Tech support says :messages to upgrade from a private to business account have been sent by mistake

[notstopbuying]

I had a message yesterday on my private selling account and an email, to say that I needed to upgrade from a private seller to a business account, I called eBay this morning to ask about various things with regards to upgrading to a business account and the tech support person said....No need to, the emails have all been sent out by mistake.

I asked will I receive an email to confirm it was a mistake, they said no, but they are currently working on the issue.

The tech support person did say, if I received a 2nd email to say I needed to upgrade to a business account, then it would be best to call back and confirm if I do need to upgrade, but the 1st email as been sent out to many, many private sellers and they have no need to upgrade to a business account.

[equinox-electronics]

All accounts that cross the threshold 

[papso22]

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@exponential_developments wrote:

Is it just private accounts that they want NINO for or business ones aswell................sorry if this is a dumb already answered question.

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Businesses too, but they don't want the NINO for certain legal entities, they want the UTR.

[exponential_developments]

O'well, looks like i'll be leaving.

Thanks for the reply.

[exponential_developments]

I gather for sole traders they will want NINO then, UTR for companies etc.

[papso22]

This is what ebay has to say:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/account/regulatory/sales-reporting/uk-digital-sales-reporting?id=5454&st...

I note that they have dropped the reference to only new accounts being reported.

[exponential_developments]

Ebay and my NINO.......na, not a good idea.

[papso22]

That point has been made, and rebuffed, on many other threads.

[exponential_developments]

How do you mean "rebuffed"

[papso22]

Read the threads, essentially it's not the risk that some members think it is.

[exponential_developments]

Well, there's a hell of a long list of companies having issues retaining data............ There's always a risk, and guess who has the job of dealing with it if something does go wrong.

[exponential_developments]

Ps....cheers for the replies.

[4_bathrooms]

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@the_book_seekers wrote:

Why has eBay suddenly used this blunderbuss approach to sellers now?

Something has clearly changed otherwise ebay wouldn't be taking this action. I doubt we'll find out what's at the bottom of this unless ebay is dragged into a court somewhere.

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I'm pretty certain it is the GPSRs and those regulations alone. eBay only takes an approach like this when an organisation with some teeth forces them to.

I've just noticed something on the guidance page for this that seems to back up my theory. If you check the "helpful links" on the new/updated "Business seller policies" page you'll see a bunch of GOV.UK links including links to guidance for the CRA and CPUTRs (they seem to have missed out the guidance for the CCRs). However, eBay has never cared about traders who flagrantly disregard UK trading laws as (toothless) Trading Standards do not force them to do so. The very last link states "Official Journal of the European Union" - that link is to the PDF version of the GPSRs.  

[4_bathrooms]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

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The very last link states "Official Journal of the European Union" - that link is to the PDF version of the GPSRs.  

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Whoops, my mistake - it is not a link to the GPSRs but the EU's online dispute resolution regulations. However, the page does state:

"Why does eBay have this policy?

This policy helps ensure that important government regulations for business sellers in the UK are followed."

Note the UK includes Northern Ireland where the GPSRs do (uniquely) apply. The email sent to affected private sellers states "You have been asked to upgrade your account to a business account in order to comply with government consumer protection legislation". There have been no major changes to Great Britain's consumer protection legislation since 2015 but Northern Ireland will be subject to enforcement of the EU's GPSRs from December. I highly doubt the timing is a coincidence.

[ett1954]

@4_bathrooms  "There have been no major changes to Great Britain's consumer protection legislation since 2015 but Northern Ireland will be subject to enforcement of the EU's GPSRs from December. I highly doubt the timing is a coincidence."

I concur with your thoughts on this.  As the selling of books, magazines, and newspapers ranging in age from 100 years plus through to a few years old have been deemed to fall under GPSR (if someone should drop an 80-year-old newspaper weighing less than a 100 grams on their toe I wouldn't want that on my conscience) I shall, like I suspect many others, simply stop selling to the EU, EEA and NI.

Conforming to the never-ending EU directives eventually becomes economically unproductive in a business.  I had plenty of experience in my previous profession, including sitting on a technical committee for standards in Brussels, and in my opinion many of these directives implemented under a consumer protection guise are simple market protection measures.

Although I regret taking this measure with the EU market I have over the last couple of years directed my efforts away from online selling into more a more direct and focused approach to customers which is now providing my business with a much better return, especially concerning investment in time.

I believe online selling platforms are coming to a juncture in their evolution and depending how individual platforms react to the changing environment may well see a number of them disappear over the next few years.

[bypyhgyk]

Got that message today on my private account selling junk i did accumulate in last 20 years. I ahve only 2500£ sales in last year. Most of it coming from selling- my old phone, my old laptop and my old camera.  I have another Business account where i earn money legally. Why they did hit my private one? I will not register as business account to sell my lifehood junk.

[dch2112011]

I think anyone can see you are selling personal possesions on this account - keeping it seperate from your business account makes sense.

The reasons are not 100% clear but point to you exceeding the sales value for reporting to HMRC - it looks like  an automated algorithm is picking up accounts that pass the threshold limits.

Hopefully you can appeal the decision and have it looked at manually and that common sense will prevail - yet to see anyone who has got to the appeal stage yet though !

Fingers crossed for you - you seem to be doing everything correctly as far as I am concerned but my opinion counts for nothing in ebay terms

[theelench]

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@papso22 wrote:

That point has been made, and rebuffed, on many other threads.

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The point has been "rebuffed" but to my mind has not been refuted.

Essentially we've had sellers, registered as businesses, some of whom will not be asked for their NINO as they will be able to use their UTR, giving their opinion that private sellers or sole traders giving ebay their NINO is risk free.

Something I don't accept under the premis that the more widely any personal data is used on-line, the greater the risk of it being high-jacked, lost or miss-used.

To me, the balance of ebays (assumed) higher standards of data security is outweighed by the possibility of my NINO finding its way offshore and out of the jurisdiction of solely UK law and data protection.   

It's all very well to assure sellers that there's no risk in giving ebay NINOs when there is plenty of evidence of hacks and data breaches involving companies who it can safely be assumed have security levels at or better than ebays and when there is also evidence of ebay and other companies miss-using that data once they get hold of it.

To me, in those circumstances, the balance weighs heavier on the side of caution, so ebay will not be getting my NINO.

Especially as I have a UTR from my 30 years of self-employment which HMRC still has on file and is more than adequate for them to go back to my tax records over my whole history of selling on ebay (and further), but which, for reasons that no-one has satisfactorily explained, I will not be allowed to use for this reporting.

[sweetconfection]

I got the same and am not going to falsely declare myself a business just because ebay robots say so. The appeals process they mention does not exist, and they dont respond to complaints about the matter. Absolutely disgusting. No process in place before deciding to dump this on people. 

[sweetconfection]

Also regarding the 'incentives' I spoke to someone on fb who upgraded and it's still charging full final value fees and the featured shop still charging full price. They've been in touch repeatedly and ebay still have not sorted it. So if upgrading just to use the promo think twice. Would be inerested to know if anyone here has upgraded and actually received the promised promo?

[technthread]

Your case is an interesting one, clearly with 1 sale they aren't only basing it on numbers. If you had a separate business account on eBay I could understand it but I'm assuming this isn't the case. So why pull your account - the bots probably spotted the stock photos and range of sizes.

Any genuine private seller using stock photos should really remove them to not get caught up in this. They could instead type into the description something along the lines of - the stock photos for this item are readily available online on the retailers website if you would like to see them. I do not own the rights to these images or have permission to use them but you can easily find them by searching online 'XXXXX'.

If you have new with tags items just copy the relevant MPN from the tag or whatever it takes to bring it up at the top of a Google search.