Buyer protection should change into a commission paid by sellers

[bish38]

The buyers protection seems loaded with negativity for everyone.

ebay should get their money in the form of commission paid by the seller, without extras from the buyer. This is a fair and simple answer to a problem which is putting buyers off.

another thing is simple delivery where private sellers are being treated with a form of discrimination as business sellers don’t have to use it.

Also the B.P.draws convoluted offer situations into play and a seller gets cut short.

come on eBay get it working in a sensible manner again.

[style_wise]

It looks like you've left eBay, perhaps to sell all those Levis on Vint*d instead? In case it helps other Sellers, eBay is meeting demand with Buyer Protection Fee as free selling is so popular. Also it is profitable.

When eBay introduced BPF on one of their sites they:

- attracted twice as many Sellers as before

- lured back inactive Sellers

- experienced double-digit growth of sales in Clothing.

As for Simple Delivery, do you know you can revert to Custom Postage by becoming a Business Seller? This is probably the way to go. Who has over 50 vases, 30 vintage wool blankets, and Levis of all sizes lying around the house?

[foresterdon]

It's Buyers this site lacks, Style, put off by a customer-unfriendly eBay culture.

[*devils.advocate*]

As a buyer only, I don’t see eBay as a user-unfriendly site any more than I do any other site.

But two things do stand out - for me anyway - in respect of private sellers.

A lesser choice of items - not much less but definitely less.

And prices - a lot of what is left is far more expensive than that available on other sites (do they not research their competition?)

The amount buyers pay for fees should have reduced - previously seller fees were 13.22% + 30p.

BPF is much less than that - so why are so many private seller items still too dear?

[foresterdon]

Private sellers mostly didn't pay anything like that.

There were regular frequent free selling promotions so private sellers often just used those.

When nothing is selling, as at present, no matter how many times the price is reduced, the response can be: well I may as well jack up the prices so if I do sell something, at least it is worthwhile. 

I think that is where we are now.

Sellers just sitting waiting for the selling environment here to change back to positive.

[thepillenwerfer]

I'd pretty much stopped selling on e-Bay.  Last year I only listed two items — both sold so I can't complain about that.

I started again with the abolition of Seller Fees as I can now offer things for what I want rather than what I want plus Seller Fees making them cheaper to Buyers even WITH the BPF.  Simple Delivery also makes things easier.

Not everything I've listed has sold, but that's always been the case.  A lot of things I don't expect to sell and only list them on the basis that it may have a tiny chance of selling but that's infinitely greater than the zero chance if I don't and have been surprised enough times to still do it.

I haven't found a difference when buying from private individuals either.  Things are still available and some are at prices that are insanely high.  At least with the things I've looked at I've found no evidence of desperate 'fire-sale' prices.

[*devils.advocate*]

Base buyer fees used to be 13.22% + 30p (the last addition to fees being the Regulatory Fee - or whatever it was called).

Yes, there were indeed regular and frequent free selling promotions but, when I sold, I never once received any of these reduced fee offers - and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

The prevailing view was that since many on the boards got them, everyone did - not the case - and it’s an oft repeated fallacy that all private sellers benefitted from these reduced fees.

And latterly, for at least a two-year period, how many private sellers came to these boards and complained that these offers had suddenly stopped - remember the February Club?

Reduced seller fees was ‘then’, no seller fees is ‘now’ - so how many reduced their prices by the old fees?

Very few when I was looking around for things - and kudos to the few that did reduce them.

Most things will sell if the price is right - and, as above, eBay is not the only one to have competition from other sites - all sellers do.

If it’s a better fit all round elsewhere, guess where the buyer will be?

[jonatjonatjonat]

Indeed. Frankly the regular 70% off fees weekends was the worst thing eBay could do, because it simply devalued their product. It then be ones hard to convince users to pay the price you actually want.

see also places like Gourmet Burger Co who became synonymous with 2 for 1 vouchers - who would pay full price if you know there’s a 2 for 1 voucher somewhere?

Promotions are a great tool, but 70% off is just bonkers. One wonders how they landed on that percentage!

[thepillenwerfer]

It was also Sod's Law that you wouldn't get an offer for ages when you'd got things to sell but would regularly get them when you hadn't.

A lot of people unfavourably compare e-Bay to Vinted but they charge for "Protection" too.  I don't know how it's calculated but it seems to be at a higher rate than e-Bay as well; things listed for £1 being £1.75 including it whereas it'd be £1.17 on e-Bay.

[*devils.advocate*]

@thepillenwerfer

But doesn’t Vinted show the fee up-front - as it should be?

Everyone (buyer and seller) should see the same thing - they should see separate amounts for the item price, the fee and the postage cost (if applicable).

Each should know where they stand and what they pay / what they receive.

Only buyers know what they’ve to pay (even with offers) but the seller may not - and be caught out.

That is certainly not the right way of doing things.

I was always an advocate of separate amounts being shown even when there were the (old) seller fees - in other words, nothing hidden.

But, with any change, in the typical eBay cockamamie way of doing things, they make a mess of it.