I booked a session last week with "Baroness Essex" for which she wanted a £50 deposit. I paid this with Paypal. Her email confirming receipt mentioned that the payment fee was £8 which she "was sure I would pay on arrival". Strange.
The standard P'pal charge is 2.9%+30p for business transactions, which her p'pal addy was. This would amount to £1.75 for £50. My first thought was that maybe p'pal takes 20% VAT in advance of the payee's liability. That would be typical for super-fierce American tax collection. But actually 20% of £48.25 comes to £9.65.
Anyway, I emailed back asking very nicely for details of that £8. Couple of days later came a p'pal email to me returning £48.25. Obviously she had cancelled the booking.
So was she trying to scam me? I'll never know. For sure we've both lost £1.75 each. Sob. The silly thing is that although all electronic finance charges are in your face, traditional bank charges for business accounts are just as high. Anyway, its clear that deposit-paying to a business account creates messiness and awkwardness that poisons a 'clean' relationship before it starts. So thanks, 'Baroness', I dodged a bullet by inviting you to be open and transparent. You cheeky cow!
