Published: Nov 14, 2023
Last update: Jan 13, 2024 ------------------------- Updated on Jan 11, 2024: Effective immediately to future orders (= any purchases or applications done after 14:45 PM, January 11th 2024, JST, or any that I've mentioned the update before they pay). - When I make a refund in any case, I will *basically* not refund the PayPal fee. Because I *basically* don't get that refunded from PayPal. Reference: "Other Merchant Fees" (PayPal)
(Such a shame that, ever since I started the business of Ticket Japaaan in 2015, I had always been thinking that I was getting the PayPal fee refunded from PayPal, and that I didn't know I wasn't until my accountants pointed it out and asked me "is your scheme viable?" Now this explains why my wallet hasn't grown as fat as I expected it to be by now - I was simply losing money, not small compared to the Ticket Japaaan service fees, each time I made a refund with no gain at all.)
- I should be able to include the PayPal fee in a refund only if you pay as "Sending to a friend / friends and family." But you being a Buyer in PayPal definition, it shouldn't be recommended.
- Reference:
"What's the difference between friends and family or goods and services payments?" (PayPal)
"PayPal's safety and security" (PayPal)
-------------------------
I made 3 changes.
- Effective immediately to future orders (= orders submitted after publishing the changes - 7:21 AM, Nov 14th 2023, JST).
- The following is in the order of how impactful they may be for my customers.
1: I will keep 50% of my service fee + the whole PayPal fee 5% if I fail tickets the official way. 2: Price table changed: The 30,000 JPY row added. 3: I will provide a payment link for you to pay.
1: I will keep 50% of my service fee + the whole PayPal fee 5% if I fail tickets the official way. From now on:
When trying for tickets the official way (lotteries, pre-sales, general sale), even if I end up failing your tickets, I’m keeping 50% of my service fee (and the whole PayPal fee 5% as per the before-mentioned update on Jan 11th 2024). (Of course, you just pay once, then I keep trying all the lotteries, pre-sale or the general sale until the very last official opportunity without you having to tell me to. Then if unfortunately I end up failing in getting the tickets, I keep the mentioned money and refund all the money you paid me.) What should be good: - My time spent for popular artists’ tickets will be more rewarding for me, while still systematically ensuring I try my best for my tickets. - This will help me pay tax. (Hats off to all the businesses that have been standing out there..) What should be bad: - The expected service fee on customers would increase. Sorry.
Before:
I was refunding 100% including my service fees in case I fail getting tickets the official way (and I was losing the whole PayPal fee without knowing).
What was bad:
- The more popular the artist is, the harder and time-consuming it is to keep trying for tickets (lotteries, pre-sale, then the general sale). Naturally, sometimes or often, I end up failing all the lotteries and sales which costs me much time while also losing the PayPal fee, for me to gain no money at all. My intention was to make customers feel free to submit their orders and simplify the fee system, which I could live with when I didn’t have as many customers as I have now, but I can’t really do that anymore. (i.e. LiSA, Ado and such super popular artists who throw a number of lotteries that give super low winning odds is a hell when I have many customers.)
2: Price table changed: The 30,000 JPY row added. From now on:
What should be good: - A bit more profit for me. - Less confusing. People don’t seem to care about my service fees when the ticket price itself is around 30,000 ~ 40,000 JPY as long as it’s not too expensive, instead prefer straightforward pricing when they get to know my service fee table that goes on after the 40,000 JPY tickets;
(Which always reminds me of this lyric from Miscast by X Japan: "Clarity is the value of a product".. Never mind.) Before:
What was bad:
- The previous fee table has made a few customers “confused” when I showed the service fee table that would go on after the 40,000 JPY tickets, making them assuming that each fee stride in-between after 40,000 JPY would also be 20,000. Which is understandable. My intention was to make customers feel free to not think about my fees while picking tickets in the 20,000 - 40,000 JPY range as it’s often the range of popular resale tickets.
- Communicating over this while talking about resale tickets that often requires prompt replies / actions (because resale tickets can be gone at any minute) was quite a stress at least for me.
3: I will provide a payment link for you to pay. (My customers shouldn’t need to care.)
3. How you pay From now on: I’ll be sending a payment link embedded in my email. Like this:
Which will lead you to:
What should be good:
- You won’t need to look for the PayPal Payment Request anymore. Instead, just click the payment URL while reading my email (then proceed to pay if you agree to).
- This ensures me that you have read my email before paying.
What may be bad:
- This may look less professional than sending a Payment Request or some invoice? (I believe the pros surpasses the cons, though.)
What was bad: - A few people had paid their Payment Request before finding my email. Which I found uncomfortable and risky (i.e. risk of them not fully understanding the conditions of the tickets, then complaining about them after I already purchased or even not knowing that I got the tickets for them, etc).
What I think all in all:
- Tough decisions, especially the “taking 50% of service fee” bit. I didn’t wish to make the changes but I need to protect my own time for myself and family. Over all, I had to make the scheme a bit more complicated despite hide's Miscast lyric that's been seriously always in mind when I think about business.
- Physically tired. Consulting taxation with my accountants and coming up with all this plus a few other ways and implementing all this while I was already super busy with orders has got me working 80 hours a week. (Still genuinely appreciate all my customers! And Seventeen.. Duh.)
What I may do in the future:
- I might have to start charging customers for VAT (23%..?) next year, as the business might need to apply a different taxation format (even if so, most likely not that soon).
- If the business keeps expanding, I might need to hire a person or 2. (Apparently it is hard to keep a one-person business viably popular yet not too popular for the one person.)
Thank you for reading and being my (potential?) customer!
If you want tickets to Japanese concerts or events, talk to me from the Ticket Japaaan site!
This is the guy talking.
Jun