I don't know if you noticed, but Moneybookers (Skrill) has come up with a new kind of fees: service fees:

Non-business accounts will be charged a monthly service fee of 1.00 EUR (or equivalent). The fee will be waived and thus the usage of the Skrill (Moneybookers) service is FREE if the user has logged into the account or made a transaction in the last 18 months. Otherwise the service fee will be deducted monthly from the account balance.

Skrill, a fresh look at payments indeed!!!

I don't use Moneybookers very often. Most of my transactions are PayPal transactions, but I'm seriously thinking about a boycot because of these ridiculous fees: a monthly payment of 1 euro for NOT using the service!

Anyone agrees????????

Are you sure it is for users who have not logged in or used it for the last 18 months?

If that's the case then I would have thought it wasn't worth having a Moneybookers account at all.... just wondering if you meant to put 18 months.

I haven't read the official changes to the terms and conditions yet.

I'm sure!
Check the Moneybookers site under "fees"

Besides I received a mail from Moneybookers today saying: "The Skrill (Moneybookers) Merchant Terms and Conditions are changed."

The fees are one of the changes.

Maybe it won't matter so much then if we've logged in during the last 18 months? Or am I missing something here..

I've just logged into my account.
For the UK it says £0.90 a month if the account hasn't been logged into or has sent or received money in the last 18 months.

It looks to me like they are trying to do away with accounts that have been dormant for a long time.

The way I see it nothing will change at all if your account is active - unless, like you, I am missing something.

The terms are quite explicit and you are interpreting them correctly: no fee if you log in or make a transaction within the 18 month time frame

I assume this is a rolling time frame with the clock resetting to 0 whenever a transaction or login occurs

Hello,


We have had a contact with them. The email you received is a mistake. They said us they will send another email as soon as possible.

Condition for Delcampe Wallet users remain the same!


Sebastien

Good to hear that Sebastien, but to be honest 18 months is a long time and I expect that there are only very few people who would be affected by this. Effectively the account would have to be more or less abandoned.

Yes, I agree. but also, in emails they announced that raised their fee to 2.9% (if I remember well)... and this was more frightening

Commission fee remains 2%

Sebastien

I skimmed over the email and went to their website to see the changes - somehow I missed the fee bit.

Even at 2.9% I'd be happy to use them - still a lot cheaper than Paypal. There fixed fee (20p in UK + 3.4%) is a killer for low value transactions.

There is of course one other significant benefit over Paypal, apart from PP's excessive fees, and that is the 'buyer return' policy. If buyers refuse to pay for registered mail, and a package goes astray, PP WILL send the payment back to the buyer regardless...no appeal......nobody to talk to....always automated. I have had three instances in the last month and even with an official Certificate of Posting there is no chance of seller success. Sadly I have now had to stipulate no PP unless registered mail is paid for....the result.... my click through rate has plummeted! I think buyers should be actively encouraged to use Moneybookers rather than look at ways of penalising MB for small charge increases! An extra 50p every now and again sets of very well against £30 of buyer clawbacks!

Like it or not, but it's the seller's responsibility to get the goods to the buyer. Paypal enforces this quite vigorously. Unless you can provide proof of delivery (i.e. signed for), they will always file in favour of the buyer.

As a seller, it is your responsibility to refund if an item is not received and you are the one who can make claims against RM who you have entrusted with the save delivery of your item.

Certificate of posting + invoice of sent items usually works up to a maximum of 100 x 1st class stamps.

If you don't want your sales to plummet, it's a question of striking a balance and setting a maximum amount at which you are prepared to "take the risk" of sending by regular mail and maybe not getting a full refund from RM

I have set that limit at £35 (have a look at my conditions of sales and message from seller); others may want to go lower or higher then that.

Yes....same here re taking the risk.

Add one more irritant to PP rules on refunds.......proof of posting of signed for or registered post must be capable of tracking online. Don't want to put the PP staff to any significant extra effort other than clicking a button do we?

Yes, there are still some countries (like here in Philippines) where this is not possible yet......maybe in a year or ten

A quick message about this from a hot and sticky Ghana!

Oversea mail (registered) to most European countries can be tracked once it reaches that countries mail system - so long as you have the tracking number. I have had several successful wrestles with Paypal over this. My last one was with a scammer in the USA who purchased some banknotes from me and claimed non receipt through Paypal. The US mail site stated delivery, the time and who signed for it. So I sent paypal the link and they came down on my side having previously sided with the scam artist.

There is a web site that lists most of the trackable mail systems around the world though some are useless unless you have a working knowledge of the language involved. Unforunately here in Ghana I do not have access to my files in the UK to put a link. Maybe a shout on this Forum would give help in that respect if you needed it.

But remember you have to do most of the donkey work for Delcampe as they will not try to source this information themselves.

Sincere apologies to Delcampe:

My last comment:

"But remember you have to do most of the donkey work for Delcampe as they will not try to source this information themselves."

Should read - "donkey work for Paypal"

Thanks......weather about the same here!!

Royal Mail's website says that items sent from abroad cannot be tracked online. My experience with 2 other countries was the same. Would appreciate the link when you return to UK......thanks

As an addendum to the side-issue of mail tracking, overseas sellers need to be aware that Registered Mail sent to the UK is only tracked to arrival at the international sorting office in the UK. Once it leaves there it is then treated as ordinary mail within the UK and is not tracked any further. Therefore such Registered Mail is NOT required to be signed for and is usually delivered without signature.

As a consequence of this, items sent Registered from abroad are more subject to theft within the postal system, as are letters from the US bearings Customs Labels which declare the contents of being of some value. The only items, sent to me that have gone missing in recent years have been Registered or Customs Declared letters. Therefore sending mail internationally via Registered Post is not always a good idea as they are more likely to go missing!

The situation is frustrating and I have previously complained to Royal Mail about this, but they insist that they accept no responsibility for Registered Mail from abroad because they regard it as ordinary mail once it is tracked to arrival in the UK, and that the repsonsibility lies with the office abroad who received the fee for Registration.

My own policy now is to ask for mail to be sent from abroad via Ordinary Airmail and, in the case of the USA, preferably without Customs Forms attached - which are only required if the value is over £28 I believe. Where more valuable items are to be sent through the post, then use of a private courier service seems to be safer.

Hope this helps.

That makes interesting reading.

I have indeed had several "registered/signature required" letters from abroad put through my letterbox without obtaining a signature from me. However, a few weeks ago I was expecting something from abroad. I alerted my postie beforehand (because I didn't want him to sign for it). It arrived while I was out and he left a card. Last week something arrived while I was out; I've no idea if the postman signed for it or, as you say, it was simply put through the letterbox.

My regular postie has been doing this round now for at least 6 or 7 years and he will sign stuff for me if I am out, provided it fits through the letterbox.

I've also had Parcelforce leave deliveries from the UK on my doorstep and the driver signed for it (on one occasion over £500 worth of stuff), needless to say I kicked up one very big fuss with Parcelforce and so did the sender of the parcel.

It does make you wonder though, where it would leave the seller in case of a "item lost" PP dispute. You pay the extra for an international signed for delivery, seemingly for no good reason whatsoever.

The trouble is 'signed for' means exactly that - there's no proof the letter has been delivered to the intended recipient so as long as a signature is obtained the criteria have been met and the job done

With regards parcels being left, since I live in a rural area I don't worry too much - the house isn't locked unless I'm away and I've left stuff in the car overnight too - and I'm used to coming back to find parcels in the porch or on the back step, but I was surprised to find a very expensive camera from Amazon by the front door one day (delivered by Parcel Farce) when other couriers were expected to obtain a signature for Amazon deliveries and NOT leave them otherwise

Another side issue......from here, at least, registered mail is useless for claims purposes because PP refuse to accept the registry receipt signed by my local post office as proof of postage.....

Registered post to the UK from here starts at £2.50 and takes 21 days......ordinary post starts at 75p and takes 14 days. Over the last 3 years, all ordinary mail envelopes have arrived at their destinations (I send 90% + unregistered) but 2 registered letters went awol.

"It does make you wonder though, where it would leave the seller in case of a "item lost" PP dispute. You pay the extra for an international signed for delivery, seemingly for no good reason whatsoever."

Yes, you are unfortunately correct. Where an overseas seller sends an item to the UK via Registered Post which is paid for via PayPal, and the letter, despite being tracked to arrival in the UK is then lost or stolen within the UK Royal Mail service, the UK postal service will accept no responsibility for the loss of the item - despite the fact that it is the UK postal service which has lost the item!

In such cases, the non-recipient in the UK has to claim via PayPal for non-arrival, and the overseas seller has to make a claim via their local ( ie. overseas ) postal authorities for the loss experienced. However, whilst the buyer will be reimbursed for the full amount sent via PayPal, it is important that the seller claims from their postal authorities for this amount too - and not just for the nett amount they have received after deduction of PayPal or site selling fees, because PayPal will charge the full amount, as reimbursed to the non-recipient buyer, to the seller's account. Sellers need to be aware of this potential loss-maker in order to claim for the full amount with their postal compensation schemes. The only advantage to sellers in using Registered Mail, is that if the letter does goes astray then the seller can then claim via their postal authorities - which they presumably wouldn't be able to do so if it was sent unregistered. Registered Mail doesn't, however, provide any protection against PayPal claims from buyers.

Fortunately, in what must be over 500 transactions that I've made on Delcampe, I have only had one Registered Item go astray and that was from one of the major sellers in France who, as a result of that debacle, will no longer accept PayPal payments. Consequently, this explains why many European sellers will not accept PayPal payments, which is a real pain for those of us outside the Eurozone where bank transfers are free and there is no necessity to use either PayPal or Moneybookers.

The PayPal system is heavily loaded in favour of the buyer, and is of course open to malicious fraud by unscrupulous buyers. However, I don't think this is, as such, a problem with PayPal, but is more of a problem with the attitude and service provided by the UK Postal Authorities. What should ideally happen, where it is clear that the mail has been tracked to arrival in the UK and then lost/stolen within the UK system, is that the buyer should be able to claim from Royal Mail - who are the people who have lost the item. However, as I said above, Royal Mail accepts no responsibility for incoming mail sent from abroad and just shrug their shoulders in these instances. The situation is quite scandalous as regards Royal Mail's attitude, but I don't see any likelihood of immediate reform. I don't know what the situation is abroad with the reverse scenario involving Registered Mail sent from the UK - perhaps someone could enlighten us?

Hope this clarifies the situation as regards the UK.

Finally, sorry to hijack this thread but some important issues have been raised here which both buyers and sellers need to be aware of.

Yes, your experience with sending mail to the UK exactly mirrors what I would have expected. Ordinary AirMail gets through without problems, but the occassional Registered Item will go missing. Unless the contents are seriously valuable, I would always advise sending via ordinary mail to buyers with a reputable feedback score.