BUYER PROTECTION FEES - any update on rollout of this fee?

[magpiecorner1]

We were informed that the BPF was only being introduced to electronics from 4th February and would be 'rolled out' to the other categories.

I've heard nothing more - today my son put in an offer for some wheels - car parts category - and it includes the BPF.

Now that was a surprise as I would have expected sellers to at least get a heads up so that they might adjust pricing.

More interesting, he had no idea what it was, couldn't work it out and I had to explain that the seller would  be listing the item at a different price to the one he sees - the seller's  listing price doesn't have the BPF - so in effect, there is a surcharge, though if he offered 20% below selling price that seller would see 20% below list price.  Clear as mud!!

He is a fairly frequent buyer, have bought a shed load (come to think of it literally a shed load, he has three cars) so he isn't clueless about eBay.  But it was interesting listening to his remarks, totally confused and sees its all as a - to use his words - a 'very sneaky' price hike!  And his final comment 'does this mean next time I'll have to offer less to cover this eBay fee' speaks volumes, both for private AND for business sellers.

Makes me wonder if eBay realise what a hash they have made of this - and if they are big boys and admit they got this wrong?

[fotherbale]

Ebay seems to make a hash of everything, and compound that by making a hash of something else before they have sorted out the previous hash. 

If the buyer protection fee is not shown separately from the item price set by the seller, and the total is the only value shown, this is not a buyer fee but is actually a charge against the seller - a selling fee. 

I agree, they need to inform sellers prior to imposing the fee on a particular category so that sellers can adjust their asking prices if they wish.  In the normal course of events, private sellers should have reduced their prices in line with the removal of private sellers fees last year, so in that case the buyers premium would only take the price back up towards where it used to be, but of course few if any sellers did actually reduce their asking prices, so the surcharge now makes it look like a price rise.

However, describing it as  "a very sneaky price rise", I am not sure is the right way to view it - it isn't the seller that has increased the price and recieving more money, it is ebay that is getting it by sneaky means.   The sellers got thir sneaky price rise when the seller fees were removed and they continued to sell at the same price level 😉

[magpiecorner1]

I was quoting my son, not making a comment or a description, about the 'sneaky price rise'.  From the mouth of babes .....

And he feels it is sneaky; for a buyer previous and current seller fees are no concern of his.  He doesn't buy specifically from private sellers and the price for these wheels aren't a set price.   

For the seller, as there has been no notification of the roll out, his listing has a price change that he might not even be aware of.

Main fact though is my son did not know anything about this new buyer fee, nor that it is imposed only  when buying from private sellers.  I mentioned it because this will be the same reaction from many, if not the majority of buyers.  Which is worrying for every eBay seller.