8. Fees, Charges, Payments
a. Subscription Charges
AbeBooks charges a subscription fee for listing books. Subscription fees
are billed in advance and are based upon the book count for the previous
month. For example, statements received in September cover the period
between September 1st and September 30th for subscription fees, which
are calculated from the average number of books listed in August.
Bookseller accounts in vacation status are subject to the minimum monthly
fee for 0 to 500 books. If an account is in vacation status for less than
a month, the book count is averaged for the entire month and booksellers
who normally list more than 500 books will see a reduction in their fees
for the following month.
New booksellers are charged subscription fees from the moment their
application is processed, even if they do not list books immediately.
New booksellers are encouraged to have their inventory ready for upload
so as to avoid being charged for 0 books online.
b. Commission and Payment Service Fee
AbeBooks collects commission and payment service fee. These are applied
to bookseller accounts when an order is processed.
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Commissions |
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All sales completed through the AbeBooks shopping basket are subject to an 8% commission. The commission is charged on the total item amount, consisting of the list price of the book plus shipping and any extra charges. There is a minimum commission fee of US $0.50 per item and a maximum commission fee of US $40.00 per item.
For example: if a bookseller receives an order for one book listed at US $10.00 plus US $3.00 shipping, there is an 8% commission fee calculated on US $13.00 for the one book. If a bookseller receives an order for three books, (all from the same buyer), the 8% commission fee, (or the minimum of US $0.50), is applied to the total item amount of each item in the order. |
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Payment Service Fees |
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All books offered for sale on AbeBooks are available for purchase by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, and Carte Bleue. AbeBooks accepts these payments and forwards them to the bookseller.
For all credit card sales through the AbeBooks.com and AbeBooks.co.uk web sites, a payment service fee of 5.5% is charged to an order maximum of US $500. Orders that exceed US $500 in total value are charged at 5.5% for the first $500, and 3.5% for the remainder of the order ($500.01 and up).
The payment service fee is 3.5% for orders placed on AbeBooks.de, AbeBooks.fr, AbeBooks.it, and Iberlibro.com
The minimum payment service fee is based on the buyer's currency and is applied to each order as follows: US$ Purchase: US $0.50; € Purchase: US $0.90; £ Purchase: US $0.90 per order.
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Refund of Commission or Payment Service Fees |
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Commission and Payment Service Fees are only charged
when an order is processed. Fees are refunded for any order that does
not result in a sale. In order for the fees to be refunded, booksellers
are required to initiate a refund through the AbeBooks system, using
the "Incomplete Sale" return status. |
c. Statements and Acceptable Payment Methods
Monthly statements are generated on the first Friday of each month, and payment of the full account balance is due upon receipt. All booksellers are required to have a Visa or MasterCard on file for fee payments.
d. Late Payments
Any account in arrears is subject to offset billing and subsequent closure for overdue balance. Offset billing allows AbeBooks to withhold any bookseller payments for AbeBooks or Channel Program orders and apply the payment against the outstanding account balance. AbeBooks reserves the right to close accounts that are in arrears.
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