Who is right - (Private) business sellers

[messier44000]

With regards the long running Q&As about trying to report business sellers on private 

accounts, we now have 2 answers. Who is right and who is wrong

Anita - You can report these sellers here (link) > select 'The seller has violated one of eBay’s policies' > Continue. The report goes to our Trust & safety team for a review.  

Dave - Unfortunately there isn't an option for that exact topic 

Looking at the options, how difficult would it be to add Business seller avoiding fees and reducing buyer rights on a private account.

Give me access to the editing pages and should take me a couple of minutes

BTW - Other in the options, I guess means not important

[bravergrace]

---

@the_book_seekers wrote:

Or ebay interperts 'private side hustle' as (incorrectly) being private selling. The term side hustle seems to cause confusion. There's business or there's private nothing else.

---

I think "side hustle" is just a polite way of saying "unregistered business trading illegally".

eBay are indeed trying to legitimize the practice by giving it an exciting and respectable new name.

Rather like calling an extortion racket "independent insurance cover".

[pg_kicks]

The issue is Dave is that there is no option to report a business on a private account so just telling us to report these accounts when we have told yourself and many other eBay colleagues that there is no option as its all checked by AI is neither helpful or and now it just seems like baiting from staff. It needs to be passed to somebody with some power who can (if eBay actually want to make the site and its customers trade legally) actually improve the reporting so the option of correctly reporting is there. 

I will attend the Roadshow and speak again to managers and remind them that they are allowing illegal trading on their site and currently seem happy to promote it, this has been brought up in multiple weekly chats but all we get is the same copy and paste reply even when we tell you outright that the reply is not helpful and the reporting doesnt have the option that is needed.

@papso22 I'd hope they dont send out the letters but my council send me 2 letters every year telling them I owe them for business rates with the last line saying money owed is £00.00, Royal Mail also send 3 letters for each letter they send out all directed to different positions like storeroom manager and Director which as a one man band I fill every position.

[bravergrace]

---

@vintagewatchpart wrote:

Can anyone verify any success in reporting a private seller as a business seller and seeing their account change or listings be removed?

Ive reported about 10 accounts the past few months, all still going as Private, clearly businesses. 

---

Yes, I reported one yesterday and to my surprise, the listing was removed within an hour, having been checked by an actual human.

However, I don't know for sure WHY it was removed.  It was a 99p BIN listing from a "private" seller where:

- the listing stated the actual price was around £2000 (cash only)

- no returns were accepted

- the listing included the claim that the seller was an established business with many years' experience of selling this particular type of item

- there was no picture of the item, only a picture of a delivery van with the seller's contact details plastered all over it.

So it might have been removed on any number of grounds. 

[555njp]

I think "Side Hustle" is just an Americanism for "business on the side." Meaning a business run part time alongside a full time job to make some extra cash.

Nothing wrong with that of course if properly registered, trading legally and paying any tax due.

I imagine a majority of businesses run on eBay are exactly that. Only the biggest of players can make enough to operate full time and pay the bills? 

[555njp]

So Dave, I've reported 50+ listings in the last couple of years doing exactly what you just said and selecting 'other'.

Trouble is nothing is ever done. These 'private accounts' are still operating having hundreds of listings, selling multiples of brand new stock and are very easy to spot.

This issue is a huge problem for legitimate businesses and is possibly the most talked about topic on the community boards in one way or another. 
By operating on a private account, they have an unfair advantage (free listings and discounted FVFs), and are denying customers of their legal rights by not offering returns or displaying business contact details.

Do eBay really care about this?

[the_book_seekers]

This issue is a huge problem for legitimate businesses and is possibly the most talked about topic on the community boards in one way or another. 

And ebay keeps making it more of an issue with their incentives for private sellers. Up to 1000 free listings per month which can be rolled up to even greater numbers, FVF fees promotions, free selling for selected sellers and now free selling for clothes - which has probably sent a shudder through the entire business community. What can we expect to happen next? I don't think any business seller objects to reasonable incentives for genuine private sellers, but allowing, condoning even encouraging abuse of these incentives - there was talk that we would be banned from talking about this issue on these boards - gives the lie to the image ebay likes to portray. 

[bravergrace]

---

@555njp wrote:

I imagine a majority of businesses run on eBay are exactly that. Only the biggest of players can make enough to operate full time and pay the bills? 

---

Depends on how big the bills are.

My business is a small one - but it certainly makes enough to pay the bills and allows me a reasonable (though not extravagant) standard of living.

I should think quite a lot of older people - with the mortgage paid off, the children grown up and perhaps a small pension coming in - must find online selling a rewarding occupation.

[vintagewatchpart]

I reported a private seller who has 3 private accounts all selling the same items as a business seller months ago and nothing has ever been done.

Recently, this seller has added a watermark to their images with a website address on! So clearly a business!

I reported some of their listings saying that they were avoiding fees and selected "Other" explaining they are clearly a business operating on a private account going into detail as to why - nothing done.

But now I reported them stating "Contact info in listings" - the website address as a watermark in images. And each item I report is being removed.

The issue now is that this is proof that they are a business as they have put their website address in their images but nothing is being done, they only remove each item on an item-by-item basis if I report it individually and I am not sitting here and reporting 600+ items.

So its a business, operating on 3 accounts, not accepting returns and spreading their turnover across multiple accounts to avoid the VAT registration.

Ebay is a community of people, we look out for each other. Most of us here follow the rules and of course we are going to get annoyed at those who don't - we pay our fees (£40k for me last year...) and when we have competitors pop up operating on private accounts listing 100 items on each listing deal weekend who continue to get away with it and without intervention, the community of businesses who obey the rules are going to get disheartened.

Jab jab jab, all of these instances are going to poke at our want to stay on this platform. One instance, yeah you'd get annoyed and shrug that off, but then for it to happen over and over and over again repeatedly all the time from every angle and for nothing to get done is going to push everyone off this platform eventually.

The unspoken and most like denied by the powers that be truth is pretty obvious - if we remove these sellers from the platform or force them to convert to business accounts, we may run the risk of losing their fees if they jump ship. So better to turn a blind eye to it.