Some eBay sellers have reported a PayPal glitch that first appeared over 3 weeks ago that changes the shipping charges on invoices to buyers. PayPal spokesperson Sara Bettencourt explained in an email, "In some instances, shipping and handling is being dropped after buyers log into their PayPal accounts to verify transaction details prior to paying. The amount is showing as $0.00. This is not occurring on all auctions. We are aware of the issue and are working to fix this as soon as possible."

She also responded to the question of what buyers and sellers should do in order to pay the correct amount and to comply with PayPal's protection policies. "Buyers can work directly with the seller to confirm the final amount and may have to send a second payment for shipping and handling. As far as protection programs, we are still passing the shipping address to the seller, and transaction details still come through as eligible or ineligible for seller protection."

The seller who originally reported the problem to AuctionBytes remained concerned about the compliance issue, since the PayPal policy states that to be eligible for protection, a seller must have accepted a single payment from one PayPal account for the purchase. The policy goes on to say, "there is a greater risk of fraud when multiple payments from different PayPal accounts are used to pay for a single item." (http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_spp-outside)

In addition, the seller said, she is frustrated that she must pay an additional fee for accepting the second payment, in effect rewarding PayPal financially for their technical glitch. (PayPal charges a percentage of the transaction amount plus 30 cents, for premier and business accounts.) http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside

"I guess my question to eBay, based on the response, is if a seller follows her suggestions about receiving two payments for one item, is it fair for a seller to be financially penalized with double fees and eBay (Paypal) to earn extra fees for using their system that doesn't work and that hasn't worked for over 3 weeks?"

AuctionBytes was unable to reach Bettencourt for further clarification, as it was after PayPal business hours.

There are several threads about the problem, including the following two:

http://digbig.com/4cpsa

http://digbig.com/4cpsb