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 .

[willowbay1207]

If people buy and sell at an auction house they have fees to pay. A lot more that eBay charges.

Buyers at any auction house will pay more than 26% sometimes up to and over 30% and with VAT on top for some. Sellers will pay less, probably 15/16%. May be more these days. And you don’t get your money back if anything is wrong, it’s buyer beware. 

[dogrobinsnest]

Yes but on Ebay if you sell something at a £1.00 you will see an ebay fee of 90% something at £5.00 you will see a fee of over 25% that is why people are not happy. The fees are not proportionate. They use to be approx 16% that was fair.

[beyourb3st]

In respect of the buyers money : It is the buyers money until they see an agreeable price and contract that money to the seller. The fees are a part and parcel of that contract ergo the seller does not get that money. Ebay sticking a middle man contract between the buyer and seller does not make the buyers money still belong to the buyer when the contract is entered into. Without the seller, ebay has no market but they are certainly trying to make the seller mean less. But the same can be said for the buyer. 

The whole thing is idiotic and the buyer still will only pay what they can either afford or are willing to spend. The seller will only take a price they are willing to take. Market forces etc. 

Ebay is stupid. It's time they paid back all the money they profitted when scammers were making them lots of money. 

[1964pickup]

its ridiculous , throws all the pricing out , even when you lower the price because it just looks too much and an odd amount , it still comes out at an unrounded price, its off putting psychologically to the buyer in both ways , so its realy a seller fee as well as you feel you have to take some money off ,  shouldve kept it the same as before  with buyer fees and promotions , they shoiuldnt have offered  all these ridiculous promotions of  up to 1000 item for  free incentivizing private sellers who were obviously doing a lot of business undeclared and now the small private sellers have to take the fallout . and the   BPF  that was already inplace through postage and consumer rights . I wonder how many people are transfering to other platforms  .

[bigshu1]

What a rip off no wonder sales have dropped off

Was just about to buy something agreed a price with the seller and then found out ebay want ncl. £4.38 Buyer Protection fee 

No chance no sale now Seller loses out now

[cliffordbigdriver]

I've just noticed this, I listed an item starting bid of a £1, listing started and the starting bid is £1.76 

A guy messages me and we work out a buy now of £225 but when I list it, the BIN is £240 quid and a sale lost. 

[bronze333]

I already use a tracked 48 postal service that includes insurance up to £150. so that means im paying insurance and the customer is also paying another insurance on the same item. does not make sense.

[tpogodin]

It really does feel like self-sabotage by eBay to turn fees on their head and disregard over 2 decades of established practices on the platform. Really short sighted and all because they got spooked by the little guy.

[papso22]

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@bronze333 wrote:

I already use a tracked 48 postal service that includes insurance up to £150. so that means im paying insurance and the customer is also paying another insurance on the same item. does not make sense.

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 Buyers are not paying insurance, they are paying a fee for buyer protection.

Insurance is defined in law and heavily regulated. 

But at least you haven't jumped on the 'seller fee' bandwagon. 

[dogrobinsnest]

Yes that’s correct so buyers being charged for something they already have its morally wrong. Ebay need to have the guts & come clean to say they made a mistake with free to sell for private buyers & go back to the old 16% charge on all items when sold. They are self destructing but haven’t released that yet.

[papso22]

 Buyers only have ebay buyer protection for purchases from genuine private sellers because eBay provides it, now they charge for it.

Most businesses don't have morals, it doesn't lead to the required profits.

[dogrobinsnest]

When Business rip off buyers they see through it & stop buying from them that leads to a drop in profits!!

[capt_rico]

You have to subtract the 2% or 4% from your desired price and then list it.  So basically you pay the BPF in the end.  Its pretty *bleep*.  

[dogrobinsnest]

I was buying items from private sellers & business on Ebay but on a point of principle I will not be buying any item on Ebay until they stop this rip off charge. Ebay can do what they like its there site but we the customers have one big weapon walk away from them until they come to their senses there are many places you can buy from.

[goodibags]

Sadly, the private seller I regularly bought from when they ran auctions of toy cars is no longer listing them here.

So while on the one hand a buyer may still be tempted to buy if an item is priced reasonably, on the other it does kind of get tricky if they're not there. 

[tpogodin]

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@dogrobinsnest wrote:
Yes that’s correct so buyers being charged for something they already have its morally wrong. Ebay need to have the guts & come clean to say they made a mistake with free to sell for private buyers & go back to the old 16% charge on all items when sold. They are self destructing but haven’t released that yet.

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Or just have the new fee rate as a seller fee. 30p + 13% to 75p + 4% would be considered a win amoungst most sellers and yet they've decided to pee everyone off and put the onus on the buyer instead creating a slew of problems in the process.

[strontiumdogma]

As someone who buys and sells on eBay, I would have much preferred it if they kept the old system of taking a percentage of the seller cut.

Whatever happened to the old principle of no hidden charges, the price you pay is the price you see? eBay is turning into Ryanair.

[steel_dragon87]

To echo others, the buyers fees have already put me off buying specific items. Items I was previously interested in have now increased beyond what I'm reasonably willing to pay, and the sellers aren't interested in lowering the price. So now we both lose out. Cracking result. 👍

And it's absolutely not the place of the seller to have to reduce their price to counter the new buyer fees.

[papso22]

The price a buyer sees is the price they pay, unless the seller sends them an offer, when the BPF seems to be added to that offer.

[strontiumdogma]

Yes, I was sent an offer for £20 on something, except it wasn't £20, it was £21.27.

A total scam.