Buyer Fee amount error - are you seeing it too?

[jimthing]

(following on from this thread post: #10 in thread: "Buyer fee - how to calculate total? + Shipping: charge separately now or not?")

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@jimthing wrote:

(Another user who wanted to remain anonymous emailed me about the pricing error, with thanks.) 

Ebay have set this up wrongly, as they're working out the fee wrongly! 

While Ebay's help says in their example: 

£20 - Item price set by the seller

£1.55 - Buyer Protection fee (4% of £20 [i.e. £0.80], + £0.75)

£21.55 + postage - Price that buyer sees for the listing

£20 - seller earnings

The list-an-item page works it out incorrectly as: 

£20 - Item price set by the seller

-£0.75 - minus fixed fee

= £19.25

£0.77 - Buyer Protection fee (4% of £19.25)

= £1.52 - TOTAL FEE (£0.75+£0.77)

£21.52 + postage - Price that buyer sees for the listing

£20 - seller earnings

This is ENTIRELY THE WRONG WAY according to Ebay's own help page! 

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Is everyone else seeing this same buyer fee amount error, or are you seeing it fixed and showing the correct fee amount? 

Note: It should be 4% plus 75p to get the correct amount for your item. 

[wintersdawn1]

I get £21.52 by doing the following:

4% of £20 = £0.80 + 72p fixed fee = £1.52

£20 + £1.52 = £21.52

They may be doing the first part right (4%) but then, for some reason, only adding 72p instead of 75p

[jimthing]

Which ever way it's worked out, 72p is the WRONG AMOUNT. 

Their Help section even explains how it should be worked-out, yet they themselves are doing it entirely wrongly!

Are Ebay being stupid here deliberately, or just plain idiotic. Pffft! 

[jimthing]

Ebay's own example uses £20 as the seller's amount, so I also used £20 in my test example. 

£1.52 is shown, not the correct £1.55 – the screenshot I gave on the other thread (see here: 11) clearly show this error. I'll copy it here for ease: 

Here we are days later now and the error remains live on site. 🙄

[jimthing]

(I directed private sellers from the previous thread (see post here: 62) to this new specific thread here about this buyer fee error. For ease of tracking the issue over time.) 

[goodibags]

I reckon missing out on 3p per sale IS a top priority for Ebay. Tho' NOT as critical as allowing all those missing users to access the platform again.

Expect it to be fixed by the Friday 14th?

If not, then almost certainly by the Friday 21st?

(if not Feb then March)

[jimthing]

Can you stop repeating yourself across threads, as we all get spammed needless notifications.

We all know it may be only 3p or so, but that's not the point. The principle is that all private sellers's listings are wrong as a result of this error, and software/spreadsheets we use to track sales is being affected accordingly too (yes, even private sellers use spreadsheets!). So it needs correcting. 

[goodibags]

No, I said 3p is a BIG thing. Just not as BIG as all the other stuff that's hitting the fan right now.

Rest assured, it WILL be fixed!

(within the next 3 or 4 threads) 😉

[thesmi42]

Perhaps they have omitted VAT 😂

[jimthing]

Funny, but nope. (that'd be +15p, not the few pence of this error.) 

[papso22]

Just turn off notifications,  then you can simply check on a thread every now and again.

[thesmi42]

True, but I wasn't suggesting that they have the maths right for that either! 😂🤣

[goodibags]

To make up for causing unnecessary annoyance I'd like to make 2 (hopefully beneficial) observations:

1. When the problem IS eventually fixed it'll be fixed for ALL private sellers, so you won't have to ask whether or not anyone else is still seeing it.

2. The 72p is part of the 75p 'fixed' fee, so I'm prepared to wager that if you do the heavy work on your various item prices now (based on having 72p to deduct) you will only need to deduct another 3p from each item listed when this problem IS eventually fixed.

I wouldn't count on getting a fix date from Ebay but I reckon they'll want this sorted asap!

[wellingnorth]

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@jimthing wrote:

Funny, but nope. (that'd be +15p, not the few pence of this error.) 

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I've got no idea how exactly the calculation is going wrong but my guess is somehow the 4% of the buyer fee is getting mixed in with the 75p fixed fee - the 3p discrepancy is 4% of 75p

[jimthing]

See post 1, that shows the error is in the second line (taking OFF 75p rather than adding it; adding it being what the Help section example says it should be!): 

The list-an-item page works it out incorrectly as: 

£20 - Item price set by the seller

-£0.75 - minus fixed fee

= £19.25

£0.77 - Buyer Protection fee (4% of £19.25)

= £1.52 - TOTAL FEE (£0.75+£0.77)

£21.52 + postage - Price that buyer sees for the listing

£20 - seller earnings

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[wellingnorth]

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@jimthing wrote:

See post 1, that shows the error is in the second line (taking OFF 75p rather than adding it; adding it being what the Help section example says it should be!): 

The list-an-item page works it out incorrectly as: 

£20 - Item price set by the seller

-£0.75 - minus fixed fee

= £19.25

£0.77 - Buyer Protection fee (4% of £19.25)

= £1.52 - TOTAL FEE (£0.75+£0.77)

£21.52 + postage - Price that buyer sees for the listing

£20 - seller earnings

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Of course, I think I must have read that yesterday actually! So it is effectively subtracting 4% of 75p each time

[goodibags]

Yes, Ebay is managing to discount its own fixed fee by 4%, from 75p to 72p.

To clarify the suggestions above:

If all your rounded item prices are consistently out by 3p (i.e. too low) because Ebay is only adding only 72p instead of 75p simply add 3p to each one.

Then, when Ebay do fix their calculation (and start adding the correct 75p) take the 3p off again.

I hope that works.

[jimthing]

........Obvs........          🙄

[valueaddedresource]

While I agree this is likely a glitch, I was looking at the Buyer Protection Fee help and policy page and noticed the wording says "up to £0.75" - which is odd for a flat fee. 😂

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/paying-items/buyer-protection-fee?id=5594 

It's likely right to assume eBay means to charge the full £0.75 and that the current calculation is not actually working as intended but it also seems strange to have built in wiggle room of "up to" for no reason, so at the very least it appears their intent is to allow themselves the ability to charge less than that if they choose to do so at any time, on any sale, for any reason (not saying they will, just parsing the language of the actual policy.)

[goodibags]

Well spotted! Let's hope it's closer to 0p in most categories. Shame about the extra 4% though.