Pitney Bowes Rip-Off

[Mechanicus]

Hi, I'm resident in Ireland and found an unauthorized payment of UK £8.24 taken by PayPal from my card. Searching this site I see it's a major problem. I think it relates to a recent book purchase I made through Ebay; yet, nothing at the time of checkout suggested there was a further payment to anothr party.

It's a scam of some sort, and I've disputed the payment with Ebay. If this nonsense continues I'll close my account with Ebay as I did with Amazon for a similar scam.

I would suggest that anyone having an unauthorized additional charge made on their account to sue PayPal and Ebay - even if it is a small amount.

[Whac-A-Mole]

did you buy from ebay seller who relies on GSP to ship overseas?

GSP is globale shipping program ,joint effort by Ebay and Pitney Bowles,but manned by a third party in eRLINGER,Kentucky.

when you buy an item from ebay seller who uses GSP,you will get 2 invoices,one from Ebay seller and one from Pitney Bowles,you pay both and the seller ships your item to Kentucky and they ship to you .

The second invoice will consist of overseas shipping from Kentucky to Ireland,GSP handling fee and customs duty.

so you pay twice for an item,look at your paypal account and see if this is the case.

GSP encourages sellers to sell overseas buyers ,by shipping to Kentucky with tracking,a seller is protected by an overseas buyer claiming they did not get their item,all the seller has to do to prove delivery is tracking to Kentucky.

you can learn more on GSP on Ebay site.

(I do not use GSP,I shipped many items to UK,but they are small items,if a seller is selling bulky items,GSP is a good way to deal with intl shipping)

[GSP_IS_SCAM]

Good morning!

To answer you question: I bought an item from a seller located in Belfast, UK and the transaction was made over the German eBay platform and should have been paid ny charging my credit card in £. This is a transaction within the EU customsfree market. No need to pay customs or have your item cleared by any custom authority. Therefore GSP is in this case completely useless. Moreover it puts my valuable book at danger because it was carefully packaged by the seller and Pitney Bowes repackages it after checking the content of the parcel. What a nonsense! Illegal !

 I hope my book (the GSP item) didn't travel to Kentucky, US but you never know. 

And it is correct my credit card account shows two transactions both to Paypal, but one for the seller, one for Pitney Bowes. First I wasn't told the payment would be split and there is the problem that both amounts are wrong (you guess too high) because Paypal made the conversion between £ and€ although they were told to charge me in £. Paypal charged additional undisclosed fees. In addition, the separate payment to Piney Bowes is illegal -at least according to German law - because Pitney Bowey is in contract with eBay and/or the seller not with me. I will ask my credit card to refund the transaction to Pitney Bowes anyway.

[Whac-A-Mole]

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@GSP_IS_SCAM wrote:

Good morning!

To answer you question: I bought an item from a seller located in Belfast, UK and the transaction was made over the German eBay platform and should have been paid ny charging my credit card in £. This is a transaction within the EU customsfree market. No need to pay customs or have your item cleared by any custom authority. Therefore GSP is in this case completely useless. Moreover it puts my valuable book at danger because it was carefully packaged by the seller and Pitney Bowes repackages it after checking the content of the parcel. What a nonsense! Illegal !

 I hope my book (the GSP item) didn't travel to Kentucky, US but you never know. 

And it is correct my credit card account shows two transactions both to Paypal, but one for the seller, one for Pitney Bowes. First I wasn't told the payment would be split and there is the problem that both amounts are wrong (you guess too high) because Paypal made the conversion between £ and€ although they were told to charge me in £. Paypal charged additional undisclosed fees. In addition, the separate payment to Piney Bowes is illegal -at least according to German law - because Pitney Bowey is in contract with eBay and/or the seller not with me. I will ask my credit card to refund the transaction to Pitney Bowes anyway.

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your seller is in Belfast,UK but she listed the book on Ebay Germany,the currency of Ebay Germany would be in Euro,not GBP,so you would be expected to pay in Euro.

Paypal conversion fee  is 3%.

There are Paypal members who hoard foreign currencies in their Paypal account,say Euro,SWiss Franc,GBP,US dollars,and use it to shop globally,if so,then there is no 3% conversion fee,you can do same if you go to your Paypal profile and say you would accept this and that foreign currency and you do not want them to be converted to your local curency,then Paypal would comply and show you a separate balance per currency.

Eastern European do so,anyone who live in a country with weak/fluctuating currency do so.

[GSP_IS_SCAM]

Yes the book was bought from Ebay Germany and the binding currency was the seller's one. Prices in € were given as an indication. The transaction was made in £. I received a written confirmation for that. PP asked if they should convert the amount in €, I decided no as I noticed the bad exchange rate so I opted for charging my MasterCard in £. My MC would charge me the int'l exchange rate at the day of transaction and my bank  1.5%. PP wants to have 4,5% here....To quote one of the eBay service persons: the "PP exchange rates sometimes hurt". She was right!

To sumarize the whole story:  as a customer, I want to be able to buy without stress and in confidence that I will be charged the due amount and not subjected to fancy conditions that change after I buy an item!