Hey Everyone,
If you intend to purchase goods from Canada and the offer in Ebay stands for USD, BEWARE!!! The conversion rates of PayPal are going to give you 20CAD difference per 400USD !!! I just spent my half of the day with Ebay on the phone and they confirmed that PayPal is thir financial processor, but what I see in the time of the purchase with the conversion from Ebay in CAD is 20CAD less from what PayPal is charging me.
Just hang up the phone with PayPal 8 different departments where I had to explain to every next one the case as there was no information transfer (they even not knew my name and I felt like an idiot repeating 10 times my name in an hour !!!) so at the end, what it seems to happen is that NOONE WAS ABLE TO TELL ME THE CONVERSION RATE AT THAT SPECIFIC DATE other than just repeating the memorized phrase - we update our currencies twice a day and charge the 2.5% ...
While purchasing my item from Ebay, PayPal clearly stated the amount I will be charged and instead of 487.83CAD it was showing 505CAD so I decided to go with my VISA and avoid the RIDICULOUS fees of afore mentioned. Instead of having that charge appearing on my VISA and trustin my bank conversion rates (Royal Bank of Canada) I was still converted from USD to CAD by PayPal and the final charges appeared to be 21$ higher. Now for less than 400USD purchase to have 20$ on conversion rate difference, that is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY OUT OF ORDER. And for the record, the currency exchange in my bank (matching the one in Google) is 1.25CAD to 1USD. Based on the currency fluctuations for the last two weeks, the CAD was even higher, so if I convert the currency using today's rate but not the one from the date of purchase (11th of October) I am still over the bill but with 50 cents. Not with 19.50 difference!!!
Anyone reading my message, please do yourself a favor and do not let PayPal convert the currency for you (unless you want to get robbed like I am now). Just select the option to let your bank to convert the currency and enjoy the free case of cold beers you just made by taking the right decision.
At the end of the day, we could always agree with the seller to transfer the funds another way, so that they don't get charges as seller and we don't get charges a buyer. From what it appears, the boths sides suffer from PayPal, so my next purchase would be negotiated with the seller directly to avoid that charge and make him a favor to save his 4% or more he is charged as well.
BEWARE OF THE PAYPAL FRAUD and do not ruin your day with the bad experience of talking to a financial institution that does not keep a record of the conversion rates at that day!
Shame on you, PayPal and yes, you are definitely not my Pal anymore. I will do my best that my message get broadcasted to my chain of websites and so forth so that more and more people get aware of what is happening behind the curtance of the Simple 1 click purchase and the buyers protection etc.
