Post your listing for specific feedback on the home.

But, a fresh listing on the MLS for a month with no real showings at all means overpriced. By a significant amount. If you were only mildly overpriced, you would have had more showings, even though your may not have received any offers.

As far as the commission percentage, it would be high in my area, but maybe not in yours. 6 is the standard in my area. I'm assuming that it will be split with a buyers agent? Will it be a 4/4 split? Or would the BA get 3 and the listing get 5? Perhaps they are so used to the higher commissions that they get on the more expensive homes that they are increasing the % on your lower priced home to make up for the "loss". That wouldn't be standard in my area either. But, whatever you agreed to and signed to agree to is what happens in your case. How long is the listing for? No longer than 6 months I hope? 3 would be even better as it would be easier to move on to someone else.

I guess you now know that it's important to do some thorough due diligence before you list your house with a realtor. I've learned that lesson the hard way too. I've linked the thread below where I outlined the process I used this time around.

And while one of the main things agents do for you is get you in the local MLS, which gives you exposure, it is possible to both enhance and detract from that to make showings happen. Here's an example of the differences, from my forays into investigating properties in the place we're moving to: I emailed 3 agents through realtor.com with questions about their listings.
One answered within an hour (obviously working off a smart phone)
One answered about 24 hours later.
One didn't answer the first time, I emailed again a few days later, and he finally responded 2 days after that. I would be infuriated if I were that seller, to think that my agent wouldn't be all over someone who had interest in my house. BTW, my question was "what's the address of this property?"

At this point, if it was me, I'd backtrack with your agents. As uncomfortable as it is, ask to sit down with them and just be honest about your concerns. You can preface it with, "hey, we jumped into this listing thing without educating ourselves and really setting our expectations with you and asking questions so we knew what we were getting. We're good friends with you guys, so just assumed you'd be thinking like we are. Now that we're into this a month, we realize we didn't do our up-front homework with you, and want to talk through a few things." That way you're taking responsibility for where you're at, but you need them to help fix things.

Then lay it out like you have above:
1. We're concerned about the commission. 8% just seems really high. We've asked around and the norm here is 6%. (BTW, it wouldn't be a bad idea to call a few other realtors to verify this.) Can you help us understand why you're charging more?
2. We're concerned that there haven't been any showings. Why do you think this is? Then shut up and let them tell you. Listen very carefully and take notes. Then come here and we'll give you our read on it.
3. We would like to understand better what the comparable sales say about where we should be priced. Have them give you details, and ask questions until you understand. Keep in mind that what you "need" out of a house has nothing to do with its market value.
4. Can you tell us a bit more about what you are doing to market our home other than listing us in the MLS? We're a bit concerned that it took a week to get our photos up, and we want to understand what else you are doing to get it seen. Again, listen well, take notes, and tell us what they say.

I know this will be tough for you, but this is a big expense for you and you need to get your money's worth. If it helps, don't think of it as a negotiation, think of it as information gathering. That's all the above is. Then we can help coach you through any negotiations that we think you may need to have based on their responses to the above. Negotiations are always easier if you have lots of information.

Here is a link that might be useful: how I picked an agent

Excellent advice from weedyacres. They should be working for you and they should be ready to present what they are doing to sell your house to you.

Weedyacres has some good comments.

8% here would be way high. 6% is standard.

Having sold several houses it has not been my experience that the listing agents very often personally shows the house to people. Most buyers are going to come from MLS, not from the listing agent. As far as other websites, sure I would check to see if the house is on realtor.com and trulia but once it is on those and your local MLS you really do have adequate exposure.

The real red flag to me though is where you say "We had to price the home for more than what we purchased it for so that we could cover the cost of selling and their commission."
To be blunt, the market doesn't really care whether the sales price covers those costs. Depending upon when you bought the house and your local market that amount may be way overpriced. I don't like in one of the really horrible markets, but even so when we sold our house 2 years ago we had to sell it for less than we paid for it. We had to bring cash to the closing. We didn't like it but that was what we had to do to sell the house. The house we live in now, the sellers sold it to us for less than they paid for it.

Your house is worth what it is worth. The fact you have had no showings indicates that your house is likely to be way overpriced. People just don't come to see houses that are way overpriced. They figure it is not worth their time because you will be difficult to negotiate with and they can better spend their time looking at houses that are priced correctly.

" We had to price the home for more than what we purchased it for so that we could cover the cost of selling and their commission. We have not made any major updates."

Kiss of death. You've listed too high and now the freshness of the listing has worn off. A well maintained new listing at the right good price is pretty much getting almost instantaneous offers in most markets right now as the market recovers. There is a shortage of those listings right now as too many are overpricing or are bank owned with issues. Sometimes even competing offers above market happen if the home is presented as a good value. However, most markets that are experiencing this aren't having sales at the boom pricing of a few years ago. The new reality is that almost everyone's home isn't worth what it was when they bought it if that purchase was recent.

Cancel your contract with these people and find someone who is willing to tell you the truth about what your home will sell for. And then either bring some money to the table to get out from under it, or stay put until such time as it is payed down and appreciates enough for you to not have to do that.

If you cannot cancel the contract pull it off the market for 6 months. Do not show it to anyone especially connected with your agents. If these are not the brokers, contact the broker and find out why? you feel you are being shoved into something you do not want. Leave your emotions outside. Emotions do not play into selling and stay away from friends and friends of friends. I went thru 3 agents because of this same problem. Took me 3 years, and 3rd agent, sold in 45 days.

Did it take a week to get the listing on MLS or did they post it and add images to the listing a week later?

From what I understand, some of the big sites pull new listings on Sunday night, in the wee hours. So you could have seen a lag between them listing the home and it showing up on a national real este site.

Regardless, their inattention coupled with that fee is disturbing.