Ebay's new Buyers' protection fee from the 4th Feb

[rsbrickshop]

I'm a private seller. Items I sell are between £2.90 - £10. Is It just me or will ebay's new Buyers' protection fee from the 4th Feb make it near impossible to sell competitively. A few months ago Ebay got rid of Sellers' fees for private sellers, which was a welcome move. But this new change and getting rid of multi-buy discount for private sellers will make it worse than it was with the original fees.

[andha-21]

eBay still advertise the Money Back Guarantee so that protection is still included for free.

Unless they slipped it into BPF without anyone noticing.

[*devils.advocate*]

Isn't it the same thing under a different name?

[golfwatcher62]

The cancellation of sellers fees gave eBay a competitive edge .. the idea
was to encourage more people to sell on eBay.. it worked
Now they’ve destroyed it by their own design albeit indirectly.. time will
tell but as I said before buyers are volatile
Everyone knows the price of bread and inflation..

[the_book_seekers]

ebay has tried to spin BPF as additional to the MBG but it isn't.

[*devils.advocate*]

You should know me by now!

Any business will try to spin any change as a positive - there's no point otherwise?

And the big difference is we have 24/7 access to script readers which won't answer the question.

Same thing - different name?

Bottom line - just a different way to pay fees.

[lucy_farmer]

'Why, I still paid them, albeit eBay only received them from a different final source - but I still paid them.'

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Yeah but............. psychology innit!  😂

For instance , 'free' postage should always have read 'inclusive' postage : most people are well aware that nothing is free , but it feels nice to think that somebody else is paying whatever it is, not you!

(and, lets be honest, a lot of people are incredibly dim and have no idea that are paying {one way or another}for everything they do, buy, or experience..)

[*devils.advocate*]

Yeah but............. psychology innit!

Miss out the "logy"!

[andha-21]

Well they are still advertising both under separate names.

So no, until they decide otherwise?

[wantshopwearuk]

Buyers fee is applicable to private sellers only. The worst part is that eBay adds this fee to the sellers final purchase price, and doesn't highlight it as a separate protection fee, or at least not to my knowledge.

Private sellers are now highlighted as "Private" - I scrolled through several sellers and couldn't see the buyer protection fee highlighted below the sellers sale price as it should be. 

I sell mid-end items for half the price at 10% profit only, but sales have pretty much come to a standstill since the fee was applied, forcing me to reduce some items further and sell at no profit just to get them sold. 

In my personal opinion, if eBay is now applying a buyer protection fee to sellers items, then this should be highlighted as such but below the sellers price tag, and the buyer should be given an option at checkout to add the protection fee, or not. 

If like me, the fee is effecting sales for private sellers, it's worthwhile raising concerns and providing eBay with feedback. 

The more private sellers take action, the greater the likelihood that eBay will reconsider these changes, which are negatively impacting them.

[goodibags]

Let's be clear, Buyer Fees and Seller Fees are absolutely NOT the same thing, thanks to 2 words - 'dual pricing'

Suppose a buyer offers £10 to a seller for an item. How will a seller know if that includes fees or not? 

Or the seller sends a £10 offer to potential buyers. Will that include them?

What if seller and buyer exchange messages and agree on £10? How is that supposed to work?

None of that never happened with seller fees, because the buyer had nothing to do with them.

This is aside from items in the search by price appearing out of sequence and item prices jumping up and down from one page to the next, as well as VAT not being added to the fees until Ebay knows where you're buying from.

If you haven't witnessed any of this happening for yourself I can assure you it is a complete shambles!

[*devils.advocate*]

eBay having both MBG  and BPF is just the spin the_book_seekers mentioned?

Let’s say a seller previously listed an item at £10 (incl P&P).

Fees, which the seller would have included and the buyer would have paid, would have been £1.62

Seller ends up with £8.38 in their pocket.

Now, if the seller lists the item at £8.38, it’ll show as only £9.47 (lower than before - more competitive?)

Why?

Because the buyer is paying only £1.09 fees now rather than £1.62 fees before.

Win for buyer.

And the seller still gets the £8.38 as they would have received before.

Problem?

And I'm long enough in the tooth to know I'm paying the fees no matter what they're called.

[sammylou40]

The things I have bought from vin ted have been a lot cheaper than they are on eBay. 
that’s why people aren’t so bothered by the BPF. 

Vin ted don’t particularly care if a transaction goes wrong. It’s hard work trying to get your money back. The eBay system is much more automated and organised.  Vin teds is poor. 
I only buy something there knowing that there’s a risk I won’t get my money back. Hopefully eBay isn’t going the same route. 

[lucy_farmer]

'The more private sellers take action, the greater the likelihood that eBay will reconsider these changes, which are negatively impacting them.'

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Ebay's main purposes for these changes is to

a.   make up for the loss of seller's fees (so they can advertise as 'free to sell' and compete with vin ted)

b. get some interest by hanging on to sellers money for a couple of weeks

and c. Get 'under-the-radar' business sellers to get off their private accounts and register as businesses.

(by under-the-radar businesses, I mean private accounts that, for instance, have nothing but Brand New items on them........ you are one of their targets)

[sammylou40]

That will happen when eBay won’t release funds until delivery is confirmed 

positive feedback is one method of confirming delivery.   
blame eBay, not the sellers. 
Or they wait 14 days for their own money, filling eBay’s bank account with interest instead. 
I don’t blame them for asking you to leave feedback.  If they’re not being rude and have only asked once, I don’t see a problem 

[parsley2003]

It is shown top right listing information includes BPF (in faded grey) click on it and you can see. Not exactly highlighted. They think they can makes millions more by making the sellers and buyers pay. But people will just leave and go where everyone is treated fairly, where there is no private and business and where small value collectables can still be found for a fair price. The shareholders might not be so joyous in the end

[parsley2003]

I have put tracked postage on most of the listings so the item just sold i will send 2nd and just wait longer for the payment that way my return buyer will still get a fair deal. Am not spending hours messing with prices i've spent enough time taking all the listings off as it is

[papso22]

You are not a private seller.  

[wantshopwearuk]

Clearly, you can't read or maybe you're just a deceitful individual. 

 

Remind me never to purchase anything from your eBay. 

[chris.n7]

They don't believe that you are a private seller for multiple reasons

• Your account name implies some kind of brand/business.
• All of your listings are brand new
• All photos are stock photos

Which to others implies buying to sell (maybe you're not but that's how it can appear)

[papso22]

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@wantshopwearuk wrote:

Clearly, you can't read or maybe you're just a deceitful individual. 

 

Remind me never to purchase anything from your eBay. 

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I am not the deceitful one.

While you do have a private account and are registered as a private seller, you are not entitled to be, that's just what you chose and proves absolutely nothing.

Private sellers are those that are getting rid of old unwanted personal possessions. 

Businesses (who need ebay business accounts to sell legally), buy goods, usually new, to sell.

Which do you think you really are?