Downgrade account to personal - ACTION NEEDED

[the_london_store]

I've been trying for over 1 year to downgrade my account from Business to Personal.

I've contacted ebay multiple times, but they say this is not possible.

Sometimes I dont even sell 1 item a month, so there is no reason for me to have a business account.

If you make it so easy to upgrade to business account, then you should give users the option to go back. This is so DISAPPOINTING and DECEIVING. 

I've been on ebay for 10 years. I don't want to create a new account.

Can we get some help from ebay please?

Is it possible to vote for this feature, so action is taken?

[rebelchicken]

Thanks for the reasonably asked question. It's nice to know that some people on this forum are polite.

'Strange that. You would think ebay would have a subscription or something agreed in order to charge fees every month. By any chance £30 a month? Or some much smaller amount? '

Nope, its just a matter of a couple of pence in charges every month. 

But its more than just that, it's the seller interface and pages, i dont need them, I just want to sell a couple of bits and peices every now and then. to be clear I am not a business and never was a business.

For the benefit of the resident troll: I was forced to upgrade when selling some of my old comics and PC bits over a DECADE ago as i had gone over somethreshold for sales.

If i open a new account now what will happen to my 15 plus years of positive feedback?

All thats required is the ability to downgrade. my understanding of DEVOPS and software product ownership is that features like these will appear if enough people ask them so I am not going to wind my neck in for a troll.

Thanks

[guru-banana]

If you open a new account it will not affect the one you are posting on you can keep all of your feedback and run the other account as a private seller. I have Business accounts with many thousands of feedback, I opened this to sell some private items successfully without a feedback score. It makes no difference to the average buyer.

You are just making life difficult for yourself by stressing about it when it is not important to the person who might buy from you. The average buyer knows they can get their money back if you are up to no good, that's one of the main points of the MBG to encourage buyers buy from anyone. So feedback is irrelevant unless it is bad and even then the foolish can continue to buy despite it.

[rebelchicken]

Thank you for your advice.

I will investigate that. Do i open a new account entirely? or from within my existing account.

I just wish i had not been made to upgrade to a business account in the 1st place.

[guru-banana]

I can only answer with certainty on a pc but probably similar with other screens.

Sign out of your account, when you go to sign back in, click on sign in to your account and you will see the option to switch account, click on that and you will see create an account, click on that and follow through. The only thing you should need is a seperate email address. If you don't have one your curent provider should allow you to create one, how you do that depends on your email provider but is normally easy.

Your physical address details remain the same and you can even use the same phone and bank details for selling so should be straightforward just by taking a little time. Hopefully then problem sorted and no more stress.

[elitegiftsltd]

A number of us have multiple accounts. One for private sales, one for business, one for posting etc.

Yes you start with zero feedback. After you have a few it doesn't matter much. The seller with 10 and seller with 10,000 are just as good or bad as each other.

The 15 years you had an account is nice and all but big companies generally do not give loyalty. 

Couple of pence in charges...... is that by direct debit or card payment? May be worth replacing card if its card payment. 

[sam_in_barbate]

They have no plans to be able to make this possible, for eBay need as many "business" sellers as possible, the business seller figures make them look healthier than they are "(

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Quite a few people want to downgrade now that the number of buyers buying is dwindling.

Times are very hard for a lot of people and many ebay items are luxuries they can no longer afford.

I can barely give stuff away at the moment despite one of my products being half the price of nearest competitor.

[rebelchicken]

Thats a shame, I am sorry to hear it, my wife also runs an online retail company through NOTHS and that is really suffering due to the ecenomic downturn too, so we can sympathise.

[adewse2014]

The same thing has happened to me. In November I was told I couldn't sell any more beauty products as I exceeded the "quota" for said items. I didn't want to, and before agreeing I wanted assurance that

1. I'd still be eligible for the promotional selling fees when they come up

2. If I wasn't 100% happy being a business seller, I could change back to being private seller no problem. I reiterated this over and over.

3. The seller fees were comparable to private fees

Well all of these were total lies, and after seeing the charges for selling items exceed 16% I contacted them to request to switch back. I've wasted hours and hours in the last 2 months trying to sort it. I've been assured that my account will revert back but could take 3 months !!!  I've told them to listen to the recorded phone calls which proves that I have been totally lied to by their 'seller help' staff.  Basically I am seething. 

[mikhail2019]

No matter what they said, you CANT SWITCH BACK!  

Also you WILL get selling promotional offers as a business but they are much more infrequent than private.  

16% selling fees will include the shop fees you pay every month. And any upgrades you have used like promoted listings. 16% is quite good, on my biz account it is pushing 20.  

Your only solution is to open a new private account and leave your current account dormant if you no longer wish to use it, remember to cancel your shop sub first. And also, if you continue to trade as a business on a private account you are violating Ebays ToS and the consumer rights act. 

[pixiesen2012]

@adewse2014 

as you are clearly trading you wouldn't be allowed to change back even if it was allowed!!

when you buy to sell you have to use a business account

the items you are selling are clearly not unwanted personal possessions, so you have the correct level account!

[adewse2014]

The point I was getting at is that I was told I would be able to if not 100% happy-this was totally incorrect.

Sent from my iPhone

[pixiesen2012]

ebay CS say whatever they think you want to hear!

you are trading and need a business account, 

end of story

[adewse2014]

Thanks for your polite reply. I will take your advice 

[papso22]

Just make sure you also take this bit:

And also, if you continue to trade as a business on a private account you are violating Ebays ToS and the consumer rights act. 

[book-a-bale]

I totally sympathise because I too have been trying since October 2021 to downgrade my own account, which should never have become business in the first place.  For all those who have replied to this thread saying that there is no reason to downgrade from a business account, you are wrong. Let me explain my own circumstances...

I have held my ebay.co.uk account for over 18 years.  It has only ever been used for personal use and the majority of sales revolved around two major points in my life including the sale of personal items in 2008 to move to Spain and the sale of items from my fathers estate following his death in 2017.  There have occasionly been other items I´ve sold, but non of it business.

When I moved to Spain in 2008, I opened a business account on ebay.es.  This has actually had less use than my uk account, but because I am a business owner in Spain and occasionally do make business sales on ebay.es it is only correct that I have a business account here.  Everything worked fine and my two ebay accounts lived in seperate harmony for nearly ten years.  However, when I returned to the UK to handle the estate of my late father in 2018 somehow the two accounts got joined by ebay.  I do not know how, but assume it was the fault of the app on my Spanish mobile which I used to log into my UK account.  As a result both my ebay.co.uk and ebay.es accounts are now one business account but strangely have all my prior feedback from the personal UK account!

At first ebay were very helpful, and waivered any busness fees or VAT on the sale of my fathers items and being that I now live in Spain I wasn´t concerned that the two accounts had joined and were business so did not insist then that they seperate them.

However in 2021 I needed to sell my UK car and so contacted ebay to downgrade my account (I had previously stopped all business sales on ebay in Spain in favor of Amazon).  I was told then it would be done within 3-5 days.  Because I had already listed my car (it was after listing that I noticed the new "overseas" tax that they had imposed due to brexit), they again waivered the business taxes and fees for me.  At the time of sale, my account was still business, but I did not care because they had waivered the fees.

In December 2022 I again returned to the UK and listed a camera for sale.  When the auction completed I again noticed that I had been charged overseas tax and a number of other charges I have never seen before.  As a result I was forced to cancel the sale.  Again I contacted ebay and was told that my account would be downgraded in 3-5 days and that someone would contact me if there was a problem. 

To date nobody has contacted me, and my account remains business status.  I have contacted them again today and did get a long apology and assurance that it will be done asap - I don´t believe them.

So in summary, it is not fair to assume that all business sellers who want to downgrade are doing so to play the system.  Many, like myself, may simply no longer be trading in the UK.  It is also not fair that someone like myself who has always followed ebays rules and done things by the book finds that my seperate accounts in seperate countries merged without my knowledge or consent.  I do not want to have to open a new UK ebay account because I will loose my feedback and many sellers still prefer to deal with higher rated buyers.  Also I still have personal items in the UK which I want to sell privately, probably on ebay.

Ebay need to address this matter urgently as it is the only platform to my knowledge where a business cannot de-register.  

[4_bathrooms]

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@book-a-bale wrote:

Ebay need to address this matter urgently as it is the only platform to my knowledge where a business cannot de-register.  

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eBay do not allow accounts to be transferred between parties; this is exactly what they would be doing if they allowed a business account to be "downgraded". I know a private account can be "upgraded" to a business account but I suspect this is only so that private accounts that should be registered as business accounts can be forcibly "upgraded".

I have no idea what happened with your eBay account(s) but I strongly suspect the changes are irreversible and your only resolution will be to open a new private account. Selling via the wrong account type may have repercussions as all eBay UK sales are reported to HMRC via Connect.

There is a very good reason why accounts shouldn't be able to be "upgraded" or "downgraded" at all. If a private seller amasses 1,000s of positive feedback over a few years then decides to start trading it isn't really fair their previous feedback is retained as it was not left for the business - even if the seller is a sole trader - which gives a false impression about the performance of their business. 

[adewse2014]

Thanks for your in-depth explanation. Kindest regards A.

Sent from my iPhone

[book-a-bale]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

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eBay do not allow accounts to be transferred between parties; this is exactly what they would be doing if they allowed a business account to be "downgraded". I know a private account can be "upgraded" to a business account but I suspect this is only so that private accounts that should be registered as business accounts can be forcibly "upgraded". 

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So what you are saying is that ebay already break their own rules?  Also if it can´t be done, why have I now been told on three occasions by ebay representives who have reviewed my account (and verified everything I said above) that it will be done?  Also in law, a sole trader is the same person as the "private" individual - ie. unless the business is a limited company, PLC or partnership the entity is the same.  That is why sole traders cannot (or at least should not) legally claim tax relief on items they buy for personal use.

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

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Selling via the wrong account type may have repercussions as all eBay UK sales are reported to HMRC via Connect.

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That is exactly why ebay should allow my accounts to revert back to their original status.  Legally ebay is listing me as a business trading in the UK, which I am not.  It is totally their error and they have admitted it, but still do nothing to correct the mistake.

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@4_bathroom wrote:

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If a private seller amasses 1,000s of positive feedback over a few years then decides to start trading it isn't really fair their previous feedback is retained as it was not left for the business - even if the seller is a sole trader - which gives a false impression about the performance of their business. 

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Which is exactly what happened when ebay merged my two accounts.  Suddenly my ebay.es business account had lots of positive reviews even though I only ever sold on there a few times and my UK account has business reviews written in Spanish..!

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[guru-banana]

While I appreciate your frustration with your situation, you do exaggerate the need for feedback to be trusted by buyers, in this day and age, few leave it and few read it or you would not hear the horror stories about sellers with pages of negatives still getting fools paying for something they will never get.

If you want to show more than zero just buy a couple of things on that account but the only difference would be a likely low seelling allowance unless you contacted eBay to connect them but not as they did before of course.