Is eBay UK’s potential demise hastening fast? | Seller Central

001jpb · 2026-04-17T12:05:25.933000Z

Having been a 100% positive-feedback member of eBay since 2004 [001jpb & 002jpb, the latter a recent addition to get back to our true status as a Private Seller], we have had to call eBay less than a dozen times in 22 years, but most of those calls have been in the last 7 months. We are not expert traders - we state clearly: All items Listed under 001jpb or 002jpb are family pieces from three generations. Our Cellar Sale involves a guarantee of nothing having been bought in for resale. The Business tag for our main account 001 is an error that eBay are trying to solve, as that is where our 100%* rating exists. All items have detailed descriptions + candid photographs and the O Gauge (and diecast soon on 002jpb) have as an image an Excel summary. Most items are play-worn and hand-me-downs. We hope that you enjoy our family chattels that deserve better and more appreciative homes. Kind regards. JPB. On many of our items we MAKE NO PROFIT, JUST PREFER RE-USE TO RECYCLE OR LANDFILL and seek to give others pleasure from what has lain untouched for 30+ years after my mother dropped dead. We have 600 cubic feet to clear. Key Issues Multi-buy discounts - a significant software failure or a COMPLETE CON? Earlier this week we spent two days sorting and Listing individually 40+ newly discovered Diecast toys from the 1950s – 60s plus an early C20th lead toy fuel pump. We would then add either a postage discount or a multi-buy. On this occasion we opted for Freepost and a multi-buy discount and spent a day setting the latter up. What occurred: We followed eBay’s own help pages that recommended that we go via the discount tab under Offers. That took us to a page that required a shop opening. Not viable. We then recalled another eBay help page that said go Active Listings / [select] / Bulk Edit / (scroll down) / Multi Buy / Change to / Choose / - we chose Discounts as follows: Buy 2 =10%; Buy 3 = 15%; Buy 4 + = 20%. SEE IMAGE. We got confirmation of this on a subsequent page. SEE IMAGE. However, when we went to test the propagation of the agreed rule via our 002jpb Seller account the discount did not manifest itself at checkout. After wasting time with the totally hopeless eBay AI assistant a fabulous lady called Anna called us back. She was straight on it, could see what we meant, and said she would escalate the query. A contractual arrangement had been entered into and was not being delivered. Later yesterday, we listed a rare Vintage cutlery set and quite rightly insisted on postage being Royal Mail 18+ Age Verified signed-for delivery. Our Listing was 100% perfect. One minute later we got an email saying that the Listing was cancelled as it involved a knife. 30 minutes later our Appeal was upheld but the Listing has never re-appeared to potential buyers. Another contractual arrangement broken. We chased the initial multi-buy contractual breach up and spoke to two further people - both extremely unhelpful. Effectively we were told that we could not have agreed a discount facility online and were basically wrong. Well after that call we went back online and re-set similar multi-buy discounts and took screen shots. So, take a look eBay - screen shots never lie and we have plenty more. We asked for a month or two’s shop allowance so that we could clear what we had listed in good faith, wasted days on, and had accepted the contractual terms. We were told no way. “Rules are Rules” apparently. But then also are contractual agreements. The ever-helpful Anna has called again this morning. She was going off shift for the weekend but wanted us to know that she is still on the case and would be following up on Monday with us. The quality of eBay’s AI responses and its own staff. A good friend started a few years ago an internet-based telecommunications firm in Bournemouth, UK. Even his first low-budget 24/7 online AI Chat system was far superior to what eBay manages to provide, which is little more than a stuck record. It has no real AI step-by-step logic and is more about pre-programmed responses to set questions. Of the dozen or so conversations that we have ever had with eBay staff, only Anna and two others (both gentlemen last year) have appeared knowledgeable, conciliatory, or even interested. We conclude that a lot of these operatives are home-workers in far flung climes with very poor internet connectivity. Having founded two City businesses operating in 42 countries, our understanding of various dialects is very good, yet we can hardly understand what excuses the eBay staff are trying to make. In Q4 2025 the issue developed whereby we took community advice and to overcome a now-admitted eBay software failure over Postage discounts we “toggled” over to Business but were suddenly unable to convert back to Private. A letter was drafted to eBay’s Executive Escalations Team but was felt by our subscription AI Assistant to be too harsh and we opted for further telephone dialogue. We were promised a call-back within 48 hours by a French lady but we are still waiting for that call five months later. Her name will be in the 42 pages of notes from that incident and we will be following that up. Where are our sales going from here? We have provided our AI resource with an inventory of what we have to sell or are likely to find and the answer has come back we need to switch to Ruby, Etsy, and ToyMart. This is a great shame as it’s new software to learn and obviously it’s easier to have all personal sales in one place. However, eBay just doesn’t deliver. As a collector my late mother spent the 1950s and 60s at house sales and local auctions and appears to have had a very good eye. Once we have cut our teeth on smaller items we will be moving on to larger. One item alone is valued at $50K - $60K and is now in a vault elsewhere. That would have gone to Auction but was looked at in contempt by a valuer as a fake before asking if we knew its provenance, which we do. So now that’s going online too and will save the 25% buyer's commission and associated VAT. This what we "couldn't have seen" online!Post our second call we added further multi-buys Summary of where eBay sems to have “progressed” to. Looking at the more esoteric online views, the platform seems to be akin to an over-designed building now showing age and held together by ever-increasing lengths of sticky-tape. Maybe it was ahead of its day, and just as the likes of the Malaysian and Chinese economies were able to leapfrog to 5G / 6G comms without the burden of Victorian copper wire, its successors can take advantage of technological advancements and learn from others’ past mistakes. All a far cry from eBay’s arrival in the UK with its first ever UK CEO being a great participant in First Tuesday in the late 1990s.

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Is eBay UK’s potential demise hastening fast? | Seller Central | eBay UK