Businesses masquerading as private seem to be on the increase!!!!!!!!!!!

[chrledd]

I have been an ebay business seller for over 10 years and have to say I am beginning to despair - sales are down and worse still they seem to have taken a nosedive since the no fees for private sellers was introduced. I really don't know what to do. Every time I go list a new item I search for comparables and every time there are 'private' sellers selling the same items (clothing brand new with tags) . It is driving me absolutely nuts. Is there a correct way to report these sellers and will anything be done if I do?? It seems so unfair that my ebay selling costs are spiralling even though sales are down - these people don't even have to accept returns. GGRRRRRRRR - sorry, rant over now but it really is driving me mad, especially seeing as ebay don't seem to care - just fleecing us business sellers for more and more cash. 

[dch2112011]

It really seems as if small sellers are being sacrificed by ebay, they love thanking members for their loyalty, but it isn't reciprical.

ebay on the face of it does not seem to have the balance right -  the best customers ebay have are those that buy and sell regularly on ebay - this creates the ebay community  and keeps the money flowing within the community. 

I have said it many times this core of members are the individual sellers private and small business who seem to be neglected  in terms of visibility and although free listings - selling help is argued at helping members unless this is combined with tangible sales results it becomes meaningless.

In the ideal world from my viewpoint - ebay should ruthlessly remove businesses masquerading as private sellers - it would in today's ebay save them money.

ebay should reign back promoted listings appearing in search and the ridiculous practice of literally hundreds of promoted listings appearing in and around a members advert - there may be an argument for this system to be used for fee free listings - to drive sales to business registered members - free listings should not receive promotion - or shops - etc- it should be a second class service not mirror the paid service ?

ebay search should be easier to split business and personal adverts 

But this doesn't seem to be on ebay's agenda which sadly means that sellers like yourself and others are undoubtedly going to be lost to ebay 

[theelench]

I agree with your first four paragraphs.  Even if ebay shied away from smaller sellers who might be doing a bit of 'hobby selling' there are plenty of businesses  absolutely blatantly trading on private accounts.  (My eyes were opened when one or two vinyl / CD sellers got involved in another thread.  A collector might have amassed thousands of either over the years.  But to have twenty thousand FB's from buyers over years and still have another 20K live listings on a private account ??

That again shouldn't be difficult for ebay to spot and stop.

Sorry but I don't agree that anyone's listing should be hacked to pieces to advertise 100+ other items, especially when for one-off collectables an ad. can take considerable time and effort to get right and attract a few buyers.  It's not like tweaking a template for use on multiple lines of similar new products.

As for free listings getting a second class service, IMO genuine private sellers overwhelmingly only expect a scaled down service.   Most don't want to use, or know how to use PL, open shops or use any of the other add-ons designed for businesses and their needs.  The fact that private sellers have been saddled with some of that stuff, making the site so much more complicated to use for what they want to do is (IMO) another of the reasons that so many have walked away.  I and I'm sure most others still try to follow one of ebay's advertising slogans from a decade ago  --  "List it - Sell it - Get paid" and bitterly regret that that's so much more difficult to do these days.

I don't think any genuine private seller would object to ebay's Search Results making it easy to distinguish between those registered on business and private accounts, I certainly wouldn't and again it shouldn't be difficult for ebay to do?  Just make the seller's name on the Thumb-nail a different colour for each type?

And just to make anyone cheating even more obvious when the listing is opened colour the seller's Contact / See Other Items box the same and next to the 'Other Items'  put the number of other items they have currently listed ??

But as you say, ebay doesn't seem to have any plans to do anything.  Some are putting their faith in the further changes hinted at for the Spring Seller Update.  I'll hang around to see what transpires, but I'm not at all hopeful that ebay is now even capable of seeing the mess it has got itself into, let alone how to get out of it.  To me it's another circle to be squared, how to keep / get back the private sellers that businesses rely on, but at the same time get rid of the business sellers hidden among them that bring the site down, without making it even more disliked by the sellers it has to keep. 

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I have downgraded one shop, and closed another and eBay asked for the reason.     I told them I can’t compete with business sellers incorrectly registered as private sellers who don’t  pay any fees.

[ibdibdobbob]

agree with most said   

[santlache_sales]

Yes, I have experienced all of this an more over the years, eBay have destroyed the market.

Thousands and thousands of pieces of junk listed cluttering up the site, for example the other week I saw 2000 (dated 1999) Millennium £5 Crown as a BIN, slightly battered and being classed as rare with a ticket price of £750, which will sit there until the day the world ends without a sale.

The site is littered with chancers and rubbish like that.

As for dealers selling their top wares, as I noted yesterday ten years ago the front page of eBay coins would be full of top quality items for sale with ticket prices in the thousands, now they have all gone primarily due to eBay's excessive fees.

[thehungrybee]

Forget reporting sellers, or contacting eBay online as bots do nothing.

I have just sent a letter to: -

Managing Director
eBay Commerce UK Ltd.
1 More London Place
London
SE1, 2AF

Highlighted a few sellers are abusing the system as a 'Private Seller'

[nutrafituk]

ebay at its best: just came across one of these 'private sellers' with thousands of items sold and hundreds of units still listed... not just that - they also copied our bespoke template design and used it, undercutting our price and promoting their listing via sponsored ads! well done ebay - I cannot be even bothered to report that any more as I already know the outcome. As they are using our trademark, I will take care of that myself - you just enjoy our fees.

[brindsey]

For what it's worth.

The correspondence address for eBay Commerce UK Ltd, at Companies House, is given as:

Hotham House,

1 Heron Square,

Richmond Upon Thames,

Surrey,

United Kingdom,

TW9 1EJ

 It lists three directors:

Alec Patrick Latimer

Sholto David Andrew Mee

Subrata Roy

The address you have used is that given for EY Corporate Secretaries Limited, resigned 8th December 2022.  

All info at Companies House.

[brindsey]

To be fair, I've looked at the 'Overview' section and it does give the Registered office address as

1 More London Place, London, United Kingdom, SE1 2AF

So, don't know!

[the_book_seekers]

In my category of books I've seen so many sellers who should be registered as businesses appear. If ebay doesn't address the issue I can see my time as a business seller come to an end much sooner than I expected. 

[papso22]

The 1  More London address was the address in the user agreement for the serving of legal documents.   I haven't checked to see if it still is.

[laptopsparesrepairs]

Well as is the business subscription is a joke.

Take for example, today I sold an item for £13.39, by the time fees were removed and item posted (1KG Parcel £2.94) I ended up with £7.89. 42.1% of the sale price lost in fees and P&P.

What eBay don't seem to take into consideration is fee bumping across the board when postal services are also bumping costs is essentially a double cost hike on sellers.

Then they go fee free for private sellers, thanks eBay for chucking business sellers a bone, may I ask were can I find it?

I cannot speak for everyone, but for all the work and effort, I'm not in it to get 42% of the sale price fleeced. Simply not worth it.

[vintique*violet]

42%  is extortionate, how is this justified? 

[santlache_sales]

There is no point in whinging about this all the time.....

If you can't beat them (Private Sellers) - Join them.

This is basically the only way around this, stay as you are and continue to be ripped off by eBay and also undercut by Private sellers, or close your shop etc, remove your listings and open another account as a Private Seller and pay no fees.

I expect many sensible people have already done this.

[auctiongabble]

Thats what will happen with the site, even now i found a business based in india selling jewellery using a private account advertising on UK site.....

Ebay is such a mess now that its an impossible task to correct it all

[c-foreman-2008]

I am a small-time private seller who only manages to sell 20 or 30 items a year, I only have to same number of listed items in total. eBay knows full well who business sellers are, masquerading as private sellers with 100's or 1000's or items listed. These sellers should be kicked off eBay or made to pay even higher fees, higher fees can be done after 10 or 15 items are sold or a value of around £100 or £200 on eBay each month. Listing 300 items a month free for private sellers is causing businesses to use these private accounts. As a private small-time UK seller, I don't think I have done business by undercutting. I look at my items and they are all the same or way cheaper than lots of sellers, but still they don't sell, I would be happy to be restricted to 20 items a month with limited listing and pay my fees when my items are sold. Putting fees onto buyers who buy from private sellers is the stupidest idea eBay has come up with since the dreaded item specifics. eBay should be at the forefront of selling platforms, not copying other platforms and charging buyers anything but the price of items and post costs. eBay profits will just nose-dive and they may get into trouble with stock markets this next year as profits drop heavily. Business sellers will suffer with sales as private sellers close accounts, these sellers were and are our buyers on the platform. Sellers will be competing with far fewer buyers on the platform now, this has been caused by greedy business sellers using private accounts and ruining it for small sellers on eBay .

[the_book_seekers]

 thanks eBay for chucking business sellers a bone, may I ask were can I find it?

Well, ebay told us that fee free selling would translate in to more buyers and this would be to business seller's advantage. I can't see this has happened yet. Now the introduction of the buyer protect fee makes it even more unlikely. 

[cobwebcottage]

'Sellers will be competing with far fewer buyers on the platform now, this has been caused by greedy business sellers using private accounts and ruining it for small sellers on eBay '.

You are so right and many of them are joining in with the gripes the genuine private sellers have.

They have come out in force complaining about the buyers fees on their listings while selling their new stock.

Meanwhile, we are fighting to make a living and paying a good percentage to Ebay in fees.

[theelench]

But what has ebay gone and done?  Introduced blanket payment holds for ALL private sellers instead of targeting the the business sellers abusing private registrations.

Including all those private sellers that the CEO said spend twice as much as buyers who don't sell.

From this thread alone this "strategy" to get rid of the problem isn't working.  The crooks have the resources and sales volume to recover and carry on as before.  Many private sellers won't have and will just go elsewhere to sell and buy.

[the_book_seekers]

ebay is probably still working on the idea that there's always more buyers and sellers to fill the gaps. That might've been the case once, but not any more.