Mercari Delays New Withdrawal Fee after Sellers Complain

Mercari is temporarily waiving the fee it imposed last week for withdrawing funds via ACH direct deposit. The new fee was part of a restructuring in which Mercari eliminated selling fees for sellers and shifted them to buyers. But sellers quicky realized that while they’d no longer pay a 10% commission and payment-processing fees on sales, they would have to pay $2 to withdraw their funds.

The marketplace announced the temporary waiver of ACH withdrawal fees on its site and sent sellers an identical email notification:

ACH Withdrawal Fee Update
On March 27, 2024, Mercari announced that it would begin charging a $2 fee(s) (“ACH Charge”) for all ACH direct deposit requests. Effective immediately through April 3, 2024 at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (“Waiver Period”), Mercari will waive the ACH Charge for ACH direct deposit requests made prior to the end of the Waiver Period for all eligible account holders.*

All requests made after the end of the Waiver Period will incur the ACH Charge.

Customers who were charged ACH Charge(s) (or associated charge(s) for rejections from ACH direct deposit request(s)) since the March 27, 2024 announcement, will receive refund(s) in the form of an ACH direct deposit to their bank account on record. Mercari will begin processing refunds on April 4, 2024.

• Customers with Mercari account restrictions who are prohibited from initiating an ACH direct deposit request may not be eligible to participate.

While Reddit boards lit up with complaints about the $2 fee, Youtuber Walter Blake Knoblock had a different perspective. In a video posted on Thursday, he said people flipped out over the withdrawal fee – “they’re saying, “I made five bucks on this toy – it’s going to cost me two bucks to withdraw it. Well, yeah, don’t withdraw $5, keep it in your account for a week.”

One seller on an industry board echoed that sentiment, asking who cared if the money sat there for a week or until the end of the month – the seller said the real issue with the fee restructuring was the change in Mercari’s returns policy.

Not everyone was so sanguine – sellers in this Reddit thread recommended reporting the new withdrawal fee to the FTC and CFPB. And sellers and buyers continue to debate the entire fee restructuring on the AuctionBytes Blog.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.