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 .

[madeat136]

I had a bit of a strange thing happen to me ...Buyer bought an item ....paid the protection fee I purchased the postage from ebay , showed the QR code at post office , and recieved a reciept for the item.3 weeks later the buyer gets a card through the door saying "theres no evidence of postage paid , to get the item you have to pay £5" Buyer then contacts me asking to be refunded for excessI provided my evidence that showed I had paid for postage etc etc ...They contacted Ebay because of the buyer protection ......Ebays response ?? Nothing ...no communication , no help , no advice ...jack !!!I contacted Royal Mail who were 5 star ....they could see i had paid , posted , etc etc and the buyer did get their refund ...So in effect EBAY took the buyers money for what ????Sent from my Galaxy

[achathamchild]

Not about protection..I think we all know the truth 

[stevek1200lt]

Fully agree…it’s theft..pure and simple…..complete rip off

its a protection racket…….

just encountered it for the first time…..cannot see where this was explained?

theft…….the art of hidden charges

[wintersdawn1]

The 'Buyer Protection Fee' is only the tip of the iceberg where ebay's greed is concerned:

• Buyer Protection Fee - total lie, just pocketing the money
• Holding private sellers money - earning interest/investing
• Simple Delivery - once mandatory ebay will make money on every postage label for every item sold
• Hiding listings - ebay are hiding sellers listings so they have to pay to make them visible again
• Disabling the invoice facility - buyers are forced to pay BPF on each item, no combining orders now.

[a380spotter]

..a fittingly Trumpian "solution" to a non-existent "problem" if you ask me. As both a seller and buyer here for many years I - as of course eBay already know - realise that the EXISTING buyer protection was more than adequate and provided and safe, efficient and fun experience which alas has now been thrown out of the window. I don't plan on listing anything new going forward under this new system as it's pointless. My sales have completely dried up so it's just a waste of time for me now. Well done eBay. You've really screwed things up....

[a380spotter]

..seeing some crazy prices not for my items and it's completely killed off my sales - unsurprisingly. Not happy.

[peppermiller321]

Couldn't agree more. Ebay always looking to squeeze that last penny out of people. 

[debbie110_1]

Its absolutely disgusting, i had an email from them yesterday to say my sales have dropped and what could i do to improve my sales. Get rid of this stupid Ebay Protection Fee that's what they can do.
I send everything tracked and if it gets lost or broken then i am covered, even if i second class im covered upto £20. So why do we need this unnecessary fee, it's just putting buyers off.

When im listing the majority of my things at 99p to keep the prices low, this Ebay Protection fee almost double my price.

I hope Ebay read the comments in their forum.

Rant over lol


Kind regards

Debbie

[smartsgaming]

You forgot :

Insertion fees - if you want to list something for auction but not with the default settings

Transaction fees - for sending an item via international delivery/ebay shipping centre.

That one annoyed me because it was advertised as "why not allow international delivery theres nothing to lose and everything to gain!" only for me to get charged 5% of the total sale price afterwards which was never mentioned. I also had "buyer pays delivery" on these listings. But if its an international customer, ebay erases all the delivery charges (on your end, im sure theyre pocketing a hefty amount off customer), and charges you! So instead of receiving what i expected to be around 15 quid to pay for all delivery, I instead had 5% of the profit stolen from me for "transaction fees" and recieved no delivery money at all! 

Theres endless other mystery fees I havent mentioned because you only find out about them once you see the nasty surprise on your invoice. 

Ebay must have some friends in high up places because any other company pulling the *bleep* they do would have been shut down and locked up years ago.

[a380spotter]

..as I've said before, it's all very "Trumpian"

[a380spotter]

100%. Anything under £5 now looks crazy and if I were to absorb the BPF it wouldn't be worth my while listing imho. Hopefully the hit to sales will make the powers that be reconsider...

[a380spotter]

Oh yes. I'd forgotten the joy of discovering the new fee for overseas sales...

[martinwh1]

Too true - eBay actually receives more on my £1.50 listings than I do (I get 65p which will shortly drop to 63p thanks to Royal Mail)  and then hav ethe cheek to hang onto my money for 14days because I obviously can't cover the cost of tracked delivery! I doubt they will reconsider as I'm sure part of their plan is to get rid of listings below £5.

[newsgood2]

I do not understand this buyers fee for private Buyers who have a private sellers account?  In days gone by if you used Paypay your transaction was covered in total if something went wrong. Then Ebay muscled in on that and took payments in-house. I now have a private sellers account, which is not on the account listed in my post details above, just for clarity. So, If I buy something why does the seller need protection that I have to pay for?  The postage should cover any damage etc., and eBay should protect both buyers and sellers.

This all seems like Donald Trump knee jerk stupidity, because eBay do not have any common sense, as I have experienced for something like 21 years on eBay. I was a business seller with 1446 feedback at 100% since first joining, however, I only signed up to that to save on selling fees and mostly bought items on eBay.

Then of course eBay changed the fees to the same amount so I became a private seller. EBay making daft decisions is in the court of Trump and Musk, and eBay have no real need to follow suit. Whomever suggested free private seller fees had a bright idea that does make sense, and the person concerned is obviously not a strategist and has about as much nous about economics as Rachel Reeves has.

[felixmonti]

Adding on £15+ to sell my mobile phone which is causing me a problem to buyers. £15! WTAF? It should be a set optional payment.

[newsgood2]

The whole situation is plainly wrong. Ebay offered private sellers zero fees. That means no fees. In the bygone days Paypal would cover problems with any transaction, then eBay took the money in-house.  So, all in all eBay lack integrity and honesty and have always been this way. It is a major problem that they are allowed to keep moving the goalposts. Poor ethics!

[edwardian-dreams]

Yes, all these years with eBay money back guarantee and suddenly out of the blue they think oh that’s not secure enough we need more buyer protection lol z that will ensure buyers pay over the odds ..NOT

[a380spotter]

..it has NOTHING to do with protecting buyers and EVERYTHING to do with clawing back the discontinued seller fees...

[sew1412]

Couldn't agree more;  my sales have fallen dramatically since the "new policy" which, to me, I feel is simply geared to get us to change to being a business seller or just disappearing.  Add to the absurd 'Buyer protection fee" the restrictions on postage, and we are really on a loser!   I have noted before the frustration of sellers who know an item has been delivered, but the tracking does not say so and hence they do not get paid until Ebay feels like it.  This has been happening to me and is becoming more prevalent, and ebay denies all responsibility and shifts it to Royal Mail, who have the gall to say that "not all tracked mail goes by the same route - hence some does not get tracked"  -  what a joke!!!  so, the tracking system is useless and Ebay can happily hang onto our money until they feel like giving it to us;  Oh, by the way, if you happen to send via Evri, then make sure you have money in your Ebay account as that is the only option for paying for it - otherwise Ebay will raid  your bank account.  Wonderful business practice, isn't it??!!

[jckl1957]

The fees and payment delays do not apply to business sellers.

If you were properly registered as a business seller, rather than trading on a private account with an unlawful 'no returns' policy, Ebay's changes would not be an issue for you.

Do I need a business account?

If you plan to sell casually, such as selling items you no longer want, a private account is the best option. 

If you want to sell large quantities, if you have items that you've made or bought to resell or if you already have a business outside of eBay, you’ll need to register a business account.