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 .

[lucy_farmer]

'I reckon this whole cockamamie scheme was cooked up by money men with zero experience in customer service.'

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Well, yes!

Have you ever heard of the term 'Ensh**ification'?  It describes the process by which businesses and services gradually get less and less useful and less and less useable, by chasing more and more profit.

Eventually the original purpose of the business, and it's customer base, end up at the bottom of the 'food chain' being sqeezed more and more.

 Every 'update', 'modernisation' or 're-modelling' of the business takes money away from the actual business and sends it up to the shareholders.

Shareholders are the only ones that matter....

(edit- fat fingers...)

[lucy_farmer]

'.....only offers  24/7 Customer Service access, probaly provided by a chatbot.'

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You're right there; ebay have already admitted that the '24/7' customer help will be provided by AI out of office hours!

24/7's a bit of a lie really......

[goodibags]

I agree that Ebay appear to have been 'gaming' their users for many years, like when they charged sellers a fee on top of postage costs for a service provided by a courier company and definitely NOT Ebay.

And now will be charging buyers for a service that is not actually being provided, as with collection-only purchases.

Clearly, a buyer should be entitled to a refund for a service that was apparently mis-sold to them as it was simply not needed. The question is how would you actually ask for one?

[papso22]

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@goodibags wrote:

I agree that Ebay appear to have been 'gaming' their users for many years, like when they charged sellers a fee on top of postage costs for a service provided by a courier company and definitely NOT Ebay.

And now will be charging buyers for a service that is not actually being provided, as with collection-only purchases.

Clearly, a buyer should be entitled to a refund for a service that was apparently mis-sold to them as it was simply not needed. The question is how would you actually ask for one?

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Ebay did not charge a fee for a service provided by someone else, they based their final value fees on the total the buyer paid the seller.  That's a very different legal concept.

Why don't buyers need protection when they buy a collection only item?

[andha-21]

You mean apart from the fact that the Money Back Guarantee is still included on every listing?

That seemed to solve everything before.

[podlingsmum2007]

Buyers already have protection with the money back guarantee. This fee is a commission.

[goodibags]

Yes, Ebay has been conflating postage costs with 'income' to sellers for a long time.

It's still doing this in monthly reports (and presumably statutory ones) today.

Thankfully, seller fees never got added in there. Fingers crossed, buyer fees definitely will not be appearing there either.

[papso22]

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@goodibags wrote:

Yes, Ebay has been conflating postage costs with 'income' to sellers for a long time.

It's still doing this in monthly reports (and presumably statutory ones) today.

Thankfully, seller fees never got added in there. Fingers crossed, buyer fees definitely will not be appearing there either.

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Postage paid to sellers is 'income', they then use it to buy postage.  It's an in and out.

You didn't explain why you think buyer's specifically don't need protection when they buy a collection only item.

[podlingsmum2007]

Is a commission a protection? I think not.

[andha-21]

You miss the other 2 replies that already covered that question then?

[goodibags]

Of course postage is a cost to the seller, just as much as the seller fees were. You cannot fulfil the sale without the buyer receiving the item they paid for. By extension the same goes for packaging materials, like jiffy bags. All of these are costs.

I will hazard a guess at your response - that only business sellers can conceivably have costs. In the real world that is simply not true.

And I genuinely don't know what new 'buyer protection' is providing on collected items. The same rules (item not as described, etc.) applied as before. Though 'Item lost in transit' would seem a bit far-fetched?

Perhaps buyer protection in these cases should be charged at 50%?

[papso22]

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@andha-21 wrote:

You miss the other 2 replies that already covered that question then?

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Actually neither of them did.  Perhaps you need to re-read the question?

I did not ask why buyer's didn't need to pay the BPF to get protection, I asked why buyer's of collection items didn't need protection.  

To assist you, here is the relevant bit I was responding to:

"And now will be charging buyers for a service that is not actually being provided, as with collection-only purchases".

If the poster would like to confirm that they meant buyers of posted and collection items don't need any extra protection from the BPF because they already have it with the MBG, then my question was superfluous. 

[kath3735_wxmjn]

As i understand it though E Bay included the fees on postage because of the sellers (probably pseudo business ones, they seem to know all the scams) who sold an item for £1 and postage for £20!

[goodibags]

"my question was superfluous"

You mean, like BPFs then? 😀

Tbh, I can't help thinking this might work better if you did the CLARIFYING bit and left the questions to the rest of us?

[goodibags]

Hmm, possibly. And now those days of £20 postage may be coming back again?

But only for 5-6 weeks until you-know-what arrives!

[telf44]

“You didn't explain why you think buyer's specifically don't need protection when they buy a collection only item.”

I don’t do collection. But is pay on collection an option? That would solve it for collection purchases surely?

[lucy_farmer]

'But is pay on collection an option?'

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In a word, no.

Cash-on-collection has been 'outlawed' for some time now.

In order to get/swap contact details, in order to collect an item, you have had to go through the entire buying process ; including paying for it through the ebay 'system'.

[telf44]

Cool. I don’t do it so didn’t know that. Thanks. 🙂

[papso22]

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@goodibags wrote:

"my question was superfluous"

You mean, like BPFs then? 😀

Tbh, I can't help thinking this might work better if you did the CLARIFYING bit and left the questions to the rest of us?

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I ask questions to establish what needs clarifying and to ascertain whether the poster has got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

I am not a fan of quotes taken out of context that makes them seem like a statement in their own right.

[goodibags]

Yes, it would certainly be a lot easier IF Ebay actually did its own explaining which would likely go some way to alleviating both sellers and buyers fears and confusion about why certain changes are being imposed on them. If that was not too much to ask for.

Clearly, wrt buyer fees, Ebay has decided to impose a charge for a service previously providing for free, much like it rolled out charging seller fees on postage costs back in the day. Leaving aside the issue around collections, would you agree that the fees themselves are unnecessary given the money back guarantee?

And that Ebay has taken an unnecessarily complicated route, when seller fees are so much easier to understand and did not completely mess up the buyer experience?