Sellers adding for PayPal use is plainly BS

Everyone has different thoughts, but whenever I see an ad that says "paypal add 3%", it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.  I would not buy anything from these sellers.

Sellers - wake up!  This is not something that will help you sell your stuff.  Just list your pricing with the expectation that YOU will cover paypal costs.  This is just like any other vendor that will cover credit card fees if you choose to use a credit card.  No penalty for using a credit card or paypal for the consumer.

When I list an item for sale here, that is the price that I'm willing to accept for an item with no fees and no shipping costs.  in other words, a price for a person that comes and physically picks up the unit.

I do not add paypal fees initially because I don't like paypal and prefer not to use it.  It is a royal pain to me.  It solely protects the buyer and does absolutely, and I do mean absolutely nothing to protect the seller, so why use it?

If, however, the buyer prefers that we use paypal, then that is their suggestion because they don't trust me to send a personal check (which I will wait to ship until my bank tells me it cleared.  Which, there are still several ways that sellers can get burned with personal checks), or they can stop by (after agreeing to purchase the item first), listen to the unit work in my system, pay and take the unit home).

If they want me to use paypal, then they should be prepared to pay the paypal fee.  Otherwise, if they get seriously ignorant about it, I can simply relist the unit with the paypal fee included (just for that person) and they can buy it. What exactly is the difference????

I am not paying fees.  Why should I?  I am selling an item.  My background and ratings show I haven't had issues, and the items look like and perform like listed.  I play them extensively before shipping to make sure they work fine.  I use the manufacturer's shipping boxes (I try to not through away manufacturer's shipping containers). 

With paypal, I can ship a working amp to a buyer, the paypal fees are held in some sort of escrow until released by the buyer.  The buyer can short the outputs and fry the output drivers and possibly some other circuits and claim to paypal that it wasn't working when they got it.  Well, that sucks.

So, each must take risks here.  My risk if you desire to use paypal is that you (the buyer) can claim the item isn't working correctly or doesn't look like advertised and ship it back to me and the money is gone.  your risk is you pay the paypal fees. 

I'm having a hard time seeing a real problem here.

I am not a store.  Period.  I am a private person trying to sell an item for a particular price.  I will not pay shipping costs, nor will I pay paypal fees (since I really don't want to use paypal anyway).

But, as I said earlier, if it really puts a stone in your shoe, then tell me and I'll relist the item just for you and include the paypal fee in the list price.

But, I absolutely will not and do not sell anything here that does not look and perform as advertised.  It just isn't worth it to me to be deceptive about selling items.

I had a Mark Levinson ML3 amp that I sold a few years ago.  It failed in one channel.  So, It was repaired and upgraded with new transistors, and other items.  It sounded way better than new and I really regretted and still regret selling it.  But, I had to clear out some items.  I tend to collect and when I look up and take a breath, I find I have too much stuff.  Anyway, the buyer (who wasn't what he claimed), agreed to the purchase, came to my house to pay and pick up the unit.  I had it connected to my system and we listened to the amp for about an hour.  It sounded wonderful.  He was satisfied and paid.  we talked about equipment and music and it was great.  I helped him carry that very heavy amp to his SUV and he drove off. 

Turns out he was a flipper/dealer and sold the amp to someone in Singapore.  He called a few weeks later complaining that the "new buyer", said one channel was out.  I told him to bring it back and I would check it out.  It was working when he picked it up, so if it isn't working, I have the parts and knowledge to repair it.  He then told me he sold it to a person in Singapore. I was amazed.  I told him that the amp could have been damaged in shipping or the new buyer could have shorted the speaker outputs and fried some output drivers.  Either way, how was this my fault when it clearly worked when you picked it up???

I probably would have taken the amp back, repaired the damage the new buyer caused and either kept it or sold it.

But, that couldn't happen, because it was gone.

Anyway, the amp was advertised as repaired and upgraded with a detailed list of what was done and, also advertised as working.

Use paypal and the buyer would have told paypal it wasn't working and got his money back from paypal and I would have ended up with a damaged amp.

So, who does paypal protect?

enjoy

Again, I'm no levying additional fees.  If you decided that you want to use paypal, then you take responsibility for the fees.

If you decided to use some external escrow service that charges fees, how is that my responsibility?  There are many way to pay for items, most charge fees.  I accept cash, personal checks, bank certified checks.  I ship when my bank tells me the item clears.  Or one can come by and pick up the item.  non of these methods imposes any fees.

But if a person absolutely insist on me using some service that imposes fees so that they can feel better and safer.  Well, okay, but you pay the fees.

Again, I don't see an issue here.  This is not the same as a retail provider charging for cash or credit purchases.  Their price includes the credit card provider's fees, to charge more says that they are double dipping and getting the fee twice.

But, as I said, I am not a retail provider.  I am not a store.  I don't use credit services.  not the same thing.

I sold a Mercedes SL600 a few months ago to a gentleman in Germany.  The price was agreed on.  The buyer paid all fees.  Shipping, wire transfer fees, etc. and the price of the car we agreed on.  He wire transferred the funds into an established account that I opened.  My bank told me it cleared.  He arranged a shipping company to come and pick up the car.  I transferred title once the payment cleared and signed for the delivery.  My responsibility ends there. There is no difference here, unless you are a retail provider or store masquerading as a private seller.

I guess I'm not seeing the issue.  I find it amazing that someone would want me to pay fees for a service that they insist that I use that I typically wouldn't use.  That makes no sense to me.

enjoy