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]

You have hit the nail on the head. For YEARS the business model on eBay is very difficult to understand and I can only think they make a decent amount of money catching people out while buyers and sellers take time to get up to speed. I’ve always felt they operate sneaky, confusing and irritating systems instead of being simple and straightforward. Some features are difficult on the mobile app or impossible to find so you have to access the clunky desktop site instead.

[beehappy20]

I contacted live chat and was told 2 different things, ive now removed offers from my sales in the meantime, I do prefer allowing buyers to offer though.
I’ve since emailed the eBay community helpers who do a live session between 2-3pm on a Wednesday. I’m waiting on a reply. I did try and join the live chat with one of them but couldn’t until the last minute and it was too late to post the query. However an email option appeared. I think the more people who bring it up officially the more they may listen. It just far too complicated now. Should be straightforward. Unfair to buyers and sellers in my opinion. Anyway here’s hoping for some improvements soon. 

[49bag]

I like having ‘make offer’ on my buy it now’s too. But not if it means I take a lower offer AND I pay the buyer protection fee.

[whitewhalebooks]

It's clearer on the app. There it says the full amount offered and underneath it says 'inc Buyer Protection fee' so when you see a lower amount on the website, you can see which is which.

[johnwash1]

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@beehappy20 wrote:

I contacted live chat and was told 2 different things, ive now removed offers from my sales in the meantime, I do prefer allowing buyers to offer though.
I’ve since emailed the eBay community helpers who do a live session between 2-3pm on a Wednesday...

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Thank you for joining our Wednesday chat.  Have you tried clearing cookies and cache?  We can't answer your question, but we'll pass on your comments to our nebulous team that never has the guts to come to the Wednesday session themselves, and we'll get back to you with any news.  We can't promise any timescale on this.

I swear there are times when I think those Wednesday sessions are run by AI bots, then I reconsider, realising that AI would handle it better.

[collectible-coins-medals-tokens]

Ebay had their chance to make things better for genuine private sellers and have now blown it!

Just noticed that V**ted have a category for coins and medals, so it's bye bye Ebay!

Now think about this for a second ok people....

I have been a private seller on Ebay for over 25 years!

And if I'm leaving the Ebay platform goodness knows how many hundreds of thousands of other private sellers like me are also leaving!

It's simple really....you make it difficult to sell we leave for a different platform.

And WHEN Ebay executives finally come to their senses and realise that their latest 'innovations' have driven over 25% of their sellers to rival platforms, then two things will possibly happen........

1. Ebay buys out V**ted

2. Ebay finally realises that's it's USP was their original online auction house model, NOT trying to be Amazon or V**ted, and they will finally revert back to something simple and easy to use with transparent fees.

For now though it's Adios Ebay!

I'm off to V**ted !!

[beehappy20]

I did clear cache and cookies, the icon to join was greyed out and then it changed just before the session ended. I emailed Kat instead because that option popped up. I’m still waiting on a reply.

My thoughts at the time were it was greyed out because too many people were using it. Unsure if that was the case though 

I’m not expecting the situation to be changed/corrected to a straightforward BPF being added to offers instead of being deducted immediately but I’m hoping it’s being discussed to sort it re what the BPF is meant to be for (not sellers to pay) or being sent to IT if it’s a glitch.

Wish they would change it back to the straightforward way it was before as the new system is awful (too iffy and butty), not crystal clear. On that thought does EBay have the Crystal Clear Trademark ?

[johnwash1]

@beehappy20 

I think you've misunderstood me, I wasn't seriously suggesting clearing cache etc would help.  I was giving a pastiche of the utterly useless responses the Wednesday chat generates.  The only reason I have any sympathy for those ebay staffers is the same as my sympathy for the irritating call centre callers about loft insulation, and so on.  Because someone beyond their control has placed them in that unenviable situation and apparently they don't have the option of a job elsewhere.

[ems.treasures83]

I agree, as a seller all of my items are "buy now" with best offer available but since this new buyer protection fee I've noticed I have been getting much lower offers because the buyer wants to incorporate the fee, some of those I've promoted so by the time I take off the promotion fee and buyer protection fee it's hardly worth selling!

[loubag2000]

I will no longer include Best Price options in my listings. The Buyer Protection addition, when applied alongside Best Price options, has driven buyers away from Ebay and makes low price items not worth listing. Who are the business/financial advisors that came up with such a counterproductive change to a once buyer-friendly system?

[49bag]

I’ve just received a counter offer on an item for £57. I clicked accept offer but haven’t made it final. NOWHERE so far has it become clear who is paying the buyer protection fee. Obviously I know it’s coming out of the £57 because I’ve done my research and looked it up, eBay is not telling me or making it clear. BUT this is sneaky. I am made to think I’m getting £57 for my item. I cannot see anything that is clearly showing me how much I’m going to wind up with because I am being forced to pay the fee without it being transparent.

So on that basis, I’m not going to accept the offer. I just don’t like how deliberately confusing this has all become. You only realise exactly how much it’s cost to sell the item. AFTER It’s too late and you’ve accepted the offer. 

[ems.treasures83]

I agree, the way ebay show you the "offer" price is wrong because its not what YOU are getting because the bpf is included in that figure. When I receive an offer  it comes up with the amount then says "Inc buyer protection fee" I have to click on that (buyer protection fee) then it shows a breakdown of what you are getting. The private sellers are missing out now because all of my offer prices have been low, because the buyers are incorporating the bpf, I can always tell they are doing that when I get an offer of £6.04 and the bfp is 0.96p. 

[49bag]

 nowhere does it clearly tell me how much I will lose from the £57 because the fee is included? I’m not getting £57 for my item and I can’t see how much I’m actually going to lose until after I’ve accepted the offer. No links, no other note about the buyer protection fee. This is the screen I get in the phone app. It’s not transparent, so I’m out. I won’t sell the item. In fact, I’m losing interest in selling on eBay full stop, there are better alternatives now.

[diesel.uk]

I've accepted two offers in the last two days. Both times the amount I received was the amount listed in the offer email and the buyer paid the BPF on top of this amount.

[papso22]

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@diesel.uk wrote:

I've accepted two offers in the last two days. Both times the amount I received was the amount listed in the offer email and the buyer paid the BPF on top of this amount.

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That's right, it's how it works when a buyer makes an offer, they would have offered an amount that includes the BPF and ebay emails you either the exclusive figure.

[incredible_how]

That was not my experience. I helped my father as he got an offer by message. The potential buyer got confused with me trying to explain it might not be £20 to my father, she then offered  £19 something (because she was confused),  that came out as £17 something to him. So I sent a counter off of £18 explaining that was what my father would get - and he did and she paid bpf on top. 

So her offer included the BPF giving less than the amount to the seller but the counter offer from seller gave the amount the seller wanted to get and the buyer paid more.

I think I will try and stick to just offering discounts and/or checking that my automated accept is adequate!

[incredible_how]

diesel.uk

Well this is confusing - my father has just accepted an offer and it seems he did get the offer not the offer minus the BPF. Perhaps there were glitches in the beginning and now sorted. 

Hope it continues

[ciara33]

Agree. I’ve been caught out with this too. Low value offers are worthless now. But then selling many things is impossible now. I’ve listed clothes for £1 to clear them. Now, ebay want another 79p from the buyer. I don’t inflate postage costs so generally £2.94 with Evri. 
now the buyer is paying £4.73 and I receive £1. 
this is putting buyers off as a low value item is now too expensive. 
Also, I sold a higher value item, collection only as heavy. The buyer came and collected it, inspected it and was very happy. What are they paying a buyer protection fee for?

ebay has ruined this for me. I’m just trying to declutter and raise some much needed money. 

[ciara33]

I listed something at £16. Just now I got an offer for £15, which I was happy to accept. However, when I went to accept it, the amount I would receive was actually £13.73, as the buyers fee is included in their offer price. 
I couldn’t go that low, so I’ll have to decline it. 
came on this forum to see what others thought. 

[49bag]

Yes! I declined an offer too the other day because eBay wasn’t showing me in the offer process on my phone app, that I was going to get less than the offer because I was actually paying the fee. Yet, if you sell with a buy it now price (and no accept offer) the fee is paid by the buyer on top of the BIN price. It doesn’t make sense to accept offers. You’re getting less than you’d like to encourage the sale AND paying the fee. What a ridiculous situation??