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 .

[vintique*violet]

Yes, it is interesting reading the case law  on them, many of which are donkeys years ... it's like from another world 😉 I like this one  in whether profit seeking ...CIR v Hyndland Investment Co Ltd [1929] 14 TC 694  said at page 699:

‘The question is not what business does the taxpayer profess to carry on, but what business does he actually carry on.’

[dls-online]

Ha! Yes, I remember studying that case (amongst many others) when I was doing my CTAs...which is a fair few years ago now!!! Honestly, the guidance and its application in this area has largely stayed the same for decades (speaking from my position of just shy of 20 years working in tax). But the cases are generally all very interesting reads IMO.

[ripface]

I received a reply to my complaint, and posted it in it's entirety here ... but the mods removed it as I am not allowed to re-post emails.  I trust that posting a section of it is not in violation .... guess we'll find out!!

"I understand that this information is not the outcome you expected as you were hoping we could reverse our new change but I'm afraid this is not an option. We are however taking onboard all the feedback from our sellers and will look to improve the policy."

So eBay will not rescind the new policy but are open to taking on feedback from sellers.  Maybe it's time to get on the bandwagon and get more "feedback" in ........

[turkmiles]

I totally agree with you when you list an item at a sensible price ebay puts' on a buyers protection fee  this puts buyers off because the item is too expensive also to hold the money until it's delivered  it's silly who ever dreams these things up has no idea of business sense   if they know sellers are not compiling to the terms and conditions, they should suspend them  why should us genuine ebayers be penalised. Ebay will lose faithful sellers and buyers because they are greedy   

[debbie110_1]

Totally agree, when sales go down, hopefully they will think of changing things.

[slfragrance]

Thank you
Sent from my iPhone

[achathamchild]

Not many people realize that ebay adds postage also into the final selling fee,  thus adding 10% to post . Seems unfair to me why should they make a profit on postage..nothing to do with the item 

[leighbayuk]

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@achathamchild wrote:

Not many people realize that ebay adds postage also into the final selling fee,  thus adding 10% to post . Seems unfair to me why should they make a profit on postage..nothing to do with the item 

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That was the case, but there is no selling fee now. If you price your postage separately the new buyers fee is not applied to postage part.

[chrisbury1983]

I have just noticed that this has been added to my listing, what bothers me is that eBay have added this by stealth, I am sure some fine print will exist somewhere regarding this, but to be honest this will be the last time I list on the platform. I thought the days of silly fees were over, obviously not.

[papso22]

The 'fine print' is in the updated user agreement,  an announcement on the site, an email to members, and a policy page accessed through the help search box. 

[chrisbury1983]

I don't sit everyday waiting for eBay announcements, I am not a business trader I am just a guy selling surplus personal items, which is exactly the type of seller eBay were desperate to get back, like I said, I won't be listing on this platform after this.

[papso22]

All the communications were aimed at people just selling off unwanted personal belongings. 

I hope you pay more attention to changes in other services you use, but good luck wherever you sell in future.

[knightinarmour]

You say that and it’s probably true but I had a similar experience to the person you were replying to. 

I am an experienced (non business)  ebayer (2001) and only “found out” when launching 11 items - one of which had this mysterious “buyers protection”…. I access the site everyday to look at my saved search terms and noticed no announcement, no guidance, no “coming soon’ and I had no email. I complained to eBay especially after the Buyers protection was then added after launch to my other 10 items but never received a real answer - they did “resend” the email and I definitely had not seen it before as I searched my emails both junk and “deleted”.

So, from my pov poorly rolled out with no warning or advises. 

[chrisbury1983]

Exactly that, I am not going to dig through the terms and condition each time I list something, in fact, that suggestion is actually absurd. If you have to "pay attention" to constantly changing conditions then its probably not a platform that should be trusted.

[martinwh1]

Whilst the email I received made me well aware of what was going to happen and eBay's action has simply killed off my sales, eBay has implemented this change to copy Vinted which is their only real rival. It's easy to say "I'm off" but what alternative is there? OK there's FB but do you want constant "is it still available" messages, ridiculously low offers and no shows? My view is that selling low value items on eBay is no longer possible and I am convinced that this was one of their aims but, as far as higher value items are concerned, if what you're selling is competitively priced and any other sellers are also private then it will sell regardless of BPF. This is beginning to be borne out on my other seller ID where I'm selling my collection of car sales brochures - sales initially dried up but are slowly coming back because the buyer sees there are very few identical brochures and those which dealers are selling are often significantly more expensive.

[papso22]

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@chrisbury1983 wrote:

Exactly that, I am not going to dig through the terms and condition each time I list something, in fact, that suggestion is actually absurd. If you have to "pay attention" to constantly changing conditions then its probably not a platform that should be trusted.

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In case you hadn't realised, a lot of service providers update their T&Cs, including those with financial implications, by message or email.   You, as a user, agree to those changes the first time you use the service after you have been notified of a change.

It's not just ebay that uses this method of contract acceptance. 

[f3speech]

They legally can't update key terms without making the changes prominent and clear. That is the UK law.

I buy a lot of things as well as selling and I notice that the BPF is INCLUDED the sale price for auctions and ON TOP of the sale price for Fixed Price. That's for obvious reasons, but if you're used to listing auctions then the first time you really notice it is when you either buy an item or list a FP, where it shows you now as you set the price.

It's very complicated! 

[papso22]

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@f3speech wrote:

They legally can't update key terms without making the changes prominent and clear. That is the UK law.

I buy a lot of things as well as selling and I notice that the BPF is INCLUDED the sale price for auctions and ON TOP of the sale price for Fixed Price. That's for obvious reasons, but if you're used to listing auctions then the first time you really notice it is when you either buy an item or list a FP, where it shows you now as you set the price.

It's very complicated! 

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I am sure that the way that ebay, and your phone company, and your energy supplier, etc etc, notify you of contractual changes, is entirely legal.  You lodge an email address/phone number with them as part of registering and you agree that is how they will contact you.  Unfortunately they can't make people read what they send.

Apart from offers, the BPF is really not complicated, the seller lists at the price they want, and then ebay adds the fee so that the buyer sees the price they would pay.  The BPF is always included in what the buyer sees.  Just because ebay breaks the price down at checkout and shows the price without the fee when looking at the bidding history does not change that.

[andha-21]

Do you know if that's the case for guest buyers?

Last time I checked it wasn't. They were seeing 3 different prices.

[papso22]

Where are the three different prices?  When I search as a guest, and add something to my basket, I see exactly what I see when I am logged in.