Be Aware! Offer prices INCLUDE the Buyer Protection Fee

[meditative-moods]

I made a sale on my personal account this morning for a set of headphones that I had listed at £59.95 with it set to auto accept offers over £50.00.

A buyer made an offer 10% below asking price, so £54.00 and as I have it set to auto-accept above £50.00 this was accepted, however, when the email for the order came through, I only receive £51.23 as the Buyer Protection Fee of £2.77 is INCLUDED in the offer price.

In my opinion, if the buyer has offer £54.00, I should receive the £54.00 and the BPF should be added to that.

Just be aware if you have offers, particularly on lower value items, as this change will make most low value offers pointless to sellers.

eBay seem to be on a path to self destruction, not giving a thought as to how their imbecilic changes affect real people 🤷‍♂️

[49bag]

I totally agree. What I learnt last week was if you sell for a buy it now, the buyer pays it. If you send an offer, the buyer also pays. BUT! If you have ‘make offer’ on your items and the buyer sends you an offer, then you the seller pay it! It’s so confusing. Designed to catch sellers out I feel. No idea what happens on auction? I would have thought the buyer pays on top of the final auction price.

I like offering make offer on my listings to temp buyers and speed up sales. but there’s no incentive to do it now if I pay the seller fee ON TOP of taking an offer/less money. It’s just… stupid.

Keeping my money for an extra two days has really irritated me. With tracked services the seller ‘should’ get paid on delivery. But if the courier doesn’t mark as delivered then you won’t get paid.

I agree, Vinted looks like a better option.

All the best however you sell in the future,
49bag.

[chris.n7]

This whole system is a mess. Buyers and sellers are constantly sending offers back and forth and neither are seeing what the other is truly offering.

[sml192]

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@chris.n7 wrote:

This whole system is a mess. Buyers and sellers are constantly sending offers back and forth and neither are seeing what the other is truly offering.

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Yes, I completely agree. 

When a seller sends an offer the amount they offer excludes the BPF which is then added to the amount the buyer sees. 

When a buyer makes an offer the amount that they offer is inclusive of the BPF.  When a seller then receives that offer the amount shown should exclude the BPF, however, from many of the comments here it appears that they are initially seeing the buyer's offer including the BPF (not sure if that's just on the email notification or when they view the offer in their account as well). 

The only way really to avoid this confusion is for eBay to show both amounts to both parties in all communications.

So, for example, if the buyer was to make an offer of £11.00 including BPF then they would see their offer as:

£11.00 (£9.88 excl. BPF)

and the seller would see it as:

£9.88 (£11.00 incl. BPF). 

[49bag]

I recently took an offer of £25 on some shoes, that was what I saw. What I actually ended up with was £23.34. I was annoyed because all I saw initially was the £25, I must have missed that I was basically paying the fee when I’d already accepted an offer and less than I’d hoped.

A transparent system where the fee is always EXTRA for buyers, on top of an offer or agreed price would be the best option.

[rinofs]

I stopped handling offers altogether.

I talk offers via messages and then change the price on my listing for the user to buy.

It's pain but better than losing.

[49bag]

I’ve just bought something on an auction expecting to pay extra on the price for the protection fee. Nope! The seller has paid the fee from the final auction price. Seems really inconsistent. The seller also pays the fee if they have a buy it now and accept offers.

[parsley2003]

I stopped auctions as well as accept offers trying to explain to buyers what is going on is very difficult not that i'm selling much i seriously think that both buyers and sellers are afraid to use Ebay now

[sml192]

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@49bag wrote:

I’ve just bought something on an auction expecting to pay extra on the price for the protection fee. Nope! The seller has paid the fee from the final auction price. Seems really inconsistent. The seller also pays the fee if they have a buy it now and accept offers.

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The price the buyer sees on the listing is always inclusive of the BPF regardless of whether it is a 'Buy It now' or 'Auction'.   The BPF is added to the seller's initial start price and to each bid increment thereafter so I don't see how you make out that the seller is paying the fee. 

[rinofs]

That's very strange, I recently sold 2 items with BUY NOW and I wasn't charged any fees, the buyer was. 

The price you see on screen already includes the protection fees.

[meditative-moods]

That applies if the buyer pays the full asking price, however, if the buyer makes an offer, it's as per my original post and the offer price includes the BPF.

This is the problem, there is absolutely no consistency or transparency and every sale / purchase scenario seems to have a different rule....

[rinofs]

Yes sorry, I got mixed up.

Absolutely true. Ebay is pulling a fast one, I'd stay away from any form of offers.

[tabbiecat*]

The offer price that you see already has the Buyer Protection Fee taken out. You get 100% of the offer price that you see - it is up to you if you are willing to accept it or submit a counter offer. I had a CD on sale for £6.50 - an offer came through for £4.11 ( the buyer has obviously offered £5). I was happy to accept £4.11 and received that amount + postage. This is only an issue if you are set up to auto accept offers, so I would recommend that you set up not to do that .

[49bag]

That is a very good point, auto offers may not give you a chance to decide, thanks for pointing this out.

[49bag]

I don’t think this is the case. The fee is added to the buy it now price. But, If someone has a buy it now with ‘make offer’, the fee comes out of the total offer price. It’s not an offer price plus the fee for the buyer.
I just bought something on auction and my final bid amount was final. I expected to pay the fee on top of that final figure, but it was included.

when I sold some shoes buy it now but make offer, I had a message saying the offer was £25. I was happy to accept that and then when I looked in payments, I’d actually received £23 odd. I expected the buyer to pay the fee on top of the £25 offer. It’s very confusing and feels inconsistent.

Maybe eBay will make the system more transparent in time like it is on Vinted. Maybe they’ve already made changes as they’ve rolled this new system out recently.
I thought the buyer would always pay the fee regardless of a buy it now, auction or buy it now with make offer price.

The other issue was holding on to my money an extra two days after the item I sold was delivered and had received positive feedback for no clear reason. I spoke to someone on the helpline who could not justify why eBay hadn’t released my funds. Obviously it earns them interest the longer they keep hold of it. None of the above changes make me excited to sell on the site.

[johnwash1]

@49bag 

So in essence the fee comes out of the seller's price.  Maybe ebay could bring in a new system instead of this buyer's fee.  They could instead charge a fee and call it... I'm struggling to think what to call it... maybe call it a Final Value Fee?  So buyers would no longer feel outraged because they'd not be paying an additional fee.

People would list an item for £9.99 and the buyer would see a price of £9.99.  It sounds such a novel and simple idea I'm surprised nobody's thought of it before.

The buyer's invoice would say they bought it for £9.99 and they paid £9.99.  They would neither know nor care whether the seller had paid a fee.  And the seller would be content to pay an FVF because they'd made a sale.

I wonder if a brand new system like that would ever catch on.

[49bag]

I think the issue is eBay want to copy the Vinted format/model where the fee is now added on top of an item’s base price and the buyer pays it.
The trouble is, eBay is a different set up to Vinted with buy it now’s, buy it now with make offer and auctions, plus sellers can fire offers out. There seems to be a different set up of who pays the fee that eBay wants paid, on all of the above different selling formats. That is what is causing the confusion.

[johnwash1]

Seems I should have included a /s

[sigh]

[beehappy20]

Couldn’t agree more with you. Bring back the seller fee (great when included a discount also).

The method of BPF fees on offers , the contradictory policy of having to wait for ages re payout’s if tracking fails as opposed to untracked items being paid out quicker if positive feedback is received is all very iffy and butty, totally unclear and totally unfair.

On other sites it’s straightforward BPF added to the sale (regardless of offers or paying the full asking price), so why can’t eBay make it straightforward also. If eBay didn’t realise there would be an issue like this then they need to fix it.

Not good for sellers nor EBay in my opinion. It needs to be straightforward and concise 

[andha-21]

@beehappy20 

Look around the different threads and you will see eBay do everything but straight forward. They are anti transparency.

After reading all the posts I have I think it's deliberate as it's not an isolated thing. It appears in every area I've looked into.

& I think they do it because it lets them get away with a whole lot of naughty stuff. As their systems/procedures are as clear as mud, nobody can understand it and if that's the case when people complain to CS, CS get to make up any story they want.

& the CS bit becomes very apparent when you read across the threads here.

I think their business method is nothing more than hiding in plain sight, pure wood for the trees.

[49bag]

Agree, it’s all too ambiguous.