Buyers Protection Fee - not transparent

[vintagefamilyrehome]

I've just sold my first item under the new Buyer's Protection Policy (why does this put me in mind of the phrase 'protection racket??? Lol )

Apart from the absolutely bare-faced cheek of basically re-introducing Private Sellers Fees, it also means, in my case anyway, that the Buyer is effectively being charged twice for the cover that Tracked delivery (which is the only way I post as I like to know exactly where the item is!) I don't want to start using a non-tracked postage just to save the buyer money, at the sacrifice of my peace of mind that my items are going to be delivered.

If I go into ebay as a buyer, I can't see anywhere, upfront at least, where it tells the buyer how the price they are paying is made up, which just seems scammy. 

What's the point of good Feedback, if scammy sellers are going to get their scamminess covered by the buyers having to pay extra regardless of who they're buying from?

I'd always thought Buyer's Protection Fees are charged by the newer selling sites, where the site itself (in this case eBay) don't want to be bothered managing and policing the site properly 😞

And for people who have repeat customers, it means that customer still has to pay extra, even if they know and trust you.

Also, the way eBay show the breakdown on the order is ridiculous  - nowhere do they say how much the seller actually priced the item, just the amount plus their new charge. And on the item I've just sold, they show the Protection Fee as £1.12 on one screen, but £1.08 on another??? (I was going to add screenshots showing the two different breakdowns it's only allowing me to attach one file)

[alexis*27]

There are loads of bugs with the new system. 

Honestly, you're better off adding this to your listing:

"As of 4th February I no longer pay fees to list - but you will have to pay the new "buyer protection fee" if you purchase this item.

This is not fair.

Therefore I will issue a partial refund of £1 if you buy this item.

This does not affect the buyer protection you obtain from eBay. I am simply doing this to avoid a drop in sales from this absurd new policy."

[parsley2003]

It's an absolute mess, i checked out what buyers see too even though i now refuse to buy on Ebay, yes no breakdown shown (we can see it on out own listings top right). They say that it can be seen almost hidden on checkout bottom right but i'm not going to test it by buying something. Not listing any more here not even sure if send invoice is working yet or if it has been removed permanently. Del-campe hid the fee and they had to show it properly i think they got in trouble and vint-ed show there's. It is very wrong to hid this and make it look like we the seller are at fault and devious

[sugarsa-21]

Just bought some pipettes flea treatment for my cats .. obviously off a private seller , didn’t realise this until I had bought .. price £11.11 .. no break down on the actual listing , which I think there should be like on Vinted .. you see the price the seller is asking and underneath the protection charge , come on eBay make it clearer on the actual listing , on my purchase I only know the flea treatment was £9.99 plus £1.12 protection fee on the invoice and then it’s so tiny yo7 can hardly see it . 

[parsley2003]

Yes so now it's a seller fee if we do that. My friend who's 87 is very with it for her age but totally confused by all this and i'm trying to explain it while confused myself

[parsley2003]

Thanks for confirming that yes even on checkout they are trying to hide it. All these adverts about free selling make me laugh i want to see one for expensive buying. I buy as well or did 

[babylax1]

I changed all my pricing last night to include the buyers fee. So the buyer can see they are protected but not paying for it. I used to give free tracked delivery but can't support both, so I have to charge for tracked delivery now but cover the cost of the BPF. I have had to do this as I was selling nothing. Within an hour of changing, I had a sale. First one in over a week. Could be a coincidence, but it's worth a try. ie. If I want £20 for an item, I've listed it at £18.54, the BPF is £1.46. Hopefully this should work otherwise I will be selling on a different platform. 

[vinylscot]

I wouldn't put too much effort into your re-pricing at the moment.

I know it's hard to believe, but eBay has made a mess of adding in the fixed portion of the buyers' fee (the 75p). For some reason, only 72p is currently being added. 

When or if they fix it, your £20 item will show as £20.03, so you will need to take 3p off all of your prices to get back to round figures.

[eastern-lights]

---

@vinylscot wrote:

I wouldn't put too much effort into your re-pricing at the moment.

I know it's hard to believe, but eBay has made a mess of adding in the fixed portion of the buyers' fee (the 75p). For some reason, only 72p is currently being added. 

When or if they fix it, your £20 item will show as £20.03, so you will need to take 3p off all of your prices to get back to round figures.

---

The amount Ebay are out of line with the amount I arrive at with a calculator seems to vary, between 2 and 4 pence. 

[moldosgifts]

It here up to so not over but could be less and as we know its less at 72p, why they don't just put currently fixed at 72p i really don't know. Oh yes because they're going to put it up to 75p.

But currently 72p 

• A flat fee of up to £0.75 per item, and

[magpiecorner1]

I'd be very careful about buying flea treatment from a private seller anyway as there are a lot of fake flea treatments - including Frontline! being sold online - I think it is illegal to sell vet meds online by other than a qualified person or authorised dealer.  HMRC website has info about vetinary medicine sold online.  Might of course be someone just selling stuff they have in their cabinet - I think I could fund a small pharmacy with whats in mine - but you just never know.

[mawels_87]

""If I go into ebay as a buyer, I can't see anywhere, upfront at least, where it tells the buyer how the price they are paying is made up, which just seems scammy. ""

I'm not seeing this too. No way of knowing what the price the seller listed it for. Seller might have listed for £1.00 only, but eBay then show any figures like £15.00 and just say buyer fee of 4%+75p included in the price. No way of checking the buyer fees against sellers original listing price as they are just not shown. Vinted shows it all crystal clear on the listings and at checkout.

[eastern-lights]

---

@mawels_87 wrote:

""If I go into ebay as a buyer, I can't see anywhere, upfront at least, where it tells the buyer how the price they are paying is made up, which just seems scammy. ""

I'm not seeing this too. No way of knowing what the price the seller listed it for. Seller might have listed for £1.00 only, but eBay then show any figures like £15.00 and just say buyer fee of 4%+75p included in the price. No way of checking the buyer fees against sellers original listing price as they are just not shown. Vinted shows it all crystal clear on the listings and at checkout.

---

Why does it matter? If you are a buyer, aren't you only interested in the cost to you? Anyway, it will be on the invoice if the seller sells you an invoice.

Is the situation different to, say, buying something that has VAT included in the price. Do you really need to see a breakdown?

If you really want to know how much the seller is getting, take the end price, subtract 75p then divide what's left by 1.04 (accurate to within a couple of pence).

[mawels_87]

""Why does it matter? If you are a buyer, aren't you only interested in the cost to you? Anyway, it will be on the invoice if the seller sells you an invoice."_

Yes! eBay have no end of bugs so the prices the buyers list are essential to check against. I won't buy not knowing them. At the moment since the fees were introduced prices here are way over the top compared to what I'm used to as i have much experience of buying here. Because it's so clear on Vinted I can deside if I'm willing to pay the fees or not. Just can't do that here.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

when i am buying i am interested in only one price and that is what i have to pay.  What happens to it after i have paid i actually do not care about.   

[goodygoods2009]

What I am confused about is, if someone makes an offer on an item and I accept it, does that mean the offer price is including the BPF? If it does then I am losing out. I sell mostly lower priced items. Example- item £12, offer £10, do I then only get £9.25 or does it get added on to the £10. We will lose buyers if they think they have only got to pay £10 then get charged £10.75

Also, I've just sold many items and only one had a BPF added on the packing slip

[lucy_farmer]

'What I am confused about is, if someone makes an offer on an item and I accept it, does that mean the offer price is including the BPF..?'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 'offers' area around the BPF is more than a little confusing!

I *think* it works like this ;

If you (the seller) make an offer to the buyer, you get the amount you've offered for and the BPF gets put on the buyer's side, so they see a different, higher, figure.

If the buyer makes *you* an offer, you get that offer MINUS the BPF.

(I don't know if you see their original offer with the BPF deducted, or just see the resulting figure though....)

If I've got this completely a*s* about face, I apologise....😆

[vintagefamilyrehome]

I'm still confused on what happens if we send  "% off" offers - is the percentage taken off our original asking price, and then the 75p and 4% added on after or, or do ebay add that on and then take our  "% off" amount off???

All too complicated for sellers and, as a buyer, I would also not like the lack of clarity.

[vintagefamilyrehome]

I just went to check out as a buyer (on a random seller's site) and it says "Incl. Buyer Protection " Tjen if you click on that it takes you to more detail where it says "Buyer Protection is included at no extra cost" !! How on earth can they say that? I'm completely gobsmacked by that. Surely that isn't an accurate representation of the true situation? My head hurts from trying to understand how that statement can be justified!

I've attached a screenshot.

[papso22]

Was that a business account?

The BPF is not a separate charge when buying from a business account.