@dch2112011 eBay's example from their policy page shows this for an item price of £20 set by the seller - 4% of the £20 would be £0.80 plus £0.75 for a total Buyer Protection Fee of £1.55 making a total item price shown to the buyer of £21.55
However, in the listing form when sellers enter £20 for the item price, eBay is showing a note which says UK buyers will pay a £1.52 fee, which would make for a total item price shown to the buyer of £21.52.
While the 4% shouldn't apply to the £0.75, it seems clear that's what eBay is doing - or they are doing something else which is having the same effect of making the flat fee only £0.72 instead of £0.75.
eBay isn't asking sellers to put the fee into the item price, rather eBay is putting it in themselves automatically when the listing goes live - that note on the listing form is just there for sellers to be able to see how much additional will be added.
The issue being discussed here is just that eBay is incorrectly calculating the fee based on comparing what their own policy page example shows vs what is shown in the listing form.
put up a screenshot of what the buyer sees when entering £20 as the item price ?
Just for irrelevance - see what happens when you enter the item price as the total price - the fees are correct - so this tells you that when entering the item price as £20 the system is calculating the fees based on the £20 being the total price including fees - could be a calculating error or could be that sellers are expected to enter the total buyer price in as item price - not irrelevant until proven otherwise !
@dch2112011 wrote:put up a screenshot of what the buyer sees when entering £20 as the item price ?
Just for irrelevance - see what happens when you enter the item price as the total price - the fees are correct - so this tells you that when entering the item price as £20 the system is calculating the fees based on the £20 being the total price including fees - could be a calculating error or could be that sellers are expected to enter the total buyer price in as item price - not irrelevant until proven otherwise !
@dch2112011 I have no idea why you keep referring to the "item price seen by the buyer" when it is very clear from the screenshots/posts in this thread that we and eBay in their policy page example are specifically talking about the item price set by the seller.
Look at my screenshot from eBay's policy page - it very clearly says Item Price Set By The Seller - £20
The only place the seller can "set the item price" is in that field in the listing form called "Item Price" - and as you can see in my second screenshot, that is also set to £20.
So it should be perfectly clear to you that both of those screenshots show the same starting point. They are both showing an Item Price Set By The Seller of £20.
Now since we've established both examples start off in the same place (apples to apples comparison) the next step is to observe where both examples end up.
eBay's policy page example shows they calculate 4% of £20 to be £0.80. They then show the flat rate amount of £0.75 adding up to a total of £1.55 for the Buyer Protection Fee for a total item price shown to the buyer of £21.55.
On the listing form, we don't get to see the steps in between eBay is making to do the math, we only get the end result. Again though, we've proven we've started out in the same place as eBay's policy page example, so by all the rules of math I've ever been taught, one would expect to end up in the same place.
But that's not what's happening - as clearly shown in the screenshot on the listing form eBay is somehow calculating the Buyer Protection Fee on that same £20 Item Price Set By The Seller to be £1.52 instead of £1.55, which would make the total item price shown to the buyer £21.52 instead of £21.55.
Some here have made some decent guesses about how eBay has gotten the wrong figure but ultimately the how doesn't really matter, all that really matters is that they have gotten the wrong figure somewhere - either their policy page example shows the wrong way to do the math or the calculator on the listing form is wrong.
The screenshot you showed here even proves the point - you started with an Item Price Set By The Seller of £21.55. According to eBay's policy page example, the way the Buyer Protection fee should be worked out on that amount would be:
4% of £21.55 = £0.86
Flat fee = £0.75
Total Buyer Protection Fee = £1.61
But your screenshot shows the listing form calculation for that Item Price Set By The Seller as £1.58 - £0.03 short, just like we've been saying.
Hope that clears up any confusion and will allow this thread to continue on topic - which is that there is a clear, demonstrable discrepancy between how eBay's policy page says the Buyer Protection Fee calculation should be made and how the listing form is actually making the calculation.
eBay needs to figure out which one is wrong and fix it so that both buyers and sellers can understand exactly how it's supposed to be done and trust that it is being done correctly.
