Giving up selling because of stupid "Buyer protection Fees"

[col8361]

Anyone else feel this way?

As a private seller. I am seriously contemplating stopping selling because of these rip off "buyer protection fees".   It is very, very off putting for buyers to see these strange buy it now prices. All it really does is force us to lower the price we are asking for.

Getting to be much easier just to take my stuff to a car boot sale or the skip. E-bay is hard enough work already.

[department28]

Yes, I think the BPF + 'Payments on hold until delivery confirmation' will be the last straw for many small sellers.

Selling on eBay has always taken a fair bit of work - photography, listings, packing & posting etc, but all this extra palaver is tipping the balance to make it not worth the time & trouble - especially for those just trying to get rid of a few bits & pieces. Who needs the hassle?!

[jonabru45]

As a buyer all the obscure prices are extremely confusing. We're conditioned to see prices in round '5' or '0' numbers or '99' and that makes it easy to scan through and compare lots of prices on a page, or we know to instinctively round '£2.99' to £3. But your brain has to do a lot more work to sift through dozens of £2.63, £2.36 and £3.62, that it just isn't worth the effort here. 

And the selling side is no better. I've sold two items since the changes came in, both low value so took a chance with 2nd Class LL rather than much more expensive tracked service. Previously, 9 times out of 10 LL has been scanned on delivery, but surprise surprise neither of these orders has been scanned meaning I'll be waiting for 2+ weeks for payment to appear...if Ebay wants to release it.

[*knight-rider*]

Two things annoy me about these fees. One, buyers have always been protected on ebay, either for not as described or the item not arriving, which is and has always been the sellers job to deal with, so why the buyer now has to pay for that same protection is crazy. The other thing that bothers me, is the amount of the fee. From what I've noticed so far, it appears the more you pay for an item, the more the fee is, why? The issue with the item is going to be the same no matter what you pay for it, if it's not as described or it hasn't arrived, so why does one cost more than the other. A protection fee is one thing, but it should be a flat fee and that's it, not more if you pay more.

I'm not so sure the fee is putting buyers off that much anyway, if someone wants something, their not going to be put off by an extra couple of quid, because chances are they've got it cheaper anyway via make offer, I think the sites been extremely quiet for along time now anyway, long before these fees came in. I'm certainly not saying the fees aren't helping, because they aren't, but sales have been low for a while now.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I have bought 2 items since the changes came in and the odd figure did not phase me at all, i personally prefer nice round figures (never understood other peoples obsession with adding the .99p anyway, who is fooled that that makes it a better buy than a straight £?).  I just accept it for what it is because at the end of the day whether i pay £11.15 for an item or £12  it all depends on whether it is what i want.  Even if you have several of the same item to choose from all around the same price you are then going to decide on condition, whether they send by the courier you want, their feedback etc.   I think too many people are making a big thing about not a lot.    You can always use the lowest price feature when choosing anyway.

[pokeruby87]

I agree, the payments ‘on hold until delivery’ was my final straw! I have 2 deliveries that are small Pokemon cards worth less than £6 and they aren’t worth attaching tracking too, and there is no buyer out there that would then buy from me when seeing my prices go up! NONE! Attaching a 1st/2nd class stamp is the only way and with that comes the long wait for your money and I have been waiting now nearly 2 weeks!!! It’s absolute outrageous. When I get my money I will be taking down all my stuff off eBay, and putting it on other platforms that do not require such ridiculous requests. 

[tressygirl]

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@pokeruby87 wrote:

I agree, the payments ‘on hold until delivery’ was my final straw! I have 2 deliveries that are small Pokemon cards worth less than £6 and they aren’t worth attaching tracking too.

For items £10 and less you do not have to add tracking.  see eBay's latest announcement here:

We’ve also heard your feedback and understand that shipping costs are particularly top of mind for low price items. When you’re selling a single item for £10 or less, and it’s sent untracked, funds will now be available 24 hours after you receive positive buyer feedback. This will be live by the end of February.

Yep,  I know,  most buyers do not leave feedback, and I would never usually recommend this,  but sending the buyer a polite message,  asking if they would kindly leave some feedback, explaining with eBay's new rules, payouts from sales are not released until a buyer leaves feedback.

I do recommend only asking the once, any more,  and it may look like harassment.

Think most buyers then would leave some ?

@pokeruby87 

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[pokeruby87]

I would absolutely agree, normally you would find this! However in the ‘Pokemon community’ this only spurs people on to get a ‘freebie’ unfortunately. Because a a SOME people, not all! Will see it as an opportunity to be dishonest and take a chance at getting the card for free, plus a refund by claiming they haven’t received the card at all! And as a seller I would have literally no leg to stand on and eBay sides straight with them! Asking for feedback just seems desperate and I’m not about that at all. 

[theelench]

Is even sending "one polite" request, explaining ebay's new rules, a good idea?

As you rightly say the frequently given advice is never  to message a buyer asking for FB.  The danger being that it's quite possible some buyers, incensed by the follow-up, would indeed leave FB, but a big fat negative, to teach the seller a lesson for asking, even politely.

Ebay has already declared that all private sellers are bad enough that their buyers need to be protected from them.

How much worse will they be made to appear with even a few negatives on their otherwise spotless accounts? 

How much more damage will they do to the seller's ability to sell anything when added to what ebay has already done to restrict and sabotage their sales?  

[bezerksturn28]

Totally agree.Ebay aren’t taking off a fee when you sell but you have to lower what you sell at anyway to attract buyers so you lose out.Stop changing things and revert back to the old way.

[wintersdawn1]

I never have and never will send a message to a buyer asking them to leave feedback as to me its seems inappropriate and even one message seems too pressuring.

This 'concession' made by ebay of releasing funds 24 hours after positive feedback is left by a buyer for untracked items under £10 is totally worthless and they know it.

Such little feedback is left by buyers ebay know they will retain the majority of private sellers money for the full 14 days so were happy to announce this 'concession' and those who favour ebay promote it as some kind of wonderful thing, its not and asking buyers to leave feedback should not be necessary to release private sellers money.

[tsclassics]

I've given up with it it's the final straw for me will be resorting to Facebook marketplace vinted and car boot all of which are much less hassle now with the stupid prices my sales are massively down on ebay I was easily doing £1k a month as a nice little sideline but now I'll be lucky if it's 1/10 of that I think about how I buy and all its doing is pushing buyers to paid for business sellers who pay subscriptions to ebay. 

No point ebay advertising free selling fees if nothing ever sells. I even out things on 0.99 auction and no one even views them and they are items with good value.

As soon as my current orders are finished I'm done. 

[rogerday]

The crass stupidity of this policy makes negotiating with a potential buyer almost impossible. Supposing a buyer wants to offer lower prices on multiple items s a combined package. How the hell can you negotiate sensible when the price the buyer sees is different from the price the buyer sees?  Sales will be lost because of this absurd policy. And what is the purpose of it? Simply so Ebay can make the false claim that selling on Ebay is free. I would rather have a seller fee payable on completion of the sale than have the buyer see a different purchase price than my listing

[honeymonster007]

Would working out a price with the buyer then creating a separate listing for them with the combined items incl the postage work? 

The buyer sees the total price combined, they only see the BPF % from the invoice, the seller can see the price + the BPF.. think it would work but would just take a little numbers juggling, practice and a few messages back and forth. 

[col8361]

Is that really worth the hassle for a small private seller?

[honeymonster007]

Think it just depends on what you want. 

[lamulady2]

I am not tech minded so possily could not move to another site but I thoroughly agree with you. BUT we have to realise that we have had  over 5 months of selling for free! The new edicts are infuriatingly 'big brother' like. However, I am adding a rider to my items as soon as I can (I have RATHER a lot!!) indicating that I regard the extra tax as iniquitous & I am refunding all buyers with it, counting it as a reversal of our "free sales"  Lower priced goods have around 10% levied but the more expensive items drop down to about 5%. I have also decided to buy labels direct from Royal Mail ( I use them quite a lot esp. as EBay knocked out the 500-750gms level) & have added a rider that any difference will be adjusted to the customers' 'refund' I regard this as a type of circumnavigation of EBays dictatorial attitude. Recently I have also found that one cannot change the method of "buyer chosen" level from  items some while back, so again I go direct to Royal Mail. It takes longer typing the address etc but, as I get all my items collected by them I have to use it anyway.

Don't "skip them"!! Take them to a charity shop....more & more are using EBay anyway I notice.No bargains any more!!!

[papso22]

Just be careful with your wording for the refunds.  You can't refund something you didn't get so you can't refund the BPF, you can refund an amount equivalent to the BPF.