Fictionwise and BoB transaction charge

[Grumpyreader]

Irritatingly BoB (despite previously lauding the fact that they didn't) and Fictionwise seem to have started charging a transaction fee for small purchases (i.e. $5 or less).

I just bought at $2.58 book from Fictionwise using Paypal and was charged $0.50 "transaction fee", making the purchase more expensive than it would have been from Amazon. That's a 20% mark up.

A recent $2.86 book at BoB also using Paypal gave rise to a $0.25 fee - almost a 10% markup.

Even more annoying is the fact that the possibility of a transaction fee wasn't mentioned anywhere on the site before I purchased.

Not sure if this is just for Paypal or all payment methods.

This will obviously scupper BoB's attempts to undercut everyone else, especially Amazon who don't seem to charge extra no matter how small the amount.

Worth bearing in mind if you're comparison shopping...

[brudigia]

Can't remember about BoB, but Fictionwise has always implemented such a policy, since I've buying from them, a few years. It is clearly written when you go to the cart that "A handling fee of 50 cents will be added to your total if it is under $5.00 and paying by credit card/PayPal."
Micropay is exempted.
Nothing new, alas.

Originally Posted by Grumpyreader

Irritatingly BoB (despite previously lauding the fact that they didn't) and Fictionwise seem to have started charging a transaction fee for small purchases (i.e. $5 or less).

I just bought at $2.58 book from Fictionwise using Paypal and was charged $0.50 "transaction fee", making the purchase more expensive than it would have been from Amazon. That's a 20% mark up.

A recent $2.86 book at BoB also using Paypal gave rise to a $0.25 fee - almost a 10% markup.

Not sure if this is just for Paypal or all payment methods.

This will obviously scupper BoB's attempts to undercut everyone else, especially Amazon who don't seem to charge extra no matter how small the amount.

Worth bearing in mind if you're comparison shopping...

[Grumpyreader]

Doh! I must normally spend more than $5 at Fictionwise not to have noticed before!

For BoB this does seem to be a new charge though. Indeed if you do an internet search for BoB and transaction fee, you can find their previous stance on them...

[wallcraft]

At FictionWise you can avoid the fee by paying with micropay, or by adding $5 to your micropay account (bringing the total to more than $5).

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by Grumpyreader

For BoB this does seem to be a new charge though. Indeed if you do an internet search for BoB and transaction fee, you can find their previous stance on them...

At a guess they discovered they were making enough micro-transactions that it was starting to cost them real money - keep in mind credit card companies (and Paypal) charge the retailer per transaction. A small enough Paypal transaction can actually end up costing the seller money - if I buy something from you for a penny and pay using Paypal, that sale ends up costing you about 30 cents.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by brudigia

Can't remember about BoB, but Fictionwise has always implemented such a policy, since I've buying from them, a few years. It is clearly written when you go to the cart that "A handling fee of 50 cents will be added to your total if it is under $5.00 and paying by credit card/PayPal."
Micropay is exempted.
Nothing new, alas.

If they are tacking on a fee to accept a Visa or Mastercard transaction directly they are in violation of their agreements with said credit card companies. Call or write Visa/MC and complain. Merchants want to increase their sales by accepting these cards, but they don't want to pay for it! Drivethrurpg.com asks you to consider buying a number of books at once, rather than spread the purchases out across a number of transactions to save them processing fees, but never charges an additional fee because of your preferred form of payment. Other merchants either change their pricing structure to account for these costs or offer discounts for methods of payment that cost them less to accept,

[brudigia]

You might be right, I can only tell you that this has been present on their website for many years, so I believe that if there was any violation of agreements with the CC companies, somebody would have already protested.
Especially now that they belong to Barnes & Nobles. Which do not have such a policy on their site.
I've been hurt a couple of times and now I usually pay attention and I either pay via Micropay or try to buy a couple of books. This happens to me when I buy Analog or Asimov Magazine, which, if bought alone, do not pass the $5 barrier.
I believe the reason is the one Pardoz has given.

Originally Posted by Connallmac

If they are tacking on a fee to accept a Visa or Mastercard transaction directly they are in violation of their agreements with said credit card companies. Call or write Visa/MC and complain. Merchants want to increase their sales by accepting these cards, but they don't want to pay for it! Drivethrurpg.com asks you to consider buying a number of books at once, rather than spread the purchases out across a number of transactions to save them processing fees, but never charges an additional fee because of your preferred form of payment. Other merchants either change their pricing structure to account for these costs or offer discounts for methods of payment that cost them less to accept,

[BWhite]

Originally Posted by Connallmac

If they are tacking on a fee to accept a Visa or Mastercard transaction directly they are in violation of their agreements with said credit card companies.

This is true. I used to handle credit card transactions at my former place of employment.

However, this is not a case of you-give-us-your-card-and-we-tack-on-a-charge. This is a web retailer, which excludes the possibility of exchanging cash, so the web retailer would likely just retort to the Credit Card company that all purchases less than $5.00 get a "handling fee". So you see the fee is not really tied to a Credit Card.

Where the Credit Card company will force a change in behavior in the retailer is if you can demonstrate a case where customer A handed over cash and received no surcharge, and customer C came along who handed over a Credit Card and did receive a surcharge.

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by Connallmac

If they are tacking on a fee to accept a Visa or Mastercard transaction directly they are in violation of their agreements with said credit card companies. Call or write Visa/MC and complain

Complaining is only worth doing when the company is clearly trying to make a quick buck at the expense of the consumer. This is not the case (in this particular instance) with fictionwise/BoB.

They don't tack on a charge when you're buying over $5 in one go. The charge is only for small transactions which would otherwise likely end up costing them more money for the transaction than you're actually paying for the book.

Brick and mortar stores have the same issue to face, which is why many in the UK will refuse to accept visa/mastercard for transactions below £2.5 which used to be roughly $5, now just short of $4. As the poster above points out, they have the option to accept cash instead.

By all means lodge a complaint, but fictionwise/BoB are not out to rip you off (in this particular case) they're just ensuring that the tiny income from short stories is above the cost of the transaction. Otherwise they'd be losing money with every purchase and that's bad business so the next change they'd make would be to stop selling those items or impose a minimum transaction amount of $5.

In both of those cases the consumer would lose out if they just wanted to buy a single 50c short story.

Instead fictionwise offer you the item with a small extra charge, OR for customers that will buy one or two short stories on a regular basis, they offer the option to pay $5 (or more) in one go and then use that to pay (micro-transactions) over the coming weeks/months and they'll eat the transaction fee as required by the CC companies.

IMO the retailer is handling this situation as fairly as they can.

One thing I will say though. The extra charge should be mentioned on their website and certainly should appear before you've gone through with your purchase allowing you the option to back out if you don't want to pay it. If that isn't the case, then that is imo worth complaining about.

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by JoeD

One thing I will say though. The extra charge should be mentioned on their website and certainly should appear before you've gone through with your purchase allowing you the option to back out if you don't want to pay it. If that isn't the case, then that is imo worth complaining about.

I don't know about BoB, but at Fictionwise there is a warning in a highlighted box on your cart page - "A handling fee of 50 cents will be added to your total if it is under $5.00 and paying by credit card/PayPal." The transaction fee is also added to the cart total if you select PayPal or CC for payment. They definitely aren't trying to hide anything, and yet I still messed up and paid the fee one time because I wasn't paying attention (and I was well aware of it before that happened - totally my fault for not noticing that the 5% coupon they were offering took the book price below $5.00).

[Acreo Aeneas]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

At FictionWise you can avoid the fee by paying with micropay, or by adding $5 to your micropay account (bringing the total to more than $5).

You can also avoid that fee if by using your Rewards Dollars at BoB. Luckily, the last small purchase I made from BoB was $7 (a $2.50 and $4.50 book). Of course, I didn't know about that "transaction fee" for purchases below $5 either. Something to keep in mind for future purchases. Definitely does not feel fair or just to levy such a fee because the customer chose to buy something small rather than big.

[zacheryjensen]

That's weird...

I didn't know BoB sold anything for that cheap

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

At FictionWise you can avoid the fee by paying with micropay, or by adding $5 to your micropay account (bringing the total to more than $5).

Except you should NEVER buy micropay at Fictionwise. If you want to add to your micropay balance, just look at the current list of 100% rebate ebooks, and buy one of those.

Currently, all New York Times bestsellers are on 100% rebate
http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=nytlist

and you can check all rebates and other promos at
https://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?&a=mv&t=promos

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Grumpyreader

Irritatingly BoB (despite previously lauding the fact that they didn't) and Fictionwise seem to have started charging a transaction fee for small purchases (i.e. $5 or less).

I just bought at $2.58 book from Fictionwise using Paypal and was charged $0.50 "transaction fee", making the purchase more expensive than it would have been from Amazon. That's a 20% mark up.

A recent $2.86 book at BoB also using Paypal gave rise to a $0.25 fee - almost a 10% markup.

Even more annoying is the fact that the possibility of a transaction fee wasn't mentioned anywhere on the site before I purchased.

Not sure if this is just for Paypal or all payment methods.

This will obviously scupper BoB's attempts to undercut everyone else, especially Amazon who don't seem to charge extra no matter how small the amount.

Worth bearing in mind if you're comparison shopping...

Fictionwise didn't just start this. This has been going on for at lest 2 1/2 years - at least since I joined.

In my opinion it's justified for small purchases.


Don

[Bremen Cole]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Fictionwise didn't just start this. This has been going on for at lest 2 1/2 years - at least since I joined.

In my opinion it's justified for small purchases.


Don

Agree. I joined Fictionwise in 2002, and I think they had it even then. As long as a warning is given, I think it's completely fair. I actually bought a book from Kobo for $.19 the other day, and was surprised they did not add a fee. As far as I know they would have been better off to give the book to me for free.