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 .

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I send 2nd class standard, no paid tracking, just the Certificate of posting number entered on the system.  What i find difficult to understand is that i have sold 18 items since 5th February and of those only 1 has not been marked delivered!   Before all this i had far more not marked so are some of the posties now aware of how important it can be for sellers to have it done or just coincidence???  Each of the 17 (the last on is actually due in my balance to withdraw tomorrow) have been paid out on the 2nd day as promised and the one that was not marked was paid out on the 13th day.   At least for me the system is working as promised, whether i like it or not. 

[kath3735_wxmjn]

quick update, the money for the last item actually has been put into my e bay account today, a day earlier than supposed to be!!!

[ripface]

Just sold a guitar on eBay, and was waiting for payment.  Can't send an invoice any more so just messaged the buyer who immediately came back saying they'd pay in the next hour.  Noticed that the sale price in the messaging system is different from that on my orders page, which is different from that on my auction page.

Really!!  See attached ... talk about confusion!!!

[dcmr-99]

Very much agree, just realised why I wasn't selling anything lately. The problem is that the total price of an item that includes this latest fee, is only visible when looking at the item from a buyer's point of view, but not visible on my list of items for sale, so this needs to be changed so that there is transparency (for both sellers and buyers) as to what exactly the buyer is paying for in terms of the price charged by the seller, the buyer's fee charged by ebay, and the percentage of the seller's price that this fee represents.

[sew1412]

I totally agree; from the buyer's point of view it must look as though we are trying to con them as you would expect the price you see in the listing to be the price you would pay - obviously Ebay has a rather skewed idea.......

[sew1412]

I didn't realise the invoice option has been removed - what else have they been up to that we may or may not find out? this variation in price is getting ridiculous - and very unfair on buyers as we, as sellers, have been aware of the changes [albeit sometimes rather confusedly] but how could prospective buyers be expected to know that what they see is not what they get [price wise]? hardly surprising if its a case of 'once bitten, twice shy' and our customer base dwindles down to zero.

[dcmr-99]

Yes exactly, it looks very deceptive, and when I first noticed it I thought it was an error because there was no obvious explanation..

[jckl1957]

The price the bidder/buyer sees is the price they pay.

Look at any of your own listings by clicking on the actual item and you will see the price being asked.

[leighbayuk]

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@jckl1957 wrote:

The price the bidder/buyer sees is the price they pay.

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But critically, is not the price received. So it gets really messy when dealing with offers. Yesterday I had to explain why a buyer needed to offer £20.32 more than my minimum price and how it was for their own protection. Now that sounds like a scam!

[dcmr-99]

Yes, it's true that when you click on the Buyer Protection  link at the top right of the page (after clicking on the actual item, so looking at it from a buyer's viewpoint)  which mentions that the price includes this fee, a new window opens stating precisely what the fee is in addition to the actual seller's price. However, this is not at all obvious and I believe that it should be more transparent (instead of having to click on a small obscure link that is easily missed) and stated clearly together with how this fee is actually calculated, and all this information should also be clearly visible on the list of items on the seller's page.

[parsley2003]

I stopped all best offers and only send them now

[newsgood2]

Good point!

[newsgood2]

Dealing with eBay is tricky as they do not understand words like Integrity and honesty. They are greed based instead of g=being straightforward. Just like Donald trump they big themselves up all the time, whilst misleading people.

[achathamchild]

Yes I have decided to sell elsewhere now.  Fed up with ebay riding rough shod over sellers, whilst buyers are treated like God's. Ebay should remember that without sellers there are no buyers , and without sellers or buyers there is no ebay 

[kath3735_wxmjn]

because it is really difficult to add 75p and 4% on to your item so you have an idea what the buyer will see!  You do not even need a calculator (and if you did you could always use one of the online ones!   With small value items (which are most of my sales) just adding the 75p on takes me to a rough idea.

[cliffordbigdriver]

I got asked to do a buy now, I put it on at £350 expecting buyers premium but it wasn't applied and the buyer paid 350.

Seems bonkers

[ripface]

It's been noticed before that the BPF only gets applied a few minutes after an auction is raised.  Perhaps your buyer took the Buy-it-now before the BPF got applied.  Looks like eBay has rolled out these changes with little thought and even less testing!  The selling price quoted at the top of the "Messaging" system appears to show the wrong price as it takes the BPF off the price that the seller gets instead of the price the buyer pays.

Unbelievable!

[buffster1963]

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@cliffordbigdriver wrote:

I got asked to do a buy now, I put it on at £350 expecting buyers premium but it wasn't applied and the buyer paid 350.

Seems bonkers

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Your item is being shown as sold at £363.72 so it was added. You will get what you listed it for but the buyer pays extra. 

[smartsgaming]

Not at all easy to workout when you can get 20 different values depending on what part of the site youre looking at it. Its a complete mess. Working out accounts is now a nightmare. 

[smartsgaming]

Kath have you tried doing that? I have a formula in excel that automatically adds 4% and 75p. It never equals the value ebay comes up with. God knows what their actual formula is.