FAO Ebay staff - Reporting businesses trading on private accounts

[howmuchtobid]

To whom it may concern.

It's about time it was made easier for Ebay users to be able to report businesses trading on private accounts in a much more straight forward way.  At the moment there is no obvious option when using the report item option, i.e. there is no business trading on a private account option.

I and many other business sellers/Ebay users have spent a lot of time reporting blatant business sellers on private accounts however we are often wasting our time as all we get is a pointless AI response which simply isn't good enough.

This is something that needs to be introduced urgently as it will help legitimate business sellers survive and hopefully flourish, also in many ways it will be of great benefit to Ebay. It will also help Ebay's image as having so many illegal sellers on the platform is not a good look.

Can someone from Ebay please confirm they have seen this, thank you.

[wyntersemporium]

Too many private sellers, I buy charms off people on here. One private seller has 5000 charms for sale. They'll have a shock when eBay gets to them

[online-motor-store-uk]

Following todays communications from eBay that Private seller accounts will now not incur any selling fees, eBay is now greatly financially incentivised to root out the businesses who are trading with private accounts - heres hoping this is the case and legal obligations / fair competition are applied to all businesses operating on the platform.

[Anonymous]

How do business sellers have the time to go round browsing listings and reporting others?

The buyers themselves won't report the private sellers who are businesses.

It's all about money, if a private seller clearly running a business has it listed for £2 cheaper than a business - I'm buying the private sellers item all day long.

The private seller who is clearly a business is offering better prices – meaning less profit for themselves, buyers will think - if they can offer better prices there's no reason why the business seller can't.

Music Magpie have it right - list it 2p cheaper than everyone else’s.

[online-motor-store-uk]

I agree with your point that it comes down to the final penny for most customers, thats just business.  But the reality is there are reasons why these 'private account' business sellers can unfairly under-price;

The cost advantages to business sellers operating on private ebay accounts is (as of today) they will pay no transaction fees when selling an item on ebay.  So they have a great price advantage, 10% on average, over the legitmately listed business seller straight away.

They also do not have the cost and inconvenience of customer returns to account for in margin, as well as all of the other obligations to consumers that businesses must adhere to when selling online. 

It is also common practice to see individual businesses running a number of private ebay accounts all selling the same products, same photos, same descriptions.  This is in an effort to beat the VAT threshold and defraud HMRC of tax.  Another huge cost burden to the bona fide business seller.

All of these elements unfortunately provide the businesses who are using private accounts on ebay a very real advantage over the legitimate business accounts, when pricing their goods.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

It's actually quite easy.  If your constantly looking at listings etc, then you come across them all of the time.  And it's not much of a stretch to click "report".

It's not all about money, because not everything is cheap and cheerfull.

Music magpie is very much build them high, sell them cheap.

But they make next to nothing on each item and have to sell a LOT in order to be profitable.

In short, there are many ways of getting it right.  And never just one.

In your example, your talking about an item for £2 cheaper, but if that item is costing you £50 and if it's wrong, would you still take the chance to save £2 on it, when you can't return it to the private buyer?

Sure, it's fine if your talking about something that is only a few quid, but that changes quite quickly, the more expensive an item is.

You are also not considering the fact that some items are individual and not something that can be bought from loads of competing sellers.

[the-layer-laboratory]

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@therenewalworkshopltd wrote:

In your example, your talking about an item for £2 cheaper, but if that item is costing you £50 and if it's wrong, would you still take the chance to save £2 on it, when you can't return it to the private buyer?

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Dont be so naive! You know very well the buyer will just open a SNAD case and return anything they want to at zero cost to themselves.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Though buyers do that, they are not ALL dishonest.  And in actual fact, that majority do adhere to the rules.

[choughed-to-bits]

Working through them in batches? I first reported one seller over 5 years ago, I have since reported him about every 6 months since then. 
I have been tempted to use my private account to undercut him but have resisted so far.

[555njp]

Use your private account to report again, collective reporting might actually get a result although eBay have confirmed they only investigate if the seller sells over €10,000 in any rolling 12 month period.

I saw some competition disappear overnight when the new HMRC reporting rules were announced, but it's gradually coming back.

Fact is 9 times out of 10 a buyer will go for the cheapest item. EBays MBG covers the buyer and most care not a jot who they buy from unless it's a very expensive or high-risk product.

[howmuchtobid]

I have reported a number of blatant businesses trading on private accounts 20 - 30 times yet nothing is done.

Ebay community staff say things like actions are being taken etc however any action should be obvious, all I am seeing is the same sellers remaining on private accounts and listing new items each day, some have sales of well over £1000 a week and they are effectively trading for free whilst business sellers pay through the nose just to hang on.

The whole situation is a total and utter disgrace.

[hobbiesncrafts]

ebay should provide a link for business sellers to be able to report them. There is a sewing pattern seller who has twice the listings l have and is trading under the status of private seller, paying no fees. ebay need to sort this before they lose even more sellers who are actually giving them fees.

[moldosgifts]

My sales have dropped of a cliff since this was introduced my own website is going very well, i have reported a few private/businesses not heard a things perhaps it takes a few weeks. In the mean time my business on ebay is not sustainable.

[lupo-store]

I spoke with eBay concierge this morning in relation to the many hundreds of accounts I have reported. They stated that they are working through all of these books because of the sheer numbers it will take a long time.

I asked if there was a specific deadline but there does not appear to be one

[the-nutwood-collection]

This is hopeless.  'Because of the sheer numbers it will take a long time'.  How many people have they got working on it?  One part-timer?

Weeks ago I reported a private listing that is obviously a business - no surprise that it's still there.  I suspect I know who it is, so yesterday I looked at their website to check that the images were the same.

There are no images because they're out of stock until January!  Is it just a coincidence that the free fees end in December?

Ostensibly, they're cheaper than me - if the buyer doesn't check the postage cost.  They're even making a thumping profit on the postage!!!  For one of the items, my fees would be £10+, theirs will be zero.  Thanks eBay.  Not only that, because I looked at the listing (didn't watch it), it's constantly popping up on my MSN hub as an ad, both in the revolving gallery and the News section.

So, this 'private' seller is contributing nothing to eBay's bottom line, but getting ads.  I'm being badgered to give eBay more fees for PL.  

A stupendous own goal on eBay's part.

[kempseykate]

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@hobbiesncrafts wrote:

ebay should provide a link for business sellers to be able to report them. There is a sewing pattern seller who has twice the listings l have and is trading under the status of private seller, paying no fees. ebay need to sort this before they lose even more sellers who are actually giving them fees.

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Why should it only be for business sellers to report them? I have been reporting the confectionary seller, a seller who has sold 900+ identical (illegal) photocopied knitting patterns and a few others over the last month. Many private sellers dislike the unregistered business sellers as much as business sellers do.

[nutrafituk]

Correct:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/food-policy?id=4295

• Before selling food items, you must register your business with the UK local authority

Activity on eBay is required to follow this policy, the eBay User Agreement and all applicable laws, as well as respect the rights of third parties. If it doesn’t, eBay may take action consistent with applicable laws and the eBay User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: Removing the listing or other content, issuing a warning, restricting activity or account suspension.

The thing is eBay do not give a damn...

[messier44000]

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@the-nutwood-collection wrote:

This is hopeless.  'Because of the sheer numbers it will take a long time'.  How many people have they got working on it?  One part-timer?

Some time ago with the copy / paste weekly chat team, I said I`ve been reporting on an off 

for over 10 years with no action taken on any of my reports.

Their advice was the keep reporting blah blah.

Which part of the words including 10 years of reporting with no action taken did they not understand (or read)

[lupo-store]

I had a spreadsheet of several I reported this year.  Of the 7, 2 are now business sellers.  1 is on holiday.  1 no longer listing and 4 still private.

Back in June I made a test purchase of eBay item number:285887835268

This came from a fulfilment house in Coalville, Leics.  The same address Leics trading standards were trying to raid several years ago.  They couldn't as they didn't know whose stock belonged to who.  

I opened an item not received case, stating I thought it was a private seller.  They just refunded me!!!!    They have about 260 listings, have been reported to eBay, yet still trading happily on a private account.

[moldosgifts]

Online Customer Service - Report an issue with a seller (ebay.co.uk)

Use this copy sellers name from feedback score then pick other next page pick other.

[lupo-store]

Already did several times.  Reported many sellers.  It will take time to resolve.  

We all would like it to be resolved as fast as VERO complaints though