Misleading Invoicing
When a freelancer raises an invoice, I'm shown the "Total To Pay" and a button saying "Pay Invoice". Then I get taken to the next screen which gives me my payment options (credit card, PayPal etc.), but at the top, in small text there is an additional amount added to the "Total To Pay", with no description. I know now that it is the Buyer Fee, but I had to go to into my payments history to find this out, which is too late since I've already made the payment by that point.
Under UK legislation (Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008), goods, services and digital content must be clearly and accurately priced. Yours are not.
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Join the club Nick.
PPH will almost certainly refer you to the 'Terms & Conditions' which they will claim that you have agreed to.
Firstly, when I last checked, these 'Ts & C's amounted to 10,377 words (383 paragraphs) so it's unlikely that anybody studies them in detail until they hit a problem.
Also, these terms have been changed at least twice this year and, while PPH are certainly entitled to change their fees, they seem to be under the impression think that changes can be imposed, in arrears, on current contract arrangements.
Looking at the more-intelligible 'User Guide', this still states very clearly that PPH do not charge fees to buyers for the standard services of 'introducing A to B' though some 'optional' features may be charged for.
The User Guide also states that any Payment Processing Fees, for the use of credit cards, would be 'passed' on which most people would interpret as charging only the costs levied by the payment processors such as Paypal.
However, Paypal charge something like 3% (depends on volume) and PPH 'pass on' 10% + 60p.
Until recently, there was a FREE option of payment by bank transfer but this has been withdrawn, allegedly due to 'legislation changes'.
The only significant change has been, as I understand it, is that charging any sort of fee, to the buyer, for the use of credit cards is now illegal.
For a while, PPH 'Ts & Cs' still referred to their hidden charges as 'Payment Processing Charges' but this has now changed to the more-accurate description of 'Buyer Charges'.
Looking at the following screenshots taken today, they would appear to directly contradict each other though PPH support people don't seem able to accept that interpretation.
The other issue is the scale of these charges - with recently-increased seller fees, PPH are typically getting around 30% of the seller's earnings for the simple act of 'introducing A to B'.
That's far too much.
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