Ebay listing fee rip-off warning

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

I posted a bunch of cards with the ebay system on the ten-cent listing day, scheduling the items to start at various days. Each time the confirmation page told me it was a ten-cent listing. I even saved the email from one that says the listing fee is ten cents. Today, some of the items hit and they are all being billed at the full freight ebay listing fees. I have complained; will have to see what happens. Just wanted to warn everyone that ebay is doing this.

[Archive]

Posted By: steve k

Amazing that these big companies seem to always make pricing "errors" in their favor, virtually never in the customer's favor. Sometimes you have to wonder if some pencil pusher VP is figuring and saying, "Hey, if 25% of the people don't notice this "error" then we can make a lot of extra money here."

And when's the last time a lawyer made a billing "error" in their client's favor? I had a social lunch (he asked me to lunch) with my attorney awhile back and he billed me for it on my monthly statement!!! I called him and he of course removed it, and we had a good "chuckle" about it.

[Archive]

Posted By: dennis

i do think they credit you the money back at the time of the billing.

[Archive]

Posted By: Mike H

That was a fixed price 10 cent sale I believe. Which means sell for a set price not in auction format.

[Archive]

Posted By: DJ

For Fixed Price format listings, the insertion fee will be 10¢.

As an OJ Collector, I'm kind of in heaven as I have never seen so many Old Judge trading cards on eBay at once, all this due to the 10 cent day.

Sure all the prices are tad on the high side but it's amazing never the less.

DJ

[Archive]

Posted By: tbob

I listed 3 cards, an E90-1 Peaches Graham which sold immediately, a T207 Tinker and a T206 Baker with Polar Bear back. I followed the link on the 10 cent listing and listed them expecting to pay 30 cents. Hello! They charged me $10 listing fees and that doesn't include the Gallery and BIN fees.
Adam- if you have an email address or a link where I could bitch to ebay anout this, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks,
tbob
trophybob@aol.com

[Archive]

Posted By: Judge Dred

I would guess that ebay means that the insertion fee is 10 cents but all other fees apply if you use the extra features (BIN, Gallery, bold lettering, etc).

Perhaps they need to clarify that the 10 cent insertion fee is for items being sold with a minimal starting price and no reserve and the listing must start on the day that the 10 cent listing fee is offered.

[Archive]

Posted By: anonymousdave

It was clearly stated in the announcement....

http://pages.ebay.com/promo/10fixprice/?ssPageName=CMDV:AB1000

"What is excluded?


Auction-style listings, Auction-style listings with Buy it Now Listing Upgrade, eBay Motors vehicles and non-vehicles listings, International, Live Auction, Professional Services, and Store Inventory listings. The promotional rate does not apply to listings with a start date prior to May 12, 2005 - including those listings revised during the promotional period.

The promotional rate also does not apply to listings created on May 12, 2005 and scheduled to start after the promotion ends. "

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

the actual confirmations from ebay at the bottom of the final listing page stated the price as ten cents. I don't care what the fine print in the announcement says, the actual ebay confirmation I accepted stated ten cents.

[Archive]

Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

How much are you out? Is cash ok or should I send you a check?

Their rules are pretty straight forward.

[Archive]

Posted By: Peter Spaeth

Adam you say you don't care what the fine print says, but I remember vividly your recent diatribe on people who fail to read the fine print. Perhaps this will refresh your recollection. EDITED TO FIX LINK

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=153652&messageid=1110358771

[Archive]

Posted By: tbob

When you follow the link that says "click here to list items for 10 cents on 10 cents listing day," you don't think they will charge you 3000% of what they advertise. Yes, yes, I added a BIN which was the same as the opening bid (I NEVER do this) and a gallery charge. I assumed I would pay extra for a gallery inclusion, but it appeared that the listing would be one without a BIN and thus appear to be merely an auction with a starting price of what the fixed price would be. It was still confusing. Ebay also said that although the listing fee might be calculated at the normal rate, on 10 cent listing day, all listings would end up being debited as 10 cents, except for cars, etc. That was a blatant falsehood.

[Archive]

Posted By: Howie

***10¢ Fixed Price Listing Day Tomorrow, May 12th***
Date: 05/11/05 Time: 03:05:16 PM PDT


As a special offer to our sellers, we are pleased to announce a one-day promotion for www.ebay.com and www.ebay.ca where the insertion fees for Fixed Price listings will be 10¢!
The promotion starts on Thursday, May 12, 2005 at 00:00:01 PT (12:00 AM plus one second) and ends that same day, Thursday, May 12, 2005 at 23:59:59 PT (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds). Listings which were created prior to May 12, 2005 and scheduled to start during the promotional period will also be eligible for the special promotional rate. For more information about this promotion on www.ebay.ca, please click here.

During the 10¢ Fixed Price Insertion Fee Sale:

For Fixed Price format listings, the insertion fee will be 10¢. For more information about this promotional pricing, please click here.

The 10¢ Fixed Price Sale will not apply to eBay Motors vehicles and non-vehicles, International, Live Auction, Professional Services, Real Estate, Ad Format, and Store Inventory listings. Also, the following Business & Industrial categories are excluded from this promotion: tractors & farm machinery (category #91952), heavy equipment (25249), concession trailers, carts (67145), imaging and aesthetics equipment (92035), forklifts and other lifts (97185), manufacturing equipment (92080), metalworking equipment (92082), and commercial printing presses (26247). Please click here for more details.

All other fees (including Final Value Fees and optional listing upgrade fees such as Border, Bold, Highlight, Gallery, Gallery Featured, Featured Plus!, Listing Designer, Subtitle, Reserve, Extended Duration insertion fees, etc.) will still be charged. The promotional rate does not apply to listings with a start date prior to May 12, 2005, including those listings revised during the promotional period. The promotional rate also does not apply to listings created during the promotional period (May 12, 2005) that are scheduled to start after the promotion ends.

We hope you enjoy the one-day 10¢ Fixed Price Insertion Fee Sale!

[Archive]

Posted By: Howie

You can schedule 10 cent fixed price listings to start in the same day of the promotion, but you can't start them after the promotion period ends. If Ebay allowed you to schedule 10 cent fixed priced listings to start beyond the special listing day, then sellers would be able to load months worth of scheduled listings(blank ones too) on 10 cent day, and then be able to reedit or reschedule the items to start at any time they like the months following th especial.

[Archive]

Posted By: Josh K.

tbob,

I hope Im not stating the obvious here or restating something that has already been mentioned (I really didnt read the thread too closely) but I think that you were charged full freight on the listing fee b/c your auction was not technically a "fixed price" auction.

[Archive]

Posted By: tbob

I realize that the gallery fees would be an extra charge but the only reason I used a BIN was because when I entered the "fixed price" it made it appear as a starting price. Oh well, live and learn...

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

When I input the auctions (as anyone who sells knows) ebay gives you a confirmation page with a price on it for the auction, right above where you click to accept. That price was $0.10 for the auctions. Now if the price is not $0.10 for the auctions, the software should not say the price is a dime. Had the accurate price been listed, I would not have put up the items on a timed basis. The software was set up to charge me the extra dime for the timed start; why did it not inform me that the item was not eligible for the promotion? Why did it list the item at the promotional rate when I accepted the terms?

I find it surprising that most of the negative reactions here are to the effect that I should have read the ad more closely so tough luck. That is an unwitting or intentional distortion of my point, which is that ebay's listing tool misstated the cost for the auctions, I accepted those figures, and I am now on the receiving end of a surprise bill. I do not recall if I read the ad before I did my listings or if I heard about it here. Suppose my spam blocker caught the ad so I'd not received the ten cent listing day alert? Or suppose I'd not read the ad? If I then listed something that day and was told a dime but later charged full price would your reactions be the same? If not, why not? Have you ever gone to the grocery store and been charged a different price than was on the tag by the can of chili? Pisses you off, doesn't it? Fought it, didn't you? Why is this different? The merchant told me a specific price, I agreed to that price, the merchant changed the charge later on. If a card dealer told you it was a dollar to mail a card and then emailed you days after you'd accepted the deal with a new price many times that of the initial price you accepted, you would be posting his name and ebay ID as the worst thing since BRSZ.

The purpose of my post was to alert people that ebay's listing tool was not rendering accurate information.

[Archive]

Posted By: Texas Ted

OK Adam. Roll with the punches and get over it.

Texas Ted
Starting my third attempt at a second childhood.

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

My prior post proves MY point, which is that ebay has a glitch in its software that put up misleading information for sellers who had the misfortune of listing something on that special sale day. I only put up that post about what you could do because the listing tool told me that the cost was $0.10. I did not make it up.

Since I did not make up the facts, I do not see what my being a lawyer has to do with it. If I as a merchant quote you a price for something and you say OK and I then come back later on and send you a different invoice, you are entitled to be a little ticked off and to question me about it. That is what ebay did with these listings. No amount of insulting my profession, insulting me or telling me that I should have read an email ad better will change the fact that ebay's listing tool delivered misleading information.

And "Asinine" is spelled with one s, ass...