Ebay forces upgrade to Business due to new HMRC regulations

[sportex-uk]

Hi All.

I've received an email from ebay forcing me to switch to business account due to the volume of my recent sales. Customer service explained that I exceeded £1800 in one month, so they act in line with new HMRC regulations. The email is a bit threatening: "We need you to make these changes to your account within the next 21 days. If you don’t, your selling privileges may be blocked. This includes listings ended and loss of selling history."

However, As I'm not ready to go business and I consider my increased activity as temporary, Customer Service advised that if reduce my sales volume, I can stay private. Has any of you passed through this process?

Also, what happensto your existing promo listings if you switch to business? Are they allowed to continue on promo terms and with 'no returns accepted' until they sell or end?

[moldosgifts]

The tax man or woman equal opportunities and all that.

If your figures hit the magic marker they will take a look if needed they will write to you to explain.

When not a clue but they will may take over a year to get around to you.

Tax men or women have massive powers of investigation so like i said its them that need convincing if you not a business.

[moldosgifts]

Not that i think you are a business

[craze_chris]

Luckily

Mine is purely a private acount not a business account

Chris

[sheffieldsvintage]

I don't think that makes a difference

[shopping-ferret]

What I don't get, is what criteria Ebay use when they decide which sellers they approach to convert to business accounts? 

For 5 years, I successfully sold a premium cosmetic and was originally the only supplier; alas very recently unable to obtain further supply as the company said they were no longer permitting resale (although previously did permit me).  I had a competitor on Ebay, registered as a private seller, who a couple of  years back started selling the product too and constantly competing with me, even stealing my photos and descriptions; undercutting my prices and had a feeling of being stalked by her!!  She clearly is not a private seller and consistently has hundreds of  new items in her shop and last night, curious whether she was still able to obtain the same cosmetic items from the manufacturer, I looked at her shop and not only is she apparently still able to obtain the items in bulk, but she has 19 listings for the same cosmetic!  Some of them have multiple quantities, others have a couple, so a stock of around 150!  Importantly, how on earth is she slipping past Ebay's new practice of contacting pretend private sellers?  Maybe Ebay have some systematic approach who they are selecting.  I would have thought they started with those who have the largest turnovers and work down.... but going by what is being said here, maybe they are doing it the other way round!!

[returns_andexdisplay]

Depends what the seller is selling, if something high value like cars then yes could be a business. Thats why you would hope ebay look at accounts on a case by case basis to make sure they get it right first time and only annoy private sellers who are clearly running a business and not genuine private seller . Some are clear and obviously running a business when they have hundreds of new items and a history of selling similar items. I guess the harder ones are where you could have two similar accounts one clearing out a old collection of vinyl records or antiques they have collected over the years and selling to clear space. The second seller similar but they have just recently bought the collection to resell for a profit. 

[craze_chris]

That’s absolutely crazy have you reported the business as it clearly is !! It aught to be paying taxes and probably vat !!


Chris

[shopping-ferret]

Yes, I did report them about a year or so ago to Ebay... but they only sympathised and did nothing.  I also TWICE reported this pretend private seller to... HMRC!  Again, no action was taken.  I know this sounds like I am being vengeful - but they are simply taking the p!  I even politely messaged them and asked them to please stop using my photos and 'stal king' my listings and can we just agree a price freeze and leave it up to customers who they purchase from.  They simply ignored me.  An example is sat at 8pm I decide to lower my price by 25p.  Within the hour, they would do likewise!!  The woman is a nutter.  Despite all this, I still sold a lot.  I am not greedy - there is room for healthy competition - however without any fees to pay, it is really unfair, especially when they are most likely not declaring their income to HMRC.  

Times this by tens of thousands of other similar 'private' sellers...

[returns_andexdisplay]

It is likely the other seller is using some software to price match you or set to drop their price if you change your's. See what happens if you raise your price on a few items. 

[jonat_broad]

I wouldn’t suggest you discuss a price freeze with this seller. You may find it’s you who gets it in the neck.

[shopping-ferret]

Not sure what getting it in the neck would mean.  She never replied, anyway.   One time I altered all my prices for the listings in question.  Within minutes, she started altering her prices.  She is totally nuts.  I just wanted to put a stop to the childish nonsense.  This was about a year or so back. 

I did not get anything in the neck.  I did OK with sales of that item, even when my prices were a bit higher than the pretend private seller.  Maybe because I am Top Rated, my listings for that item generally appeared at the top and I had repeat buyers too.

[shopping-ferret]

Yes could be although am not aware of any such software.  I suspect she was just watching all the listings in question and checking in all the time.  Sometimes it was fast when she changed her prices, other times it might be the next morning (especially when I changed mine late at night).   I was especially infuriated when she was using the photos I had taken.

I am now unable to obtain that stock from the manufacturer as they said they are not allowing reselling any longer.  That was what I said earlier - how is she managing to get so much stock?   The good thing is her sales will go up as a result and she might just have a big lot of back taxes to pay one day!

Anyway, it served me well for years and I made a decent profit.  Good things don't last forever!   Or maybe I will just sell off what I have as I have started downsizing anyway.

[little-rascal-77]

Hi, I have heard that it's all a load of *bleep*, they only said this too
scare all private sellers to change over to business sellers. This was told
to me by a ebay rep in Ireland.

[shopping-ferret]

Scare or forewarn?

[jokers_toybox]

They were right to ignore requests to agree a price and stock to it. It's illegal

It's classed as forming a cartel and carries serious consequences.

https://companieshouse.blog.gov.uk/2018/10/19/business-cartels-understanding-competition-law/

[jokers_toybox]

You can report them for using your images, unless they're stock images.

I had to do this a while back with a seller, I agree it's frustrating, but a quick call to CS usually fixes it

[jokers_toybox]

Heard from who?

[bravergrace]

---

@shopping-ferret wrote:

   I even politely messaged them and asked them to please stop using my photos and 'stal king' my listings and can we just agree a price freeze and leave it up to customers who they purchase from.  They simply ignored me.    

---

What did you expect them to do, when you had just proposed an illegal price cartel?  

---

@shopping-ferret wrote:

  An example is sat at 8pm I decide to lower my price by 25p.  Within the hour, they would do likewise!!  The woman is a nutter.  Despite all this, I still sold a lot. 

---

They probably did this automatically.  A few years back, there was a bit of a scandal on Amazon, when sellers there started using automatic tools to undercut prices. 

It worked like this:

- Several sellers each set up their television prices to adjust be the lowest price by 1p.

- The tool would automatically reduce Pam's price to be 1p less than Mike's price.

- One minute later, it would reduce Mike's price to be 1p less than Pam's.

- One minute later, it would reduce Pam's price again to be 1p less than Mike's.

By the time the sellers realised what was happening, they both sold out of televisions, for pennies instead of the normal price.  And Amazon had already dispatched the goods, so the sellers couldn't even cancel the sales.

[the-best-uk-deals]

you have a yearly hobby allowance of £1000 turn over (100 £10 sales for example) between April and April each year period. If you go over HMRC classes you as a business. 

Returns are part of business and you have to accept them legally. you wil hardly get any if you list your items with lots of images and a good description with measurements. 

Sounds like you indeed need to move to a business account and make sure you are registered with HMRC as ebay has now passed your details over to them. if you do not register i believe HMRC will fine you 

it is also worth highlighting these are NOT 'New' regulations. this has always been the law but a lot of people *cough* (like you) decide to not follow the rules so HMRC literally has to spell it out clear as day for you. 

[shopping-ferret]

Thank you. I did report her but Ebay did nothing. You have to watermark the photos. She knew this as selected photos I'd taken not watermarked. It didn't occur to me at the time anyone would steal my images and descriptions. I had been selling the product years before she jumped on the bandwagon! Thus is a person with 100s of new products for sale and a private seller. Says it all.

The joys of selling on Ebay!!