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 .

[erstem]

You're right, the whole thing is hugely flawed and deeply unsympathetic towards (especially) sellers but also buyers.

Ebay take note and fix it.

[originsreborn]

I sent an order to Arizona early last week. Knowing my payment relies on the customer receiving the package, I've been sending him regular tracking advice keeping him in the picture and he's been thankful for it. However, yesterday when it was due to be delivered (day 10), he wasn't at home (despite me advising him). So now I'm still waiting for payment and it's not my fault! Grrr!!!

[buffster1963]

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@wychmoon_esoteric wrote:

We have been trying for ages to do so

We are a tiny seller and still dissolving the fee costs now so 

They technically aren't paying, we are 

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Its just a click of a button to change over. 

[bigh2k]

I already reduced my prices when Ebay stopped final value fees so where do I go to reduce my prices further?

I have lots of small sales (Lego) of £1.99 which now appear as £2.79, that's a 40% increase and puts me above business seller prices for the majority of my items. @ £1.99 I was making less than 80p per listing, I don't have the leaway to become competitive with other sellers. I'll probably cancel all my listings and sell it all off on a local marketplace for a fraction of it's value in bulk, if I cannot sell it I'd sooner donate it to charity of to landfill.

I really believe Ebay wants rid of all small value high volume personal customers, too much admin and not enough profit.

[martinwh1]

I'm just going to leave them on even if they don't sell so that, in the unlikely event of eBay seeing sense and scrapping the BPF, I won't have the hassle of listing them all again.

[theblanketbox]

They're competing with Vinted where its free to sell but they charge the buyer a protection fee which really is just a racket as this is already included in the postage cost. 

[vinylmad2023]

Good luck with the tracking.

I think there is still some snags/issues with payouts that I and some other users may be experiencing. For example,

I've received funds for items I sent RM Tracked 48hrs, 2days after delivery was confirmed by tracking - as should be the case/as advertised.

HOWEVER, for items I've sent RM 2nd Class Large Letter, purchased through ebay with the generic tracking number uploaded (which only confirms delivery if the postie scans it on arrival)...I have three items that have been scanned on delivery and marked on ebay/my orders page as 'delivered' and x1 'Funds available in ebay balance 15th Feb' and other x2 with same message for 16th Feb...but neither have appeared in my funds to withdraw, with my balance still showing as £0.00, but I can see funds 'still pending' in my account! So either the 2-day post tracked delivery 'funds released' rule only applies to TRACKED services (RM24/48 etc) and not other forms of tracking delivery, or the system isn't working.

On top of this, last week I processed a refund for a buyer for (combined postage) about 10mins after they purchased and noticed the refund came out of my 'available funds' instead of 'pending funds', so i no longer keep any £ in my ebay balance and immediately withdraw it, as ebay should deduct the refund from the pending funds on the sale/order they are holding back. Because of this I now withdraw all my £ when its immediately available rather than allow ebay to hold it for longer than necessary and accrue even more interest for themselves!

[twbc123]

I agree that the latest stupid move by eBay is a total scam. They call it ‘Buyers Protection’.  If you pay by PayPal as I’m sure more people do, then you already have buyer protection. and to give you an idea about the charge. I won an item on eBay a couple of days for £322. The postage was £25 and when I went to pay, the total bill came to £402. So the Fee for the privilege of buying it was over £50. I felt sorry for the seller when I had to apologize and cancel the order.  Luckily I was still able to buy the item privately and raise two fingers up to the so called eBay rip off fee.

As a private seller I would much rather pay the fee myself and have customers, but when I contacted eBay to ask about the fee, I was told told the only way to switch this back so that I pay the fee instead of buyer was to become a business seller instead of a private seller, which I’m not.

Ebay even try to disguise this ‘buyer protection ‘ fee from the seller by not showing that the fee is included where you see the current price or buy it it now price. The easy way to spot it is for example if you see an odd amount (instead of even). £63.72 instead of what the seller put £58. start price or buy it now price. 

I personally don’t expect to sell anything over £50 anymore as most buyers won’t want to pay the charge, and why should they.  It equates to approximately £160 per £1000 on top of the sale price.

If you see this hidden charge or want to actually selling something, then just say to the buyer you’ll refund the difference or better still for both parties involved, just do a private deal away from eBay.

Worst move eBay has ever made. Shame on them.

[dogrobinsnest]

My thoughts exactly

[wychmoon_esoteric]

It is when you're a tiny account selling less than an item a month still. 

This account was set up for having clearouts and trying to change it to a business account for a while incase things change to start trying to sell stock items. We are fully aware of how business accounts work as we have already stated.  And yes it is a case of big/small as big sellers can easily dissolve fees. Small ones cannot. Also by "shop" I mean like account/ seller small seller not necessarily an actual store or business. 

[wychmoon_esoteric]

.. Also you're saying this to a very small account you clearly missed the OP has hundreds of listings and is saying the same thing. Obviously a private seller. 

[j50cty]

Utter disgrace.

So, having now secured receipt of seller funds from which they will benefit until transferred/used in either bank interest or net set off against debt, they now introduce another mechanism that earns them around 12% of every private transactions to resolve an issue that affects a handful of transactions, given my own experience since 2004.

Shame on you ebay.

[leighbayuk]

I just spent 1hr 40mins on eBay support chat demonstrating the confusing mess they have made.

Initially they were telling me that the fees are added to any offers made. This is not the whole painful transcript, just the pertinent parts.

10:10:59 UTC leighbayuk

This seems very messed up. If I make an offer to a buyer the fee is added. If a buyer makes me an offer the buyer fee is deducated from my sale price.

10:14:19 UTC G*****

Let me share that when you list an item in buy it now fixed price buyer protection fees are displayed on top of item price and similarly when bid is placed or offer is sent by buyer, buyer protection fees are displayed while sending an offer and also placing bid. So while sending offer or placing bid, then buyer inputs the amount and buyer protection fee is added on top of it and the final amount that you see includes the both item price and buyer protection fees.

I then demonstrated with screen shots that when making an offer as a buyer, the initial screen has no mention at all of buyer fees. Then on the second checkout screen the fee deduction is detailed in small grey print.

10:48:18 UTC leighbayuk

On the next page it says £18 including buyer fee. So exactly as I said, the fee is being deducted from the offer price not added to it.

10:49:50 UTC G*****

Added if sellers send it Deducted if buyers send it That's what I am trying to show you.

10:55:33 UTC leighbayuk

In simple terms, the offer received by the seller is lower than was made and intended by the buyer.

10:56:23 UTC G*****

Yes, you are right in this.

They admitted that the buyer would have to back out of the checkout and make an adjustment to the offer price if they have agreed a price with the seller. We concluded the call with them promising to escalate this as an official complaint.

[originsreborn]

So, I’ve changed about 50 of my ads today, to allow for the new BPF. I’ve decided to come out fighting and let the Fee sit on top of my selling price and in no way reduce my price, as it basically has nothing to do with me and is a stealth charge that I don’t agree with. I’ve got about another 50 to do, which I will change as they ‘renew’.

I set up a little Formula on a spreadsheet to allow me to quickly calculate a selling price UP to the nearest .99p (as I’m a big fan of the old £4.99 etc). In most cases it has worked out well apart from a handful that just wouldn’t change correctly and are sitting at .97p & .98p

Anyway, the proof of the pudding is in the eating as they say, so let’s see if I continue to sell. Here’s hoping!

[kath3735_wxmjn]

what people are forgetting is that we are all in the same boat,  so the prices will remain pretty standard if people just leave them as they are currently instead of messing around trying to make round figures or reducing by the amount of the BPF.  Private sellers are usually selling odd items, one offs and should be mainly used stuff.  Things that are not easy to acquire in the shops or someone does not have time or can be bothered to physically look for.    Yes the prices will go up for buyers but what is new, either you want something enough or you do not.  I have just bought some skirts with BPF on it and i was not bothered about the £1+ that was included for the fee, it was a price i was willing to pay for items i wanted.  Of course it would be nice to have no fees for anyone but that is never going to happen.  

[bertie2468]

That may be true in some cases but many items sold by private sellers are also being sold by business sellers. Low value sales then become uncompetitive for the private seller. I guess there is more than one boat…

[twbc123]

They certainly do, I agree.

Apparently, this so called Buyers Protection Fee is supposed to get more private sellers to join eBay and start selling. The flaw in that plan is that first of all you’re already protected if like most people you pay through PayPal, so why you need to pay it twice is beyond me, but also, it’s all very well getting more people to sell but without the buyers who now won’t want to pay an additional charge, there won’t be any sales.

This is about as stupid as the window tax in the 18th century.

ebay really has some thicko’s working for them.

wouldn't the simplest thing to do would be to charge all sellers 5% instead of the old 10%. 

I cancelled a purchase of £322 with a postage cost of £25 a couple of days ago because eBay wanted me to pay an extra £52 for the privilege.  I still bought it privately and if that’s what eBay still intend to do with the Buyers protection fee, then I’m sure 1000’s and 1000’s of buyers and sellers will do the same. I’m now in the process of transferring my sale items to Facebook.

[Anonymous]

Great stuff. 

[twbc123]

I don’t think most buyers will mind paying a couple of quid extra for something that costs £10 or £20, but like me, they’ll soon stop and think about it if they bid on something for £1000 and find eBay want to scam them an extra £160. No sodding way.

[twbc123]

One final thought as I really must go to bed.

Ebay over the last few months have been so proud of their latest advert of it now being free to sell on eBay to make it sound wonderful for their current sellers and  prospective new ones.

Odd that they don’t now advertise with pride that buyers on eBay now have to pay some 15% surcharge for buying from the very same sellers that have encouraged to join eBay.

The greed of the owners of eBay is ever increasing.