Buyer protection fees

[seanski47]

As a private seller I WAS selling multiple low value items on ebay relying on volume to make it worthwhile.

Since the introduction of buyer protection fees I cannot compete on price with business sellers.

WELL DONE EBAY YOU HAVE REDUCED MY SALES TO ZERO 

[al_mossah]

THanks for that - I just relisted a pair of trainers and the selling price didn't change. 

[andha-21]

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/New-Buyer-Fee-CATEGORIES-Thread-Please-Add-any-update...

[sucarole2012]

Well said & put .. After 13 years  i doubt if i will be buying or selling again on eBay! - That's just how i personally feel! I will buy things i need elsewhere!

Less private sellers & buyers means Less listings - rare & hard to get stuff, Less Traffic, less sales from peed off Ex-private sellers/buyers for Business & Private sellers/buyers alike & less income for eBay!

Good Riddance eBay - All your own doing & your shoddy treatment of private sellers/buyers.

Not denying that some unscrupulous business's open & abused private accounts.. BUT! eBay would/can pretty easily see who They are! they know who already has multiple accounts so they could have just dealt with that situation as it emerged .. if they wanted so!

[geoffisjazzy]

Hi to all

My sales have plummeted in a matter of days due to buyer protection fee, 

Ebay have shot themselves in the foot, if don't sell they don't earn either

Why penalise a seller such as myself who has been 99% plus for years and pose no risk to any buyer,

Also this amounts to an insurance policy which is compulsory, I'd say this is illegal, buyers should have a choice as to if they want to insure there purchase, so an opt in or out choice,

Trading standards should get involved

[andha-21]

The guest buyer side should almost certainly be dealt with by trading standards. They see 3 different prices for the same item.

I'm not sure the one you mention above is within Trading Standards remit. 

As consumers cannot buy from a private seller (selling an item with BFP applied) without paying for BPF to eBay it makes the main condition of sale the business transaction. At that point it looks like eBay are giving consumers rights within B2C transactions.

But that probably means their actions in selling consumers protection rights becomes legally questionable as the B2C transaction ensured they already have them for free. 

The above looks like Financial Ombudsman/FCA territory.

[lazarus.art]

Same here with my account. It’s like a tap has been turned off !!! 
what idiot decided this was a good idea. They need to reverse their decision or lose their private sellers 

[cassidy_r_private]

This may seem obvious, but bear with me, perhaps it's not.

Last year, private sellers were cheerfully handing over 10% or so in fees.

Then everything became "free" - yeah right - like that's going to last forever.

The additional fee is killing sales.

So why not just reduce your prices to a level that you're making the same as last year?

[andha-21]

The "additional fee" in a monetary sense is just one angle to it.

From a seller perspective I don't like it because it's insulting.

From a buyer perspective they still advertise their money back guarantee so what the hell am I paying for?

Then there's the complexity of the new system, especially within offers. That will put some off all by its lonesome.

Then there's the emotional angle where people simply don't like feeling like they're being shafted.

It's not a single reason killing sales.

Then there's the other side of their update where they blocked loads of users from using the app. & when phones like the Galaxy S8 and equivalent iPhones are being mentioned as blocked, you probably have a big problem.

[vinylscot]

That makes perfect sense, BUT...

Buyers now know about the BPF, and know they are paying extra, simply to buy, receiving nothing "extra" for this additional payment.

They may not do the maths, and work out that if something is priced at £20.00 to them, that the seller only gets £18.51, but they know the price they are being expected to pay includes some amount of that £20.00 to get nothing in return. So they don't buy.

[cassidy_r_private]

It is insulting. It's actually ridiculous and an extremely sly move which people really should have seen coming when everything went "free".  The V place is "free" - same model. No doubt ebay thought they were losing sellers to another platform, so emulated it with similar shipping arrangements on the way.

Money back guarantee - good point.

Yes it's messy.

Agree with the other stuff. Wan't aware of phone issues.

However, the changes will no doubt drive fraudulent business sellers into opening business accounts (and it is fraudulent to misrepresent yourself as private as many on here do, for a multitude of reasons, all of them bad).

Those that want to continue on here are going to have to embrace the changes and make adjustments as necessary. Talk of trading standards getting involved for example, is for the birds.

[insidethe93]

I'd probably be misconstrued as a business if I listed my items for sale.

Hobbyists are likely to have umpteeen of something. I have 24 pairs of scissors (for crafting and sewing) and several sewing machines, 18 sets of nested rectangle dies, a few are duplicates, and I've posted here on the discussion boards about my numerous identical potato peelers. I own nearly 3,000 craft dies and could declutter over 1,000 in one go (many unopened). I've also cleared a relative's house, which reveealed surprising quantities of identical items e.g. prayerbooks (30 IIRC). I and my siblings weer bequeathed 20+ fine china crockery sets and over 100 model railway trains most, in both cases many still unopened and/or with duplicates. Won't bore you (too late?) by listing more, but after all the quantities at the end of it you might sing "and a partriddge in a pear tree".

[moldosgifts]

---

@jonathachamberlai-97 wrote:

He is not selling multiples of items. There are 5 different spark plugs for sale all of which there is only one available. Also there are only 12 items for sale in total. Doesn't sound like a business to me! By what authority do you decide who is a business seller and who isn't? I thought that was eBay's job.

---

Where are you looking first spark plug 10 available with 11 sold, 2nd 7 available 10 sold, 3rd 10 available 7 sold, 4th 6 available 2 sold, 5th last one 2 sold. Sound like a business to me.

But as I've said he drifted into it by inheriting them according to the op but his activity is classic business on the wrong account and if he was yes he is breaking the law. but his explanation of inherited also suits because he has so few listings.

[insidethe93]

I've noticed in the last few days as I browse my favourite private sellers that their items have attracted a lot of watchers, whereas before they had few or usually none. I wonder if the watchers are hoping the seller will send an offer?

Has anyone else noticed this?

[andha-21]

You mention business sellers. Do you know loads of them are currently near soiling themselves as eBay have removed their VAT details from their listings?

Technically means they are now trading illegally.

& that's not even the best part.

The best part is that exactly the same thing already happened a few years ago and the end result last time was that all their listings were removed and at least some lost their sales history too.

From the posts it looks like an oversight on eBay's part where addresses can't match the HMRC equivalent. 

So now they are all trying to find ways to make the next ugly step easier to deal with.

So stepping over to the Business side may not get you out of harms way. It's akin to stepping out of the frying pan and straight into the fire.

I'm literally aghast at the lack of professionalism eBay are exhibiting. I've never seen anything remotely like it from big corp.

[al_mossah]

I'm not sure buyers are aware that they are now seeing prices for items that contain BPF.  Just that the prices are a bit odd. Clicking into an item to buy it doesn't tell you that the price includes BFP - you only get that info at checkout whereas at the V site once you click into an item you see the BPF.

I admit I'm not across social media but if it is such a good thing surely eBay should be shouting about it. Not really been aware of any publicity. 

[genuinegameguru]

Same here, many of my items are less than £5, so the  Buyers Protection Fee adds around 30% to the cost, so of course I can’t compete with Private Sellers. Not only do they not pay this TAX (for that is what it is really), but many Private sellers will be getting very favourable volume discounts from Royal Mail etc and are able to offer FREE POSTAGE. 
(Yes, I know this is beyond ebays control, it means the  BPF it is a double whammy to hurt Private Sellers - who, let’s remember, were once the lifeblood of eBay, and the reason why it became popular). 

BPF is just another nail in the coffin for Private Sellers, and an extra source of revenue for eBay. 

[bit_of_a_mug]

They are saying it's free!  It's not.

[bit_of_a_mug]

I collect mugs and buy off ebay.  I've seen the prices of some items go up overnight.  At the time of writing they are still saying that buyer protection is free.  How can it be?  They are now charging the buyer for thus protection.

[andha-21]

Last I saw they were still saying the Money Back Guarantee was included, what we had before as buyers. 

But the Buyer Protection Fund has been advertised as a paid fee from the outset and if you want an item on sale from a private seller you have to pay it, as long as the item is in an area that BPF is working in.

[knrvolvo]

I also list multiple items at £1 each, the buyer protection fee has now increased this to £1.75 each, nearly double so I am now removing all of my low priced items. I have been on ebay for 24 years and these latest changes are very disappointing.