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.

[nocentisbarclays]

I feel the same specially on low value items they are increasing the overall price and decrease the chances of making a sale, I wouldn’t mind to go back to paying a commission/fee 

[23sandlane]

And buyers should be given the option of not paying the protection fee

[23sandlane]

Yes you are right about the 4% - I got mixed up - but it still means an
inappropriately large "protection" fee

[sid.123]

I don't see the difference...
The old way previous to the free selling you'd sell for 9.95, they took 13% + 0.30p that left you aprox 8.35
The new way with bpf you list your item at 8.87, it shows to buyers at 9.95 with the bpf . Your 50p better off then you were before.


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[yeschap]

Yess that was much better when there was the 80% off values fees or pay the £1 fee per item .

Either way I didn’t mind paying a small fee ,but I won’t be buying or selling eBay as it stands with new buyers protection and waiting for our own money from a sale which could take 5-7 days .
EBay are taking the Pis*

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[sammylou40]

Agree.   The killer for me is eBay holding MY money for potentially 14 days. In some cases longer. 
no excuses for this.  
we have no involvement as the BFP covers loses and that’s between eBay and the buyer. 
the money back guarantee will work as it always did. 
holding money hostage is purely to build eBay coffers and is disgraceful 

[sid.123]

Buyers have always had protection... it has always been included. Now ebay just charges for it. I suppose its to get back the fees they are losing. And although the bpf goes to ebay they will never cover losses . It will always be the seller that pays. I realy can't see what ebay would pay out for themselves.

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[23sandlane]

The difference is that the price to the buyer is increased and this is
likely to put them off their purchase.

[tailorsdummy]

I agree with you but it would appear that many potential buyers don't and in my many discussions this week with friends and family they are now refusing to shop on ebay

They see a fee that they have to pay and balk at it. "Why have I got to pay a fee to buy something?"

The other conundrum is that there has been a lot of stuff in the press about this BPF but it is not terribly clear on the actual platform and that puts buyers off.  If you want to Buy it Now you don't see any mention of BPF until you checkout and then it is down the bottom on the left and nowhere near the bit that tells you how much you're paying.  If you are bidding on an auction item it is not mentioned anywhere so if you bid £10 you don't know whether you will end up paying £10 + fees or £10 and the fees are deducted to leave the seller with the rest.  If the buyer doesn't know exactly how much something will cost they are unlikely to bid

[rollinretrolondon]

This is a complete mess, the way this has been implemented is awfully bad. Example, today I sold a jacket I had list for £199, Midweek eBay added nearly £10 to the listing and I had questions asking why I had raised the price.

I explained the situation to the watchers who asked then said I would send them an offer of £185 if they wanted the item at a 14% discount, 1 watcher accepted and then emailed after paying saying she accepted an offer of £185 but £195 had been charged.

Now they are considering cancelling the order.

I would prefer eBay just go back to the old system as it's far less confusing for customers, calling the fee a buyers protection fee is an insult to everyone using the platform, as it's usually the seller that fits the bill for any claimed issue with a sale.

I have yet to see a case where a buyer has claimed damage or returned as not as described and I have not had to accept at my own cost.

[sammylou40]

That’s tricky.  Surely the buyer understood that by you sending an offer of £185, it would bring the total amount back in to line with your original price?  
maybe not………

perhaps now we’re going to need to write essays with offers explaining.  
If I were you, I’d try to get an email to your buyer explaining all that before they cancel 

and point out you have zero control over the fees and the level of charges but they’re actually paying slightly less than your original asking price 

your only other option is to offer a small partial refund as a gesture of goodwill, maybe another £10, once it’s delivered to secure the sale 

but this is getting more and more ridiculous 

[sammylou40]

As a side issue.  You don’t look like a private seller 

you look like a business seller using a private account 

and business sellers using private accounts are one of the reasons eBay are doing this 

so that type of seller find very little sympathy from any other seller on the forum 

[rollinretrolondon]

I did send an email explaining but they were not happy, although they have agreed to keep the item. And no buyers don't seem to understand I have asked maybe 10 people this week if they know about a buyers fee or how it works and they all had no idea, So as I said it's been badly implemented.

And on a side note I've sold roughly 800 items in 22 years on eBay, so not even close to a business, I just make the effort to list like a professional so people have confidence buying form me.

[makem_6182]

Only just realised buyers protection fee exists when revising a watch (didn't sell) listing price. Honestly, I had not seen this prior, despite having sold 2 items since Feb 4th and listing this watch since then. Removing selling fees must be hitting Ebay bottom line. When I 1st read article I misread fee for tax - at least i now know to book an eye exam.

[23sandlane]

Not sure what the hell is going on, and I don't think Ebay does either.
Some private sellers have Protection fee added on and others don't. None
have a clear indication to buyers that part of the price is a fee that
doesn't go to the seller. Ebay really needs to get a grip on this and also
consider not adding the fee for items under £10 where, by any stretch of
the imagination, it really isn't needed.

[pretty_garden]

A buyer's perspective: I bid on an auction this morning and was struggling to understand why the bid amount on the listing page was different from them page with the detail of all bids placed.  There was no information available, I wasn't aware of the changes and fee for 'buyer protection', just left bewildered as to why the information was different.  Then I spotted that that the total I had bid looked incorrect as well.  That's when I started looking for information and found this thread.

So essentially, I placed my bid, but the amount showing as actually bid must have been the amount taking the protection fees into consideration.  The page detailing all the bids were the amounts going to the seller and the amount on the auction page was the top bid including the protection fees.

Very confusing as a buyer and very expensive as well.  I didn't win the auction and this experience has really put me off.  I'll be unlikely to buy from ebay unless the fees are removed.

[lucy_farmer]

'That's when I started looking for information and found this thread.'

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This is where I think you did a good deal more thinking than the average ebay buyer.

I'm fairly sure the vast majority of buyers will just see the weirdness of current ebay bidding, wonder what on earth is happening, throw in the towel and go somewhere else completely.......

[goodibags]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I haven't tried bidding on an auction yet but it's clear that the prices that buyers see (which should always include the Ebay's buyer fees) are not always including them.

There are various 'holes' where the wrong price seems to be displayed, as in your case the seller's price on the page showing all bids.

Ebay seem to have rolled out most of these changes without apparently doing much testing, if any. They're expecting their users (that's us) to do the testing for them. I think it's fair to say this approach has not gone down well so far.

[sid.123]

Your right but I don't think it's some private buyers have bpf added and some don't. I believe it's categories.. They are rolling it out category by category... I've noticed on my listing that most have it but some don't... . Everything will have it eventually.

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[derekcynthi0]

I agree, I am a private seller and buy and sell philately items with a starting price of 99p. On a 99p item the price with a buyers fee becomes about £1.65. This is a deterrent when buying or selling such items.