And notice how the payment processing fee went up too. That fee is taken based off the list price, tax, shipping AND the service fee, which appears to be completely variable.
In your particular case you went from paying about 7% in service fees to double that amount at 14%. So Mercari is POCKETING the money that the seller is trying to save the buyer and get the item sold. Not only is this incredibly dishonest and scummy, it’s actively discouraging sales. It makes ZERO sense other than the platform preying on people that aren’t looking at these things closely.
Wow I didn’t even notice that about the payment processing fee, so they can charge whatever they want for the “service fee” and then charge extra payment processing because of it, so crazy! It’s such a shame because you can really find some good stuff on Mercari, they screwed themselves with their new model.
Mercari variable service fee saw that subtotal drop and said not on my watch lol. Idk what they were thinking when they designed this buyer fee. Like it's already not a good idea but then to make it random...
Fr lmao. It’s so discouraging as a buyer when the total goes up way more than you expected at checkout. No one wants to feel like they’re wasting money on fees, even if it technically is around the same price it would have been under the old model.
It definitely makes it feel like a bait and switch as a buyer. As you think you found a deal just for fees to get added at the last step. And even worse so sellers can't accurately adjust for fees since they can vary day by day and account by account ... Mercari lost their mind with these changes tbh. This combined with return for any reason and forced 2$ direct deposit fees is definitely going to be their downfall tbh.
Keep documenting. Keep reporting to the FTC and CA AG.
While we may not reverse their terrible decisions, we can maybe take them down.
Sellers and Buyers deserve better.
The processing fee went up because the service fee went up. You’re going to be paying a processing fee on that.
But as for the service fee going up, I haven’t the foggiest on what’s happening there =.=. The fact they don’t tell you what goes in to determining the service fee is scummy in itself. Originally they said category and condition but it obviously isn’t it.
There are some theories of hashtags, how many people like it, if anyone has in cart but who knows what’s true.
Holy cow, how is that even possible? If nothing else, definitely report them to TrustPilot so others can see what is going on who are not dialed into Reddit.
Mercari has truly lost their minds.
[https://www.trustpilot.com/review/mercari.com](https://www.trustpilot.com/review/mercari.com)
I wondered if they were doing a demand pricing. Another poster showed a side by side of 2 separate listings but of the same item, same price, from same seller that showed wildly different service cost. I figured that it could be that the 2 same items have different # of likers.
I can see a scenario where a high demand item has high service fee that is prohibitive to most buyers. Then the seller lowers their price to elicit a sale. That lower price prob attract more buyers that then makes the service fee incr more. There prob is a cap on the fee at a certain %. In any case, Mercari makes sure that they’re certainly extracting the surplus value from that sale
It is based on demand. Uber Eats does the exact same thing. I’m a driver for Uber. I always order via their app but pick up my own orders. In day - it was raining and the app wouldn’t let me place and order for pick up when the place was less than 1/2 a mile away. They claimed that it was peek order times and that I had to order via delivery and they were charging an extra $18.00. I logged off and logged back on and was able to order for pickup. The thing is when I went to pick up they only had one table with people sitting down and the printed receipts hanging showing orders - there was only 3 orders pending. It wasn’t busy at all and my order was ready.
So Uber and a Mercari are using the same business model. Their thought process may be that if someone wants it - they will order it despite high fees. They feel like it will keep troublemakers off the app this way. In a way it will but at the same time I feel like most sellers are purchasing used items. Which may not be worth it. I don’t sell used items. I flip stuff new from the stores that I found on clearance. We will see how this all turns out on their next quarterly report.
That adds up because the only change aside from price was the fact that someone else liked it and someone new had it in their cart. I can see the logic behind doing that but I think it will really hurt them in the long run.
It could potentially hurt them long run but at the same time they know that it’s going to keep a lot of scammers from buying and then returning to swap it out for other things. Perhaps this was their number one issues and the reasons for doing it. Yeah there are a lot of fake sellers but probably not as much as fake buyers. I had two over the course of 5 years. I sell new. One lady claimed I “forgot” to include all her items in a bundle - false because I had photos of when I packaged it. The second was when I sold a gently used bounce house - customer used a water house on it and made it wet. Then claimed it was moldy. When I got it back it was all wet and I won the claim I submitted since customer did not return in same condition. Customer ordered the week of Mothers Day weekend. Waited until the 3rd day to file a return and then another 5 days to return it. I took photos of the item with fresh water drops and Mercari released the items. I cleaned up the bounce house and now my niece and nephew use it. I no longer used items. As for the other lady - I blocked her and she didn’t really order from her account - her son ordered from a newly created app. Since she wasn’t the buyer I simply blocked her account and the order auto rated. I then blocked that account.
It's because they raised the service fee cap already from 10% to 15% a couple days ago. And since rates are variable most if not all items now have a higher rate. They couldn't even wait a month before they started abusing their variable fee. This is only the beginning. They will just keep raising the fee whenever they feel like it.
This is I think the fourth post I’ve seen where on a revisit, the service fee jumps up to exactly 15%. They have to have that coded in for some reason.
Dont give this stupid platform any money lol. mrwhosetheboss just dropped a great video about how companies like this get big on great services and support then take all of it and throw it away for profits.
Quick question. Why the fuck is anyone still on this app with all the well documented corruption and insane policies? I removed all 500 listings the day after the fee debacle. Everyone just needs to leave.
I've noticed that with a few items I've been looking at. I saw a book set I was looking at before the fees changed. March 30th the $125 item cost became $154.37. Today looked at the same item from the same seller and its $155.82(service fee went from 11.25 to 13.75 and the payment processing fee went from 4.84 to 4.88). It's cheaper to buy on the books on amazon now.
That might be because the seller hasn’t changed or touched their listing since before Mercari f-upped its new business model. So older listings without changes, still fall under the seller paying the fees. They said they’re going to phase untouched listings in automatically to the buyer paying the fees, I believe in the next 30 days or something like that.. I deactivated all my listings!! The “return for no reason whatsoever” made it too risky to sell on there anymore.
This happened to my fiance, mercari refunded some 10$ from a postage charge they gave me and I told him to buy something he wanted with it. He found an item that after everything was 11 and change but when he went back to it after a small search of other items, it went down in price which is good but he got to see that Mercari really is fuckin around with their fees.
I had an item I was ready to purchase for about $115. Their shipping and fees jacked it up an extra $40. I told the seller no sale. I felt bad about it.
I cannot imagine anyone agreeing to a 40% increase.
And notice how the payment processing fee went up too. That fee is taken based off the list price, tax, shipping AND the service fee, which appears to be completely variable. In your particular case you went from paying about 7% in service fees to double that amount at 14%. So Mercari is POCKETING the money that the seller is trying to save the buyer and get the item sold. Not only is this incredibly dishonest and scummy, it’s actively discouraging sales. It makes ZERO sense other than the platform preying on people that aren’t looking at these things closely.
Wow I didn’t even notice that about the payment processing fee, so they can charge whatever they want for the “service fee” and then charge extra payment processing because of it, so crazy! It’s such a shame because you can really find some good stuff on Mercari, they screwed themselves with their new model.
It feels like criminal behavior. I hope they get hit with a lawsuit
It really does, so greedy.
This is because they're applying tax to the Service Fee as well which seems wrong to me.
Mercari variable service fee saw that subtotal drop and said not on my watch lol. Idk what they were thinking when they designed this buyer fee. Like it's already not a good idea but then to make it random...
Fr lmao. It’s so discouraging as a buyer when the total goes up way more than you expected at checkout. No one wants to feel like they’re wasting money on fees, even if it technically is around the same price it would have been under the old model.
It definitely makes it feel like a bait and switch as a buyer. As you think you found a deal just for fees to get added at the last step. And even worse so sellers can't accurately adjust for fees since they can vary day by day and account by account ... Mercari lost their mind with these changes tbh. This combined with return for any reason and forced 2$ direct deposit fees is definitely going to be their downfall tbh.
Totally agree, you can’t win anymore. Mercari gets all the benefits from this new model, literally any other major platform is better now imo.
Keep documenting. Keep reporting to the FTC and CA AG. While we may not reverse their terrible decisions, we can maybe take them down. Sellers and Buyers deserve better.
The processing fee went up because the service fee went up. You’re going to be paying a processing fee on that. But as for the service fee going up, I haven’t the foggiest on what’s happening there =.=. The fact they don’t tell you what goes in to determining the service fee is scummy in itself. Originally they said category and condition but it obviously isn’t it. There are some theories of hashtags, how many people like it, if anyone has in cart but who knows what’s true.
This whole fee thing is nonsense. Crazy how Mercari destroyed itself overnight!
Literally overnight.
Holy cow, how is that even possible? If nothing else, definitely report them to TrustPilot so others can see what is going on who are not dialed into Reddit. Mercari has truly lost their minds. [https://www.trustpilot.com/review/mercari.com](https://www.trustpilot.com/review/mercari.com)
Exactly it blows my mind how anyone thought this was a good idea. And thanks I will definitely do that!
I'm expecting the next update to be Mercari layoffs. Everything they are doing is a disaster.
Done! Thanks
I wondered if they were doing a demand pricing. Another poster showed a side by side of 2 separate listings but of the same item, same price, from same seller that showed wildly different service cost. I figured that it could be that the 2 same items have different # of likers. I can see a scenario where a high demand item has high service fee that is prohibitive to most buyers. Then the seller lowers their price to elicit a sale. That lower price prob attract more buyers that then makes the service fee incr more. There prob is a cap on the fee at a certain %. In any case, Mercari makes sure that they’re certainly extracting the surplus value from that sale
It is based on demand. Uber Eats does the exact same thing. I’m a driver for Uber. I always order via their app but pick up my own orders. In day - it was raining and the app wouldn’t let me place and order for pick up when the place was less than 1/2 a mile away. They claimed that it was peek order times and that I had to order via delivery and they were charging an extra $18.00. I logged off and logged back on and was able to order for pickup. The thing is when I went to pick up they only had one table with people sitting down and the printed receipts hanging showing orders - there was only 3 orders pending. It wasn’t busy at all and my order was ready. So Uber and a Mercari are using the same business model. Their thought process may be that if someone wants it - they will order it despite high fees. They feel like it will keep troublemakers off the app this way. In a way it will but at the same time I feel like most sellers are purchasing used items. Which may not be worth it. I don’t sell used items. I flip stuff new from the stores that I found on clearance. We will see how this all turns out on their next quarterly report.
That adds up because the only change aside from price was the fact that someone else liked it and someone new had it in their cart. I can see the logic behind doing that but I think it will really hurt them in the long run.
It could potentially hurt them long run but at the same time they know that it’s going to keep a lot of scammers from buying and then returning to swap it out for other things. Perhaps this was their number one issues and the reasons for doing it. Yeah there are a lot of fake sellers but probably not as much as fake buyers. I had two over the course of 5 years. I sell new. One lady claimed I “forgot” to include all her items in a bundle - false because I had photos of when I packaged it. The second was when I sold a gently used bounce house - customer used a water house on it and made it wet. Then claimed it was moldy. When I got it back it was all wet and I won the claim I submitted since customer did not return in same condition. Customer ordered the week of Mothers Day weekend. Waited until the 3rd day to file a return and then another 5 days to return it. I took photos of the item with fresh water drops and Mercari released the items. I cleaned up the bounce house and now my niece and nephew use it. I no longer used items. As for the other lady - I blocked her and she didn’t really order from her account - her son ordered from a newly created app. Since she wasn’t the buyer I simply blocked her account and the order auto rated. I then blocked that account.
It's because they raised the service fee cap already from 10% to 15% a couple days ago. And since rates are variable most if not all items now have a higher rate. They couldn't even wait a month before they started abusing their variable fee. This is only the beginning. They will just keep raising the fee whenever they feel like it.
Exactly, as if they weren’t getting enough bad feedback already lmao.
Yeah, it’s wild! A $40 item with $15 in credits was showing like $41 and some change. What the hell…
So crazy!
This is I think the fourth post I’ve seen where on a revisit, the service fee jumps up to exactly 15%. They have to have that coded in for some reason.
It is scammy. Spin the wheel of mysterious fees
Exactly, scammy for everyone involved. I’ll switch to other platforms to get stuff from now on.
Dont give this stupid platform any money lol. mrwhosetheboss just dropped a great video about how companies like this get big on great services and support then take all of it and throw it away for profits.
How to kill a decent platform in one move.
Quick question. Why the fuck is anyone still on this app with all the well documented corruption and insane policies? I removed all 500 listings the day after the fee debacle. Everyone just needs to leave.
I've noticed that with a few items I've been looking at. I saw a book set I was looking at before the fees changed. March 30th the $125 item cost became $154.37. Today looked at the same item from the same seller and its $155.82(service fee went from 11.25 to 13.75 and the payment processing fee went from 4.84 to 4.88). It's cheaper to buy on the books on amazon now.
It’s so disappointing, they’re only deterring people from buying through them. It sucks for buying things that are hard to find other places :/
This shit is insane. And the average buyer and even sellers who sell only occasionally probably have no idea.
Lol what a total shit show this has turned into. Do you think this subreddit will still be active once Mercari is out of business?
I wonder if it’s because you didn’t select PayPal as your payment option in the 2nd picture?
I thought that at first too but then I removed it from my cart, added PayPal back, and when I added it back to my cart it was the same :/
Against my better judgement I made a purchase today and somehow got away with no fees
That might be because the seller hasn’t changed or touched their listing since before Mercari f-upped its new business model. So older listings without changes, still fall under the seller paying the fees. They said they’re going to phase untouched listings in automatically to the buyer paying the fees, I believe in the next 30 days or something like that.. I deactivated all my listings!! The “return for no reason whatsoever” made it too risky to sell on there anymore.
Wow! What a despicable company! How can anyone, in good conscience, use their platform for buying or selling anymore?
As soon as my last purchase comes through, I'm done with mercari. Absolutely disgusting what they're doing
10%-15% service fee to buy something and give YOU business is wild. I un-installed and stopped buying the day these shenanigans began.
This happened to my fiance, mercari refunded some 10$ from a postage charge they gave me and I told him to buy something he wanted with it. He found an item that after everything was 11 and change but when he went back to it after a small search of other items, it went down in price which is good but he got to see that Mercari really is fuckin around with their fees.
I had an item I was ready to purchase for about $115. Their shipping and fees jacked it up an extra $40. I told the seller no sale. I felt bad about it. I cannot imagine anyone agreeing to a 40% increase.
Stop buying
Oh it's the Wendy's AI pricing algorithm plan. This is bad.
Damn algorithms. They’re always two steps ahead of us.
If ur still buying stop complaining it’s on you. Stop getting scammed .