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.

[papso22]

The fees were more than that. 

[plantsandsucculents]

I also sell low value items mostly.  I have recently gone to Free Postage option, which ebay encourages you to do.  So now as I see it, buyers will be paying an extra charge plus inflated postage charges whereas previously they would be getting free postage.   I guess one can reduce prices to account for not including postage in the price but it does seem that price will be seen to be higher now.

Having said all this I think this new idea with regards to postage is akin to Vinted and that platform is very popular.  My daughter buys and sells a lot on their and has never found the postage side to be an issue so we will have to wait and see.

I am unhappy about waiting possibly 2 weeks for funds to be released and I know that deliveries are not always confirmed quickly by Royal Mail.

[snowylilliput-0]

Gone are the days where a private seller can just under cut a buisness seller by a £1 to get a sale on certain items. Private sellers will have to now sell a item 4% + 75p lower than a buisness seller plus the £1 to be able to under cut a buisness seller . So this is really a selling fee for private sellers .

[carrotdrusus2]

I can guarantee you that when I change my account to a business account I will undercut everybody selling stamps, as I am quite happy not to make a profit. So what will you business sellers do then??

[carrotdrusus2]

Cant wait for you all to accuse me as a private seller masquerading as a business seller!

Oh the irony.

[seedbankers]

Just want to know: Do I have to contact every single buyer to find out if they have received the item? Or it is their duty to inform us OR I have to buy tracked for even a packet of seeds. Lordy lord, give me strength!  Are these buyers all honest? How reliable are the couriers? Who thought out this scheme and I only saw this today at 5pm and obviously someone knew about it in January.

[the_bald_orc]

From what I've understood, barring any problems it's an automatic payout after two weeks. Less if delivery is confirmed by scanning - maybe leaving feedback would count too but that's just a guess.

[neosmaster009]

That's what I understand too . If items are not tracked or confirmed as
received then payout would be after 14 days of sending.

[mitchiemasha]

"eBay have realised that they are losing too much money.. hence this new fee structure."

I don't think that was the case. This was the plan all a long. Many of us were expecting the fee switch, just not a 75p min. They need to charge something and it's good to charge it to the buyer not the seller, it keeps turn over down and there's probably some psychology behind it too... just 75p for low value multiple item sellers is too much.

[seedbankers]

14 days is too greedy. They didn't even give me 5 working days to resolve a problem.

[mitchiemasha]

"I would like to know if the fixed 75 pence is per item of any quantity, or per order of any quantity of items?"

This is my question too. What if a buyer buys multiple £1-£2 items from different listings from the same seller... surely now this would be better the seller made that  buyer 1 listing for all the items they would like.

[Anonymous]

Just received their email tonight,  thinly disguised as a "benefit" to buyers like me.. lol, i already get protection through the bank when using my card, and i don't pay a fee for that, so i'm not going to start paying for this shiny new benefit from flebay just to line their pockets and also put the boot into those private sellers with the new "cash on delivery" type rule.   (but other sites do it too i hear,) and i don't shop on those either because of it...

Paying a fee to buy from private selllers, seriously..

Yeah i'm done with fleabay, account is going bye bye as this was the straw that broke this camel's back

[mitchiemasha]

Exactly what I am thinking and wish to know the answer too. How will the 75p work on multi listings or even separate listings to the same buyer. We may need to add a note in the listing for buyers to message us directly for the items they require and make them 1 unique listing, saving the multiple fees. However, this will be timely!

[vapey_vapey]

Agreed its smoke and mirrors ,in reality its seller fees not buyer fees because a £20 item will require you to lose £1.50 whatever way you dress it up.As for cheap items I never pay extra for recorded but you will get free from Royal Mail proof of delivery for postage over 100 grams large letter and all parcels.This service isnt perfect as quite often the package doesnt show up on the Royal Mail tracking system but its worth doing.I only lose about 1 in 50 packages ,whether they really didnt arrive or what I dont know but its fairly quick to claim off Royal Mail these days.

[davidninetynine]

<< Finally, if this all gets too much and I decide to leave eBay then can anyone suggest any other Marketplaces which might be able to handle exceptionally unusual and niche items of this nature?Finally, if this all gets too much and I decide to leave eBay then can anyone suggest any other Marketplaces which might be able to handle exceptionally unusual and niche items of this nature? >>

I am in a similar situation as you are (same hobby too). I gave up selling low value components etc from cupboard clearouts on ebay years ago, and anything else when they stopped allowing direct Paypal payments.

I suggest taking a stall at your nearest radio rallies - I've been doing all the ones within 60 miles or so for the last few years and have got rid of a lot of clutter. Also good for big heavy bits of electronics where the postage costs / risk of damage make it unviable to sell online.

It just needed a couple of folding tables (which I already had)  and sufficient tarps / transparent rain covers, although I have been very lucky with the weather. And to be sufficently strong-willed to avoid buying stuff from other stallholders!

[vapey_vapey]

If you become a business seller you will pay higher fees but you wont need to wait to get paid ,all the new changes are for private sellers not business sellers.I pay roughly 16% in fees as business seller so see if you can deal with it before giving up.

[g1dgl]

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@davidninetynine wrote:

I am in a similar situation as you are (same hobby too).

I suggest taking a stall at your nearest radio rallies

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What a very good idea, Thank You.  I suspect that many of my very rarest items would struggle to find a buyer even then.  I sell a lot (perhaps 25%) of my components overseas and often after listing them for many months which suggests that buyers are very very rare, but I could probably shift quite a bit of the more common lower value stuff which now seems less viable on eBay.

As you say, the tricky issue is making sure that I come home with less than I went with!

[vapey_vapey]

Agree with what you say ,buyers are already protected to the max so *bleep* is all the is new buyer protection about? Its just a ruse to make newby  buyers think that the fees they are charged are all worth it.Talking to a Philipino customer service rep at 3 in the am our time wont cost them that much.In reality the new charges will be paid by the seller becuase if something is worth £20 a buyer will not be paying £21.50 for it. If they insist on charging 75p for even a cheap item like £1 ebay will lose on all the cheap items that get sold.I guess they dont much care.When youre a billionaire you have different priorities.I guess they will guage their new way of doing business and adjust it to fit.

[g1dgl]

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@vapey_vapey wrote:

If you become a business seller you will pay higher fees but you wont need to wait to get paid

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If a genuine private seller decides to masquerade as a business seller then might that cause issues with the Inland Revenue if they try to claim - entirely truthfully - that they are not "Trading" but merely selling unwanted possessions?

[g1dgl]

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@vapey_vapey wrote:

Talking to a Philipino customer service rep at 3 in the am our time wont cost them that much.

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I don't think that buyers are even going to get that dubious pleasure for their 75p.  As I understand it from the FAQ, if they call the "24/7" support outside of UK business hours then they will communicate with one of those stupid "robots" which always just tell you to read the web support pages.