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.

[dch2112011]

Of course you are right, you should not judge a private account purely on whether a seller has an item or items with a quantity of more than one - unless of course they have 11,000 new items with multiple quantities that have been selling repeatedly over years - then perhaps a quick glance would be all that is needed to point the finger !

The sooner private accounts are returned to genuine sellers the better for every genuine seller and buyer on ebay, but I fear that the damage has been done and the changes will stick to the inconvenience of genuine account holders. 

With a bit of luck ebay will when the dust settles recognise the genuine sellers and relax the stranglehold they have felt necessary to impose on those offering good service and correct selling procedures - as they do with business accounts unofficially !

[theelench]

It would be nice to think so and I'll stick around to see if there might be a possibility of that happening, but I don't think it will.

Ever since I've been here ebay has been trying to get sellers to use tracked delivery, especially after they imposed FVFs on P&P.

Now, with SD officially recognised as a revenue stream, ebay can impose tracked delivery and consolidate the revenue, simply by not offering untracked options,  I can't see ebay giving-up either.

The same with Holds on payouts, once ebay sees its account filling-up and the interest starts rolling in, I can't see them giving it up or even reducing it no matter how good a seller's record.  

If anything they will be looking for ways to further increase their revenue, not give it away. 

[dch2112011]

You may be right, but there is always a glimmer with ebay - they tend to tweak systems after they are introduced already some changes have been made with SD - seller choosing carrier between the two, new payouts are changing such as timescale and payment release criteria. 

It may be that they introduce a similar small value fee option as they did when paypal was discontinued, and it may be that a status badge such as top seller may offer benefits - it is all speculation but ebay do have a track record of moving goal posts as they see what is actually working or not. 

It would help if they let the developers out of their padded cells occasionally to see how their new ideas work in real life rather than just in the simulations rather than introduce it then fight the fires they create - but hey it's the same everywhere these days.

[goodpal111]

I've been dipping into this forum but haven't read all 1643 (at time of writing) replies so apologies if this has already been covered.

I had a VERY unhappy buyer who lost out on a late bid. I suggested she contact buyer-side Ebay, and this was her experience:

I have attempted to gain clarification via live chat on ebay but am really none the wiser except it was because of the Buyer Protection, I think, and apparently one needs to work out the appropriate fees before bidding and then adjust the bidding amount accordingly. Goodness knows how one does that... I also asked why my bid of £42.88 was not registered and I was told it was due to an internet discrepancy that it wasn't updated and that, in future, I should bid earlier or use automatic bidding. But when I asked what that was and it was described to me, it would seem I do that anyway. So, to be honest, I am none the wiser and just as frustrated at not winning the auction. If I cannot be sure that my bid is not going to be fairly significantly reduced to accommodate the BP fees then I am starting to think there is no point using auctions anymore...I have used ebay for 19 years so am not happy at these new legislations.

Can we somehow marshall unhappy buyers to say that this is no longer a trustworthy platform? A trustworthy platform shows the same price to buyers and sellers. If Ebay want to start charging a buyer's premium (as most auction houses do), it's disingenuous to include it in the buyer-side price but not in the seller side - they are no longer a platform then, they are a retailer and private sellers are wholesalers to Ebay. This changes everything (as Naomi Klein once wrote).

Do people agree this message of lost trust needs to be amplified?

[cassidy_r_private]

I don't understand the relevance of BP fees to bidding.

My understanding is that your bid price includes BP fee so if you win an auction for fifty quid, the seller's bit is about £48.

This isn't an auction house where your bids exclude buyer's premium and VAT so your buyer has got the wrong end of the stick - well, actually, none of the stick.

[papso22]

You are right.  The buyer simply bids the amount they want to pay in total, no shenanigans needed. 

[sid.123]

If I cannot be sure that my bid is not going to be fairly significantly reduced to accommodate the BP fees then I am starting to think there is no point using auctions anymore

I'm not sure this is right. It was my belief and this may be wrong that bpf was added or in this case deducted from the winning bid after the auction finished. You won't be expected as a buyer to work out the bpf beforehand.
But I'm looking at this from a sellers point of view.
I rarely bid on auctions myself. I tend to use buy it now or I send offers. I know that when i have an offer accepted i pay the offer price and the bpf if its from a private buyer gets deducted from there payment.
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[papso22]

It is really very simple, the seller decides the lowest they would be prepared to accept for the item, puts that in when completing the listing form and ebay adds the BPF to what potential buyers see as the starting price. 

As bids come in, the buyers bid what they want to pay and the item page reflects those bid values as the current highest bid.  The bidding history on the other hand reflects what the seller will get, i.e the buyer's bid less the BPF.

At the end, the winning bidder wins for the amount they bid (which includes the BPF), and the seller gets the amount shown on the bidding history page.

[papso22]

Slight correction.

Ebay adds the BPF to get to what potential buyers see as the starting price.

[gblcfc]

I wonder want drives people, who don't sell on ebay, to spend endless hours time 'mentoring' people that actually do sell on ebay?

This topic is supposed to be about BPF and the impact on sales (for both 'Business' & 'Private' sellers)  but has been hijacked

Very sad and unhelpful to all that are invested in this platform working well for both Buyers and Sellers (because without either there is no market)

[papso22]

If that is directed at mentors, you have no idea what we might be getting up to on other accounts.

[kidmore_kats]

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@gblcfc wrote:

I wonder want drives people, who don't sell on ebay, to spend endless hours time 'mentoring' people that actually do sell on ebay?

This topic is supposed to be about BPF and the impact on sales (for both 'Business' & 'Private' sellers)  but has been hijacked

Very sad and unhelpful to all that are invested in this platform working well for both Buyers and Sellers (because without either there is no market)

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It's called a Posting I.D.

[gblcfc]

Is it?

By whom may I ask?

[papso22]

By those who use one.

[cassidy_r_private]

I learn a lot from posts on here.

As a holder of both a private account and a 23 year old business account, I'm very happy to to offer an answer when someone has asked for an answer. They won't necessarily like what they hear, especially when it applies to cheating in business, but they are free to ignore.

[goodpal111]

Her understanding was that too, but (assuming she's telling the truth, and no reason to think she isn't) she said she bid £42.88, and that the final bid (that the buyers see...!) was £42.32. I got told the winning bid was £40.00 exactly, and her highest bid appeared on my side (*shakes head at the nonsense*) as £39.88. So Ebay seems to have taken more BPF off her actual bid than off the winning bidder. That's her point.

And this should not be happening on a platform built on transparency *between buyer and seller* that has now been eroded

[goodpal111]

yeah two things there: one is that we sellers didn't know what the actual buyer experience now is with BPF, and two is that the name buyer protection fee is a complete lie, it's a seller's fee in a '1984'-double-speak kind of way

[cassidy_r_private]

How bizarre.

Only way to tell for sure is to get eBay CS to look at it. Below I can understand, but the only way it "should" go over is when shipping is added.

[action_man]

You asked "I wonder want drives people, who don't sell on ebay, to spend endless hours time 'mentoring' people that actually do sell on ebay?"

Did you know that some eBay staff also have eBay accounts? So some people you think are just ordinary members of the public might also be eBay staff. There's no way of knowing who though.

[*devils.advocate*]

By the same token then, are some of those deliberately sowing discord employees of eBay’s competitors?

And, no, I’m not an eBay hugger - in case anyone thinks that.