Free EBay for Dummies by Marsha Collier Page B

that eBay gives you to manage your money:
    View Account Status: Click here to get a complete explanation of your eBay account — charges, credits, and your current balance since your last invoice.
    View Invoices: Click the drop-down menu to see your most recent invoice and details of the transactions.
    PayPal: A quick click here, and you’re taken to the PayPal home page. Check out Chapter 6 for more on the PayPal payment service.
    When you give eBay your credit card information, eBay attempts to authorize your card immediately. Your credit card company’s response, either Declined or Approved, appears on your View Account Status page.
    Payment Terms: Although you need to post a credit card for ID purposes to sell on eBay, you can pay your eBay bill in one of three ways. They like to deduct it directly from your registered checking account, but I prefer the ways listed next. You can change your method of payment at any time. See Table 4-2 to find out when the different payments are charged to your account.
    • Credit Card on File: You can place your credit card on file with eBay so that each month eBay can place your selling charges on your credit card. I’ve been using this format since I became an eBay user and find that it works out very well.
    • PayPal: You can make single payments directly through your PayPal account. If you have a cash balance in your account, you can have it applied to your eBay bill; if not, you can pay the amount through the credit card you’ve registered on PayPal.
Table 4-2 eBay’s Automatic Payments
Billing Cycle
Invoice
Deducted from Checking Account
Credit Card Charged
15th of month
Between 16th and 20th
5th of the next month
5–7 days after receipt of invoice
Last day of month
Between 1st and 5th of next month
20th of next month
5–7 days after receipt of invoice
    Understanding Your Seller Dashboard
    If you look at the links in the box on the left of your Account Summary page, you see a group of links to quickly zip to specific areas as well as navigating by using the tab with its drop-down menu. One of the most important is the link to the Seller Dashboard, which is the place where eBay calculates your ratings on the site. An explanation of the Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) is in Chapter 8. Figure 4-5 shows you a shot of my Seller Dashboard.
    Figure 4-5: Viewing my current Seller Dashboard.

    This is an important place to go on a regular basis because eBay evaluates your status on the site daily. Your status affects your placement in searches and whether you get a discount on your fees (based on your customer satisfaction ratings) if you’re a PowerSeller.
    Using the Resolution Center
    If you sell an item and the buyer backs out (a rare but disheartening situation), you can at least get a refund on some of the fees that eBay charges you as a seller. These are the final value fees , and they’re based on the selling price of the item. In the Resolution Center you can keep track of the disputes in progress and send or receive messages from the other party regarding payment.
    Before you can collect a final value fee refund, the following conditions must apply:
    After your listing is over, you have to allow buyers at least three business days to respond to you. If they don’t respond, you can send them an e-mail politely reminding them of their commitment to buy.
    If at least seven days have elapsed since the end of the transaction and you have the feeling that you’re not going to see your money, you must open an Unpaid Item Alert. After you file this notice, eBay sends you a copy and the bidder gets an ominous e-mail with a reminder to complete the transaction or to respond with a reason.
    You have up to 45 days from the end of the auction to file an Unpaid Item Alert — and you can’t get a final value fee credit without filing this alert.
    The next ten days after you file the Unpaid Item Alert are your “work out” days — the period where you and the bidder hopefully