Question for PayPal programmer expert!
Posted by pronet-hq, 09-11-2008, 11:30 AM I am creating a website that allows sellers to offer their products and services for sale, I will then charge a fee per sale Instead of them paying a deposit and me taking the fee when a product sells or for me to bill them afterwards, I need to know is if this is possible: Say something sells for $100 and my fee is $5, I need the buyer to make payment via PayPal for $100, however the payment is split - $5 goes to my PayPal account and the remaining $95 goes to the seller's The main thing here is the buyer only needs to make 1 payment, it is the same principal as eBay's 'Pay all sellers at once' feature where the buyer only needs to make 1 payment and the money is split and the relevant amount sent to each seller Can this be done for a website or can eBay only do it because they own PayPal?? Cheers
Posted by Jatinder, 09-11-2008, 11:48 AM As far as I know, this is not possible. Have you tried contacting PayPal or putting this question at PayPal's developers forum.
Posted by pronet-hq, 09-11-2008, 11:50 AM Not as yet, thought I would see if anyone had done this first I'll see if anyone else thinks it can be done then head over to PayPal directly!
Posted by sasha, 09-11-2008, 01:54 PM It can be done using paypal's website payments pro. In that scenario you use PayPal as credit card gateway rather then using their regular paypal features. With this method information gathering happens on your side of things and you send XML with CC info to paypal for validation. You can send two transactions to paypal, one for one amount and account and another one for the other amount and account. Mayor problems would be:- - you lose regular paypal functionality, you use them as simple CC gateway - Buyers will see 2 amounts on their CC statements and none of them will match original transaction (total of both will match original total) - This might be against paypal's terms Much better way to do this would be that you collect 100% of payments and then issue payments to your sellers.
Posted by hostingubetter, 09-11-2008, 02:11 PM I think the above solution, the 2 charges on the card, would probably not be what they are looking for. It is a good solution though. The only quick solution is that one person gets paid and then pays the other. That is what happenes with EBay, paypal gets paid and then pays all the other sellers. For example, you could take in the $100 and then give them $95. keep in mind when you set your costs, the Paypal transaction fees. Now, going back to the prior posters comments, with paypal Pro, you can process your own transqactions, thats what I do. You could send $100 to the seller and then immediatly charge the sellers credit card $5. Meaning the seller gets the entire $100 and then you get paid $5 from the seller. it ends up working out except the buyer pays more in fees than normal.
Posted by Xeentech, 09-11-2008, 02:29 PM This is really the only way I see that model being feasible, but then you'd get in to the whole.. who's liable after a charge-back etc. The CC Corp / Paypal can take the funds back off you with out much trouble, you'd be left to recoup that from the seller.
Posted by pronet-hq, 09-11-2008, 07:15 PM Yes, this is my concern. I have spoken to a PP developer and he suggest's using the Mass Pay API to take payment and then send the remaining ($95) straight to the seller, however this still leaves me liable for any charge backs I don't want to charge the seller afterwards as it's all too easy for them to complete the sale with the buyer, get their money then disappear leaving me with an unpaid fee Maybe I'll go back to the drawing board as to how I will get the payment, perhaps make the buyer aware of the fee upfront so they know and make them pay twice, still totalling the price of the sale, it just may not appeal to buyers having to make 2 payments...