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.

[howmuchtobid]

Despite Ebay making noises about clamping down on businesses trading on private accounts I am seeing very little difference. Accounts are not being restricted either as most of the sellers in question are adding new listings on a daily basis.

I reported a seller yesterday who is a business trading on a private account. They have 1800 listings with plenty of sales. They even have the cheek to show images with their website address in the images. Ebay responded to my report via AI saying they found nothing wrong (as ever).

I'm no longer wasting my time on this, I won't be reporting any other sellers who are breaking the law and hindering legitimate business sellers. It's a total waste of time and Ebay show you no respect at all for making the effort to report the seller.

Time to move on to something more worthwhile as dealing with Ebay is certainly not. 

[krafty-kreations]

I had a chat with them via facebook earlier whilst waiting in the doctors waiting room.

The business seller on a private account with thousands of listings gets lots of sales daily due to their social media activity, must be that facebook account that they haven't posted on for nearly a year.

They also said that a seller has to earn a certain amount before being made to upgrade to  a business account as that is law 

Just more guff

They really do need to sort out the handmade section, so many business sellers on private accounts, and the amount of copyright is mad.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I have been watching 10 sellers in the greetings cards sector who are all registed as private sellers.   Eight have over 1000 listings, one even has over 6000.   All are still trading as private accounts, so this clamp down certainly isn't having much of an effect.

[tommystrezures]

Yet more inaccurate information given out by cs. I do wish they wouldn't give this false information out when they clearly have no understanding of uk consumer and financial laws. It really doesn't help matters.

I suspect that whilst many have still not changed ebay will do it in batches I can't believe every wrongly registered account would have been "blitzed" in one go.

[krafty-kreations]

I suspect that whilst many have still not changed ebay will do it in batches I can't believe every wrongly registered account would have been "blitzed" in one go.

I totally agree, tho I am a little sceptical when it comes to eBay,  was it  just a we will add a banner and just see how many upgrade as opposed to actually doing anything else.

Time will tell.

[the_book_seekers]

I totally agree, tho I am a little sceptical when it comes to eBay,  was it  just a we will add a banner and just see how many upgrade as opposed to actually doing anything else.

I think it will be similar to the implementation of managed payments, in batches and no avoiding it once the message arrives. ebay rarely does backward steps. Limits will have been set and they will never be dislcosed to sellers. 

[4_bathrooms]

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@qualitycardsandgifts wrote:

I have been watching 10 sellers in the greetings cards sector who are all registed as private sellers.   Eight have over 1000 listings, one even has over 6000.   All are still trading as private accounts, so this clamp down certainly isn't having much of an effect.

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I earlier posited the motivation behind eBay's sudden sledgehammer approach towards some private sellers was likely motivated by the EU's GPSRs; your post (and others) seems to confirm my theory. 

Most of the sellers who have reported being targeted have been selling items such as toys, electronics and clothing; all of which are subject to strict safety and/or labelling requirements in the EU. The only requirements I'm aware of for greetings cards relate to intellectual property - something that isn't covered by the GPSRs. 

So, a genuine private seller maintaining ~20 listings for their old toy collection would be told they need to "upgrade" to a business account whilst a greetings card business with thousands of listings gets to carry on as normal.

[kempseykate]

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@krafty-kreations wrote:

I suspect that whilst many have still not changed ebay will do it in batches I can't believe every wrongly registered account would have been "blitzed" in one go.

I totally agree, tho I am a little sceptical when it comes to eBay,  was it  just a we will add a banner and just see how many upgrade as opposed to actually doing anything else.

Time will tell.

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Absolutely that.

eBay have operated in this way in the past. It appeases the sellers who want to see action. They send out a few messages at random, with the banner, and hope this will make people do the right thing. If there are posts about it on here, then I think ebay hope than means a few more will jump before they are pushed (even though the pushing doesn't often happen).

And, as I keep saying, this is not to do with businesses registering correctly, it's purely about ebay trying to make a bit more money from those sellers.

[bypyhgyk]

That annoying Pop-up message- You need to change to a business account did disappear today again.  Got no emails from ebay and i happily did not upgrade till today. Feel such a relieft.

[bypyhgyk]

All good till today. No pop-up banner, no emails from ebay about changing to a Business.

Payouts works well. Listings are visible.

I believe that thousands of complaint and calls  from private sellers did the work and Ebay did forgive all of us 🙂

[theelench]

You might be right but I doubt we'll ever know.

Two dead-lines crossed and after the second, plus a few days, nothing.

Not from ebay, nor from incorrectly registered businesses flocking to the boards.  Not even from wrongly targeted but genuine private sellers.

I wasn't really expecting the stampede of complaints that some expected because, as has been mentioned earlier, ebay often does things in batches, but I did expect to see some reaction.

Ebay rarely does anything without a reason (unless it's another unintentional muck-up), so what are they up to?

My best guess so far is that they counted those that did comply and did, correctly or not, change to business sellers.  Perhaps to try to gauge the numbers who might ignore instructions to give ebay their NINO?

[vintagewatchpart]

Quite a few of the "private" people who were businesses are now business sellers on Ebay, it is nice to see something has worked but a shame they pay no final value fees til next year... Breaking the rules and law (regarding returns) gets rewarded in Ebay's eyes.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Though I agree, it's a bit of kick in the face to be quite so generous for what is essentially a bribe.

At least some of them actually have changed.

[howmuchtobid]

Seller has nearly 1000 listings and clearly states they are a professional artist yet they are able to keep listing on a private account.

Whatever processes Ebay has in place are clearly not up to it.

[howmuchtobid]

If only ebay were so quick to act when people break UK law on their selling platform.

Absolute shambles.

[4_bathrooms]

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@theelench wrote:

My best guess so far is that they counted those that did comply and did, correctly or not, change to business sellers.  Perhaps to try to gauge the numbers who might ignore instructions to give ebay their NINO?

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eBay will be asking for NINOs from private sellers and sole traders.

[4_bathrooms]

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@howmuchtobid wrote:

Seller has nearly 1000 listings and clearly states they are a professional artist yet they are able to keep listing on a private account.

Whatever processes Ebay has in place are clearly not up to it.

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As per the notification eBay sent to affected sellers:

"You've been asked to upgrade your account to a business account in order to comply with government consumer protection legislation outlined in our Business Seller Policy"

There has been a noticeable pattern to the private sellers who have so far reported receiving the notification. The first were sellers who sold toys or were offering to sell them. That was followed by sellers with new clothes listed on their account which has subsequently been followed by sellers sellering or offering electronic/electrical items.

All the above are subject to strict CE and/or labelling requirements. Many of the posts reporting private accounts that are still selling high numbers of items are almost exclusively complaining about accounts that sell items that are not subject to any safety or labelling requirements. Greetings cards, postcards and paintings do not require a CE mark nor any other type of labelling (paintings are specifically excluded from the GPSRs).

It's pretty clear to me that eBay are policing what they are being forced to police. There was a post - I believe in another thread - from someone who was clearly a private seller with ~20 used toys for sale. They received the notification telling them they needed to upgrade yet the painter you mentioned will be able to have 1,000 listings of art they have created no problem.

[krafty-kreations]

Ahhh that makes sense

Shame tho, I'm not sure how much longer I can compete with these business sellers using private accounts, It is bad enough they are slapping banners with other sellers shops across listings!! 

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Approaching two months on and plenty has happened.

Those sellers who moved to a business account after being offered the incentive of no fees until 2025 must be a little annoyed.....

[technthread]

The ones who let the offer time out and then registered as a business with no perks seem to be the most aggrieved.