When I read new improvements for business sellers my eyes lit up and my heartbeat picked up
... for 5 seconds! Enhanced protection for when buyers make returns under false reasons? The fact Ebay have a self-service returns system, people will always lie. I dread to think what those buyers will resort to next - such as an increase in deliberately damaging things to falsely claim item broken or missing parts etc - all to avoid paying for returns - and how are Ebay going to determine this? I had a situation where Ebay told me to accept a fraudulent return and they would refund the label cost. I begrudgingly accepted, but they never honoured this promise, even when I rang back and complained twice. Disgraceful, when all conversations are recorded and notes should be made. It was not the cost, it was the principle.
Regarding zero fees for private sellers. Yea, it is totally infuriating on top of the already infuriating position!! Why are there STILL countless business sellers masquerading as private ones? Hasn't the message got through to them yet? I think many are finding ways they think they can get round this, like opening and closing accounts or having multiple accounts? EITHER they think can evade detection as 'it won't happen to them' OR they will claim they are selling granny's collection of new with labels BDSM gear - OR they are prepared to pay the taxes if charged but whilst they can, reckon it is cheaper to remain as private (which now it flaming well is) OR they are just waiting to be forced by Ebay to move over?
The good news is this:
It means that PRIVATE SELLERS ARE GOING TO REACH THOSE SELLING FIGURES THRESHOLD FASTER, SO THEY WILL BE REPORTED TO HMRC SOONER than they are now considering the whole of what they sell will make up those figures, and not only after Ebay's seller fees are deducted. So it is also a move to push more private sellers on to a business category. Another thought; in order to sell more and stay under the threshold before being reported to HMRC - it means some private sellers will have to reduce their prices - and frustrated by the imposed limitations - may then drive them to upgrade to businesses.
So Ebay state that after trialling the above in Germany, it resulted in better sales for the business sellers, as 80% of the time they were buying from business sellers. So... what percentage was it prior to the zero fees for private sellers??
That remains to be seen. What worked in Germany may not work in the UK and there might be other factors involved anyway, that resulted in the increase in sales for business sellers.
Let's see how the new Seller Clinic works!! Ebay don't even have enough humans to deal with reported listings/sellers - they are resorting to AI which is not intelligent enough to deal with the intricacies of complaints which are not always simple and straightforward!! Remember the days when business sellers were assigned a business support manager they could contact any time, plus pre-book chat sessions? Well it was helpful, but that didn't last long, did it!! Once again, I bet it is just another temporary appeasement.
In the end, let's hope it all works out OK for the serious business sellers. We have to constantly adapt and reinvent ourselves; exercise our problem-solving skills and battle on in the face of adversity!!
