When is 8.95 not 8.95

Wayne Camolli

I visited my account on Hipstamp to find the listing of charges to my account. I wanted to find what they actually charged this month for a store fee. In the process I noticed some charges that were more than the 8.95% fee. Some as much as 9+%. Just for giggles I started checking further until my eyes glazed over. I found some overcharges this month.
I emailed support and they quizzed me on changing shipping charges, which seemed silly since the fees are charged when the customer pays and the invoice amounts they listed matched my numbers exactly.
Now they are looking into what may have caused this...whatever that means. I wonder if I will get a refund???
You guys might want to spot check too. "If it happened to me, it could happen to you."
Strange, isn't it. The system can't seem to multiply by .0895 and get it right - my calculator can.

Ted Tyszka

Final Value Fees are calculated as a percentage of each individual item, not as a percentage of the total sale. If you sell a 30c stamp, 8.9% will be 2.6c, which they will round up to 3c, or 10% of the final value.

Ted Tyszka

Real life example:
Stamp 30c, 8.9% = 2.67c rounded to 3c (10%)
Postage $1.20, 8.9% = 10.68c rounded to 11c (9.2%)
Amount charged to me = 14c or 9.3% of total or 47% of the item sold.

Wayne Camolli

According to https://www.hipstamp.com/site-fees. The transaction fee is 8.95% "Based on The Total Amount of the Sale".

Ted Tyszka

My mistake. But the math is the same. I was charged 9.3% instead of 8.9.

Phil Merrill_

It would be grand if they would total your sales at the end of the month and then take 8.95%. But no, nickels and dimes, nickels and dimes, it is the way of the world.

Greg Doll

Yup...but ya can't fight city hall right?

Wayne Camolli

The last message I got from Cust. Service (8-3-22):
"We will keep looking into this since we are unable to determine the possible causes of the situation you have pointed out at this time. As soon as we work this out, we'll get in touch. ​

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions."

However it is best if you don't call us...we'll call you.

Michael Duehr

Wayne,

Orders under totals UNDER $11.00 are going to be slightly higher due to the rounding. ($11.00 is about the break over point.)

Richard Pauls

After reading through the above posts, I thought I might check my own Final Value Fees to see how things are being calculated. I had a sale a week ago where someone purchased 252 items, with all listings no higher than eight cents and most in the range of three to five cents. The total for the order, including the $1.50 shipping charge, was $12.42. If the Final Value Fee was charged on the order total, the amount should be $1.11 ($12.42 X 0.0895). If the Final Value Fee was calculated on each item individually, then it would be in the range of $2.65 ($0.01 for each item + $0.13 for the shipping charge. To my surprise, the listed amount charged for the Final Value Fee was $0.35!

And to make matters worse, later that day I had another order that was charged correctly, but that charge was applied twice! Same order number, same exact time date, same exact charge.

So there are definitely some issues with the automatic Final Value Fee calculations and applications.

All other orders over a couple of weeks appear to be correct. The amount charged is 8.95% of the total order amount, including the shipping fee. There is no charging of each individual item in a single order. For amounts less than a half cent, the Final Value Fee is rounded down, not up.

Notice sent to Administration.

Richard Pauls (okstamps)