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.

[vintique*violet]

Selling personal items is not trading so the allowance doe not apply. 

I think you are confusing HMRC £1000 trading allowance with eBays 30 items /£1750 reporting to HMRC. 

Remember everyone has £12570 come tax allowance per annum. 

You do not have to register self-employed or complete a self assessment if you are only selling your personal items. 

It an item sells for £6000 ( this is classed as an asset, it could be an antique or a painting as an example) or more then Capital Gains Tax could apply - this is different to income tax.

Edit -spelling. 

[dch2112011]

As a business seller none of the changes will affect you negatively - 

The positives for business sellers as I see it :

• Making it difficult for businesses to operate effectively on a private selling account eliminating unfair competition
• Increasing buyer trust from private sellers keeping them buying on the platform
• Encouraging private sellers to spend sales revenue on ebay
• Encouraging new private sellers of non competetive personal items to sell and buy on ebay
• Addressing buyer dissatisfaction regarding dispatch time, delivery time and refunds from private sellers which 'rub off' adversely affecting  business sellers.

The stupidity of your Do you work for ebay question is about as stupid as me asking you if you work for Vinted !

[peters3865]

You didn't answer the question though!

[vintique*violet]

"The buyer is buying the label from eBay not the seller and because eBay is using their own algorithm to determine a parcels weight and size then Packlink or whoever will not be sending the seller an underweight charge, it will be down to eBay to resolve"

An algorithm to determine parcels weight and size? Why could go wrong? 

As long as the seller measures correctly the size and weight and packages the parcel as per eBay instructions/guidelines... otherwise a buyer could have a "non deliverable item" due to incorrect postage label... many posts about this on here. 

[vintique*violet]

• Encouraging new private sellers of non competetive personal items to sell and buy on ebay

What would be " encouraging?" - new private sellers cannot replace the " old" private sellers who many have been here from the early days and help build the platform. There may be new private sellers who last a month or even a year, but I do not believe they can "compensate" for those who have built a good reputation and regularly buy from other sellers , business or private. 

For example... I have fave business sellers who I had bought from regularly for years,  I no longer do so ( I luckily found  one seller on Amazon) so that " trade" is already lost and I am sure I am not the only one. 

[dch2112011]

I'll leave you guessing on that one, hopefully you will benefit from the private seller changes which will not directly change the way you sell.

With a bit of luck ebay will stop naive businesses hiding behind the MBG to deny customers their legal rights - maybe by extending returns and non delivery claims to fall in line with UK legislation ?

It is only a matter of time before ebay start to 'clean shop' for rogue business sellers ! 

[infinibrix]

I must admit, what if the seller wants to protect their goods with extra layers of carboard or they only have an oversized box to hand? Most private sellers probably don't have absolute perfect sized boxes to use like a business seller would and these differences in weight could easily tip a package over. Personally I think if ebay wants to take control of the shipping side then they probably need to be generous with the weight allowances and/or cover the difference themselves if it goes over so long as its not silly amounts of course!

[vintique*violet]

Its a bad idea all round - I will not be selling on here once Simple delivery kicks in... there doesn't seem to be a new list of eligible items either, but  it appears you can opt out for a while at least. 

I always go the extra mile when packaging, so items are fully protected and often use boxes that are bigger to accommodate this,  particularly for fragile items. I only post RM at cost too, if a parcel goes over then I cover the postage difference... it has worked for me for years and requires no change. ebay implementing all these " restrictions" has made it impossible to continue, and I certainly am not allowing them to keep my monies for whatever period of time they stipulate. Sorry not happening. 

[dch2112011]

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@vintique*violet wrote:

• Encouraging new private sellers of non competetive personal items to sell and buy on ebay

What would be " encouraging?"

Selling

•  paying no fees 
•  paying no postage up front
• easy delivery size selection
• Tracked delivery protection
• Guarantee agaiinst loss or damage in transit
•  no unexpected selling costs 
• Adverts aimed at new occassional sellers
• Simple listing tools

Buying

• Choice of delivery company
• Tracked delivery
• No more unpaid postage charges
• Guarantee against loss or damage
• easy returns
• Quick delivery 
• Confidence in buying beacause of payment hold by ebay until delivered 

[game_raid]

A seller does not have to measure anything.

How does Simple Delivery work?

We automatically select the appropriate postage options so you don’t have to waste time getting out the tape measure and scales, or worry about making a costly mistake. Your buyer will have the flexibility to choose either a standard or express delivery option at checkout.

eBay have data on millions and millions of items that have sold and the postage service used, it's not hard to extract this data and If a seller wishes to use a 60x40x40cm box when selling a pair of shoes, then there is going to problems isn't there? 

I would imagine it's a similar algorithm that deals with GSP orders so the buyer is charged the correct shipping from the GSP hub.

eBay can only supply a label, if the seller decides to be clever or awkward to create an issue it is down to them.

[tsc269]

I don't have that much confidence in eBay's algorithms to get it right.  Here in the GB, a single postcard counts as a "Letter", though I once had to pay extra because the dealer had used thicker cardboard than usual. (He refunded me.) Two postcards probably also count as a letter, but three can take the packaging to "Large Letter".  As a vendor, on several occasions I've wondered what size and weight the ultimate package will be, and have managed to squeeze it into the lower rate. I've had books delivered in specialist cardboard that makes for a thick package, others have come in an envelope.

And photographs can vary in size.  There's one Australian dealer who copies images online and runs off photographs on demand. As well as complaints and negative feedback about his inaccurate descriptions, there are a few about the stated size being wrong.

[game_raid]

I am presuming you won't be using simple delivery anyway for your items as it would cost £2.70 for a tracked letter, and it's not viable to use such a service on post cards, even If you did the size is pretty big for Royal Mail at 35.3 x 25 x 2.5 cm and up to 750gms.

If sellers are changing the packaging or bundling then they will have to manually add the dimensions to get the right service.

From the help page below.

What if the label provided is not appropriate for my item?

If your parcel exceeds the maximum size and weight of the label, and you listed following our recommended size and weight for your item, you won't have to pay additional costs. If you provided the item's size and weight yourself, and these are not accurate, you'll need to take care of any additional costs.

[centenary137]

I see a lot of people saying to use Royal Mail Tracked 24 / 48 as it's safer? I wouldnt advise T24 / 48 since the buyer can redirect delivery to a different address with the tracking number  and especially after a failed delivery to the buyer's postal address.

This happened to me and the buyer went radio silent for over 10 days despite telling them the date RM attempted delivery. I was horrified to learn via RM tracking, the buyer eventually requested re delivery to a completely different address.

I thought Id been scammed until eventually, the buyer left me positive feedback. Id only recommend RM guaranteed next working day delivery but of course that's not suitable for anything less than about £150.

Ive not had problems with Evri despite the horror stories you can read. However, I noticed an upward trend before and after Christmas of many farcebook posts for my local group 'anyone recognise my parcel outside your front door?' type posts. Very worrying and frankly, the whole ability for a private seller to use Ebay to move on unwanted items, not to mention this latest scam introduced by EBay means I wont be selling anything here until it changes for the better.

[wyntersemporium]

Same as me I’m a hoarder just don’t want to be parted from anything 

[game_raid]

Worth reading, fee only on electronics to start.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Announcements/Buyer-Protection-Pok%C3%A9mon-Day-VAT-invoices-amp-oth...

[pilsburys-bargains]

It states the new simple postal system wont be added to items that are already listed, but will be optional on new listings. What I can't find an answer to is what happens on auctions when they auto relist. Will they then changed it to the simple postage option. If so how do the know what size and weight the item will be?

[wyntersemporium]

And I’ll cancel I e Royal Mail on mine. Hate evri always losing items

[wyntersemporium]

Always has been for years . A scammers paradise. They report a item not delivered and get a refund and a few days later they said oh I’m sorry but I found it near the shed . 

[gblcfc]

Clueless roll-out

[wyntersemporium]

Have a look at Decampe