Mercari Double Dips On Fees, Charging Both Buyers & Sellers As New Fee Structure Rolls Out
Buyers and sellers have had some strong reactions to Mercari's new fee structure announced yesterday, with many saying this could be the beginning of the end of the platform in the US.
Liz Morton
The new fee structure shifts the burden for paying the fees, getting rid of selling fees but instituting a variable service fee paid for by buyers at checkout instead and moving the payment processing fee to be paid directly by the buyer at checkout as well.
Here's how it was supposed to work, according to Mercari:
Service Fee
Starting March 27, 2024, when you make a purchase, a service fee will be charged. The amount of the fee will be displayed as part of the final price of your item on the checkout page. This fee is charged to the buyer and may not be refunded, depending on the reason for a return.Seller Fees
Effective March 27, 2024 at 8:30 AM ET, the selling fee for new listings will be 0%Note: Listings created before 8:30 AM ET on March 27, 2024 will be subject to a selling fee of 10% of the item price when a sale is completed unless the listing has been updated on or after March 27, 2024.
Payment Processing:
Effective March 27, 2024 at 8:30 AM ET, Mercari will charge buyers a payment processing fee at the time of purchase.
In theory, this new policy will allow sellers to lower their item prices, since they will no longer be paying selling fees (though many will likely keep some extra margin baked in for returns), and Mercari even made it easy to do just that by showing sellers an easy option to reduce their prices by 10% when the news went live yesterday.
But it appears Mercari's system did not recognize these price changes as "updates" per the help page above and so sellers were charged the regular selling fees any way, resulting in a loss of profit as they had already adjusted their prices assuming no fees would be charged.
And then it got worse - sellers say Mercari double dipped on fees, charging both the buyer and the seller when the new policy clearly states the fees should have only been charged on one side.
Several sellers took to Reddit with the receipts showing the double charges and questioning whether Mercari might not be in some legal trouble over this whole situation.
"Why did we BOTH have to pay fees?!?!" One Redditor asked while showing a screenshot of an order confirmation clearly indicating the seller was charged a $4.00 selling fee and $1.83 payment processing fee while the buyer also paid a $3.60 service fee and $1.77 processing fee.
"What in the grift is this?" said another with a screenshot showing the seller was charged a $3.14 selling fee and $1.56 payment processing fee while the buyer also paid a $1.57 service fee and $1.66 processing fee.
Yet another seller warned others to check their listings after they were charged a $7.22 selling fee and $2.59 payment processing fee while the buyer was also charged a $2.16 service fee and $2.66 processing fee.
As the complaints racked up, some sellers said they finally received a message acknowledging the issue and promising they would be refunded via their Mercari balance "soon."
We have not yet heard from sellers if they have received these refunds and if so, if they are in the form of credits to be used on the platform or actual funds that can be paid out to their bank accounts - which as of yesterday will now also cost them $2 for every direct deposit.
Mercari has declined to comment on these reports.
Did Mercari double dip on fees for your sales yesterday? Let us know in the comments below!
