Discrepancy between sale price on eBay and charge through PayPal

[green.scream]

Hoping someone can help explain this. I live in Canada. I often buy items from the USA through eBay (because the items I buy are mostly located in the USA). I keep USD in my PayPal account. Today I bought an item on eBay for approx. $1350 USD. I paid through PayPal with my US currency but I was charged approx. $1470 USD at PayPal checkout. That’s $120 US more than I was supposed to be charged!!

I spoke with PayPal and they suggested that I was charged conversion fees. But why would I be charged conversion fees when I’m paying for a US item in US dollars. It’s hard not to feel like someone’s getting over on me for $120…

Any help would be appreciated on what’s going on. I should also note that I’ve noticed this “extra fee” multiple times before but never really dug into it because the amounts were usually much less than this last purchase….

[mrdutch1001]

were GST/PST/HST included in that $1350 or is that total of $1470 including the taxes??

[green.scream]

Where would I see that?? It doesn’t show up on my eBay purchase…My eBay purchase itemizes the price of the item and the shipping for a total of $1350. The PayPal payment doesn’t itemize any part of the payment - it just shows that I paid a lump sum of $1470.

[mrdutch1001]

Is that purchase being shipped via the eBay EIS program or shipped directly to you from the seller via USPS or other carrier?

[marnotom!]

Go into your PayPal account and look up the transaction details.  I'm wondering if those details show that your US dollar payment was double-converted, i.e. from US to Canadian dollars and then back again.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@green.scream wrote:
Where would I see that?? It doesn’t show up on my eBay purchase…My eBay purchase itemizes the price of the item and the shipping for a total of $1350. The PayPal payment doesn’t itemize any part of the payment - it just shows that I paid a lump sum of $1470.

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@green.scream 

Have you checked when you go into your specific purchase if there is a breakdown of all charges when you look here. Should be bottom left of order details

When payments were processed via paypal there was a better explanation of all charges. Now it just an amount that shows up first in Paypal followed by the amount at your bank/cc.

-Lotz

[green.scream]

Direct from seller, not EIS.

[green.scream]

This is the hypothesis that I’m working off of. It does show that a conversion happened which I’m confused about since I paid US cash to a US seller. But why should this happen - I shouldn’t be penalized anything, let alone, $120 US! That said, the PayPal support person couldn’t confirm that that’s what happened and they are “looking into it”.

[marnotom!]

Does the information about conversion look anything like this? I’m wondering if there's a reason why you don’t see the actual converted amounts besides the fact that you're using your PayPal account and not a credit card.

 

[green.scream]

Yes - it does look like that. I have all that info. showing. It shows the “inflated” amount ($1470) though, not the supposed amount ($1350). At some point between eBay and PayPal, an extra $120 was added to my payment and it’s absolutely unclear why.

[ypdc_dennis]

This could happen if paypal decides they are taking the payment from your Canadian balance.

They convert US$ to Cdn$ then back to US$ to make the payment.

www.paypal.com/myaccount/money   ... does it show your USD or CAD balance as primary ?

[green.scream]

I’ve got USD set as my primary and has been for a couple of years now.