Jamali is a longtime eBay seller, but his wife isn’t. So he was shocked when his wife went to sell something on her account, and was asked to pay for the shipping ($21) out of pocket while PayPal held on to the money until the transaction was over. Normal auction practice has the buyer send money to the seller, and then the seller ships the item. The buyer can file a chargeback if the item is not as described, never arrives, or if the buyer is a jerk.

I am a long time seller and buyer on ebay. Recently my wife wanted to sell something on ebay. She has bought things but has not sold many items.

It was a shock to me when after her item sold she was forced to pay the shipping fee because ebaypaypal holds the funds to make sure the buyer is happy.

This seems like a horrible policy to me especially for new sellers. She had to [come up with] $21 to ship a package. This is a lot but what if the shipping was more or maybe the buyer wanted overnight which can be really expensive.

I understand ebay wants to protect buyers but what incentive is this for new sellers to join ebay. Not only that but this policy was not stated up front or at least not in a straightforward manner.

I don’t know how long this policy has been in place as i am not a new seller, but this adds to my dislike and continued hope for some to bring competition to ebay.

A seller can dream.

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