Buyer fee loophole?

[ereiam-jh]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before but it appears that international eBay sites are not applying the "buyer protection fee"  that has been subjected onto private ebay.co.uk listings.

As a buyer, what's stopping me from simply buying a UK item from ebay.com, and avoiding the fee?

Am I missing something?

[papso22]

But you wouldn't be buying it from ebay.com, you would be buying from a UK based private account, through ebay.com.  I suspect the fee would apply.

[ereiam-jh]

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@papso22 wrote:

But you wouldn't be buying it from ebay.com, you would be buying from a UK based private account, through ebay.com.  I suspect the fee would apply.

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Semantics.

The point is; the fee is seemingly not being applied.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

From what iv'e read the BPF hasn't yet been applied to all listings,there was a post about it recently,a "roll out" is how it came across.

[papso22]

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@ereiam-jh wrote:

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@papso22 wrote:

But you wouldn't be buying it from ebay.com, you would be buying from a UK based private account, through ebay.com.  I suspect the fee would apply.

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Semantics.

The point is; the fee is seemingly not being applied.

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How can it be semantics?  The BPF fee will be applied to purchases from UK based private seller accounts.  These accounts will not be registered on international sites.   If those sites do start applying a BPF, it will be on purchases from accounts registered on their site.

[ereiam-jh]

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@roger_roger_over_and_nowt wrote:

From what iv'e read the BPF hasn't yet been applied to all listings,there was a post about it recently,a "roll out" is how it came across.

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Yes, but for listings where the fee HAS been applied on ebay.co.uk, they can seemingly be purchased through ebay.com without a fee.

[papso22]

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@ereiam-jh wrote:

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@roger_roger_over_and_nowt wrote:

From what iv'e read the BPF hasn't yet been applied to all listings,there was a post about it recently,a "roll out" is how it came across.

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Yes, but for listings where the fee HAS been applied on ebay.co.uk, they can seemingly be purchased through ebay.com without a fee.

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Prove you can do that.  

Including screenshots.

[ereiam-jh]

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@papso22 wrote:

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@ereiam-jh wrote:

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@papso22 wrote:

But you wouldn't be buying it from ebay.com, you would be buying from a UK based private account, through ebay.com.  I suspect the fee would apply.

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Semantics.

The point is; the fee is seemingly not being applied.

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How can it be semantics?  The BPF fee will be applied to purchases from UK based private seller accounts.  These accounts will not be registered on international sites.   If those sites do start applying a BPF, it will be on purchases from accounts registered on their site.

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I don't understand what point you are trying to make. Experiment with what I have said and see for yourself.

[papso22]

But surely you have done that already?

You can only tell that there is no BPF by going to checkout.   There is nothing on the listing that shows it applies and the conversion to $ makes it impossible to compare the UK and US price to identify the fee. 

[*vyolla*]

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@ereiam-jh wrote:

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before but it appears that international eBay sites are not applying the "buyer protection fee"  that has been subjected onto private ebay.co.uk listings.

As a buyer, what's stopping me from simply buying a UK item from ebay.com, and avoiding the fee?

Am I missing something?

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Nope, I just checked. 

I can pay £66.24 for a bag on eBay UK or flip to the US site and buy it for £63.00 via the US site. Went through eBay checkout on the US site and got as far as authorising payment, nothing changed, it was still £63.00.

Interesting. 

[papso22]

Thanks Vy, loophole indeed!

[ereiam-jh]

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@papso22 wrote:

But surely you have done that already?

You can only tell that there is no BPF by going to checkout.   There is nothing on the listing that shows it applies and the conversion to $ makes it impossible to compare the UK and US price to identify the fee. 

I am not going to buy something just to prove you wrong.

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It's quite worrying that you are labelled as an "experienced mentor."

Change your currency and there will be no conversion. Then the comparison will be simple.

[brookheather]

I thought the buyer fee was only applied to electronics currently so why are you seeing it on a bag?

[*vyolla*]

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@brookheather wrote:

I thought the buyer fee was only applied to electronics currently so why are you seeing it on a bag?

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A seller was just asking about their bag listing with the buyer protection fee allocated to it right now.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Member-To-Member-Support/Listed-price-is-more-than-I-specified/m-p/7...

[*vyolla*]

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@papso22 wrote:

Thanks Vy, loophole indeed!

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Yep, wouldn't have believed it myself without putting it to the test. It's a weird one!

[porte2425]

I’m sure they’ll fix that loophole soon.
Obviously a tiny thing in comparison, but also they aren’t doing the correct amount. It seems to be 4% + £0.72, not £0.75, as all the ones I’ve looked at are 3p off when adding 4% + £0.75. Was that a mistake on the announcements, or an implementation mistake?

[ereiam-jh]

I like how you are receiving thanks and recognition for confirming what I posted about, while all I encountered was ignorance and incredulity. 🙄

[*vyolla*]

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@ereiam-jh wrote:

I like how you are receiving thanks and recognition for confirming what I posted about, while all I encountered was ignorance and incredulity. 🙄

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It's a pretty amazing discovery.

So, if I buy that bag via the US site I've no Buyer Protection (presumably) but am still covered by eBay's Money Back Guarantee (presumably) so would, on that basis, buy my more top dollar purchases via the US site.

[community-team@ebay]

Hi @ereiam-jh 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are aware of the issue and already working on it to avoid any confusion for our buyers and sellers.

Buyer Protection has been launched to give buyers more confidence and security when shopping on ebay.co.uk, which requires buyers to pay a fee when purchasing from private sellers. 

Purchasing UK domestic items on our international marketplaces is contrary to our fee avoidance policy and means Buyer Protection is unable to work as is intended. This policy helps to maintain a fair marketplace and ensures that all users can benefit from eBay's services, such as Buyer Protection. Learn more about our fee avoidance policy.

We kindly remind you that all customers are required to comply with eBay’s policies when shopping or selling on our platform. If you choose not to follow these policies, we may need to take the necessary action to protect all users of our platform. This can include a warning being issued or restricting activity, where necessary.

Thank you for helping to keep our marketplace secure for our buyers and sellers.

Your eBay Team

[myriad*seller]

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@ereiam-jh wrote:

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@papso22 wrote:

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@ereiam-jh wrote:

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@papso22 wrote:

But you wouldn't be buying it from ebay.com, you would be buying from a UK based private account, through ebay.com.  I suspect the fee would apply.

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Semantics.

The point is; the fee is seemingly not being applied.

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How can it be semantics?  The BPF fee will be applied to purchases from UK based private seller accounts.  These accounts will not be registered on international sites.   If those sites do start applying a BPF, it will be on purchases from accounts registered on their site.

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I don't understand what point you are trying to make. Experiment with what I have said and see for yourself.

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Can you give us an example item number so we can see for ourselves please?