on 3rd March.

Rather a dirty trick, especially as there's not a lot you can do to avoid it other than PayPal's kindly advice that if you don't like it feel free to close your account. As posted on a US site, it potentially would mean a loss of $29 on a $1,000 return. Ok I personally am only down £2.31 on a transaction from the 10th, not a small fortune, but hey, it would buy you a toilet roll or 2. Maybe.

[Bonebreaker777]

What? For reals? Aw, man

[AGTDenton]

Looks like we got lucky, the US had to adopt this back in October

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/20/2...rs-controversy

[HacKage]

Paypal recently upped the threshold for business merchant fees, so where I was previously paying 1.9% on all payments, I'm now being charged 2.9%, as well as losing out on the seller fee for any refund. It seems Paypal are struggling to keep up with the multitude of other merchant options and are looking to make as much as possible. The problem is, it's still most people's preferred payment method for security.

[[GSV]Trig]

And thats the problem, they are trading on the brand of Paypal, dangerous game and someone should take advantage of it..

[AnotherDave]

And thats the problem, they are trading on the brand of Paypal, dangerous game and someone should take advantage of it..

I couldn't agree more. PayPal are ubiquitous when it comes to online payments and are able to take advantage of their position. A serious competitor for sellers would be very welcome.

[sammyc]

Sad story: they were in my black books already for a sale they helped lose for me.. New Year's Eve, had a pending payment with no explanation why it was on hold.. contacted them, and the customer.. PayPal finally explained after the payment had been refused that it was a keyword in the item that wrongly flagged it up.. informed customer they could go ahead & repurchase (note that customer had sent me a long reply, with a copy/paste of the email of outrage they had sent PayPal).. and.. nothing.

Like anyone I've lost sales before, but this.. the money was practically resting in my account.. tragic.

[HacKage]

I have been looking at other merchants to add to my business for post lockdown, but ultimately I think we will still have to offer Paypal as a solution, as even personally I am somewhat wary of websites that don't offer a Paypal solution. The fact that it's also in their T&Cs that you can't add a surcharge for Paypal payments means that you aren't getting a whole lot back in return, especially when someone opens up a claim saying they haven't received an item.

[Ttaskmaster]

I remember there being a lot of trepidation around using PayPal and the general security of online payments when they first started.
Only a matter of time before some other company supplants them and steals their customers away with a lariat of better Ts&Cs!

[Bonebreaker777]

Maybe an irrelevant update but still:

recently I had to refund one of my buyers and PayPal refunded the fee without any issues (it is show as fee reversal). Obviously this applies only when the full refund option has been chosen.

[sammyc]

Really? For some reason I can't find the original email I had but what someone says here echoes the same thing I had, ie an email after the event.. https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/.../td-p/2061400#

Mine was a full refund. Am just trying to establish is it commercial payments as in any sale, or commercial as in business PayPals only, haven't got further than this kind of comment (25/4)

"Apparently, they have temporarily suspended the roll-out of this - they sent out emails advising this a few weeks ago.

My guess is it is due to the covid pandemic and the potentially negative press this change in policy would get at this point in time.

Also, can anyone confirm this policy change applies to all sellers not just business sellers."