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 .

[originsreborn]

Lovin the smell of Revolution in the air!! 😜

[*devils.advocate*]

Thank you.

Mind you, the way an awful lot of posters are reacting, there must be a lot of broken toes! 😀

[*devils.advocate*]

So which other sites are you going to try?

[ett1954]

That was an April fools joke put out last year on a website - you weren't the only one taken in.  It was commented on forums in the US last year.  eBay and Etsy are separate companies and always have been.

[lucy_farmer]

'.....there must be a lot of broken toes!'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah... they been trampled on by ebay.. 🙄

edit; can't spell 'trampled' after a bottle of red....😂

[*devils.advocate*]

Or perhaps they've let their own toes been trampled on.

And after a few "large" whiskys, I spelled it correctly 😁

[andha-21]

Pfft, I could spell "it" correctly after 2 bottles of vodka ...

3 large whiskeys ..pfft

[goodibags]

"Yes... WoBbay ... or World of Magpies .     the next big thing"

Or 'Musical Magpie' as someone called it? I would definitely join that.

Magpies aren't noted for their singing capabilities, possibly adding to the intrigue and charm.

@mydeafdog  Maybe Etsy taking over Ebay will be THIS year's April Fool?

Or on the current trajectory perhaps it might happen anyway and won't be?

[threthbeyan]

You sum it up very well. I think this is about the most brainless and over-complicated approach Ebay could have come up with. Bad for both seller and buyer, so who benefits? (That's a rhetorical question, of course). I preferred the original seller fee.

What with this nonsense and HMRC looking for easy pickings while avoiding endemic major tax avoidance,  l feel my 20 year plus time as an Ebay seller coming to its close. Won't be such a keen buyer, either.

Whoever dreamed this up at Ebay wants firing. It will be disastrous for them

[alisonbt-hitc]

No

 lets face it the prices are indirectly paid by the seller.   Small ticket low margin items  -   if you want to sell it then you will need to drop the price  -  so that when ebay add their stealth tax it ends up at basically the price that the seller would already charge. Same thing happens on vinted, that is why the prices are lower.

Ebay are so tight that the buyer protection will not work both ways. Ive had instances where the parcel has been delivered  but the buyer says that the pic is not their front door - will Ebay help the seller.... nah thought not.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

sorry to break it to you but that very comment indicates you are not!

[kath3735_wxmjn]

what kind?  I prefer Malbec myself!

[lucy_farmer]

Ah, it was the 'jammy' stuff which is soooo easy to drink. Consequently ended up drinking the whole bottle, which was definitely a mistake.

😎... little bit of a headache this morning.

[telf44]

Sorry, I think you’re missing the commenter’s point.  To give an example, I’m a buyer.  I scan the ending soon listings for items that are within my price range.  Sometimes I’ll spot an item I want but at a  borderline price so I’ll watch it and revisit it shortly after, once I’ve scanned through.   Since ‘buyer protection fees’ have been introduced I've noticed the relisted items are often dearer, as the seller hasn’t absorbed the fee into their price.  This usually means the item is now dearer that my top price point so the seller loses the sale.  So what the OP was saying was simply that to stay competitive the seller will possibly need to reduce their price to allow for the new fee, making it effectively a seller fee.   They don’t ‘have’ to, but to remain competitive they may ‘need’ to.    It sucks.  And I say that as a buyer. 

[dls-online]

Agreed - this is one of the driving forces why at present I'm not purchasing anything via 'Buy It Now' (BIN) if its from a private seller and the current price listed is a funky one (i.e. clearly with BPF just added on top). Essentially, if a price is a weird one, then that means the seller hasn't adjusted their pricing to accommodate BPF, so they set originally what they thought was a reasonable BIN price, and this "reasonable price" has now been inflated by ebay for BPF. Therefore, as a buyer it feels like you're paying over the odds on those types of listings.

So I'm currently sticking with auctions (where the BPF is accounted for within the price, not added after), Best Offers only if sent by the buyer (similar principal to auction), and business sellers.

[jckl1957]

You will miss out on some lovely, unique items then.

I think the USP of private sellers is that the items they are selling can't generally be found from multiple sellers.

You may find a similar item, but probably not quite the item another seller has,

It is, in my opinion, unrealistic to expect a seller to reduce prices and absorb the BPF.

I have a beautiful vintage Art Deco pendant for sale.  My listing price is £4.95.  That is not a lot of money, but I am not looking to make a profit, or even to pay myself minimum wage for the time spent taking photos, listing etc.

With BPF, the price is £5.86.

I would have to take nearly £1 off to absorb the BPF myself.  I am simply not prepared to do that.

The price a potential buyer can see is what they will have to pay.  If they don't like it, then they must leave it and miss out on the chance of owning something very good for the sake of not paying Ebay £1.

[dls-online]

Hi jckl1957 - I completely understand your position and where you're coming from, and really sympathise with private sellers like you. For context, what I buy (and I buy a lot) is books. Rare, collectable books.

I've been a book collector (bibliophile) for probably around 25 years now...and have a very large collection.

So, I'm unlikely to purchase much from sellers like you describe. Instead, who I buy from is more often than not private collectors like myself. They generally set what they deem a reasonable, current market value price for the book, which they'd be willing to part with the book for. If this price is then inflated, this is potentially (and I've seen more often than not), above what is market value.

For context, 4% on a £350 book is a material uplift.

Apologies, I should have provided some context within my original post. My fault.

[telf44]

That was my point exactly. It’s unrealistic and unreasonable to expect sellers to absorb these fees especially on a lower value purchase. But buyers often have an
Upper price they want to (or can) pay for an item. A recent item I viewed was £9 but after bp was added it was over £10 on the relisting. I’ll pay a reasonable price, and often over for a specific item. But if an item is borderline priced, I’ll not pay over, just to cover what is in effect an eBay buyer fee.

[jonatjonatjonat]

that is not real. EBay to not own Etsy.

[bogush75]

Good point.

There are many different situations regarding this, eg.

1oz silver bullion coins are £30-£32 on average.

Long story short:

Sellers bought them for around 29-30, sell them on ebay for 30-32 (because this is max price most buyers are willing to pay) .

Now, let's have a look what happened after that fee was added...

I am sure there are more situations/details like that, where sellers are..   screwed?..