Selling fees scrapped for private sellers

[scancomputers_outlet]

So it's official from today private sellers no longer have to pay a final value or regulatory operating fee on items except for cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles on the platform

What benefits are we sellers to get other than being shafted with 10% fees and other expenses

Our sales could take a plunge with private sellers offering items at a super cheat rate

I'm rather worried thoughts ?

[milly*fiory]

@iluvneighbours There is loads of useful information on the HMRC website on what makes a seller a business and when they would have to declare their income.

Even private sellers selling off personal possessions have to be careful as the HMRC website states, "If you sold a personal possession for £6,000 or more, and made a profit, you need to tell us about this income. This is because you may have to pay Capital Gains Tax on the profit you made."

Items that are bought with the intention of selling to make a profit are not classed as personal possessions.

I believe eBay would say these type of sellers should register as business sellers and HMRC would class this as self-employment. 

The tax-free allowance lets you receive up to £1,000 tax-free on your trading income. Anything more than this, you must declare and complete a self-assessment tax form. A benefit of completing self-assessment is that you can claim for allowable expenses, which would include eBay fees.

[milly*fiory]

As a small business seller, the new 'benefits' that eBay are offering to business sellers have no value to me. 

In all my years of trading on eBay (I also have another older business account) I've never experienced a fraudulent return. Maybe I've just been lucky. 

And on the rare occasions when I've had to call eBay for some assistance, I've always met with helpfulness and usually my queries have been resolved quickly. My issues with moving over to Managed Payments were a bit tricky but always dealt with kindly and professionally by the customer service reps.

What would benefit me, and bring me into line with the benefits given to private sellers, would be something to increase my profits (which have been reducing year on year) and to reduce fees (which have been increasing year on year). Especially frustrating is eBay including postage costs in the final value fees and Royal Mail postage costs are increasing again this month.   

Some while ago, Ebay offered some special promotions to business sellers, inviting them to list items between specific dates to benefit from a reduction in final value fees. I've not seen one of these promotions for ages. It would be great to have these back. 

All I receive these days are invitations to spend more on fees by using Promoted Listings.  

Come on eBay, please give us genuine Business Sellers some real financial benefits. 

[555njp]

I did benefit from the weekend 50,000 free listings a couple of times (yes you read it correctly, fifty thousand free listings) and managed something like 35 lol.

We only got the promotion a couple of times then they stopped it (2013 time frame?).

[tommystrezures]

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@555njp wrote:

I did benefit from the weekend 50,000 free listings a couple of times (yes you read it correctly, fifty thousand free listings) and managed something like 35 lol.

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You obviously weren't typing fast enough!!!!! 😀

[shopping-ferret]

You are lucky to have had no problems with fraudulent returns but apart from luck, it also depends on your sales volume, what you sell, the kind of buyers you attract, demographics, etc.   The more listings you have and the more you sell, the more risk of issues (especially if you also sell many low value items which are posted without tracking).

As for Ebay CS, well it is pot luck (there is that word again!)  I have had some fantastic experiences but equally countless dire ones and it also depends on the reason you are calling them.  Have you ever had your account hacked and taken over by scammers?  It took me a whole day to try and get some help from Ebay!!  I had angry buyers messaging me and calling me a scammer.  Literally I had emails flying in every few seconds and from all parts of the globe - complaints and queries and the listings had offers too good to be true (which is exactly what they were). 

On the phone, I was sent from pillar to post and I think the fact it happened late on a Saturday night was problematic as there are not as many qualified staff available, so I got transferred to a call centre in South Africa and the agent was totally disinterested in the fact that 2000 high value istings had been fraudently added to my shop!!   He then told me it had been resolved and to wait an hour for the deletions to update... an hour later nothing had changed.

I have lots of bad examples.  Once again, it depends how often you have to contact Ebay, because the more transactions you have, the more often you will have reason to contact them and, the more chance of being met by a poor CS experience.  Some of the staff are totally cluless and not trained in procedures and policies.  Some, due to their accents and clarity of voice, you can barely understand!

[555njp]

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@tommystrezures wrote:

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@555njp wrote:

I did benefit from the weekend 50,000 free listings a couple of times (yes you read it correctly, fifty thousand free listings) and managed something like 35 lol.

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You obviously weren't typing fast enough!!!!! 😀

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Yeah, one of those "wish I had 50,000 item templates on turbolister (remember that?) ready to upload" moments 😂😂

[chrbac.uye5b7]

Not the worst decision. That will be when they start charging buyers next year! They have already removed the use of nectar vouches to buy things from sellers.

[retrolize]

Thats exactly whats happened, sales have absolutely tanked becuase of this utterly ridiculous rule change.  The limit they place on these "Private" sellers is a complete joke, 300 listings a month :D. What "private" seller lists 300 items a month?

The only option we have is to relist all our listings as a private seller to compete or drop ebay completely. Whoever made the decision to remove fees for private sellers needs sacking.

[tribalgiftsuk]

I agree with you. This last weekend i have sold 0 items, thats the first weekend that has ever happened  to me other than when i have had holiday settings on. My sales have tanked this October and i have done discounts on some items, had a voucher running early month and sent offers etc.

[neocortex2006]

Im registrated on Ebay UK and Im selling on Ebay DE and USA as a private seller, and Im paying FVF for every sealed item. Im from Serbia.

Why I still pay fees, does someone know?

[nebs9999]

UK-based private sellers no longer pay final value fees or regulatory operating fees. Your listings show you are shipping from Serbia. So you will pay fees based on the Serbian fee levels.

[sml192]

There are still fees for sellers on ebay.co.uk residing outside the UK. 

See the 'Fees for private sellers residing outside the UK' section of the 'Fees for private sellers' help page for details. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/fees-private-sellers?id=4822&st=3&pos=1&qu...

[ruj_uk_p5xyi4lo]

I  AGREE 100%.  I was forced by Ebay to become a business seller and I am now paying 13.6% final selling fees including VAT. On the otherhand private sellers who are selling far more than me are paying no final selling fee. I am told if you buy from a private seller you will be charged something like 4% buyers protection fee, well I would happily refund the buyer 4% to save 13.6%. This is not fair tradfing and not a level playing field and I doubt if is legal.  I will be challenging this further Very unhappy with Ebay.