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.

[cdsjon]

Don't they want all private sellers to leave?  Private sellers made Ebay, but clearly business brings in more money.

Shocked when listing came in with no fees, i accept they are a business and accepted paying a fee for sold items so why change it?

Did ebay get flooded with loads of cheap listing and loads of unsent items to sort out? Probably.

Got my first payment after 15 days since the new system.

Another outstanding after 7 days even through i used ebay postage labels. 

Not happy... Not buying through ebay anymore ... starting to go elsewhere and sometimes finding cheaper.

[*devils.advocate*]

….. Private sellers made Ebay, but clearly business brings in more money …..

Correct, on both accounts.

….. accepted paying a fee for sold items so why change it? …..

That’s eBay for you - just following other sites and only being reactive as usual rather than pro-active and taking the lead.

….. Did ebay get flooded with loads of cheap listings …..

Got flooded with chancers who believe they are above everything and eveyone.

Obviously can’t comment on your money holds.

But can comment on all those chancers who deliberately call themselves “private” sellers who try to scam me, and every other buyer, out of any buyer’s legal rights.

That trash certainly has no conscience.

[sammylou40]

I’ve found that since most of what I buy is my clothes ( always second hand) , I can find them far cheaper on vin ted. So the BPF can be worth paying.  There is no option but to use their postage system. 
There is no greedy extra 4% though. 
and the minute I confirm I have my item, the money is released to the seller. It’s not held for days on end for other people to earn the interest on 😡. 
the downside is that this all works swimmingly 

until you want to make a claim.  And then it doesn’t.  

so on eBay, do we choose BPF or money back guarantee? 

[insidethe93]

I want to tell you 'thank you' now, much appreciated, rather than have to leave it until late Friday at the earliest - unfortunately my braincell's shutting down after a long busy day and I just can't seem to work it out right now. Cheers.

[insidethe93]

I'm with you. But I've worked for solicitors, banks and estate agents, and these cases happen though I saw only one case fairly close up - it's terrible when a bank ruins the lives of ordinary people who apparently just made a mistake with, importantly, no leeway given. Maybe info I've given will help someone?

One of the things I like about Amazon is that they have a symbol and 'Small Business' which shows in searches against every applicable item. I prefer to support small businesses if I can. Recently I've been exploring outside eBay and finding some of my favourite small eBay business sellers on their own websites, where my impression's confirmed that it's just one person or just two (e.g. married couple) and they offer info about how they started in business - quite inspiring in many cases. The eBay format provides the opportunity to do the same (a seller's profile) but if I look most of the time the profile's blank.

[wobblyheed]

Seems as though they are striving to be just another Amazon Marketplace (Chinese tat at peanut prices), with an almost impassable returns procedure. The small businesses doing all the work, while ebay sit back and count the money.  The model for these massive online entities now, is for the users to supply the content (Facebook) (Youtube) or goods (ebay) as the hosts reap the rewards for the providers work. But as soon as the share holders dividends start to drop, the CEOs' will be back peddling to save their "bonus" lives. "They think it's all over ! ....it is now !"

[theelench]

I have, my last ebay listing died at the end of November, unsold as usual.  I've been selling on ebid for years and decided to stop selling here before "Free to Sell" was announced.  I sold only 4 items last year (out of about 50 listed) and know that without Sponsoring I won't get the visibility to sell more than that, so what's the point? 

To me ebay is still Free to List, but is also Pay Fees To Sell or sell nothing, nothing is "Free" on ebay, there is always a sting in the tail somewhere.

The other site might still have fees, but doesn't have payment holds, BPF and doesn't try to tell me how I should post my parcels or when they should be delivered according to its own made-up FDDs, with the added bonus that it is still mostly "little people".

[23sandlane]

Yesterday I got in contact with Ebay chat as I found that all my postcard
items for sale just gave a total price with no indication to the buyer that
part of it was the Protection fee that went to Ebay rather than me. After
some to and froing they admitted that this was so (after originally denying
it) and the chat person said this should not be the case and that their
technical people would look at it.
I think the real reason for this omission was the fact that the cost of the
fee against the cost of the postcard would look totally ridiculous i.e. a
£3.99 postcard with an added £1.15 (75p + 10%) of protection.
We will see what happens.

[sammylou40]

The BPF hasn’t gone on my items yet. 
it’s unacceptable that it’s not made clear in the pricing that it’s item price, BPF, 4% etc. 

vin ted do this. 
they show it clearly 

item price £2

protection £1

postage at checkout 

I’ll keep my last few items on until they’re sold ( eventually) but I agree with what you said about promoting.  My little charms are discontinued and highly collectible and should have flown out before Christmas. 
I won’t sell them on FB for scammers and on vint ed they want them giving away!! 

when mine have the fee added I will amend my description to make it clear that the pricing includes the BPF and 4% surcharge, over which I have no control and that it goes directly to eBay. 
as it’s a factual statement I don’t see a problem. 

[vinylmad2023]

Looking at your items, the BPF has been added to your items - it doesn't show the new price on your own seller page, you have to look at your listings as a buyer (i.e. logged out and looking in as a buyer etc if that makes sense). For exmaple, your Pandora Essence Pink Freedom charm is showing as £19.44....the Beaded Ball Bracelet is £31.92 etc

[23sandlane]

Not on all my items. Yes I did look as a buyer and was able to show to Ebay
chat via a screenshot that some were not showing the Protection Charge
separately - that's why they said they would look into it.

[bailey2agd]

I have realised it’s now added to my items, mostly stamps, mostly listed at £1 or so.
I may as well take them all down as they simply won’t sell with what is effectively an 80% surcharge (plus postage).


Sent from my iPhone

[vinylmad2023]

My reply was to Sammylou40 @23sandlane 

[sid.123]

Some categories do not have the bpf added yet. I've noticed this on my listings.

Sent from Samsung Mobile on O2
Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[sammylou40]

Thank you 

is it clear that the charge is separate on everyone’s items then? Or are they still getting it wrong?

[sammylou40]

Do you think it may be worth trying to sell some in small groups rather than individually if you’re wanting to get rid of them?

three or four at a time may be more successful 

[vinylmad2023]

From what I can see, the BPF fee is NOT clearly broken down, so buyers do not see it as an added ebay cost until you reach the very final stage of checkout (it suddenly appears as '£X.XX is BPF under the full checkout price). That's a fair few clicks away from looking at the item, adding to basket, then proceeding to checkout.

I'm yet to see a listing that clearly shows the price broken down (e.g. seller price £19.99 + £x.xx ebays BPF) before reaching the very final checkout stage

[bailey2agd]

It’s the only option really.
Sent from my iPhone

[sid.123]

The bpf is 4% + 0.75p

Sent from Samsung Mobile on O2
Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[sammylou40]

Thats not good enough 

it’s misleading 

some of us are more than aware of this system 

some are not 

nowhere else would such vague pricing be ok

buyers are entitled to be fully informed of what they are paying for.