Do You Check eBay Bills for Errors?

by: Volvo351

No real reason to check my eBay bill...with sales down to one or two a month thanks to The Hoe, it's pretty simple!

by: Ming the Merciless

Just as ebafia intended, it takes hours to determine whether the bill is correct and then a seller must wait a long time on the phone to get it corrected if in fact they ever reach the right person.

They're wrong more than 50% of the time, and a busy seller has to decide whether the enormous amount of time to get a few cents or a few dollars remove is cost effective,

Many times it isn't because of ebafia's deliberately laborious billing format.  

by: Just Plain Irritated

I spot check occasionally and found nothing wrong with FVF, but will look again when we get a FREE SHIPPING item purchased by a International customer.

My problem is this:  I have searched high and low for that so called ''20% TRS Discount'' and I can't find one applied anywhere, while they tell us monthly we got one.

Anyone know where you find that on the bill?

by: CK2

I noticed a 9% Fvf on a $20 domestic ''Express Mail 1-day'' customer-selected option, with free shipping being my first domestic option. Overcharged. Yes.

So in appears 1-day Priority Express Mail means 1-day when listing, but 1-day is not 1-day when it comes to FVF calculations.

I noticed ebay has created a generic shipping classification called ''one day,'' which isn't carrier specific. So Priority Express Mail and Priority Express Mail Flat Rate Envelope 1-day choices during listing steps -- one would think being a qualifying 1-day service by definition, is listed under expedited, not the generic one day section. Surprise, different classification. Is this the reason? Maybe. Just change the definition.

So I'll change it to one day generic to see next time.

International shipping upgrade charges appear accurate for me; I'm not being charged a FVF on those listings that also have a free domestic shipping as my first choice. That seems to be working and a great savings.

What a confusing-time-consuming-what-does-this-mean-mess of figuring it out.

by: CK2

OP Just Plain Irritated

The discounts/credits should display on your invoice as a line item under the Account Summary section by same name. View invoice from you account.

by: smallstuff

It only takes a couple of minutes to check by looking at the account activity for the current month (new activity not yet invoiced)

My eBay > My Account > Seller Account > Account Activity

All of my listings have free domestic shipping.  I checked my final value fees included foreign sales.  All the charges were the correct final value fee.

by: thehosst

What are you going to check that can be resolved by the Telephone Transfer lazy support? All they do is to put you on hold, transfer you from one place to another, tell you that everything will fixed and someone will contact you, etc..

It took 2 months to fix a very obvious double billing and I spent days between paypal and eBay last time. But my question is, have you ever seen you bill much lower than it should, by mistake? Never will happen.

If you ever encounter any issue, try to call and good luck. The last 3 issues we had, each and every time, we were told that eBay policy has changed, no more protection or help for the abusive sellers, eBay thinks now that almost every seller is an abusive scammer and it is the reason of their low sales, just try it, ask and you will see their new answer.  

by: Randy

Yes, happened to me. Also, if you use eBay for FedEx Smartpost labels, be sure to check your monthly statement. On some labels, I have been charged 2 and even 3 times for each label. CS rep told me it was a glitch that they knew about, but yet it has been happening since as far back as Dec. '14!

by: bb6

I agree with Ming completely. Unlike Volvo, I sell a lot and I list a lot. When I pull my invoice I get a error every time that says you have too many listings to see a report. I then have to download a report to excel from ebay. They email it to me later and that can take most of the day. They make it way too hard to look at what they are charging you.

by: ajeweler

they use to itemize bills online thru your account however I always got the note " you have too many transactions for us to display " download here

I received this message back when I had hundreds of sales up until the time I left ebay and one month I had only 41 sales and guess what still received the same message.

but yes I did download and yes I received several charges that would take me hours of my time to correct them some mostly were listing double charges they would always credit for the following month, however bill was due regardless the rep stated they would give me future credit but it was "impossible to adjust current bill" most of the time they were relisting fees, I only started doing this the last year of being there however I was on their venue 12 years. and then never checked bills, in addition it always seemed that the "free" upgrade that was on the listings when I listed them, a month or two later I would receive " a listing upgrade promotion" would silently end and costs as high as $1.00 because "the promotion would end" without notifying me first they would just up the bill

often wondered if these charges were used to bring revenue for shareholders up by silently doing this

I would recommend that everyone check for listing upgrades being charged that you did not tick the box, I think you will find ebay does this for you

also another trick is while listing be careful ebay suggested prices sometimes will override your price in box that you put there you will see "ebay recommends the item be listed for" " and next thing boom the item sells for price that ebay recommended , even though I have complained before about this ebay still does this and you will have to honor the price that program places or you will get restrictions on your account,

I am so glad I left no stress no more

by: Toledo Maude

As an old geezer ''bean counter'', daily I reconcile my eBay account and bank/Paypal accounts.

I copy the prior day's eBay charges from my eBay account, and paste them on a simple spreadsheet.  Everyday, I reconcile the charge by charge sales and shipping fees to eBay's total.  

Most months, I find no descrepencies in what eBay bills to what the detail comes to.  However, if there was a problem I have little confidence that eBay's 3rd world customer service would be of any help.  

And I agree with ''Volvo351'' pretty simple with a few sales a month.  

The last three weeks has been meger.  

by: sickandtired

Sort of OT but along the same lines - I don't offer "free ship" so wouldn't benefit from the no FVF on shipping, but Canada Post charges tax on domestic postage.
Unlike FVF on the item where it is charged only on the selling price, Ebay is charging the fee on the postage and the tax...
As usual, trying to get satisfaction from either ebay or Canada Post will be useless. Both will blame the other. I know this because I'm currently dealing with another issue about postage and ebay, Paypal and CP all say it is the other guy's problem.

Do US sellers pay sales tax on postage?  The amount of 9% fee on the sales tax portion of my domestic sales would be a relatively small amount over the course of a year, but multiply that over all tax registered sellers, even if only Canadian sellers, would certainly add up to a large chunk of cash!

by: jewellsjust

This will be done beginning with this months invoice, for sure.

by: Rexford

I'll take a stab at this.........I would guess that the errors are NEVER in the buyers' favor, right?

by: comet

Just so I have this "straight"---I DO offer International and ship a few things this way via ebay---vs OFF ebay if I can persuade the buyer that way.

So==Say I offer FIRST CLASS or Priority as my "First Choice"  on DOMESTIC items---what would be the % of an International shipment to; say; Europe for a package going FIRST CLASS PACKAGE INTERNATIONAL--this is a lightweight (6 Oz)  package.

I ask for a somewhat "exact"  figure only because just YESTERDAY I sold one of these items and noticed that ebay had charged the Buyer $28.00 USD---while I KNEW it would cost $31.00 USD to SHIP.  

The break down is:  First Class Itnl Postage::::   $13.70
Registered/"insured value":::::: $13.95
Return Receipt::::  $3.85
Total:::31.50

Doesn't leave much "wiggle room"  and on a Best Offer can COST me $$$---something I can manage on my own thanks.  

Now I DID go back to that listing--it is something I sell all the time--and noticed that altho I had NEVER put in any figures for that Intl shipping--the figure of $28.00 was showing!  

I changed it to reflect the CORRECT amount.  And will go check AGAIN to see if it "stuck:  with the correct amount.

But==heres the question--how much of that $28 SHOULD I be paying TO ebay for this?

I understood it to be--and I am quite likely not au courant on this--that the amount you paid on was the SAME as Domestic---ie if I am charging say $6.00 USD on the DOMESTIC FIRST CLASS PACKAGE and offer that as my "First Choice"  that I would pay no MORE than that on the Intl pkgs.  

And so far it has seemed that this was the case--but I will go see if I can puzzle this out--numbers are not my strong suit but as some one else mentioned---I have had so FEW sales that this should be easy if they are there to be found.  

I am the ONLY seller of this item that will ship off=shore-and have gotten a lot of "Persuaded to buy OFF ebay"  sales and reffered sales this way--but I surely cannot afford to LOSE money on these!  

by: Bidonmine

I just checked my foreign shipments for the last 3 months and I did not see any abnormalities in the fees. No fee was added to the shipping (all of them had free USA shipping and various foreign shipping prices).

by: 1st Armored Div. 1971-1973

I verify that they did get my payments. As to the billing detail no. When you have 15,000 items going Cha-Ching each month it is impossible to check.

by: CK2

OP Comet

You said, ''I understood it to be--and I am quite likely not au courant on this--that the amount you paid on was the SAME as Domestic---ie if I am charging say $6.00 USD on the DOMESTIC FIRST CLASS PACKAGE and offer that as my ''First Choice''  that I would pay no MORE than that on the Intl pkgs.''

This ebay link says it best: (I think you correctly understand what ebay is saying)

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/ship-smart/adva
nced-shipping/shipping-best-practices.html

with this paragraph:

You won't pay a higher Final Value Fee if your buyer chooses 1-day (or international) because when you offer these services, your fees are calculated on the first shipping option you specify. So if you specified free shipping as your first option, you pay zero fees on shipping even if your buyer chooses 1-day or international.

I'm in agreement with others that the international FVF is being accurately charged on my invoices; Express Mail domestic shipments are being charged a full FVF on the shipping charge to the buyer even if your first domestic default shipping option is FREE.

by: Philip Cohen

“Money, not morality, is the principle of commerce …”—Thomas Jefferson.

Not even the U.S. criminal code gets in the way of commerce at eBay Inc. …

The ugly reality of eBay’s demonstrable, calculated, facilitation of endemic shill bidding fraud on consumers on its auctions marketplace … http://bit.ly/11F2eas

by: gizmo

I lost 10% of my shipping across the board when I sold there. Crooked companys never change , just the color of their spots.