eBay

caltimms · ‎26-02-2025

Just want to put out into the community an interesting response I got back after e-mailing eBay Customer Support regarding the broken "Best Offer" option on listings between private sellers & their buyers.

I ran a bit of testing myself between my private and our business account and since BPF was introduced, bartering prices is almost impossible

at the moment with private sellers.

Hopefully this will get fixed over the next coming weeks!

--

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to eBay Customer Service. My name is *****, and I will be supporting you today. I can see you have been with us from 8 years thank you for your loyalty.

Firstly, I'm so sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Due to a backlog of emails, it is taking us some time to get through them as each one is answered individually and personally by ourselves.

I can totally understand your frustration here as when buyer makes offer or bids on the items listed by private seller, the offer amount is inclusive of buyer protection fees which then misleads as buyer makes offer correctly but private seller receives notification and amount less than the actual amount they had made offer for.

Allow me to share that we have received multiple contacts from buyers as well as sellers about the same issue wherein sellers receive less amount than the offer or bid amount buyer had placed. I have taken this as a suggestion along with other seller's sentiments as well and have forwarded the details to the site development team.

I am positive that this will surely be looked after and changes will be made on site. It is requested that you please wait until then.

As per the fees calculator after introduction of buyer protection fees, the auction or offer price buyer see on the site will always include the Buyer Protection fee. Thus when buyer enter a starting bid or make offer, system add the Buyer Protection fee so buyer can see what the buyer’s minimum bid amount will be.

As the Buyer Protection fee is variable, the amount that you actually pay is calculated as part of the final auction selling price, so there won’t be any surprises when you go to pay at checkout.

However as this is causing issues at seller's end as they see less bid amount or offer amount, so the team is working on it to make things right. It is requested that you do not worry as this will surely be looked into.

For more information I would request you to please once check below mentioned help page link-

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/buyerprotection/#sell

I appreciate you taking the time to contact us today, thank you for your continued business. Have a wonderful day.

Kind Regards,
****
eBay Customer Service

goodibags · ‎26-02-2025

What Ebay SHOULD do is display to BOTH parties the price to the buyer and the price to the seller.

The maker of the offer will most likely see a rounded price whereas the recipient will see an unusual number with pennies at the end, with the fees either added (for the buyer) or deducted (for the seller).

BUT in doing this Ebay would have to acknowledge/highlight that Buyer Protection Fees are being siphoned off from the sale. So, while it will undoubtedly add clarity and eliminate confusion, I suspect it's unlikely to be 'fixed' any time soon.

finalcapri280 · ‎12-03-2025

Hi...good post! Can I ask you a question (that I should direct to EBay really) since you say you did a bit of "testing". I'm a private seller first of all with about 116 active listings at the moment. As I usually do, every so often, I was going to send some "offers" to buyers on those items that have got multiple watchers. So, I have a Star Wars Pit Droid Clock on for £19.00 and the listing now shows it as £20.48 with the BPFee. All well and good. If I send my potential buyers an offer of say £15.00 (plus shipping), how much will I actually get? Will it be the £15 plus shipping, or £15 LESS the BPFee plus shipping? I can't really see a definitive answer to this anywhere.

Also, on the other "offer" side, someone made me an offer on something, and the BPFee appears to have been added on to his amount to pay, that is his offer amount PLUS the fee, which presumably is the correct way as the buyer pays it, and I got exactly what his offer was (plus shipping).

Thanks in advance for any replies!!

moldosgifts · ‎12-03-2025

@finalcapri280 wrote:
Hi...good post! Can I ask you a question (that I should direct to EBay really) since you say you did a bit of "testing". I'm a private seller first of all with about 116 active listings at the moment. As I usually do, every so often, I was going to send some "offers" to buyers on those items that have got multiple watchers. So, I have a Star Wars Pit Droid Clock on for £19.00 and the listing now shows it as £20.48 with the BPFee. All well and good. If I send my potential buyers an offer of say £15.00 (plus shipping), how much will I actually get? Will it be the £15 plus shipping, or £15 LESS the BPFee plus shipping? I can't really see a definitive answer to this anywhere.
Also, on the other "offer" side, someone made me an offer on something, and the BPFee appears to have been added on to his amount to pay, that is his offer amount PLUS the fee, which presumably is the correct way as the buyer pays it, and I got exactly what his offer was (plus shipping).
Thanks in advance for any replies!!

At the moment your offer of £15 will include the BPF so you will receive less than that £15. The price you will need to offer to get £15 for yourself will be £16.35 based on the 4% + 75p although they are actually charging 4% + 72p at the moment

Live long and prosper

sml192 · ‎12-03-2025

@moldosgifts wrote:
@finalcapri280 wrote:
Hi...good post! Can I ask you a question (that I should direct to EBay really) since you say you did a bit of "testing". I'm a private seller first of all with about 116 active listings at the moment. As I usually do, every so often, I was going to send some "offers" to buyers on those items that have got multiple watchers. So, I have a Star Wars Pit Droid Clock on for £19.00 and the listing now shows it as £20.48 with the BPFee. All well and good. If I send my potential buyers an offer of say £15.00 (plus shipping), how much will I actually get? Will it be the £15 plus shipping, or £15 LESS the BPFee plus shipping? I can't really see a definitive answer to this anywhere.
Also, on the other "offer" side, someone made me an offer on something, and the BPFee appears to have been added on to his amount to pay, that is his offer amount PLUS the fee, which presumably is the correct way as the buyer pays it, and I got exactly what his offer was (plus shipping).
Thanks in advance for any replies!!
At the moment your offer of £15 will include the BPF so you will receive less than that £15. The price you will need to offer to get £15 for yourself will be £16.35 based on the 4% + 75p although they are actually charging 4% + 72p at the moment

No, that is not correct.

If the seller makes an offer of £15 it doesn't include the BPF. The BPF will be added to the £15, so the buyer sees the offer as £16.35 but the seller still receives £15.

If the buyer makes an offer of £15 then that will include the BPF, so the seller will see the offer as £13.73.

finalcapri280 · ‎12-03-2025

Thanks for the reply. I think you must be right with that summary. As I had read somewhere that the buyer's offer INCLUDED the BPfee, I cunningly (!) made a counter offer of a slightly higher amount to cover the BPfee that I would end up paying. Seems that as I was making the offer back to him, the BPfee was added to his cost on his invoice. I actually apologised to him and posted the item First Class to make up the cost difference.

To sum up:

If I'd accepted his offer, I would have paid the BPFee.

As I made the offer to him, the buyer paid the fee.

I think EBay needs to fix this anomaly as soon as possible.

I hope I have now understood how it works (at the moment)!

edwardian-dreams · ‎12-03-2025

Obviously eBay is struggling with buyer numbers

otherwise why have a two tier system that favours a buyer re bpf

sellers surprised that an offer for x isn’t really an offer for x

a buyer gets told your offer for x includes the bpf

The seller doesn’t get told

sad

finalcapri280 · ‎16-03-2025

Hi, me again with a follow-up om my selling experience which happened yesterday. I had an item listed for £12 originally, which obviously is now shown at £13.20 with the BPFee. Before I go further, I've also discovered (from another forum) that even this isn't being calculated correctly. EBay appear to be charging only 72p of the 75p fixed fee due to some VAT issue, which they haven't fixed yet!

Anyway, back to my sale. A buyer had made me an offer of £9.88, this figure as we now know contains the recalculated BPFee, added to whatever the Buyer has intended as their offer. Now we know that if I accepted this, not only would I have accepted a lower price (which was fine with me), but I would have also paid the BPFee (which ISN'T fine with me).

Well, I decided to do my own "workings" to get the figures straight in my head, and decided to make the buyer a Counter Offer of £9.90 (yes, only 2p more!) This had the effect of EBay adding back the BPFee on top of this, as clearly shown on the "review your counter offer" box. I also added a note explaining why I had done it, as after all, the BPFee should be paid by the Buyer, and would be if they had bought it straight off.

I know that was a "faf", and some say just stop listing stuff with offers. but I've found (as a private seller getting rid of stuff) it increases my sales. Most of my listings are relatively low value items, so I don't really fancy standing the BPFee on offers, so I will be making Counter Offers (with a note) from now on.

Just to say that the Buyer in my example was quite happy with the Counter Offer (plus the BPFee) and paid up straight away. Remains to be seen how any others react though!

Thanks for reading this, anyway. Maybe EBay will fix the anomalies.......or maybe not!

sml192 · ‎17-03-2025

Oh dear, this is causing so much confusion!

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 excludes the BPF.

The offer of £9.88 that you received, therefore, excluded the BPF. The buyer's actual offer was £11.00 including the BPF (£9.88 + 4% + 72p = £11.00).

If the £9.88 was inclusive of the BPF then that would equate to £8.81 + BPF which wouldn't make much sense.

To avoid this confusion eBay really needs to show both amounts to both parties, as suggested by @goodibags earlier in this thread.

So in your example the buyer would see their offer as:

£11.00 (£9.88 excl. BPF)

and you as the seller would see it as:

£9.88 (£11.00 incl. BPF).

finalcapri280 · ‎17-03-2025

Yes I agree that the "price" should be clearly shown to both Buyers & Sellers. Of course it would be better if they just fixed it!! I had another "offer" from a buyer last night, so I applied my theory and calculated a Counter Offer. It gave the buyer the discount he wanted off the price, but added back the BPFee to his cost. I added a note again, and he was happy and paid up. Still a "faf" but I am hoping EBay will correct this anomaly before too many sellers are caught out. My stuff is pretty low value, but I do have (and will have) a few higher value items as Best Offer, so wouldn't be wanting to accept offers on these AND pay the BPFee !!

I've also mentioned this problem to Private Sellers I've recently bought from, and they certainly were not aware of it.

mymusicfactory407 · ‎25-03-2025

I’m currently selling a set of golf clubs. I’ve been an eBay customer since 1980’s. Very confusing now they’re including buyer protection fee in prices being offered to the seller (me) I’m used to negotiating with buyers but since BPF it’s confusing. I’ve received two offers on my golf clubs but believe the BPF is included in the offer price, so effectively I think I’ll receive the buyers offer, less their BPF. No real way of deducting the fee from buyers offer price as I don’t know the percentage of the BPF that is added to the base price the buyer is offering me. Not happy about this and eBay needs to sort it out pronto. Otherwise I shall be closing my eBay account, which has been lucrative for both me and especially eBay over the years I’ve listed.

joebut48 · ‎28-04-2025

Yes. So, if you have set a minimum offer of £15 , any offers made by a potential buyer for that amount is automatically rejected, as it is only recognised as £13.73 - which is ludicrous.

i have this issue with an item currently where a buyer has messaged because I told them what my minimum offer acceptable was and they had it rejected!

moldosgifts · ‎28-04-2025

@sml192 wrote:
@moldosgifts wrote:
@finalcapri280 wrote:
Hi...good post! Can I ask you a question (that I should direct to EBay really) since you say you did a bit of "testing". I'm a private seller first of all with about 116 active listings at the moment. As I usually do, every so often, I was going to send some "offers" to buyers on those items that have got multiple watchers. So, I have a Star Wars Pit Droid Clock on for £19.00 and the listing now shows it as £20.48 with the BPFee. All well and good. If I send my potential buyers an offer of say £15.00 (plus shipping), how much will I actually get? Will it be the £15 plus shipping, or £15 LESS the BPFee plus shipping? I can't really see a definitive answer to this anywhere.
Also, on the other "offer" side, someone made me an offer on something, and the BPFee appears to have been added on to his amount to pay, that is his offer amount PLUS the fee, which presumably is the correct way as the buyer pays it, and I got exactly what his offer was (plus shipping).
Thanks in advance for any replies!!
At the moment your offer of £15 will include the BPF so you will receive less than that £15. The price you will need to offer to get £15 for yourself will be £16.35 based on the 4% + 75p although they are actually charging 4% + 72p at the moment

No, that is not correct.

If the seller makes an offer of £15 it doesn't include the BPF. The BPF will be added to the £15, so the buyer sees the offer as £16.35 but the seller still receives £15.

If the buyer makes an offer of £15 then that will include the BPF, so the seller will see the offer as £13.73.