PayPal is raising rates in August and is offering an optional chargeback protection service for an additional fee. Sellers of low-priced goods will feel a greater impact from the rate hike. (A seller processing a $7 transaction will see a fee increase of 46%, while a seller processing a $100 transaction will see a fee increase of 24%.)

Sellers currently pay 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction to process a payment through PayPal. The company announced on Friday it's raising rates in August to 3.49% plus 49 cents per transaction.

For a $25 item, sellers who currently pay PayPal 2.9% plus ... Read More

It appears eBay is paying some people to respond to questions on its community discussion boards. An eBay user who volunteers said the new practice of paying some people is leading to fewer questions being answered.

In raising the issue on the most recent weekly chat session, the eBayer explained in part: "For quite awhile now, some eBay mentors are getting paid by LimitLess for their answers to posts, so very few of them bother to do it for free on the eBay mentor community platform, with very few exceptions, such as Disney, comics and a few others. I get it, ... Read More

A buyer who filed a claim with eBay saying they never received their order for an iPhone said the company is requiring that they file a police report before it will issue a refund. 

The case is especially noteworthy given the increase we've seen in reports of sellers providing fake tracking numbers to win Item Not Received claims (INRs, in eBay parlance).

The buyer said eBay sent them the following message - note that while the buyer included identifying information in their post on the eBay boards, we've redacted it here:

eBay thinks a robot can do your job - introducing the Robo Seller. eBay filed a patent for an "Auto posting system" that would perform much of the tedious selling chores required to list on its platform, as the patent abstract describes:

The item would be placed in a compartment that uses one or more sensors to identify the item, retrieve supplemental information ... Read More

A Massachusetts man filed a lawsuit against eBay alleging fraudulent acts against him in violation of the RICO Act, which stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. The complaint revolves around what appears to be a growing problem for online shoppers: fake tracking numbers used to provide proof of delivery.

The plaintiff alleged eBay is fraudulently presenting a money back guarantee in cases where the buyer does not receive the item purchased, as he explained in this excerpt of the complaint: