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?

[myriad*seller]

An excellent work around, already discovered before eBay had fully launched the BPF! 

🤣

[myriad*seller]

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@porte2425 wrote:

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?

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Is 72p actually 75p minus the VAT though? (can't do maths!)

[myriad*seller]

So you are threatening to suspend buyers if they use this loophole? 

Surely, stopping the loophole would be better as many buyers will not be aware it is a breach of eBay rules to buy an item from .com 

[the_new_wigan_stamp_man]

We were already covered by other means. This is just you getting more from poor sellers. A rip off.

[porte2425]

No, but interesting I just realised that 3p is 4% of 75p.

[moldosgifts]

Ebay are onto it now you should have kept your mouth shut,😀

But honestly its early days so you expect the odd slip up 🤔

[myriad*seller]

There is no consumer protection for sales from private sellers

eBay offered protection as an extra, but there is no legal protection when buying from private sellers other than they must be "as described". Items lost in the post when buying from a private seller are sent at buyers risk (if seller keeps the posting receipt). 

eBay now protects sellers (not buyers) as private sellers no longer have to refund for items lost in the post when they send via the new system 

Not sure how it is considered a buyer protection fee when the seller is the one who benefits

Oh, buyers get a 24/7 helpline sorry, that's their "protection"

[danthescan]

Cant see Ebay banning buyers, that's a sure way to lose business.

[rainbowtrax]

I see ebay have now quickly updated the Fee Avoidance Policy page to cover this. They really need to be announcing it though as it has always been the case that one login works across all ebay international sites and users are free to use ebay on whichever country's site they want to. If this is suddenly no longer allowed then it should be prominently announced, not snuck into a couple of lines on a policy page.

What about those using bid snipers, most of which automatically bid through the US site?

[toomanythingspleasebuy]

Not sure how they can practically enforce this when many people from around the world have always purchased items via different regional ebay sites. What happens when someone genuinely in those regions purchases from a UK private seller using a domestic forwarding address, which the could always rightfully do previously. They wouldn't see or pay the BP fee. Surely they couldn't be penalized for that? It really seems like ebay haven't thought this through at all!

[goodibags]

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

Indeed the Community works in its own mysterious ways. Sometimes, in fact quite often, the comments with the most Helpfulness upticks are the least helpful. Go figure!

But if you hang around for a few weeks you may one day be invited to join the 'gang' for a ciggie behind the bike racks. After school hours... 😁

[myriad*seller]

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@rainbowtrax wrote:

I see ebay have now quickly updated the Fee Avoidance Policy page to cover this. They really need to be announcing it though as it has always been the case that one login works across all ebay international sites and users are free to use ebay on whichever country's site they want to. If this is suddenly no longer allowed then it should be prominently announced, not snuck into a couple of lines on a policy page.

What about those using bid snipers, most of which automatically bid through the US site?

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It's possible to end up on .com accidentally, especially when clicking links on google first page or when friends send you items they have seen that they like.

It's easily done without noticing! 

[goodibags]

Yes, somehow lots of people will be ending up on .com accidentally now.

[rainbowtrax]

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@myriad*seller wrote:

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It's possible to end up on .com accidentally, especially when clicking links on google first page or when friends send you items they have seen that they like.

It's easily done without noticing! 

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Yep, there's endless ways you can find yourself buying through .com. They really haven't thought it through. Let's face it, they hadn't thought of it at all until it was raised here. It's like going back years to the days of the New Taiwan Dollar fee free loophole, another mismatch of different ebay sites. Policing it will be nigh on impossible but if they start sanctioning buyers for buying through the "wrong" site, they'll have even fewer users left to earn their money from.

Looks like this huge change has gone just as smoothly as everyone thought it would.

[ms.claire.valentine]

Every time i click on seller offer notifications on the my ebay page it takes me to the listing on the .com site FROM the .co.uk site, only noticed because it asked me to sign in when i decided to buy said offer! So if i thought it was just a quirk and i'd gotten logged out, hadn't noticed .co.uk change to .com, and then checked out, I'd then be in trouble as breaking policy for unintentionally circumventing fees? Most of my purchases are from private sellers selling discontinued vintage perfumes that i've put on my watchlist then got seller offers for. It would be really easy now I've signed in that one time when prompted to the .com site, with no auto sign out on my browser settings, to regularly get taken there to check out from my seller offers without noticing Ebay themselves has a bug in the system that changes me from .co.uk to .com. I've never gone to .com intentionally.

[davidninetynine]

This thread has made me laugh.

Some regular participants are always advising people that "ebay don't read these message boards"

But the moment somebody pointed out an ebay mistake that was actually costing the company money directly in fees, (as distinct from the many that are slowly trashing ebay's reputation and alienating their customers) somebody from ebay popped up to say they had taken immediate action...

[leighbayuk]

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community-team@ebay wrote:

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.

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How is it a fair marketplace if the fee is only charged for UK to UK sales? If either the buyer or seller is international the exact same benefits are provided for free.

[goodibags]

Likewise, if the service is only charged to UK buyers how are all users benefiting?

It's probably another Ebay typo. We've seen a few.

When they wrote a 'fair' marketplace what they meant was an 'unfair' one.

[wishleabay]

Have you tried looking in the bidding history to find that the prices bid are different to the prices that are on screen. COME ON EBAY GET IT SORTED BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL STOP BUYING

[leighbayuk]

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@goodibags wrote:

Likewise, if the service is only charged to UK buyers how are all users benefiting?

It is very perplexing because according to the statement, "Buyer Protection is unable to work as is intended" if the fee is not paid. However, all the benefits included at no cost for those outside the UK.