Bundling and the Buyer Protection Fee

[insidethe93]

eBay, please clarify about private sellers bundling. I think there are now at least 2 types: one ad hoc to reduce BPF, one long-established since before BPF e.g. "buy any 8 for [fixed price]".

I want to shop on eBay, but with control over prices and shipping restored to sellers, and no BPF doing my head in with maths (and in Britain buyer fees aren't the norm). I'm struggling to stay shopping on eBay but did so yesterday. (Even with business sellers I'm unwillingly reminded of BPF as it says "incl. Buyer Protection" at check-out.)

1. I saw a private seller offering to bundle items if messaged, saying "save fees". It was saying "save fees" that made my brain unable to cope. "save fees" - I doubt eBay would like that, however much it feels unfair/greedy for eBay to charge 75p per item even if shopping with the same seller who will put the whole order in one package. Other buyers might go for such bundling. Eventually I clicked away as (a) at the moment I can afford BPF though only in small amounts (b) I didn't like the dilemma of two different BPFs (c) I didn't want the hassle of having to list the items I wanted in a message, waiting for a reply etc. Can presenting buyers with that dilemma be avoided easily? e.g. by a private seller lowering prices? or am I being simplistic?

2. I know some private sellers have had, for instance, "choose any 8 items for [price], message which ones you want" kind of bundling for years. It's a handy feature, and it encourages sales. Would such bundling incur one 75p or 8x75p? I hope eBay won't penalise them thinking that's trying to evade BPF.

I'd welcome hearing people's take on this.

[kat@ebay]

Hi @insidethe93 ,

Thank you for your post.

To help clarify on the flat fee part. When purchasing multiple quantities within a listing, the flat fee up to £0.75 is only charged once.  If all 8 items were part of the same listing then it would apply once.  If 8 items were purchased from different listings from the same seller then the fee would be multiplied by 8.

Thank you,

Kat

[krafty-kreations]

 If 8 items were purchased from different listings from the same seller then the fee would be multiplied by 8.

Shocking!

I thought the whole point of bringing in free fees for private sellers was to encourage more people to sell who would then hopefully buy more on eBay, this seems a really weird way of keeping buyers.

Private sellers are asking if they can add to their listing, if you want to purchase more than one item from my listings message me and I will make a separate listing with all items bundled together - Is this allowed or would it be classed as avoiding fees?

[tommystrezures]

So if a buyer buys 8 items as per your example, but is invoiced as its combined postage as a single order they would pay £6 plus the 4%? eg 8 x 75p is that correct?

[vintique*violet]

 If 8 items were purchased from different listings from the same seller then the fee would be multiplied by 8.

Shocking!

I thought the whole point of bringing in free fees for private sellers was to encourage more people to sell who would then hopefully buy more on eBay, this seems a really weird way of keeping buyers.

Private sellers are asking if they can add to their listing, if you want to purchase more than one item from my listings message me and I will make a separate listing with all items bundled together - Is this allowed or would it be classed as avoiding fees?

If purchased by the same buyer , it is more than shocking...

Surely eBay can see this makes no sense and thwarts additional sales by the same buyer...  They must be able to optimise their system to only allow  the application of one 75pence fee when multiple combined purchases are made simply by distinguishing the difference between the same buyer and a separate buyer?

[papso22]

Can anyone remember how it worked with the fixed part of the final value fee?  I imagine if the buyer paid separately the seller was charged per payment, but if they put them in the basket and paid once, the seller got charged one fee?

[vintique*violet]

I have only ever had a few of multiple/combined sales and if I recall correctly the buyer asked if I would combine prior - I always did anyhow if items can fit in one parcel, and charge one flat rate at cost postal fee...so I asked them to purchase their items and not to pay until I had sent a revised invoice  (you have to turn off immediate payment) ...the final value fee was then taken from that total payment...so one fee off the total sales cost.  Hope I am making some sense here and unsure if it helps, if at all. 

[zoomingmouse]

As long as they paid in one transaction I'm pretty sure there was only one fixed seller fee <the 30p fee if I've understood correctly> plus the FVF's for all of the items.

If they paid seperately then it applied for each.

It was also very easy to combine when sending an invoice as you could just alter the P&P price. Not sure if it's still the same as not sold more than one at a time it since MP came in.

[tommystrezures]

It was only one fee element eg the then 30p that was charged the once, even if it was a single or a dozen items in an order.

but as others have mentioned it had to be combined into a single order/invoice if you will for it to work that way, which the seller had to initiate and obviously have pay immediately but turned off (think that’s already been mentioned too). This is why I have asked for clarification in post 4.

It’s in my opinion wrong and savage to charge the fixed fee element multiple times.

[edwardian-dreams]

No bundle discount?

Shocking but not surprising 

[parsley2003]

That was my idea too. What a mess this is we just want to know where we stand. That's why they stopped the multi listings so that you can't have more than one thing on a listings, i never used it but obviously some people did. I have told people to tell me what they want so that i can make them a listing but have also decided never to sell low value single items on here again, only lots from now on. I refuse to fleece decent innocent buyers. Imagine simple (which isn't) delivery 10 labels for 10 postcards 10 x 75p plus the rest and 10 postages and we have to use all those envelopes and tape and everything else, what fun not

[parsley2003]

This clarifies nothing as we do not have access to multiple quantities listings. 

[parsley2003]

That's it, but when SD is forced on us we won't even be able to combine postage. Ebay will do offers for buyers which if they are lucky might be combined postage or maybe 50% off buyers fees. All we will be able to do is pack with the 8 labels provided or 1 if it is combined which will not be as we do now a bot will give some sort of discount it won't be able to work out if the items together will be letter, large letter or parcel 

[parsley2003]

Hi VV yes i had worked out that this would happen long ago reading into SD the small print is very interesting

[parsley2003]

Requesting invoice has never worked on a phone even when the app worked so i mainly refunded the overpaid. I have refunded 2 people today was going to send tracked but felt bad so am now going to wait the 14 days 😕 for payment

[parsley2003]

As far as i remember the seller paid the 30p on every listings even if we combined it for the buyer plus the %

[insidethe93]

Thanks very much for replying.

In the area I mainly buy in, items tend to be small or (if artwork) also flat, so a seller is guaranteed to post several items in one package. Regardless of the bundling aspect, why should I pay 75p per item as only one parcel is being "protected"?  (And why a flat fee AND a percentage? - psychologically bad as it looks greedy.)

[insidethe93]

Does this 8 x 75p apply also to sellers who've been offering a bundle deal for years (i.e. not brought it in recently to try and reduce BPF for their buyers)? as that seems hardly fair. That's directly making their bundle deal unviable, yet I thought eBay would want to encourage sales from genuine private sellers.

[ruby*ryan]

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kat@ebay wrote:

Hi @insidethe93 ,

Thank you for your post.

To help clarify on the flat fee part. When purchasing multiple quantities within a listing, the flat fee up to £0.75 is only charged once.  If all 8 items were part of the same listing then it would apply once.  If 8 items were purchased from different listings from the same seller then the fee would be multiplied by 8.

Thank you,

Kat

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That seems very odd for three reasons.

1) When private sellers were paying fees, as long as the items were paid for in one go, the fixed fee of 30p was only charged once.

2) How many private sellers actually have multiples of the same item one listing? I thought it was no longer possible for them to have one listing offering variations, and there are very few that have multiple identical items in the same condition for sale - unless, of course, they are unregistered business sellers.

3) Why on earth would eBay want to make the site look so expensive that buyers would go elsewhere? I thought it would be best to encourage buyers to purchase more than one item, not penalise them for it.
Very odd.

[redhotmelter]

This is creating a bad experience for me as a buyer and as a casual seller of low cost postcards - I used to be able to buy separate low costing postcards (£1 each) from different listings from the same seller and they would combine together for the postage to make it worth the while for the both of us - I'd also be able to sell of duplications I'd accidently bought, but now its made eBay unattractive as a selling platform to many postcard buyers