Ebay's new buyer protection scam

[wayne15071965]

So I have been a seller on and off her since June 2001, Over the years I have sent items recorded delivery that either never turn up , or arrive with no notification of delivery.  Now someone wants to charge a buyer a fee for safe delivery, when they would have been charged that in the P&P cost.  Frankly it sounds more like a scam than customer service and Ebay are also trying to force us to use their shipping option, So much for free enterprise, sound like trying to get the monopoly on delivery as well.  As for hanging on the sellers cash til 2 days after delivery, really so post office goes on strike and you don't get paid, Think I may start looking to leave. So much for eBay's loyalty to us .

[asleepingdragon]

I'm glad I stopped selling on eBay when queuing outside post offices during COVID became a thing.  I'm amazed anyone does sell on here to be honest, although as a secondhand Rose all my life I am of course grateful that some of you still do.

eBay has just realised the consequences of doing away with fees haven't they?  They've decided to claw something back in this devious way.

Gaslighting at its finest!  Bravo eBay! (not really, they suck!)

[myriad*seller]

It's a stealth private seller fee

Private sellers will absorb the fees into their prices to remain competitive and the private sellers will be the ones paying it

[asleepingdragon]

They really think people are stupid don't they?  

[ripface]

I'm afraid this is incorrect.  The fees are paid by the buyers, the seller will get the full amount they sell for.  eBay will add the buyer protection fee on to the full selling price and the buyer pays this.

[ripface]

All eBay has done is move the private seller transaction fees from seller to buyer.  A kneejerk reaction to the massive loss of income from stopping the private seller transaction fees last year.

[myriad*seller]

The sellers will want to remain competitive though 

So sellers will drop their prices to incorporate the fees charged to buyers to keep the items below the prices other sellers are charging

No point having a price that shows the item is £20+ fees when your competitors are charging £20 including buyer fees. 

So the fees will be pushed onto the seller, who will take a cut in the amount they get for their items so that buyers pay the same (or similar) price as before fees were imposed 

While eBay **say** it is a Buyer fee, the seller will pay it via receiving less funds for their items by having to reduce the price to make a sale 

[myriad*seller]

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@ripface wrote:

I'm afraid this is incorrect.  The fees are paid by the buyers, the seller will get the full amount they sell for.  eBay will add the buyer protection fee on to the full selling price and the buyer pays this.

---

The fee is included in the full selling price on Buy It Now listings, they don't add anything extra at the end. 

The fee is only added afterwards to Auction listings 

[ripface]

Fair comment, I guess it's now down to the private sellers whether they pass on the "Protection Fee" or not by managing their auction or buy-it-now prices.  I guess time will tell how this pans out, but my gut feel is that eBay have mad a big mistake implementing this in the way they have.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

"eBay has just realised the consequences of doing away with fees haven't they?".

I doubt it.Any big business has an ongoing 5 year plan,it is constantly reassessed/remapped.When they get so big they can withstand huge losses and recover later (or diversify).Swings and roundabouts.

If 50% of members walked away tomorrow it wouldn't be a major issue for them.They have made trillions+ over the years and have their fingers in many other pies.What they may lose on one business they can make up on others.

I wonder if a future change will be adding this change to all seller's.

[wearegratefulbut]

I think what he is suggesting is that private sellers will end up paying the fee for their buyers, by refund perhaps, as it is the only way they sell anything.

[myriad*seller]

Tens of thousands of new sellers join ebay every day 

These sellers will have never known any different so will just accept the status quo and get on with it

Existing sellers will rage against the change, but even if they all leave, there are new sellers joining every day

I've seen it when large national companies change policies, existing staff who are used to how things used to be get "dropped on" from a great height, and see the loss of perks or reduction in benefits, or being asked to do more work for effectively less wages. So they get fed up and leave. Meanwhile all the new young staff who knew nothing else are accepting of the new contracts, and life goes on, they just work harder, for less money and less pension than the people who left in disgust. 

[ripface]

The fee is included in the full selling price on Buy It Now listings, they don't add anything extra at the end. 

?

I must have missed that when I checked out the eBay "More Info on Buyer Protection".  Does that mean that if a private seller puts up an item for £10 buy-it-now they will have to pay the Buyer Protection out of that amount and only receive around £9?

[wearegratefulbut]

Sadly, this is entirely true.

Ebay will lose me as a buyer and seller with 20+ years behind me, and they won't even notice.

[myriad*seller]

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@ripface wrote:

The fee is included in the full selling price on Buy It Now listings, they don't add anything extra at the end. 

?

I must have missed that when I checked out the eBay "More Info on Buyer Protection".  Does that mean that if a private seller puts up an item for £10 buy-it-now they will have to pay the Buyer Protection out of that amount and only receive around £9?

---

Yes.

The fee is included in the price the buyer sees. The seller sets their price accordingly.

The Buyer is not going to buy the item for £20.83 (£20+fees) when another seller has absorbed the fees into the price by reducing the money they make from the item by 83p so it sells to the buyer for £20 including fees.  Buyers like round numbers, or prices that end in 99p. 

So, while eBay calls it a Buyer fee, by the very nature of competitive pricing, the sellers who actually sell items will be the ones who take the hit for the fees and are cheaper than other private sellers who don't by reducing the amount they get when they sell an item by the cost of the fees. 

[myriad*seller]

Nobody likes change 

But eBay don't care, they are a business, the sole purpose of which is to make money. This is what businesses are. Money-making enterprises.

New sellers are born every minute

New eBayers are joining every day as they reach the age of 18

New eBayers will know nothing of the old-style selling on eBay

They will accept the new rules, and just get on with it. 

If you can't adapt, you won't survive. 

Animals that can adapt are the ones who survive longest. 

[trash-mania]

Penny pinching greed to the extreme….yes, time to go elsewhere….cretinous company!!!!

[wearegratefulbut]

We've received glowing feedback on items before now, when, according to the Royal Mail website it is still in transit.  That should count as delivered surely?

We buy postage through RM click and drop service and get it collected for free. It has a tracking number and the status is updated when it is delivered, (not throughout the journey) but the postal staff are not scanning things at the other end so that won't work for ebay's new rules either.

[wearegratefulbut]

If you do want to send anything, not necessarily ebay, and still want to avoid the post office, have a look at Royal Mail Click and Drop.

You do it all online and they will collect it from you for free. You can even ask them to print the label and bring it with them.

It's also cheaper than over the counter when you're sending small parcels. 

You can pay there for 'normal' postage too. I got them to collect all my xmas cards this year.

[lucy_farmer]

'That should count as delivered surely?'

When this has been brought up in the past (on these pages, in a problem where a buyer has claimed non-delivery *after* leaving feedback for the seller) ebay CS have stated that 'it was possible that feedback was left in error, therefore it can be ignored'.

 I can't imagine that will have changed ..