Hi there
'Buyers Protection Fee'.
By my thinking ebay have added it as mandatory and are attempting to sell this as a form of extra protection in a type of 'insurance' for Buyers so if their item is lost or damaged in the post, then ebay will refund the price paid.
However, if this is correct, then why when a Buyer makes a claim using this new BPF are their BPF costs refunded as well as the price they paid for the original item ? If BPF is being sold as 'insurance' cover, then the fee paid is a 'premium' for the service ebay say they are offering the Buyer. By example, you take out insurance to cover your washing machine; when it goes wrong, an Engineer calls, repairs or replaces it under the terms of the cover, but you don't get your 'premiums' refunded when making a claim !!
But surely the main point has to be that this so called 'Buyers Protection Fee' is totally unnecessary as Buyers (and Sellers, for that matter) are already covered under the existing terms of the sale via ebay. In addition, I send all parcels out via Royal Mail Tracked which provides more than adequate insurance cover for any lost or damaged parcels - that's why I pay the amount I do per parcel because of peace of mind that I as the Seller am covered for the costs of replacement should anything go wrong.
And finally the issue around pushing us into purchasing postage labels direct from ebay and yet offering no discount for doing this. If I'm correct, the cost of postage via Royal Mail is due to be reviewed next month (which means it will be increased, because we all know that postage costs only go one way, and that's UP !). So watch this space as I think this could be another excuse for ebay to grab more revenue, even by a few more pence per parcel. If this is the case then in future I will buy postage labels direct from the Royal Mail website and avoid the ebay link.
However, this is not an issue at present as my ebay sales have died a death since 04 Feb ... ....
I wonder why ?
