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 .

[ripface]

Things appear to be going from bad to worse.  I've a current auction live on the system that has multiple bids from multiple buyers.  The information in the bidding page shows 4 bids from 2 bidders.  WRONG!  There are three different bidders.  How can the system get something  so fundamentally wrong, and what chance is there that other more complicated things are incorrect!!  Come on eBay, get a grip!! 

[supa_deal]

It's ridiculous and it's going to mean hardly any sales for private sellers like me, so an item i was selling for 99p is now costing the buyer £1.75, totally stupid action byEbay. Now looking to sell elsewhere after being a seller on Ebay since 2003.

[andha-21]

It seems to be only counting UK based bidders now. I've seen screenshots of other sales showing similar.

So the third bidder is probably international.

[goodibags]

There's certainly no excuse for Ebay showing me my own items WITH a buyer fee and others in the banner below WITHOUT one. This is on the same page.

As for the VAT part, maybe in the US Ebay doesn't haven't a clue what the final charge will be? The taxes may vary from one state to the next and buyers are probably used to this. (For some reason I'm now imagining an American buyer straddling the state border, to make sure they get the price they want.)

But, lost in translation, it doesn't work in the UK market at all well.

I strongly feel that Ebay has messed up here. They should admit that they got this one WRONG and go back to charging SELLER FEES. Keep It Simple, not stupid...

[ripface]

Nice theory, I checked.  Seems all three bidders are international.  Two from Germany and one from Spain.  You go figure .....

[andha-21]

Now that is strange. The others I saw were UK and international, the difference in count being international.

I wonder which they don't like in your scenario?

[wool-n-stuff]

I had a buyer purchase an item on 12/2 and posted it the same day. Within 2 days the buyer left me  lovely Feedback. Because they are inexpensive items on sale for charity I had sent 2nd class letter, always ok in the past....but I spoke to Ebay about how do I get paid if the buyer had already left FB but no tracking and she had to go ask someone and said it would still be 14 days from expected date of delivery if no claim had been made by the buyer.

So.... sell an item, money taken out for the Charity, pay for postage then wait over 2 weeks for the remaining dregs?

[wool-n-stuff]

No it hasn't changed. It's happened already. I dispatched an item on 12th, great feedback within 2 days, describing the item even, so no mistake, .....but as untracked postage for inexpensive charity items , Ebay insist it will still take 14 days from expected date of delivery for funds to be released, as it was untracked.

[1964pickup]

This has been happening fro a while now ,always says 2 bidders when there is clearly many more, is there another thread on this ?

[martinwh1]

If you purchase the postage via eBay you get confirmation of delivery even with ordinary 2nd class but, like any Royal Mail tracking, it depends on the item being scanned when delivered - I've still got 3 items from December which apparently haven't been delivered despite all having positive feedback.


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[wool-n-stuff]

I always use Ebay's postage and very very rarely does the tracking show delivered for 2nd class letter

[1964pickup]

Dont think this is the case , my sale is uk only.

[andrew1691]

This is a straightforward scam by Ebay and should be investigated by the authorities. Using the post office I get a slip proving I posted it. If it doesn't arrive I claim off the post office by giving the eBay item number and I refund the buyer.  I can see the fee being useful for high value items but I sell Blu rays for £7 , the fee works out at 15%, plus eBay take 15% plus I pay postage .. probably the end for me selling as the businesses like HMV or musicalMagpie don't pay the fee ....

[martinwh1]

The BPF only adds the 24/7 customer service contact, compensation for non delivery of misdescribed goods remains and is free. Not sure why you say eBay takes a further 15% in addition to the BPF unless you're paying the optional promotion fee.

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[podlingsmum2007]

On a £7 item the buyer protection fee is about equal to 15% added on is what I think Andrew meant.

[andrew1691]

15% is the fee off my selling price, I have to reduce the sell price to offset the BPF else it won't sell as businesses don't have the fee. If the fee was very low eg. 25p I wouldn't mind but my blu ray at £7.20 becomes £8.21 so no way will that sell.  It's just not required for low value items  e.g. less than £20. 

[andrew1691]

I am looking into setting up as a business to avoid the fee else I will just quit as no longer worth it

[martinwh1]

I see what you mean but the value of the item is irrelevant as the BPF doesn't actually provide any protection. eBay have confirmed that their free "money back guarantee" remains so calling it a "protection fee" is questionable. I'm not sure setting up as a business helps - yes you avoid the BPF but I believe the eBay selling fees are 16%

[auctionmike1]

The crummy eBay software caches data and often (i.e. almost always) shows out-of-date data on summary screens compared to the detail.

[coreygun]

You're just wording it differently, but the fact is, if something needs to be sold at £100 - because that's a competitive price, or it's intrinsic value, or matching other retailer's prices - you only receive about £96 from that sale. The difference between the price advertised and the amount you receive is the fee you pay selling an item.

The end result is exactly the same as if ebay simply said they'd reduced their seller fees to 4% - as an item advertised at £100 only nets me £96.

The added issue now is that if someone says "Will you do this for a tenner", and you send them an offer for £10, they actually receive an offer of about £11, so now there's added complexity in correlating end prices with buyers, in terms of offers.