Ebay’s new policy for private sellers is like hell now!

[triptocardissa78]

I’m a private seller with 99.7% rate for 7 years now. The new policy changes are like hell for me. I’m not getting paid for sold items for a week now. Most of my sold items are delivered already, but Ebay still showing the as “Dispatched”, but they have been delivered for days. All tracked, express24 or RM Tracked48. Numbers of buyers are not giving a damn to leave feedback as well, and sometimes they are not even collecting their parcels from the collection point they asked me to post to.  I don’t want to be a business seller, because I don’t want to pay more fees and stuff, plus I don’t want to be PAYE tax payer. Put the bloody selling fee back and let the sellers be. 
I’m facing with a hard financial period at the moment, money is short, and now I’ve lots of money on hold for weeks?! No thank you!

Ebay is bloody taking my breath away of this whole selling thing. Plus Ebay puts buyer’s fee on my listings automaticly? Who the heck they think they are?! Cutting off  my chances to sell things? So I’m unable to provide competitve prices!  Costumer service is also a BS. Making excuses, and “understaning my issues” ?! Get the system fixed!!!This is sucks, and screwing me off.  

[twin--turbo]

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 I don’t want to be a business seller, because I don’t want to pay more fees and stuff, plus I don’t want to be PAYE tax payer.

Err, as a business seller you would not be a PAYE tax payer, but regardless of if your have a business account or not , if your selling to make money you pay tax on it , you have a personal limit of £1000 Turnover ( not proffit ) . Then anything you make is part of your standard personal alloance before tax.

[gemini-project]

You should be registered as a business and not a private seller to start with then your dreams will come true, you can get your tax free money same day if you want and get to pay eBay fees again.

You should at least registered as a sole trader with hmrc and paying some tax if going over your personal tax allowance , its probably too late now anyway since they have all your selling data and will go back a minimum of 4 years to reclaim tax, if they have to chase you it will be more.

[lucy_farmer]

'I Rented a shop in the UK back  in the day.

I sold my goods at a price that afforded me a profit. The customers came into the shop. paid their money and walked out with the goods. At NO TIME did the landlord who rented me the shop, tell me how much I must sell in order to be a good tenant, at no time did the customer pay my landlord and then my landlord pay me after holding said money for a while. So I ask again, who the heck do EBAY think they are????????'

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Back in the day there, you were a business, that's what a bricks and mortar shop was.

Businesses on ebay don't have to deal with all this new carp either.

[trainofthought]

I've been selling on ebay for 25 years and have always found a way to adjust to the changes ebay introduce but these new changes provide very little wiggle room apart from sending all items via Royal Mail Tracked 48 which only slightly increases the postage cost and compels the postman to mark as delivered so I do get my money within a tolerable timeframe, though I'd like it at point of sale as this is generally the convention throughout the world and history. I could lower prices to reflect the Buyers Protection Fee and have the item looking more attractively priced for the buyer but I'm not joining in with the race to the bottom.

What I can't influence in how I operate is how ebay have stifled the cashflow across their platform - many sellers are also buyers and now they're not getting their money in realtime and also having to pay for postage upfront before getting the postage element of a sale. And if that wasn't bad enough ebay have increased prices with their Buyer Protection Fee [like being forced to buy the 2 year warranty for a washing machine - why is this not optional for the buyer?] So ebay have created the situation of less accessible cash and higher prices and it doesn't require much of a business brain to see the blindingly obvious outcome of this.

Yes. 25 years of sales and right now I sadly have to accept that sales truly have fallen off the cliff and there's nothing I can do about it other than wait for ebay to wise-up. Yes, ebay are "greedy", but thankfully because of that they will change policy when their greed isn't being satisfied and as trade seems at the moment it certainly won't be to their satisfaction.

I feel sorry for the business sellers who benefit greatly on private sellers' ebay income to buy items from them as they too must have noticed a massive drop in sales.

[trainofthought]

This is very true and I welcome ebay giving business sellers a comparative advantage, though not sure how much of the recent changes is about that. I think making prices cheaper for business sellers for selling would be better. Private sellers now "enjoy" zero fees but enforced price-hikes which reduces likelihood of selling but more disastrously their cash flow has been stifled which has the probably unexpected consequence of impacting on their own purchasing power. ebay may not have stopped the "Private Sale-Business Seller Purchase Flywheel" but it has been significantly slowed down. That's the elephant in ebay's room in my opinion.

[skypetrew]

There can be sellers without buyers but, there can't be buyers WITHOUT sellers and yet EBAY are determined to punish sellers even more with these new ( Money grabbing/making) rules.  As with most corporate entities on the planet now, they are being run by Gen X, Gen Z and millenial idiots who don't have a clue about a longevity strategy for business only instant bucks right now!  Governments around the world are behaving in the same manner. Stop biting the hands that ultimately feed you.  EBAY, why are penalising and crippling the very people that make EBAY possible......THE SELLERS.  

[skypetrew]

Hi, Thanks for the post.

A couple of questions though, what makes you think I am not paying income tax on any sales I make ?

What makes you think I do not use self assessment???

As a retired chap with a pension I don't need the hassle of projected VAT sales and many things that accompany a " Business".

You are also missing the point.  It's about the sharp practices of EBAY.

I imagine that if your house insurance demanded you place a camera in every room and that the cameras HAVE to be purchased from your insurance company, you would accept that under the guise of " if you have nothing to hide why not?.   Scary.

[paulh5038]

This is the third weekend since the Ebay policy change on 4th Feb that I have had no sales.  Prior to 4th Feb, the weekend was my busiest period, but now not a peep.  Is anyone else experiencing the same issues?

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I think the point is that it is not up to you to decide if you want to be a business.  E Bay may not do anything about it (at the moment) but they still have the two catergories business and private and from an outsiders view point you would probably fit into the business one.   The tax matter is something else again as that is a pure HMRC matter and only you and them know what happens between you.  You were just being informed that with the new HMRC/online sites system your information will be handed over to the tax man if you sell over 30 items or value over £1700.   I am a private seller, sell items on behalf of my family and already over the 30 items (would be nice to be over the £1700!!!) so am just waiting to see if they drag my into into the arena but i am aware it is possible. 

[skypetrew]

The point ACTUALLY is a discussion over EBAY's treatment of their sellers. Why you and others are so interested in my personal affairs is astounding. The POINT of the discussion is how EBAY is behaving.

Let's forget my PERSONAL situation and look at the many private sellers who are being adversly affected by having the money from their sales 'held up' 'frozen' ( however you wish to phrase it) by ebay placing it in a holding account!!  Also the introduction of a " buyer protection fee" which is purely a spurious charge that will generate many millions ( if not billions) of pounds for ebay and raises the final price of a seller's item which CAN an IS affecting the seller's sales.  THEN, after the sellers sales plummet EBAY has the bare faced cheek to email them saying their seller performance is below standard and needs addressing to meet EBAY's Standards!!!    REALLY????   BUT, my goodness people like yourself are SOOOO interested in my personal relationship with HMRC !! I don't recognise this planet anymore ( see my previous posts) and I've been on it a fair while.

[lucy_farmer]

'The POINT of the discussion is how EBAY is behaving.'

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Absolutely.

 And there are several reasons ebay is making all these changes. 

The biggest is to make up the money they have lost by getting rid of private sellers fees.  (they wanted to get rid of private seller fees so they could compete with sites like Vin ted etc, who are also 'free to sell' )

So they've put on buyers fees to try and claw some money back.

They're also holding private sellers payments for as long as possible in order to make interest on it, and claw some money back that way as well. (and, yes, it *is* legal. We have agreed to let them do what ever they want with our money. We've 'signed up' for it simply by using ebay)

Another method of trying to get more profit is trying to get as many 'pseudo-private' sellers as possible to change to a business account, because Ebay gets sellers fees on business accounts.

It appears ebay are trying to achieve this by making 'doing business' really awkward and unwieldy around the BPF and payment holds (and the up and coming Simple Delivery)

(by 'pseudo-private' sellers, I mean private sellers who either buy, make or grow things to sell on. Which is the legal definition of a business in the UK.  Private sellers who meet any of those 'badges of trade' are, technically, selling against UK Consumer law)

Ebay haven't really worried themselves up until now about the 'who's on business and who's on private' problem. Because all sales are good sales/income for them, right ? 👍 But now private sales bring in a whole lot less fees 👎 So it's time for ebay to convince 'pseudo-private' sellers to do the legal thing and change to business.

(in my opinion, ebay have to take some of the blame for people trading on private accounts. Not just by ignoring them, but actively encouraging them with, 'shops', multi-listings, out-of-stock options, 1000s of listings, etc. No wonder some see 'pseudo-private' as perfectly acceptable )

AND there will shortly be a connection between all online selling/services/money-making-in-general sites and HRMC. This will eventually show who is trading and who is not. And when that happens it will show ebay to have been encouraging sellers to break UK Consumer law.

And that's not going to be a good look for a Multi-National Tech Company.

'BUT, my goodness people like yourself are SOOOO interested in my personal relationship with HMRC !!'

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Nope. Nobody gives two hoots about you and HMRC.

And HMRC's only interest in you is whether you pay any taxes due. (it's not in their remit to care what sort of account you're on on ebay)

The sticking point is between you, ebay and UK Consumer law. And *if* you meet any 'badges of trade' , you're breaking that law.

...and that really winds up paid-up business sellers who are doing stuff properly and getting under-cut by 'pseudo-private' sellers who aren't.

[papso22]

"The point ACTUALLY is a discussion over EBAY's treatment of their sellers"

The point, actually, is that these changes (assuming that is what you mean by treatment), only apply to members who are getting rid of their unwanted personal possessions, perhaps a collection, perhaps downsizing, or maybe clearing out a loft.

They do not apply to businesses who are buying, making, or growing, things to sell.

Most of the biggest complainers on the boards about the changes would not be impacted by them if they had the right account, and their buyers would not be paying the new fees.

[vinylscot]

With the introduction of the BPF, I think buyers are looking at sellers more closely, and for the first time considering whether or not they should be business sellers.

If I'm looking for something and see it is priced at £94.31, that rings alarm bells, as it should only be £89.99. So I look at the seller's other items, and, sure enough, they should be running a business account. So I close down their tabs and buy for £89.99 from an honest business seller.

That is obviously upsetting the fraudulent "private" sellers, and , in such cases, this is the BPF working in one of the ways it is intended to work.

[paulh5038]

Sorry, but I'm a little confused about your post.  I am both a buyer and seller at eBay.  When I buy something from eBay I look at 3 things:

1. The price

2. Feedback

3. Rating of product.

Firstly, it doesn't matter if a price is £89.99 or £94.31.  What I care about is whether the price is right (re: low enough) for me.  Secondly, the seller's feedback should be high (re: above 96%).  Finally, the product should be rated VG or Like New.  I don't purchase Good items.  These are the things that I consider before purchasing something from eBay.

But you seem to be saying that buyers are concerned about whether  a buyer is a private seller with a business account or a private seller without a business account.  How did you come to this conclusion.  Do you think most buyers are that discerning?  Having said this, I'm wondering if there is some truth in what you write as my sales since Feb 4th have dropped off.  Usually I make 2 or 3 sales at the weekend but for the last 3 weeks I've sold nothing at the weekend.  I'm starting to wonder what is going on.   Can anyone shed some light on this most worrying issue?

[vinylscot]

I think it does make a difference, and I think your lack of sales over the last couple of weeks maybe bears that out. (We are selling similar items, yet I made over twenty sales over the weekend, with only about 50% more listings than you have, although admittedly I did have some auctions ending last night.)

The majority of your items could also have been listed on my account, a properly registered business account. If they had been, they would have been listed at "sensible"-looking prices, probably cheaper, as there was no BPF added.

Furthermore, potential buyers would have been reassured that they were buying from a business account. Whereas, all your listings contain the text notice "Registered as a private seller. Thereby, consumer rights stemming from EU consumer protection law do not apply", which, on the surface, looks rather negative, although in practice, it shouldn't make a huge difference.

I believe these factors are having an impact on private sellers' sales. Obviously, the BPF has an effect on prices, and that encourages buyers to look at the listing a little more closely before committing themselves.

I have seen many private sellers (genuine and bogus), complaining that their sales are way down since the changes came in. My February sales were better than January's, and roughly on a par with February 2024, so I'm not seeing the drop that these sellers are.

I'm not going to comment on whether or not you should be registered as a business seller, but I think the above demonstrates that more buyers than before are taking account type into account when considering a purchase. Maybe the balance is tipping in favour of genuine business sellers.

[andha-21]

What a load of rubbish.

The private seller disclaimer has always been there and I as a buyer preferred loads of private sellers in my arena to the so called "professional" business sellers.

In fact I'll probably be spending north of £100 with 2 today.

As for the BPF, again speaking as a buyer the only time it bothers me is if it makes something more than I want to pay.

& the furthest I've ever looked into any account as a buyer is feedback. New accounts or ones with negative feedback.

Jesus, you really do talk *bleep* sometimes.

[buffster1963]

Before, the price did not make a difference. Now buyers will see they are being charged extra when they shouldnt be. Why should a buyer have to pay a protection fee just because a seller is registered on the wrong account to avoid paying fees? 

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I am a seller and buyer and my considerations are price, and courier.  THEN i look at feedback, not just the figures but what the complaint was and any response from the seller.  I also look at whether they are what i consider a genuine private seller, a pseudo private or a real business.  If it is a pseudo one then i do not buy.  They are not following 'the rules' so why should i trust them?

[andha-21]

That's a logical fallicy.

They won't even think about the why, they won't care past it being more than they want to pay.

It will simply be "next" and move along the conveyor belt of things.

Just because some of you here spend all day talking about this stuff doesn't mean everyone does.

[paulh5038]

"Registered as a private seller. Thereby, consumer rights stemming from EU consumer protection law do not apply" . . .

This msg is a worry.  Has it always been there or was it introduced post Feb 4th?  If buyers see this, they may worry about the legitimacy of the seller and the authenticity of the product.