eBay managed payment

[jimban23]

Does anyone else (particularly Canadian sellers) resent being forced to switch from PayPal to eBay's managed payment system? I received notice from eBay yesterday and, for whatever good it may do, have sent the following to eBay.

If you insist on moving me (and everyone else) onto your managed payment system, I will stop selling on eBay. My reasons:

1) You say you will charge FVF on total amount of the sale including 13% HST (for Canadian sellers). I am not running a business, and sell less than $30,000 per annum. My government does not require me to charge HST and I have no licence to do so. So it is not right that you collect HST and charge me a commission on it.

2) I do not have a US dollar bank account, only Canadian dollars. I do have a US dollar account with PayPal. If I sell for US dollars, I want to get paid in US dollars, not have you convert the payment to Canadian dollars at an exchange rate lower than the bank rate.

3) I do not trust eBay with access to my personal and financial data.

I will watch to see what happens on April 13th. If you try to move me out of PayPal to your system, we will be parting company.

[femmefan1946]

Having  a Canadian USD account is more expensive than just having a Canadian bank account in Canadian

dollars. Two sets of currency exchange.

When the USD is moved into Canada, it arrives in loonies with fees being paid. Then we turn the loonies into USD paying more fees.

[cumos55]

In Canada, on eBay.ca,  a seller will be reported to CRA if they sell   a total above a specified amount each year.  Sellers will stay under "CRA radar" if they sell a total value on eBay   less than this specified amount.  

In the US on eBay.com it has been Paypal that was doing the same reporting to the US IRS.

In Canada, it was sales only  in the total that eBay reported to CRA

In the US it was a total of sales plus postage that Paypal  reported to IRS.

[clemowbooks]

My government does not require me to charge HST and I have no licence to do so

You are being charged HST on the service eBay is providing you. You are not charging HST to your customer.

If you receive a $100 payment from your customer, eBay will charge YOU HST on the $100- about $13 if you are in Ontario.

3) I do not trust eBay with access to my personal and financial data.

EBay has your real name and address, your bank account data, and probably your credit card data which you gave them when you became a seller. They want this to be able to charge you their fees for the services they provide you- a venue for your goods and processing of your customers' payments.

[clemowbooks]

Monies received from eBay can only be sales, which in most jurisdictions are taxable income. Monies received via PayPal could come from anywhere, e.g. transfers from a kindly uncle.

Are you sure indicating that you are not paying income tax on your earnings is a Good Idea on a public forum?

Whether a seller makes enough to be required to register to collect sales taxes, we should all be keeping careful records of our purchases for resale and our received payments, and declaring any profits we make from our eBay hobby.

[jimban23]

What I said was hypothetical, so don't put words in my mouth. And don't come over all holier-than-thou.

[jimban23]

If you read the examples given in eBay's information on the managed payment system, you will see that they are charging FVF on the amount of the purchase PLUS HST.  And by the way, HST in Ontario is not "about 13%". It is 13% exactly. If you don't know what you're talking about, keep silent.

[cumos55]

eBay charges an FVF on each transaction.

Then eBay will charge GST/HST  on the fees charged on each transaction...  Fees include FVF and also the store subscripion.

eBay ..... DOES NOT..... charge GST/HST  on the original transaction....  only on the fees....  The seller pays this GST/HST that eBay charges.   I live in Manitoba, and eBay charges a GST that I must pay

If a seller is registered to charge GST/HST, then it is the seller that charges GST/HST on the original transaction

[mistermonday]

Hi jimban,

I agree with your points and have one issue to raise on your point #3, which may be a surprise to most members.  I have read the Terms and Conditions document and this one is the most significant  RED FLAG for me. The agreement which authorizes EBAY to direct deposit net seller earnings directly into the sellers bank account ALSO grants permission to EBAY to execute direct withdrawals from that account. It is a legally binding agreement which Canadian banks will not interfere with and the seller does not have the right to apply a block-payment for the company EBAY unless the agreement is voided. 

When  EBAY has 0 balance which it owes the seller, and the seller owes EBAY money for fees or special charges, EBAY will still allow the seller to pay the balance owed with Paypal or credit card BUT it does not prevent EBAY from taking that balance directly from the sellers bank account.  

The ability of EBAY to execute direct withdrawals presents a security risk for:

- Data processing errors by EBAY (CHARGING YOU 10 or 100 times the amount)

- Exposure to 3rd party criminal elements

- Exposure to potential EBAY employees with criminal intent.

If I have not misread the legal terms in the document, then those words should be re-written to make the money transfers only unidirectional.

The only way around a significant seller exposure would be for the seller to open a new account dedicated to EBAY. But there are fees associated with these chequing accts and sellers are not going to start setting up accounts for all the companies who insist on this type of payment management scheme.

Cheers, MM

[femmefan1946]

And that is almost exactly what the current agreement is with eBay and with Paypal.

Any seller who has refused a refund on the basis of a No Returns policy has learned to her dismay that No Returns does not mean No Refunds, and that eBay will refund the complaining buyer and take their money from the seller's bank or PP accounts or from the credit card attached when the member set up his selling account.

Mostly of course they use the permission granted to take thier monthly fees.

You can check out the howls of rage and fury any day on the eBaydotCOM Selling Boards.  (Either Canadian sellers are more calm about problems or we read the eBay Terms before selling.)

[mistermonday]

True, but credit cards have maximum limits, an extra couple of layers of security, and rapid issue resolution.
Allowing access to a chequing account exposes the total bank acct balance which can be pretty high. If a transaction anomaly is executed by EBAY, they will eventually correct it, but if it is executed by a 3rd party, it could take years to trace and resolve.

[marnotom!]

I have my chequing account set up for direct withdrawls for a number of things including home and car insurance installment payments, BC Hydro payments, and contributions to my pathetic RRSP.  The only issue I've had was about ten years ago when a hard drive in a federal office administering student loans went missing and part of the information on that hard drive was my chequing account information.  As a precaution, I changed my credit union chequing account and thanks to a class action lawsuit, I got a small amount of compensation for the inconvenience.

There's risk everyday, everywhere.  We walk outside with the possibility that an airplane part could come crashing down on our head.  We go driving with the possibility that another driver could T-bone us.  Our pets could carry the next COVID variant.  The list goes on.  We make decisions on what risks are acceptable to us, and which aren't as regular citizens as well as online buyers as sellers.

[mistermonday]

I appreciate and agree that all of your examples  are ultra low risk. But giving corporations an open cheque on your bank account is a risk with a much higher level.  This morning when I phoned Scotiabank, it palyed a message that all electronic transactions in the past 48 hrs had been doubled but that they would correct it soon.  A few weeks ago Canada Revenue Agency had to disable hundreds of thousands of user accounts due to data breach by some criminal element.  Amazon, EBAY, and many other corporations are prime targets and have had issues.  While acknowlegent and appologies are quick to come from corporations, reparation can take a long time and be accompanied by significant inconvenience to customers. 3rd party payment consolidators like Paypal provide a safe buffer zone minimize the exposure. Customers should have an option to use them but Amazon has chosen to eliminate that option. I guess we will need to wait to see if that has any negative consequences.

[femmefan1946]

Most sellers who are enrolling in the Managed Payments (I'm a holdout) have opted for a new account, chequing only, at an online bank where they have no other accounts.

EBay can't sieze money that isn't there.

[rcrawford34]

At this point I wont be signing up for this.  Have my reasons and not writing to debate the Pros and Cons but am fine with my decision

But 

*chuckle

sure am getting a number of emails from them telling me to take Immediate Action to do so

got one today in French.  Guess they must think I do not understand English. Have never received Correspondence in French from them before

weavers

[kawartha-ephemera]

Same here, the last email I opened from them was en francais, Outlook automatically translated it almost instantly though, well done too.

[mrdutch1001]

yep same here...my decision, my choice, my reasons....

and yes those emails just keep coming including the French ones, but no matter, as they will all fall on my little ole deaf ears & blind eyes!

[sniper10000]

No time to read through all replies so will just post with issue I have...

Ebay is just doing the same thing it did with Paypal only rolling it into the same company. They SOLD paypal and are upset they lost the revenue.

Would you go to a store and shop if they said you were with the wrong bank your money is no good here???? Exactly how is this different????

Ebay claims you will save...but will we??? I say NO!!!! U.S payments sill certainly be converted to CDN by Ebay.....now you buy something in USD look second conversion. They compare with Paypal saying no fee on tax with Ebay... Um it was them collecting tax and flipping SELLERS to pay the fee.... Is Ebay paying paypal $0.30 and 2.9% or if U.S sale it is 3.4% NO they get TAX money in full and SELLERS have been paying the FEE.

I dont live in the U.S so why am I paying a fee for tax that I am not charging or collecting? Extra $0.35 doesnt sound like much, but millions of transactions a day makes it HUGE and I am sure there will be a CLASS ACTION SUIT at some point.

I will not WAIT days for MY money....Can I wait till I get MY money to mail item(s)?? NOPE. I am NOT selling and having only EBAY for resolutions...They going to add guarantee to 6 months? give a second option to protect my money???? Ebay will NEVER have final say on MY money... 2 months to get back money when purchased 25 graded/slabbed cards 12 in toploaders and 2 jerseys. Ebay was clueless how it all wouldnt fit in a 800ct card box and weight was under a lb as I only received 1 card. They tried to side with seller because they provided tracking....um I can buy a car they send envelope with tracking guess I received the car...

I will take to Facebook marketplace or something as even COMC isn't an option.... over 1k in shipping fees for 4k cards and I dont get them till August unless I pay 5X that to get next month...So essentially my items are held hostage... Will have less sales, but atleast I will be KEEPING more.

BYE BYE Ebay. I hope you get less $$ than you had before with all your GREED.

[reallynicestamps]

 I agree with most of your post, but would like to point out that eBay was forced to sell Paypal, and all the profits they got from owning it, by Carl Icahn whose career is based on eviscerating profitable companies.

[bearsbeehoney1]

What Has Happened:  we would like to know We Were Forced And Now We Have To Wait To Get Paid From Ebay Which Been Days Now And All Of My Buyers Have Payed Ebay Right Away But I Have Not Been Paid As of Yet So I refuse to ship which looks bad on us were just going to cancell the sales have ebay give them there money and close the account. Because with paypal you got you money the same day now you have to wait and use your own money to ship.Bearsbeehoney1

[pjcdn2005]

The way that I understand it is that once ebay says that it is ok to ship that the money has been taken from the buyers account so it is safe to ship but until we can pay for our labels with pending payments (no idea if that is planned for Canada) we do have to pay for shipping before having the payment in our bank accounts.