Private Sellers continuing to operate as businesses

[reynardnoirrailwayana2015]

Hi all, 

I know there was another thread on this topic closed recently, but as a business seller doing things properly, I am increasingly being undercut by private sellers who are clearly businesses but have not registered as such. One seller I have seen in the same category we mostly operate in has had over 7,000 sales and has sold over 300 items in the last 12 months, and has over 400 items listed. This clearly is not someone who is operating as a business but is registered as a private seller. There are of course endless similar examples of this. 

eBay could easily police this but clearly opts not to, but should we as business sellers be able to report private accounts that are acting as businesses. Or are we all just hoping HMRC take action on these sellers (HMRC being efficient and fast moving seems unlikely).

What action should eBay be taking to protect and encourage business sellers, who seem to be at a massive disadvantage...

[laptopsparesrepairs]

This whole Business as Private seller set on is an absolute joke and not a very funny one.

Who in the top heads of eBay thought the resent ideas were a good one should be sacked.

Are you all really that out of touch or just lost your minds!

The whole premise that eBay will somehow police private sellers and force them into business sellers is just a fail before it begins. eBay cannot effectively review feedback complaints due to the mass task in hand never mind constantly scanning accounts which as of now clearly does not work.

Why bring in a system that totally destroys the moral of business sellers , I really cannot get my head around it all. As of now I'm stressed and upset about all of this not to mention the worry that I maybe out of business by the end of the year at this rate.

The promise of increase sales at the time of the change, yea right! my monthly takings are down 19% and falling and clearly show collapse since the announcement of the Private free selling.

What also upsets me is the constant stress of the whole selling to EU and all the red tape involved in that. If that wasn't bad enough eBay add a small transaction fee (regulatory) for the updates they do. Sellers paying for eBay to be compliant, really! but this insults me more because all these stealth fees come from everywhere as if eBay needs the money to survive to say no worry private sellers, you sell for free we can afford it.

It is in no way fair to say that private sellers can sell for free and businesses have to pay, an absolute disgrace!

Level the playing fields so Private and Business sellers have the same fee structure and push the ads objective or something like that or I don't see this ending well for any of us.

[howmuchtobid]

Does anyone actually think ebay plans to get a grip of this?  I don't understand any of it, they are losing shed loads of income from not dealing with it and it's annoying their main customer base (business sellers). I just don't see any benefit from their point of view.

[nurse-watch-fun]

i never ever reply to comments but i saw yours and thought i must do so.  you've managed to write down in a few sentences what makes my blood boil and what i would have taken up 3 pages worth of words!  i agree with everything you've said.  i'm so disillusioned that i've now decided to wind my 16 year business with ebay down.  i either dump it all in the bin or i sell it to try to break even.  how chinese "private" sellers can advertise and within a few weeks have over 1k of feedback amazes me when selling my goods for all this time about 5% of customers leave me feedback so what should be probably 100k of feedback i'm on about 15k.  ebay push you towards paying for clicks, paying for better enhancement, paying for this, paying for that.  i've gone from £150 a week to last week £4.19  and that's without my rm business account.  ai has a lot to do with this.  ai doesn't understand 100% as a watch i have which is NOT waterproof ai says IS waterproof and is a 1 piece strap - it is a clip on brooch and no mention of straps are anywhere near my listing!  when i p hone up ebay help they don't and all they seem to do is type in a listings policy violation for me which i can easily do.  all i've ever wanted is a fair playing field which means all of us the same.  so many business sellers down as private so get free listings.  when an item is mass produced from china or usa then it is not made by that person and not a "one off" especially when that listing gets sold and the same item goes back up.  when i send in policy violations of keyword spamming and listing in an incorrect category within seconds i get the bounce back email saying "nothing wrong with the listing" - so tell me how can a china mug which you drink from be in the category of jewellery, watches?  so many of us long standing business sellers all saying the same thing so it's not just 1 person having a rant but we are all feeling this.  i've been told it's because my listings don't have a white background.  so what happens if someone is selling a painting? another seller has copied some of my stuff with a background that is 90% of the chosen badge and the item so small you have to squint.  they too are keyword spamming with "personalised watch" when it is a logo of friends with a coffee cup so how is that personalised?  again, i see their feedback going up.  i've slashed my prices and still hardly any sales.  3 months running i've had to pay the shop fees because i'm not taking the money.  it used to be such a thrill to sell on ebay but it's been taken over by people in countries that lie and put up fake vat numbers when you can clearly see that they are nowhere near the uk.  when i google my stuff it comes up but i'm not sure if that's from cookies (and not the ones you eat) but even the internet on google now comes up immediately with AI and you have to scroll down to find human input ones.  we are now being limited as to what we can search for on-line and instead of ebay helping long term business sellers they just don't care one bit.  i HATE it when i get a call from customer service and they say "oh i can see you've been with ebay for 16 years so thank you for your loyalty" - where is THEIR loyalty? you ask a question and unless it's on the monitor they cannot answer you so i phone up frustrated and get off the phone even more frustrated but as long as they can send you a questionnaire of how well they are doing that's ok?  so ebay, if you are reading this, get rid of AI, get rid of constant email reminding me to leave feedback, employ call centre people that can speak to you like a human and not a robot and show some loyalty to the many people that were with you in the beginning and pay a lot of money to you.  ebay have told me that they are not what they were.   they are just a web address and this is why you can no longer get feedback removed if you think it unfair because another bounce back email will say that it is the buyers opinion even tho they've purchased a suitcase and left you feedback because they can't wear it around their neck!

[nurse-watch-fun]

but if WE can see this why can't ebay?  i see so much fake stuff on ebay and they allow it even tho you tell them.  i messaged a buyer because she'd purchased a tiffany bracelet for 9.99.  even melt down it would cost £50 as the bracelet is over £200!  she said to me that it was for her daughter so she was ok with that.  i wonder if her daughter's arm's gone green from whatever that is made from?  the blue box the white ribbon blatant copies.  when one was removed it was straight back up 2 hours later.  maybe as we're all suffering as business sellers ebay can employ us in our spare time to go through the listings of other sellers that sell what we do and then we can weedle out all the fakes and frauds.  if it quacks like and duck and waddles like a duck doesn't always mean it is a duck coz it could be a pigeon in fancy dress!

[bojangled]

After a dismal October I tried promoting again, in one category.
Switched it off yesterday, too much competition from private sellers. They don’t need to promote because they have a ridiculous sell through rate and are top of the search. I’m not selling at a loss. 
Jo

[crg_music]

In fairness they can promote at 10% effectively for free when compared to business sellers as we are paying 10% atleast without even thinking about promotion.

I dont know when ebay will wake up to this?, flooding the market with cheaper listings undercutting business sellers wont help them earn more money as all these new sellers will just buy the cheaper options off the other new private sellers.

If anything business sellers are consciously choosing to sell elsewhere. I guess I could buy off some private sellers and resell on other sites which was usually something I'd do in reverse but guess what?, ebay wont make a penny off that. 

[pg_kicks]

Does anyone know the actual route via the new system for reporting these? 

[moldosgifts]

If you mean via this route which reports the sellers id Online Customer Service - Report an issue with a seller

Or via the listing route which just reports that listing.

If there is a newer route if not seen it.

[pg_kicks]

On each listing there is the ? and that is the new way to report, the one you linked has never worked sadly, its the one the team told us to use for months/years but no action is ever taken.

[moldosgifts]

I find the report a listing only work for that listing not the seller

I report the seller and should work for everything they sell

[vintique*violet]

Hi - I cannot see the ? to report ...

Concerned about a new seller ( 4/11/24) who is based in Morocco and has hundreds of branded perfumes listed .. shows 35 items sold with 0 feedback and unsure how to raise this concern for Ebay to look into it. 

I may be wrong and it is genuine but do not think so.

abdenbi0

[messier44000]

As Dave mentioned on the weekly chat, "there is no option for that exact topic"

But they have continued with the usual copy and paste spin ever since 

[southeast-trailers]

Hi, yes, they (Ebay) have hidden somewhere on the screen a ? once you have gone through the various sections of reports there are 2 tick boxes, careful here, the bottom one says Ebay reserve the right to tell the offending account who has made the report, now thats going to encourage reporting isnt it!!! what happens when someone gets hurt/assualted/or their property damaged, honestly, the decision makers are absolutely bonkers!!!! absolute shambles of an organisation,

[ett1954]

To be fair this is probably not eBay's decision.  Under data protection rules a person is entitled to know of information eBay (or any organisation) would have on file on them if they made a formal subject access request.

It is useful to know because if you were to receive an eBay restriction on your account you can use the same procedure to request information from eBay on which they made any such decision.

[pg_kicks]

Just spoken to concierge as it was an account with 450+ listings all brand new trainers multiple sizes, standard business on a private account and they told me only they could now report to the trust and safety team for businesses on private accounts so to just phone them when I find any. Either been told incorrect info once again by concierge or the community team are telling incorrect copy and paste, wish I was shocked.

[southeast-trailers]

My last correspondence they told me to report to HMRC, *bleep*!! 

Couldn't make it up,

[vintique*violet]

Edit.. this sellers photos are the same as another seller in Sri Lanka... same situation. 

How can this happen? 

Why are Ebay allowing this, as it is so obvious. 

jekatjesu_0

[krafty-kreations]

Does anyone know the actual route via the new system for reporting these? 

I totally believe there is no actual route for this because eBay aren't interested in changing things 

They knew Business sellers wouldn't be happy when they introduced the free fees for private sellers knowing there were loads of business sellers selling on private accounts so they made a half hearted attempt to make out they were actually doing something.

Found one today with nearly 13 thousand feedback and over 2400 products listed, did I report, nope, waste of my time, I am so over it.

No changes by January and I will most likely close, I am sure eBay won't be that bothered by my leaving but with free to sell for private sellers I just can't see many business sellers signing up to business accounts to replace those that leave. 

[kempseykate]

@pg_kicks 
I have been away for a few days, so this may be old news, but have you looked at the confectionery seller recently?!

[pg_kicks]

Yeah I saw they have finally been forced to upgrade, I checked earlier in the week and saw, bet they loved the 6 weeks of zero fee's, what I'd give for that.