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 .

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I am not reducing my pricing, i will leave the items on and if they sell they sell, if not then i will consider maybe moving to e bid or just car booting.  However i will not be staying when SD comes in, that is my line in the sand.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I have never waited until the money was in the account before selling, once i receive the notification that i have been paid, i pack and post (the next morning).  I have never had a problem with money not being in the bank within a couple of days.  If i have to wait longer then so be it, i am not desperate for it.  However, i will not be told how i post.

[game_raid]

I managed grab a pair of trainers yesterday, they are limited edition and I always regretted not buying 2 pairs, yesterday my search notified me a pair had been listed and at reasonable price and within minutes I had bought them, I had been waiting for a pair to pop up for well over a year and even if a buyer fee was added I would have still bought.

There isn't many sites where a private seller can list an item and it sells literally within minutes.

There will always be buyers like me after those type of items so whether people like it or not eBay will do just fine, a seller just needs to price competitively.

All the nayslayers claiming people won't buy and sellers won't sell is nonsense.

[department28]

'Personally, I wouldn't mind the fees. It was strange when ebay allowed buyers to sell for "free" in the last few months, so going back to some sort of fee scheme seems natural. Although they did word it in a weird way, making it look like they are almost penalising private sellers.'

I would rather have a listing fee & FVF than have this Buyer Protection fee added on to the item price.  The listings fees and/or FVF were of no concern of the buyer, but the BP fee will appear as a weird price rise, unless the seller decides to adjust prices to compensate for it.

This will take some fiddling around, especially if the seller wants their item price to end in the traditional .99 or .00.  Prices that end in an odd amount tend to look 'odd' - like they have been converted from another currency.  Can't help but think this will be off-putting for buyers from Feb 4th.

[gileroz09]

The fees will be paid by the buyers - if the decide to buy at the now inflated prices. The upshot of that will be that private sellers will be forced to lower their prices to remain competitive - hence they will effectively be paying for the new fees.

[tom-sales-london]

This is exactly my problem.

I am a private seller, at the moment I'm mostly selling old books and textbooks after clearing out a teacher's house.

My biggest "price" competition is the big book recyclers, mostly getting their stock for pennies from charities etc.

Now I have to manually calculate the extra "cost" to my buyer and then price my item using that, instead of simply entering a number that competes with other sellers I can see in the listings.

Beyond that I am still angry at the massively 75p fixed fee charged. This massively disincentives low value sales (which are inherently lower risk too, very few buyers are trying to scam you out of a £10-20 book).

If eBay then also decide to force "Simple Delivery" as has been suggested they will, this will again result in inflated shipping costs, making pricing even more difficult.

[uk_transport_archive]

will end all my listings tommorow, may relist one just to see what its gonna cost me because the seller will pay in the end by having to lower price.

[game_raid]

Why would you do that? The rollout has changed to only electronics to start with, your categories could be last to get the buyer fee added.

Starting from 4 February, Buyer Protection will be live to give buyers more peace of mind when shopping on ebay.co.uk. To minimise any potential disruption on our platform, the Buyer Protection fee will be gradually rolled out across items listed by private sellers, starting in Electronics and coming to all eligible categories in the following weeks.

[jckl1957]

Personally, I think a roll out will be even more disruptive - not all sellers will have read that announcement and/or taken on board all of the information in there.

I would much rather Ebay had left it as it was with all categories being changed at once.

Sellers and buyers won't know where they are!

I think there will be a lot of 'what on earth is actually going on' posts tomorrow.

[game_raid]

I can see where they are coming from in case there is an issue and the whole site goes down, but leaving it until the last minute to announce is a bit silly not even an email has been sent out updating people.

I guess the testing didn't go as planned.

I had already started to work out my pricing on the items that I needed to drop to keep them the same price as they are now with the fee added, I see it as a bit of bonus now if can get a few more weeks out of it.

[clearingmyshelves2025]

Hear, hear!

[dogrobinsnest]

The problem being for people like myself selling most of my items between £1 to £5 I can’t drop my prices any more. Also I will have to protect myself , So most of my small items will have to go signed for in future .

I know it’s the end of me selling on eBay but all good things come to an end.

The big thing EBay have not understood it’s the small sellers that buy from there businesses. I will not be looking at eBay site for items to buy . Think again EBay 

[tressygirl]

---

@dogrobinsnest wrote:

The problem being for people like myself selling most of my items between £1 to £5 I can’t drop my prices any more. Also I will have to protect myself , So most of my small items will have to go signed for in future .

I know it’s the end of me selling on eBay but all good things come to an end.

The big thing EBay have not understood it’s the small sellers that buy from there businesses. I will not be looking at eBay site for items to buy . Think again EBay 

---

Have a look at this latest announcement from eBay

We’ve also heard your feedback and understand that shipping costs are particularly top of mind for low price items. When you’re selling a single item for £10 or less, and it’s sent untracked, funds will now be available 24 hours after you receive positive buyer feedback. This will be live by the end of February.

@dogrobinsnest 

[dogrobinsnest]

Unfortunately many buyers never give feedback and if a buyer is asked by eBay have you received your item yet,  there is more room for abuse and delay .  That is why I will now have to send tracked mail

[dogrobinsnest]

Unfortunately for me  it’s the end of my relationship with EBay it’s just not worth all the hassle many of us will call it a day .

[jckl1957]

But buyers won't be asked.

With no tracking, no confirmation of receipt and no feedback you will be paid 14 days after the transaction.

[dogrobinsnest]

Another thing that must be considered is at present I always obtain a certificate of posting from the post office. At the moment on the very rare occasion that I have to make a claim the Post office are very good but I see there’ll be  inundated with many many claims and they will have to change their policy too, they can’t afford to carry on paying out on increase in claims from eBay sellers  as buyers will be trying to recoup the extra protection fees they will be charged. Unfortunately that is human nature !

[jckl1957]

Please, can you give me one reason why you think more buyers will claim they have not received their items after the changes come in?  If you think it is because buyers will have to pay a little more for their items and that is 'human nature', that is a very depressing view.  I think, if things are too expensive, they won't be bought.  If I believed every buyer was looking at my items and thinking 'I will buy it.  Then I will say I didn't get it and get my money back and keep the item.' I would definitely stop selling!

I do not understand the logic behind the 'it's a scammers' paradise' line of thought.

Even if the item is not scanned, or is sent untracked, you would get paid 14 days after the transaction.

Ebay will not automatically refund.

Dishonest buyers have always been able to claim items have not been received if they are sent untracked or they are not scanned - that has not changed. I don't see why buyers should be any more inclined to make false claims after today. And, as has always been the case, no claim - no refund.

Most of my little items are sent as Large Letters under 100g with just a stamp on and are never marked as received. I had one INR claim in 2024. Most buyers are actually not dishonest scammers.

[dogrobinsnest]

Just wait and see  !! 
EBay have said you will be paid after you receive positive feedback  read above .

For me it’s not worth all the hassle any more 

[dogrobinsnest]

Good luck for the future