MESSAGE TO EBAY: YOU GIVE WITH ONE HAND AND TAKE MORE AWAY WITH THE OTHER!

[whitehouselearning]

MESSAGE TO EBAY

YOU GIVE WITH ONE HAND AND TAKE MORE AWAY WITH THE OTHER!

Your new rules are both unfair and highly prejudicial to private sellers for the following reasons:

1. Buyer Protection Fee means that if a seller lists an item for £18.51you will change that to £20.00. How is this protecting or helping sellers to sell their items at a reasonable price?
2. You have decreed that you will immediately add the Buyer Protection fee to all existing Buy-It-Now listings. Not only is this extremely unfair it is also utterly deplorable and its lawfulness is questionable. Such retrospectivity is rarely applied to our laws the expectation of individuals being, that if their actions today are considered by a future court, the applicable law at that time will be performed; but it also flies in the face of all acceptable business practice because it invalidates what was previously valid by enacting that, as at a past date the rules shall be taken to have been that which they were not.
3. Calling this a "Buyer Protection Fee" is an invidious euphemism which is not fooling anyone since it is, in fact, yet another means for you to earn more money off the backs of struggling sellers.
4. You are giving buyers 24/7 customer support so that they can connect with a real person by phone at any time of day - but you have failed to afford sellers - who really need this - the same facility.
5. "Paid After Delivery" means sellers cannot post very light and low cost items by ordinary mail but must swallow the extra cost to send them tracked and which, in many cases is more than the sale price of the item.
6. Your new rule for "untracked deliveries, or tracked deliveries with no delivery confirmation signal, that funds will be available 14 days from the order date", is simply shocking because (which is not exhaustive):

          (a) You know perfectly well that couriers habitually leave items on the doorstep

          of buyers so that it could be stolen or unscrupulous buyers can falsely claim that

         they never received it; and  

         (b) You get to hold on to our money for even longer than when you used to charge 

         sellers a commission and paid out promptly; thereby earning vast amounts of

        interest for yourselves.

1.  Your 'Simple Delivery' means that sellers are forced take their items to a Post Office or drop it into a post box if it will fit. But, what about disabled sellers who cannot do this and rely upon collection (which Royal Mail provides for free)?
2. 'Simple Delivery' is provided by Packlink whom I would not use again if you paid me to do so since, in my experience, they are a thoroughly disreputable firm who use every possible device to avoid paying sellers the compensation they have paid for and have proven to be due.
3. Needless to say, you are undoubtedly earning a fat commission from Packlink as well.
4. The only 'new' assistance your rules offer sellers is that neutral or negative feedback for delivery-related issues can be requested to be removed from an account. This is nothing new as it was supposedly already in existence and I am forced to observe, from personal experience, that this quite the most disingenuous fairytale as you have failed to remove any such feedback in circumstances where the buyers have been proven to be lying.
5. The Global Shipping program. You are already charging private sellers an international fee of 3% if the delivery address for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside the UK which you unfairly calculate on the total amount of the sale which includes the item price, any handling charges, postage, and any applicable taxes.  
6. On top of all that, you have decreed that, on 20th January 2025, all active listings using the Multi-buy discount tool will automatically become multi-quantity listings, and the discounts will be removed.

In conclusion, I have shown that you have now made eBay a more horrible place for private sellers than before you brought in the 'free to sell' by clawing back even more than the commission you previously charged thereby (allegedly) giving with one hand and taking more away with the other.

I rest my case.

[historicracer]

eBay also charges VAT on items that are VAT-able, such as antiques. Do they donate this over-charge to the VAT man? I bet they simply pocket this money -- probably a LOT of money, even millions per year.

[historicracer]

Sorry, I meant to say eBay charges VAT on items that are NON VAT-able, such as antiques and books. The must pocket this money. There is no way they do not know what they are doing.

[sutton-park-sales]

Does it not boil down to who is offering the (shipping) service and the point of supply? That is the usual test.

If the seller is providing the service as part of the sale process and the goods are zero rated, then the shipping is also zero rated.

However, when the shipping service is provided entirely by a third party, then surely it must include VAT regardless, unless the goods are being exported?

That would be down to HMRC to decide how much involvement, if any, the seller has in providing that service. I wouldn't hold your breath though. Normal taxation rules don't seem to apply to this platform - they never have.

[lady-faye111]

Think you have nailed this on the head absolutely 💯 correct 👍 both accounts with this scummy company that I have will be shut shortly far better platforms out there sales of parts and my others have just stopped people not leaving feedback or bad neutral negitives have basically stopped me returning the gesture not worth the hassles

[papso22]

---

@historicracer wrote:

Sorry, I meant to say eBay charges VAT on items that are NON VAT-able, such as antiques and books. The must pocket this money. There is no way they do not know what they are doing.

---

You are accusing ebay of fraud, not a good idea on a public forum.

[fingerless_plasterman]

DEAR EBAY MEMBERS DUE TO EBAY GETTING GREEDIER AND GREEDIER OVER THE YEARS THEY HAVE NOW COME UP WITH SIMPLE DELIVERY WHICH MEANS PRIVATE SELLERS CAN ONLY USE CERTAIN DELIVERY COMPANIES FORCED UPON THEM BY EBAY,WHILE EBAY GET FINANCIAL KICK BACKS MAKING SELLERS USE THEM WITH NO OTHER OPTION

I HAVE BEEN A LOYAL MEMBER HERE FOR 20 YEARS WITH 100% FEEDBACK BUT THIS IS THE LAST STRAW FOR ME

I HAVE DROPPED ALL MY PRICES TO ABSORB THE BUYER PROTECTION FEES I ALSO ALWAYS OFFERED FREE TRACKED POSTAGE BUT NOW EBAY WANT EVEN MORE MONEY FROM US SO MID APRIL WILL ONLY ALLOW US TO USE CERTAIN DELIVERY COMPANIES AT OUR EXPENSE

UNLESS WE MAKE A STAND TO YET ANOTHER FORCED  CHANGE TO LINE EBAYS POCKETS EBAY WILL END

PEOPLE MOAN BUT DON'T COMPLAIN

MAKE A STAND NOW OR LOSE EBAY FOR EVER

[lady-faye111]

Yes I agree 👍 totally I have dropped all my stuff as you sales have gone
down massively on both my accounts hopefully going to shut one account down
as I have enough of lies and deception ...what is your
intentions

[whitehouselearning]

Not only do I agree with every single word you have said, but I just got off the 'phone with one of their agents. I initially asked how I could write a letter and she told me THERE WAS NO WAY TO DO THAT! I therefore informed her, in no uncertain terms that, if ebay did not retract this new and insufferable edict, I would close my account on 15th April. She promised to relay that to the powers that be.

I echo your words: UNLESS WE MAKE A STAND NOW, NOTHING WILL CHANGE.

[jusali]

Let's not forget the pay wall that denies buyer views. In reality these muppets are restricting views unless you pay a fee? So let's add that to the list of additional fees.

[fingerless_plasterman]

Funny enough before i posted this i had a live chat with an agent for half an hour.they just kept giving me automated responses.it makes things simple and competitively priced postage and saves time.I explained it does not because the AI system sets the postage on the item weight you are selling does not take into account package weight box or packaging for protection so you end up spending time double checking you are not under paying or over paying.I just sold a camera for £24 reduced from £30 which included tracked first class postage because if i don't use tracked it can take weeks to get my money but i still have to wait nearly a week if the buyer is not in and collects from a post office a few days later.ebay hang on to your money as long as possible making interest then force you to use couriers they have kickback deals with.this is a form of dictatorship. Before businesses get on my case.i am not a business and do not pretend to be a private seller that actually is a business.i buy far more things than i sell and sell on ebay so i can buy things i usually wouldn't. the site is inundated  with scam sellers still here after years of reporting them but ebay do nothing to them.I shall be leaving on the 15th closing my account and ebay were not bothered when i said this.makes me laugh when i contact them and i get thank you for your loyalty but this is how we are treated

[lady-faye111]

They will do absolutely nothing as there are other damaging things coming
in the pipe lines on private sellers this unfortunately is just the
beginning we are moving to vinted more popular

[whitehouselearning]

As an addendum to my earlier post about talking to an agent, I would like offer some hopefully useful advice to everyone so as to actually make it easy to take a stand.

Don't bother with 'live chat' since you are almost always 'talking' to an idiot bot. Instead choose 'Simple Delivery' then quickly ask to speak to an agent. You will get a call back in under two minutes (yes, you read that right!) to whom you can express your views in the strongest terms and say that if ebay do not retract enforcing sellers to use their delivery service, you will close your account on 15th April. The agent I spoke to told me that this new rule has caused quite an uproar.

LET'S MAKE IT A TSUNAMI!

Maybe, just maybe they will listen.

[whitehouselearning]

UPDATE ON MY POST OF 12TH JANUARY 2025 REGARDING THE REFUND OF THE RETURN POSTAGE EBAY CHARGED ME

As I said, having won my appeal against the buyer, I asked for a refund of £7.93 (including VAT) the return postage which ebay charged me. As early as 8th November 2024, I received an email from an agent promising to refund this charge. No-one is going to be surprised to hear that the refund never materialised. I did not give up and plied them with emails. Fully 13 emails later plus two conversations with agents, from 8th November to date (a period of over 4 months) and umpteen broken promises nothing happened. The very nice lady agent (Trina) whom I spoke to today, promised to refund my money before the end of today. Needless to say, I didn't hold my breath.

LO AND BEHOLD, THE MONEY WAS CREDITED TO MY ACCOUNT JUST A FEW MINUTES AGO!

The moral of this story is that, you can take ebay to water and you can force them to drink - eventually!

[whitehouselearning]

RE: MESSAGE TO EBAY: YOU GIVE WITH ONE HAND AND TAKE MORE AWAY WITH THE OTHER

I sent the following email today to ebay's so-called 'customer help' at customerhelp_uk@ebay.com which is a joke!

"Dear Sirs

You are now about to force private sellers to use your so-called 'Simple Delivery' service in respect of which, I have two questions, which rather demonstrate that, in fact, this service is not so simple:

1. Clause 15-Opt Out of your Delivery T&Cs states:

"In some instances, Simple Delivery may be available as a delivery option at listing, and you may opt your item out of the Simple Delivery Services at the time of listing only." but you fail to say in which instances one can opt out.

(a) Can you please detail what these instances are?

1. Nowhere in your Delivery T&Cs, nor in your letter of 31st March re: 'Shipping made Easy' do you site an option for the courier to collect an item (e.g., all normal Royal Mail postings offer collection for free) but apparently only cater for drop-off. What of disabled sellers who cannot drop off any items and those who live in rural areas where, even if they could get to a post office, the time and expenses of doing so would reduce or extinguish any profit? This appears to mean that you are deliberately closing such an option for such sellers thereby prohibiting their use of such services and consequently, entirely shutting them out of selling on your platform.

(a) Do you offer such a collection option? and 

(b) If so, will you charge extra for this service? and 

(c) How much will that be?

Thank you for your kind attention and I await hearing.

yours, etc."

This is the response (doubtless automated) which I received:

"Hello ,

Thank you for taking the time to send your email. However, the address you sent the email to is not available to contact eBay Customer Service directly.
The best way to contact eBay is to copy the link below into a new browser window. You may need to sign in with your eBay username.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/home.

Please select the category that best describes your issue. This way, we can recommend the best way for you to contact us and provide you with a better, streamlined experience.
We know your time is valuable, and we appreciate you taking the time to express your concern.
Please don't reply to this message. It was sent from an address that doesn't accept incoming email.
Regards,
eBay Customer Service"

Needless to say, the link therein takes you a stupid bot, leaving the only option within that is to ask for an agent to call you. So much for 'Customer help'!

[brunosbrantub]

I agree, I have been selling books that my late husband collected and other odd bits and pieces and up until Christmas things were working fine,  I took a break in January and early Feb, came back and it’s a right old mess. First the buyers protection thing which annoys me as the prices are then so untidy and now the up coming changes to postage. I just want to stick the book in a Jiffy bag and write the label and take it to the post office down the road. 

It’s all too confusing and irritating that I have  taken down my listings while I watch what happens. I hope they revert back to the old ways (but have my doubts) 

[lady-faye111]

I totally agree it's now a full mess with paklink ripping us off charging
double on parcels this buyers protection is wrongly classified it should be
a listing fee that's where Ebay have gone wrong I hope to shut my account
down as it's not worth the hassles