Sick of businesses registered as 'private' sellers

[nsa.ltd]

Anyone else fed up of seeing businesses masquerading as private sellers? I've reported around 40-50 of these accounts to the 'ebay for business' facebook account, and I always get told that they've then reported it from their end but nothing ever changes.

I mean look at this account, 3.6k items sold, and a private seller, or Hartmore Trading, they even have "Trading" in their name, 2.4k items sold, 1600+ items for sale, and a 'Private' seller. Absolute joke.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

With VAT registration, more turnover so more profits but again more to pay out. I'm all for lesser earnings but more of it in my pocket.

Whilst I understand what your saying, the above statement is simply incorrect.

Just based on the figures I used, you would be financially better off with registration.  Yes, you would be paying out more money in other ways, but you would have more money in your pocket.

If you don't want to, I understand that, but what your not seeing, is that your investment in stock, is losing you money whilst it's sat in a box doing nothing.  If you had the case that you had spent on it, it would be earning interest.

As regards fees, just because you sell more, does NOT mean that it actually costs more.  Yes, the total amount of fees will go up, but not necessarily the individual cost per item.

Personal tax however is a different matter if it takes you into a higher tax bracket of course.

[btr.style]

"Shutting down for 2 months is stunting your growth"

There's no business growth to happen now though?

Anyone running a business, when does it end? A million, 2, 5? Does it continue and get passed down through the generations? 

Like I mentioned above, I've always had an aim with the business, I wouldn't be doing it until retirement age and passing on the reigns so to speak. Building up a huge stock portfolio was key, reaching a goal and then sitting back to see the money roll in with no more outgoings on stock. 

I.e just a random figure... If my aim was 150k and it's estimated 100k stock sells for 150k (based on a very detailed spreadsheet with every single item ever sold documented individual after eBay fees, postage, etc), then I would stop buying once that 100k of stock was met and sit back and only sell. 

The stock goal has nearly been reached to reach my financial aims. Many tens of thousands of items of stock with no more buying, just selling until it's gone or I'm left with dreg ends that are donated to charity. 

So now if anything, at this point it's all about maxing profits. It's all going to be my money, not money to grow the business, so even 3-6% could mean a hit taken on items buyers aren't willing to pay the increase on. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

One small detail that your leaving out of your calculation, that you really should pay attention to.

Whilst I understand why and how you are doing what you are doing, your forgetting, that if your running a profitable business, then part of your exit strategy, should be selling that business.  Not just shutting up shop.

So you have a business making £20k per year, the average type of value for that business (plus stock), is 3.5 times profit.  ie. in this instance, it's worth £70k when you sell it.

And that is on top of whatever profit you make in the meantime.  And should not be ignored.

[dch2112011]

Ebay purport to have these private business sellers covered under policy - so why are so many seemingly obvious private business sellers unsanctioned ?  ( the possible sanctions listed be ebay are from very minor to account suspension) 

Is it that they need conclusive proof  and if so what is it and where can it come from ? 

ebay policy states 

An eBay seller must register as a business if, for example, they sell items they have bought to resell, they make items in order to sell them, or if they buy items for their business.

and under business accounts state

Do I need a business account?
If you plan to sell casually, such as selling items you no longer want, a private account is the best option.

If you want to sell large quantities, if you have items that you've made or bought to resell or if you already have a business outside of eBay, you’ll need to register a business account.

[technthread]

Someone was asking a question on here last week who were a private seller. I had a look at a few of their listings and was amazed that there was a personalisation box on listings.

I don't understand how eBay can justify personalisation of goods on private accounts, surely they have to assume that the seller is trading if they are able to manufacture items to buyer spec. 

When I see that type of thing I think it is a lost cause to get wound up about it. They have account features set up like that one which directly contradict their own policy so I question how seriously they actually take the subject. 

[dch2112011]

Absolutely there is no need to let it wind you up - it has been like it for years, ebay do seem to take action but not consistantly, there are posts from members complaining either way but more about private sellers being businesses than from private sellers being sanctioned 

[txt.ltd]

That's fair enough. If you have a self-imposed revenue limit then I suppose staying under the VAT threshold is best. If you don't really want growth, you absoutely can stay under the generous VAT threshold of the UK. If you were in Spain, for example, the VAT threshold is €0, meaning you must register after making one taxable sale.

[bojangled]

I'm really p'd off with this now. Placeholder listings, text on images, no returns, and websites advertised in descriptions, 
With the GPSR compliance coming in and private sellers not having to adhere to the requirements, I don't see how things are going to get any better. 
There is absolutely no point in reporting the masqueraders, no action is taken. 
For the first time in a decade I'm questioning my loyalty on eBay. 

Just venting. 

Jo

[cobwebcottage]

Add all the Hire Only listings to your list too! Most of these are 'private' sellers.

A little tip - when you report an item, write a paragraph in the more details box, mentioning policy breaches. It usually gets passed to a human as AI can't cope.

[fatbobfan]

Easier said than done but concentrate on what works for you

Many issues over the years with this platform and its unlikely to change especially if the obvious solution will effect the platforms revenue,

Now if I could only practice the same advice! 😀

[btr.style]

Unfortunately without an option to report people, there is no point reporting anyone for being a business on a private account. 

As mentioned before, business fails to display correct details is for reporting business sellers who have nonsense addresses and incorrect details shown such as address being Mickey mouse, Disneyland. 

Even with the best type ups in the world, any customer support staff won't act because they see the account is private and so no action needed to be taken. 

Further proof is other report reasons for other problems sometimes results in customer support removing the listings. Just never any action on private business sellers as there's no way to report them. 

[dch2112011]

The agreement all ebay users have with ebay that can affect incorrect accounts being used are in the user agreement which are  : The interesting comment is highlighted in RED which seems to override all policies 

3 ) In connection with using or accessing the Services you will not:

* breach or circumvent any laws, third-party rights or our systems or policies;

4. Abusing eBay
Without limiting other remedies, we may limit, suspend, or terminate your user account(s) and access to our Services, restrict or prohibit access to, and your activities on, our Services, cancel bids, remove or demote or otherwise restrict the visibility of listings, delay or remove hosted content, remove any special status associated with the account, reduce or eliminate any discounts, and take technical and legal steps to keep you from using our Services if:

*we think that you are infringing the rights of third parties;
*we think that you are acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of this User Agreement or our policies or abuse our employees or users;

*We may offer a process allowing users to report claimed violations for us to consider and handle through one or more of these options, all in our sole discretion.

When a buyer or seller issue arises we may consider the user's performance history and the specific circumstances in applying our policies. We may choose to be more lenient with policy enforcement, and to do the right thing for both buyers and sellers.

[cobwebcottage]

You are right. My suggestion to write a detailed message in the notes only works when you report a listing, not a seller. You can add that all 50 (for example) listings break policy, such as 'coming soon' or 'hire only' but when you report one, they only remove the one you report, if you are lucky.

I'm old school when it comes to computers so programming is way over my head but surely it would be easy to write a programme to highlight these listing? as well as private sellers selling multiples of brand new items and have 100's of listing?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

No, it's not going to be easy to write something that will identify these kind of listings.

Particularly so, the ones that are image based.  But the various problems all need to be treated in different ways, so it certainly isn't one a shoe fits all solution.

I mean if you think about "private" sellers.

To program something that will recognise this kind of thing, is far from easy.

What do you focus on?  Number of listings?  Total sales?  Something else?

Bear in mind, that just those first two, there can be reason for a large number of listings, (house clearance), or a high value of sales (again, house clearance, high value goods etc).

So if you don't understand programming, thing about what you would have to manually to find these accounts.  Then think about doing that in a step by step basis.  And the easiest way to demonstrate that, is to work out exactly what you need to do, to make a cup of tea/coffee.

It doesn's sound complicated at all does it, but think about it.....  🙂

And just to highlight that.  You can't just say, fill kettle, boil kettle, make coffee....

There are anything up to 100 steps in between there, depending on how far you want to go.

[cobwebcottage]

So you are saying it's not simple to search for certain word patterns such as 'coming soon' or hire only'? They don't have any issues finding listings with the word knife in it.

At least there is no hope of AI taking over the world then.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Not so much in images no.  That's why when you report this kind of thing and get an AI response, it tends to not get through.

They are getting better with this kind of thing all the time, but we have quite a way to go yet.  At least until the Terminators get here!  🙂

But yes, it is for a straight word pattern, that's been easy to do for a very long time now.  You can do that kind of thing on web browser....

[the-layer-laboratory]

An appropriate solution to this perennial problem might be to prevent private accounts from listing anything as 'new' or listing multiple quantities.

Admittedly, this wouldn't help used clothing sellers, but it would help most other types of businesses.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Agree, I see absolutely no reason why any private seller should be allowed to sell something as New.

Even if something is still in it's original packaging and is effectively brand new, once it's off the shelf and bought at retail, it is most definately second hand.

This is particularly true of electricals and the like, or indeed anything with a warranty.  It's invalid if resold.

[dch2112011]

The only real solution would be for ebay to only have one account type and apply one set of policies for all 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

How on earth would that fix the problem of "private" accounts?

You would then be forcing the real private sellers, to adhere to business policies, or alternatively, not requiring business sellers to adhere to business policies.  It simply wouldn't work.

They are two entirely different sellers and cannot be combined into one.