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Commerce · March 14, 2011

ER

eBay rounding error results in incorrect credits

About a month ago, I tried to sell a few items on eBay including a Nexus One phone. 2 items were left unpaid since the buyer's tried to scam me (fake PayPal payment emails, cancelled PayPal eChecks). Once an item sells, eBay charges a Final Value Fee (FVF) that is a percentage of the total proceeds. However, if the item is never paid for, you can request eBay to credit you the FVF. Yesterday I called eBay to get my credits, which they gave promptly. However, I noticed that the credited amount was off by one cent. I explained to the representative on the phone that I was able to see the…

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About a month ago, I tried to sell a few items on eBay including a Nexus One phone. 2 items were left unpaid since the buyer's tried to scam me (fake PayPal payment emails, cancelled PayPal eChecks). Once an item sells, eBay charges a Final Value Fee (FVF) that is a percentage of the total proceeds. However, if the item is never paid for, you can request eBay to credit you the FVF. Yesterday I called eBay to get my credits, which they gave promptly. However, I noticed that the credited amount was off by one cent. I explained to the representative on the phone that I was able to see the credit, but was curious as to why it was $.01 less than the FVF. I asked if they kept a penny, assuming they did, but she assured me that the full amount was refunded in both cases. Again, out of curiosity I pushed the issue and she insisted that the full amounts were credited ($13.48 and $14.55) even though I explained that what I saw on my eBay account was different. I was being incredibly polite and merely inquisitive (it's 2 cents for god's sake) but she rudely stated "I can't help you anymore, if you have more questions, then you need to use the eBay help menu online" and hung up on me. Ouch. $13.48 charged, I was refunded 13.47. $14.55 charged, I was refunded 14.54. Since we're literally talking pennies here, I don't care enough to call eBay back, but I'm curios as to what caused this. I assume this is a rounding error from taking a percentage of the amount (possibly a floor function being used for credits). This all reminds me of Office Space, and made me wonder how much money eBay makes off of these penny differences, if this indeed happens all the time. Has anyone ever come across this before, or am I an anomaly?

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