Fees and Taxes
We charge sellers for the use of our Services.
The fees we charge sellers for using our Services to sell goods and services are listed on our Author’s Membership Plans pages. We may change our selling fees from time to time by posting the changes on the My Book Gems site a week (7) days in advance, but with no advance notice required for temporary promotions or any changes that result in the reduction of fees.
If you are a seller, you are liable for fees arising out of all sales made using some or all of our Services, even if sales terms are finalized or payment is made outside of My Book Gems. In particular, if you offer or reference your contact information or ask a buyer for their contact information in the context of buying or selling outside of My Book Gems, you may be liable to pay a final value fee (We charge two main types of selling fees: a membership monthly fee to be able to use our platform/site, and a 25% commission final value fee when your item sells. The amount we charge is a percentage and will depend on the item’s price that you list it at.) applicable to that item, even if the item doesn’t sell, given your usage of our Services for the introduction to a buyer.
You as a seller must have a payment method on file when using our selling Services and pay all fees and applicable taxes associated with your use of our Services by the payment due date. If your payment method fails (we will make 3 attempts) or your account is past due, we may place restrictions on your account, or the My Book Gems Payments Entities (as defined below) may collect amounts owed in the manner described in the Payments Terms of Use, and late fees will apply (Your fees and other selling costs are automatically deducted from your sales proceeds. However, you’ll need to set up a valid payment method to cover your selling costs in case your sales proceeds are insufficient. A valid payment method includes a debit or credit card, or a linked payout bank account. We’ll charge your on-file payment method (3 attempts) within 14 days if your funds are insufficient. We may add up the amounts you owe into a single charge.)
Why you need a valid payment method
If you don’t have a valid payment method set up for selling costs, your selling activity could be affected, or we may need to charge outstanding costs to your linked payout bank account.
There are a number of reasons we may charge your on-file payment method or linked bank account for outstanding costs, such as:
- My Book Gems fees, final value fees, international fees, and other fees
- Payment dispute refunds
If your payment method for selling costs is declined, we may suspend or place a hold on your account until the outstanding amount is paid in full.
If you haven’t selected a payment method for selling costs, or if your payment is unsuccessful, we may attempt to charge another on-file payment method for any outstanding amount you owe My Book Gems.
If we attempt to charge your on-file payment method, and the charges are declined, we will re-attempt the charges up to 3 times.
One-time payment
If your funds go into negative or you owe My Book Gems money, you’ll be given the option to make a one-time payment, using a credit or debit card.
My Book Gems, or the collection agencies we retain, may also report information about your account to credit bureaus, and as a result, late payments, missed payments, or other defaults on your account may be reflected in your credit report. If you wish to dispute the information My Book Gems reported to a credit bureau (i.e., Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion) please contact us at My Book Gems, c/o Collections Department, 10027 S. Hawkins Rd., Reed City, MI 49677. If you wish to dispute the information a collection agency reported to a credit bureau regarding your My Book Gems account, you must contact the collection agency directly.
Dispute fee
Disputes should first and foremost be taken up with the author/vendor/seller to get resolved as My Book Gems does not set their individual store policies and resolution is up to them. If it comes down to reporting and disputing the store, we will become the mediator until or unless it involves My Book Gems directly. If you are found responsible for a disputed amount as per My Book Gems policies (e.g., chargeback), we charge a $20.00 dispute fee, excluding sales tax, for each dispute.
If your buyer opens a payment dispute, you can generally choose to accept the dispute, or challenge the dispute with supporting evidence.
A payment dispute is when a buyer requests their money back by reporting an issue with their order to their bank, credit card provider, PayPal, or other payment institution. The disputed amount may be placed on hold until the issue is resolved. This is different to a hold being placed on your payouts, when you may need to take further action on your My Book Gems account to resolve the issue.
When your buyer opens a payment dispute, we’ll contact you to let you know what the next steps are. To respond, you’ll need to either accept or challenge the payment dispute within 5 calendar days – if you don’t respond, the payment institution is likely to find in your buyer’s favor. The final outcome will be decided by the buyer’s payment institution.
Responding to a payment dispute
When responding to a dispute, you may choose to:
- Accept the dispute, or
- Challenge the dispute
Accepting the payment dispute
If you agree with the buyer, or you’d prefer not to challenge the payment dispute, you can accept the dispute.
When you accept the payment dispute, the amount will generally be paid from the total of your Available, Processing, and On hold funds. If you don’t have enough funds to cover the cost of the refund, the amount will be paid from your on-file payment method. We’ll close the payment dispute once the buyer’s payment institution confirms the refund.
Challenging the payment dispute
If you don’t agree with the buyer, you can challenge the payment dispute and provide some supporting evidence to help resolve the issue.
Providing evidence for the payment dispute
Because different types of evidence can be more helpful in certain cases, we recommend providing different types of evidence depending on the type of payment dispute.You will need to send all evidence to the buyer’s payment institution.
Buyer doesn’t recognise the transaction or Buyer didn’t receive the item
| Type of item |
Recommended evidence |
| A physical item that’s been shipped, except for vehicles |
- Tracking information showing the order was delivered successfully to the shipping address that matches the address on the order details page
- Signature confirmation when an order total is greater than or equal to $750
|
Item doesn’t match the listing or Item was damaged when received
| Type of item |
Recommended evidence |
| Any physical item |
- A clear photo showing the item is as described and its condition pre-shipping
- Messages with the buyer showing the issue has been solved, e.g. a partial refund or seller solution was accepted
- Any other evidence that proves the item was returned in a different condition
|
Item wasn’t authentic
| Type of item |
Recommended evidence |
| Any physical item |
- Proof of authenticity from the rights owner
- Messages with the buyer showing attempt to resolve issues prior to dispute
|
Buyer didn’t receive a refund
| Type of item |
Recommended evidence |
| Any physical item |
- Proof that a refund was already provided on My Book Gems
- Proof of cancellation
- Your stated return policy
- Messages with the buyer showing that a refund isn’t required
- Proof that the item was returned in a different condition, or that a different item was returned
|
Helpful Tips for Disputes
Before you upload an image, it helps to crop the image to the relevant area. You can also compress or merge images if you wish. Your image can be in JPEG, JPG, or PNG format. The maximum number of files allowed is five, and the total size for all files should be under 1.75 MB. You can also provide supporting text when challenging the dispute.
When you challenge the payment dispute, the final outcome will be decided by the buyer’s payment institution. The payment dispute could take up to 90 days or more to be resolved, depending on the payment method or card provider. My Book Gems may hold the funds from payout up to 90 days from when the dispute arises.
If the dispute is found in your favor, you won’t be charged for a refund and you won’t have to pay a dispute fee.
If the dispute is found in the buyer’s favor, they’ll receive a refund, and you will be charged for the refund and dispute fee. You won’t be charged more than one dispute fee per order, even if your buyer has used multiple forms of payment.
The refund amount will generally be deducted from the total of your Available, Processing, and On hold funds, and you’ll be charged a dispute fee.
*In some cases, your buyer’s payment institution may reopen a closed payment dispute. If this happens, you may be asked to provide additional evidence for challenging the dispute.
Avoiding payment disputes
A buyer may open a dispute if:
- They didn’t receive their item
- The item doesn’t match the description in your listing
- They didn’t recognise the transaction
- They were charged more than once for an item or for the transaction
- They changed their mind or canceled the transaction (on physical items only)
- They’re missing a credit or a refund
To help prevent payment disputes, you should always:
- Create detailed, accurate listings
- Include multiple, high-quality photos of your items
- Use a tracked shipping service with proof of delivery to the address provided by the buyer at checkout
- Include signature confirmation if an order has a total cost (including shipping and taxes) of $750 or more.
- Be responsive to buyers who contact you through the My Book Gems platform and work to resolve any issues
- Keep any messages and supporting documentation through My Book Gems
- When deducting an amount from the buyer’s refund, provide information to your buyer as to why you didn’t issue a full refund. For example, “deducted 5% from the refund because the item was returned used or damaged”
Buyers can’t use more than one resolution method to get a refund. If a buyer opens a dispute, has any open order cancellations, reports that an item hasn’t arrived, or returns requests cases for the same transaction are immediately closed.
Buying and Selling Off-site
Offering to buy or sell outside of My Book Gems by exchanging personal information before a sale is not allowed. Buyers also can’t share contact information, including email addresses and phone numbers, prior to completing a transaction on My Book Gems.
Contacting another My Book Gems member to discuss moving a purchase off My Book Gems exposes both the buyer and seller to the risk of fraud. It also means both buyer and seller are not covered by our protection programs.
What is the policy?
Buyers and sellers can’t:
- Engage in any action with a user on the site designed to complete or facilitate a transaction outside of My Book Gems
- Share or request direct contact information prior to completing a sale
- In any communications with another My Book Gems member, refer to or promote external websites that facilitate sales outside of My Book Gems
- Use contact information obtained through a My Book Gems transaction to offer to buy or sell an item outside of My Book Gems
- List an item and then mention or link to additional identical or related items for sale outside of My Book Gems
- Offer catalogs or other items that are used to order items directly outside of My Book Gems
Buyers and sellers should:
- Complete purchases on My Book Gems in order to be covered by My Book Gems protections and My Book Gems policies. Confirmation of a completed transaction on My Book Gems can be obtained by:
- Using the My Book Gems checkout to complete the purchase
- Viewing the purchase in purchase or sales history
Activity on My Book Gems is required to:
- Follow all applicable laws
- Respect the rights of third parties
- Follow the My Book Gems User Agreement
- Follow this My Book Gems policy
If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, My Book Gems may take action consistent with applicable laws and the My Book Gems User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or canceling transactions, hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results, lowering seller rating, restricting buying or selling, forfeiture of fees, loss of buyer or seller protections, restricting access to member communication and rating tools, removing feedback, and account suspension.
If you receive an offer from a seller to transact outside of My Book Gems, please report it.
If you receive an offer from a buyer to transact outside of My Book Gems, please report it.
Why does My Book Gems have this policy?
Offers to buy or sell outside of My Book Gems are at potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers. Transactions conducted outside of My Book Gems are not eligible for My Book Gems protection programs and policies. Additionally, My Book Gems has invested a great deal to connect interested buyers with great sellers and we want to participate in ongoing transactions with them.