Buyer Protection is coming soon

[nutrafituk]

Just announced - finally some sort of good news for business accounts basically saying ONLY PRIVATE SELLERS will have this fee added (£0.75 fixed + various %). Hopefully that will make a difference for genuine business sellers and make those dodgy ones re-think their position:

We’re excited to announce that from 4 Feb, buyers will benefit from a brand new protection every time they shop on eBay. What’s even better is that this comes at no extra cost to you or your buyers. To give your buyers more confidence and security when shopping, Buyer Protection will be included on every purchase on ebay.co.uk. We’ve kept things simple for you, so there’s nothing you need to do to access this protection. These are all part of our efforts to make eBay the best marketplace for our community. Here’s how the recent changes will benefit you.

Why Buyer Protection is good for your business As a business seller, Buyer Protection is included for free for you and your buyers. They’ll get the protection, without the cost. With Buyer Protection, all buyers and sellers will now get 24/7 customer support where you can connect with a real person by phone whenever you need, or start a chat to get quick answers. We’ve also still got you covered with secure transactions, thanks to payments that are encrypted end-to-end and handled by our trusted payment partners.

We’re always looking for more ways to help drive sales to your business, so from 20 Jan, Coupons, Multi-buy and other discount tools will only be available to business sellers. You can look forward to more exclusive benefits in the future. Learn more about Buyer Protection What’s changing for private sellers

• We recently made changes to our fee structure so it’s free for private sellers to sell on eBay (excl. Vehicles). As part of this, from 4 Feb, a Buyer Protection fee will be added to listings from UK-based private sellers so we can make investments into these protections. This fee will be included in the item price and be paid for by the buyer. As a reminder, this is free of charge for business sellers.

• To give buyers more protection and encourage timely shipment, private sellers will be paid once the item is delivered. There’s no change for business sellers and you’ll still receive your payouts as quickly as you do today.

• We know it’s important to have a fair and equitable marketplace for all business sellers. That’s why we’re monitoring trading activities on eBay to help business sellers using a private account transition over to a business account, or restricting selling activity as necessary.

[papso22]

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@discre wrote:

For most purchases it's also nowhere near 4%

Item cost now   Item cost with BPR  Increase
£ 1.00                    £ 1.79                              79%
£ 2.00                   £ 2.83                            42%
£ 3.00                   £ 3.87                            29%
£ 4.00                   £ 4.91                             23%
£ 5.00                   £ 5.95                            19%
£ 7.00                    £ 8.03                           15%
£ 9.00                    £ 10.11                            12%
£ 10.00                  £ 11.15                            12%
£ 15.00                   £ 16.35                         9%
£ 20.00                  £ 21.55                         8%
£ 25.00                  £ 26.75                         7%
£ 30.00                  £ 31.95                          7%
£ 35.00                  £ 37.15                           6%
£ 40.00                  £ 42.35                        6%
£ 45.00                  £ 47.55                         6%
£ 50.00                  £ 52.75                         6%
£ 60.00                  £ 63.15                          5%
£ 70.00                  £ 73.55                         5%
£ 80.00                 £ 83.95                         5%
£ 90.00                 £ 94.35                         5%
£ 100.00               £ 104.75                       5%
£ 150.00               £ 156.75                        5%
£ 200.00              £ 208.75                      4%
£ 250.00              £ 260.75                      4%
£ 300.00              £ 312.75                      4%
£ 350.00              £ 363.75                     4%
£ 400.00              £ 414.75                      4%
£ 450.00              £ 465.75                     4%
£ 500.00              £ 516.75                       3%
£ 600.00              £ 618.75                       3%
£ 700.00              £ 720.75                      3%
£ 800.00              £ 822.75                      3%
£ 900.00              £ 924.75                      3%
£1,000.00            £ 1,026.75                    3%

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Totally meaningless table.

[papso22]

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@dion5feb2016 wrote:
Thanks for the info. I am a little confused (tried to find out about this)
as to whether postage is to be increased by the ‘fees’ too? If I charge for
example £3.39 for postage will a 4% charge be added?

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The fees are not calculated on any postage charged.

[dion5feb2016]

Thank you for that, very useful. Have a good day

[discre]

Can you clarify 'meaningless'? 

It only has three relevant bits of information. The price the buyer pays now, the price the buyer will pay after 4th Feb, and the percentage increase (every penny of which will just go to increasing eBay's profits/or offsetting the cost of the insanely stupid decision to charge private sellers zeo fees)

[papso22]

Because we all now that the fixed fee element skews the calculations on low value items, so it tells us nothing we don't know already.  

You also say that it's nothing near 4%, you are right; the percentage element is less than 4% of an item over £300, but the fee is still 4%, (or 4% up to £300 and 2% on whatever exceeds that).  Because of the fixed fee element (which had the same impact on selling fees), the percentage increase has no correlation to the percentage fee, which is 4% or less.

You are implying that ebay are charging buyers more than 4% with your percentage increase column, but they have never said that the buyer fee is just 4%, it's always mentioned together with the fixed element.

[game_raid]

It is down to the seller if they wish to absorb the fee, of course the buyer is paying the fee but the seller can lower their price to keep the same price as it was before the fee, buyers will not be paying anything more than they are today and the seller will still be better off than they were on September 30.

Obviously it's lot harder on the £1 items, eBay will have the data on all these low value sales and it looks like it is no longer worthwhile for them to be on the site, sad but true but this is business and businesses have to make a profit, eBay don't owe anyone a living and if that item can't make you money it's not eBay's fault, look for something else to sell that does make you money after fees and costs.

Yes, it wasn't the best idea to offer fee free selling but sellers should have been lowering their prices to account for the 12.8% + 30p they were saving and passed this on to their buyers so when the buyer fee was introduced they would still be competitive on price, not that a private seller should be looking to profit on everything they sell, if something has appreciated it's happy days but more often than not that old jumper that hasn't been worn for 2 years will generally result in a loss to the seller, something back is better than nothing.

The only ones that seem to be complaining the loudest are the ones selling for profit who are businesses but are in total denial they are because it's a "hobby" according to them.

[discre]

Why assume that just because you are clever enough to do the maths that everyone else can and will? That they won't is exactly what eBay is relying on by promoting the 4% headline rate.

The fee is a combination of BOTH the percentage and fixed element. Ebay are using the headline percentage element to con people, most of whom won't bother to do the maths, into thinking it's basically 4%.  For your average eBay sale it isn't anywhere near that. That's what the table clearly shows.

It's all down to perception and is exactly the same rationale used everywhere in commerce - £0.99 instead of £1.00, £99,999 instead of £100,000. It's basic numerical psychology and eBay knows this fine well.

You actually use almost the same rationale yourself in stating that the private seller should now reduce his/her price to take into account the fact that they are no longer paying fees.  Basically, so that the buyer perceives it to be at a lower price only to be later stung by the BPR at checkout.  For a fixed price item, no seller in their right mind will do this if the buyer can be made to pay the fee.  For an auction item the seller doesn't set the price anyway.

If eBay had been honest from day one they would have charged both buyer and seller a reasonable fee, as is the case with almost all B & M auction houses, although many B & M customers might question the word 'reasonable' these days.

It's a very badly thought out policy that will have very real ramifications for ALL buyers and sellers.

[goodibags]

It may be true that all the complaining so far has been from those who are aware of the new buyer fees, few of whom seem to be buyers that don't also sell on ebay. It's entirely possible that this will change from Tuesday, of course. Once buyers start seeing the new charges they're suddenly expected to pay.

It's not just hard for a seller to lower an item price below 99p it's technically impossible. 99p is the absolute minimum for buy it nows. There's not much more a seller can do there. As you suggest these items will most likely simply disappear, along with the unwanted buyers of low value items.

Ultimately the new charge is a levy on Buyers of 75p+ per item. Just because Ebay would like users to think it must be something else doesn't mean it is.

[thesmi42]

"the fee is still 4%, (or 4% up to £300 and 2% on whatever exceeds that"

Which of course means that an item listed at £300 will actually be cheaper than it would be if it was listed at £299 😂

Madness!

[discre]

Unless I'm reading it wrongly it's still 4% on the amount up to £300 and then 2% on any balance over that, rather than 2% on the total.

[sml192]

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@thesmi42 wrote:

"the fee is still 4%, (or 4% up to £300 and 2% on whatever exceeds that"

Which of course means that an item listed at £300 will actually be cheaper than it would be if it was listed at £299 😂

Madness!

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The first £300 is always charged at 4% and then 2% for any portion thereafter.

So £299 and £300 would both be charged at 4%.  If the item was £301 then it would be £300 at 4% plus £1 at 2%.

[insidethe93]

bzmotman said "You can then spend your time & money travelling to the shop to buy that item".  Please excuse me but I think that's a bit of a sweeping statement, as loads of things on eBay you can't buy in a bricks & mortar shop, or even elsewhere on line. I've been discovering that in the past few weeks, spending time looking round eBay in categories I previously never looked in. (I've been using time freed up from my pre-4th Feb private sellers buying spree.)

In the crafts category (which I doubt is unique in this), items like artwork made to order or customised to order or small secondhand craft dies or secondhand small craft tools cost about £1 to £4, and are sold by private sellers decluttering. Apart from always-use fundamental basic shape dies, dies tend to be used once or twice and can be sold on; you can't damage a craft die unless you try hard. But they can't be found for sale outside eBay. For dies and tools you can buy them GENERICALLY but certain tool makes are more desirable (work better) than others, and die content is very individual - you can't get them at a bricks & mortar shop.  Hobbycraft bricks & mortar shop is a large chain and driving small individual craft shops out of business yet Hobbycraft covers so many crafting types (knitting, sewing, vinyl, papercrafting, model-painting and a dozen more I can think of) that there's no meaningful stock in any one type.

For instance, I recently bought a craft die for a couple of quid or so where two cats, seen from the back, are sitting side by side and their tails form a heart shape (good for making a Valentine's Day or Anniversary card). I know you absolutely can't buy that in a bricks & mortar shop, have never seen it on any site other than eBay and wouldn't expect to. I fear that the range and pleasure for thousands (millions?) of browsing these low-value but so interesting and desirable little items, in loads of categories not just crafting, is about to be lost come 4th Feb.

[cavelambert]

What people are forgetting is that EBay was originally for the everyday person to get rid of unwanted items - clothes no longer wanted/fitted, outgrown kids toys, unwanted gifts etc - rather than dumping or taking to a charity shop, so earning themselves a little cash. Then businesses decided a good way to sell with such a wide audience so the birth of the business accounts.
<span;>This new buyer protection is just a way as many are saying to get back what's been lost in stopping the selling fees to private sellers.  EBay will end up losing the 'real' private sellers as nobody will buy their low priced items as they will no longer be low with the added 75p alone. I remember when the norm was to start every auction at 99p regardless of what you were hoping to achieve.
<span;>EBay are not being transparent as the fee is not shown separately but added into the item selling price so it appears that the seller is charging that amount.
<span;>EBay are penalising all in their attempt to draw out the business sellers hiding behind a private seller account. Surely they can see who those are from their listing quantities and force them to transfer to a business account. Perhaps have a restriction on monthly insertions on private accounts so that over a certain amount the system will block further insertions, the business seller would then be forced to transfer to a business account if they want all their products to be listed.
<span;>In some cases the 'real' private seller will reduce their price to compensate and lose out, with EBay gaining but this is not how it should be.  Others will just not list and EBay will still lose them to Vinted, Gumtree or any other equivalents out there or buyers just won't pay with the uplifts.
<span;>Really don't think this has been thought out well but maybe EBay don't care about private sellers and just want all business. </span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;>

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Really don't think this has been thought out well but maybe EBay don't care about private sellers and just want all business.

No, Ebay have stated that they want private sellers, as they turn into buyers.

So no, they don't want all business.  I do however agree that they have not thought things through properly.

EBay are penalising all in their attempt to draw out the business sellers hiding behind a private seller account. Surely they can see who those are from their listing quantities and force them to transfer to a business account.

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that.  There are many reasons why people sell items so you can't just make a sweeping statement, that it's down to listing quantities.  Yes, it's an indicator, but there are always going to be reasons.

What Ebay need to do, is to sort out those "private" sellers.  An awful lot of them are very easy to spy out.  The crazy thing is, is that many actually say they are a business in their listings.....

I don't think that the changes in and of themselves are specifically to weed out those "private" sellers.

A lot is to do with changings things to the way the likes of Vinted work.  ie the buyers fee.  Nobody bats an eye over there about it.

I do think that the delay in payout is not a good thing though.  For those that are actually private sellers, they are being penalised.  But the business sellers not so much.  Yes, it will affect cash flow, but once the initial period has been passed, then the money flows as normal.