"Buyer protection fee"? I don't think so. What a scam!

[soulhunter123777]

Was just about to purchase an item when I noticed a ~£3 "buyer protection fee".

What an absolute scam. As a buyer, I absolutely refuse to pay eBay for the privilege of bare minimum customer service. Foisting hidden fees and extra charges onto buyers is NOT remotely acceptable.

In this website's footer there's a link called "Selling Fees". When will eBay add an equivalent link for "Buying Fees"?

What a ridiculous situation.

[tressygirl]

There are many unhappy members sellers and buyers alike , concerning this new Buyer Protection Fee , when it was introduced last month.

Take a peek at the many long threads,  heated discussions,  on this topic on the forum.

@soulhunter123777 

[papso22]

So can I take it you were OK with the price until you realised that part of it was this fee, and then you were no longer OK with the amount you were about to pay?

[sebastian4ever]

The reviews on trustpilot about feeBay are a good read.

[ruby*ryan]

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@papso22 wrote:

So can I take it you were OK with the price until you realised that part of it was this fee, and then you were no longer OK with the amount you were about to pay?

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I don't think it's a case of not being OK with the total price, it's a case of not being happy with eBay creaming off a fee for no reason (there is already a very good MBG in place, plus protection if you use Paypal or your credit card).

In the same way, when I used to buy on here, I would often avoid the cheapest item because I realised it was from an unreg business seller, and I preferred to buy from a legitimate business seller. Principles.

[linthamdesigns]

The buyer fee only appies to Private sellers or as you have called them " unreg business seller"

legitimate business sellers don't have the 'Buyer Fee' added to their prices

[ruby*ryan]

@linthamdesigns 

I do hope you meant the BPF applies to private and unreg business sellers, not (as it reads) that it applies to private sellers all of whom are unregistered business sellers?

[soulhunter123777]

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@papso22 wrote:

So can I take it you were OK with the price until you realised that part of it was this fee, and then you were no longer OK with the amount you were about to pay?

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Not quite.

In this particular case it was a Best Offer submission. I wanted to offer £50 to the seller - a figure I thought was fair and attractive for the seller to accept. If I'd submitted the "£50" offer it would actually have resulted in the seller receiving an offer of ~£47 for the item, making the offer less attractive and the seller less likely to accept.

Secondly there's the principle of it all. I am decidedly not OK with eBay skimming fees under the guise of "buyer protection"; something which should be a bog standard part of buying on eBay, and generally has been until now.

I realise that somebody has to pay for eBay's operations but they are trying to play both sides here. They want to attract sellers with the promise of "no fees" but they certainly won't be screaming to advertise the fact that they now skim an extra 4% off buyers.

The whole thing absolutely stinks. My only comfort is that I'm fairly sure this whole money-grubbing scam will not be tolerated by British people and they'll end up reversing the decision.

Honestly though; who thought this was a good idea? Especially in this economy. I can only imagine some grossly overpaid executive from eBay looked at how McDonald's jacked up their prices - ignoring the fact that they were subsequently slammed and resented by consumers everywhere -  and thought "we need to get in on that action!" (Happily, McDonald's recently posted their "biggest decline in global sales in four years".)

[papso22]

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@ruby*ryan wrote:

@linthamdesigns 

I do hope you meant the BPF applies to private and unreg business sellers, not (as it reads) that it applies to private sellers all of whom are unregistered business sellers?

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I have started to refer to 'private accounts' in situations like this.

[toolboss15]

Most of the business sellers are more expensive on eBay than on other platforms. So don't use them, unless you are nuts. So now little point using eBay. Personally I don't care if this platform disappears completely now.

[alexis*27]

It's ridiculous because the 75p makes low priced things too expensive.

And the 4% makes high priced things too expensive!

I bought a £950 computer on here a year ago. With a £38.75 penalty to do the same thing today, eBay can get stuffed.

[papso22]

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@alexis*27 wrote:

It's ridiculous because the 75p makes low priced things too expensive.

And the 4% makes high priced things too expensive!

I bought a £950 computer on here a year ago. With a £38.75 penalty to do the same thing today, eBay can get stuffed.

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I would never buy something of that value from a private account.

By the way, the Buyer Protection fee is calculated as:

• A flat fee of up to £0.75 per item, and
• 4% of the item price up to £300, and
• 2% of any portion of the item price from £300 to £4,000

[paper-lanterns]

Now the buyer has to pay Ebay a fee, just for the privilege of buying something !
Taken off with one hand, and put it on with another.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul.
I have never been a Seller on Ebay, so i do not know what fees are charged for what etc.
All I knew was that the item I had won etc, was at a price I was happy to pay, and assumed that the Seller had allowed for making a profit with their list price, and p&p etc.
Now it seems Ebay has made it so the Seller has no fees to pay ( so more profit for the Seller? )
But the Buyer is now saddled with the fees to actually buy something.
If it had been all done, in the background as it were, so that the price at the end of the auction was actually the price the buyer paid, it probably would not be too bad. But it is the fact that when you win something at a price you think, 'Bargain!' , when you go to pay you find there is now another few quid on it! Which totally messes with any limit you had. You could say have a £20 limit, win something at the £20, only to find you are now actually having to pay £22. That £2 extra could be crucial.
So unless the seller, reduces the list price to allow for the added fees the buyer now has to pay, then Ebay has well and truly shafted the Buyer with this latest 'Tinkering' and we all know how good they are at that!
Now you are having to do sums in your head to work out how much you can bid up to, to pay the amount you want to spend etc.
It is this for me that is the most annoying about it all.
Grrrrr !

[papso22]

Buyers don't have to do any maths whatsoever.   The price they see, or the amount they bid, includes the buyer protection fee. 

[sml192]

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@paper-lanterns wrote:

If it had been all done, in the background as it were, so that the price at the end of the auction was actually the price the buyer paid, it probably would not be too bad. But it is the fact that when you win something at a price you think, 'Bargain!' , when you go to pay you find there is now another few quid on it! 

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That is exactly how it is done.  There is nothing extra being added at checkout so not sure why you think otherwise. 

[paper-lanterns]

It may be for Business Seller auctions, but not for Private Seller.

Then the price is different.
When the auction ends, the bid that you won it at could state £20.
Click on the Pay Now button and only then does it have all the added costs, in this case maybe £2 ?

The new winning price on completed auctions only appears afterwards. So when viewing the item description page after the aution ends, THEN it has the price you pay with the buyer protection added.

So no, when the auction is live, the price you win it at, is not what you eventually pay.

If you check your Purchase history page, and click on the Bids button, this shows the actual price you won it at. Which could be £2 less than what you actually end up paying. And as the completed auction item description page now has only the price with buyer protection on, dont get to see what price you won it at.

That is the point I was getting at.

[paper-lanterns]

I have just noticed that. I have just bid on an item, and as I placed the bid it said inc 92p BP.
The listed priced had indeed added this fee on already.

But if you take for example an auction I am currently losing, the item description price is £2.49. (This includes the Buyer Protection of 79p)
When you click the 'Bids' button below this price, the price of the item is 79p less.
So the current winning bid on that page shows up as £1.70
This lower price suggests that to go back to winning I need to enter a figure of  at  least £1.90, or more to be the winning bidder again ( if you say that the current winning bidder's max is the £1.70)
But obviously, this will not be enough to secure the win, as I would really need to be bidding £2.69 or more to be the winning bidder, because the price on the Item Description page is 79p higher!

This is what I mean by the prices being different from one page to another.

[papso22]

Clicking on the bids gives you the bidding history which does show the bids less the BPF, but that is more for the seller's benefit.  If you, as a buyer, don't look at that page then everything you see, or bid, will include the fee.

The current winning bid is the one on the actual listing page.  That's what you have to beat.

[andy19720_2]

As a private seller I haven't sold a thing since they introduced this, all my £0.99 items are now listed as £1.75 which makes them unattractive to buyers who want a bargain (you have to add the postage as well which is no longer cheap in the UK, I'd have to sell at next to nothing to get the price with fee down to £0.99 which is just a waste of time, I might as well take everything to a charity shop. This carries on to items I think are a reasonable price at greater starting bids but now look unreasonable. I can't believe eBay haven't seen sales fall dramatically.

[surplus.mtp5]

So your OK with winning a bid then the adding extra on top