NO LONGER SELLING DUE TO SIMPLE DELIVERY

[rugbyguy1960]

AS OF 15TH APRIL MY DAYS AS A PRIVATE EBAY SELLER WILL STOP AFTER 19 YEARS.

I AM FED UP OF THE GREED OF EBAY AND I HOPE OTHER EBAY SELLERS DECIDE TO NO LONGER LET THE EBAY CONTROL FREAKS HAVE THIS MUCH CONTROL OVER PRIVATE SELLERS.

[jonatjonatjonat]

And in reality with the way eBay often changes its policies how long do you really think it will be before eBay changes a similar policy to a business seller

What an odd line of reasoning.

[theelench]

Yes it was always a buyer fee, but it was effectively hidden by calling it a FVF and subtracting it from what the seller was paid.  NOT , as now, very visibly adding it to what the buyer pays at checkout.

Even if the fee is exactly the same, it still looks like an additional fee on the buyer and it is suicidal to make the buyer aware of how much they are paying ebay in fees to buy on the platform.

But at the end of the day, as a private seller and buyer, what really puts me off buying or selling anything at all on ebay is that it was un-necessary.  Ebay should have tackled the business sellers engaging in criminal deception (both as buyers and sellers) head-on.

Instead ebay chose to scape-goat innocent Private sellers as the sellers that buyers needed to be protected from and to sabotage their sales by only adding the fee to their already meagre sales.

Ebay is once again condoning the widespread criminal activity of business sellers on its site and protecting the guilty by throwing the innocent under a bus.  Any private seller who is willing to do business with ebay under such conditions is a fool IMO.

[rugbyguy1960]

I guess it all depends on the category items come under.

My 2 collections are signed cd's (not fake signatures) and real silver coins and bars. By definition i would never be a business seller because I only buy 1 of each item I get. I sold the ones that werent my favourites to make room for ones I wanted to get as they were released.

That makes me a 100% private seller who wouldn't want to be a business seller even if i had the choice.

SD is not compulsory for business sellers and that is the big and only plus in my eyes. Today made me laugh though, because a item i brought from a business seller is being sent using ama zon logistics lol.

[jonatjonatjonat]

its nothing to do with categories. ebay could not be clearer of the reasoning as to why a business account is needed. As you say, you do not sound like a business seller.

Today made me laugh though, because a item i brought from a business seller is being sent using ama zon logistics lol.

What exactly is the issue? Amazon offer capabilities to ship out via Multi Channel Fulfillment (at an increased cost) or via Amazon Shipping. Both are valid means of shipping?

[honeymonster007]

Have had that as well, have had an ama zon delivery come via the local postman as well. Guess these sites are being cross linked somehow now.  They'll be buying each other out next.

[rugbyguy1960]

I agree. I no longer sell here and only buy the odd items here if I can't buy them directly or get them easily elswhere.

While SD is compulsory and postage costs are higher I will not sell on here, plus I no longer buy things on here that I don't need.

So as far as I'm concerned this platform is not getting money from me like it used to.

[tinksemporium]

@jonatjonatjonat 

This is where you are wrong. Not everyone is actually a business. Some people sell things because they no longer want it, it is a duplicate or some other reason that is private/personal and has nothing to do with being a business. eBay was origianally created for private sellers to sell unwanted or no longer used items so that someone else can enjoy them. So a private seller being forced into Simple Delivery is just wrong as it is all about seller and buyer choice not what eBay wants at all times. So please get off the case of someone who is a private seller turning into a business seller to avoid SD as becoming a business seller has a lot of extra costs such as recurring listing fees, gallery fees etc.

[rugbyguy1960]

There is no issue with the amazon logistics thing. It just made me laugh that the seller is using a rival for postage.

As if private sellers will have that luxury.

Plus although it shouldn't be, but the private/business seller thing on here is such a grey area.

Anyway that's a subject for elswhere. This thread is for Simple Delivery related things.

[*devils.advocate*]

Oh I agree wholeheartedly that eBay has side-stepped the whole issue of pseudo-private sellers by ignoring the problem altogether.

And the blame lies solely at eBay’s feet.

But surely individuals should be taking responsibility for their own actions - or is this just a reflection on how low some people will stoop nowadays?

But many sites apply a buyer’s fee - but that is usually shown upfront - so these sites must also be being suicidal?

….. very visibly adding it to what the buyer pays at checkout …..

The price I see in a listing is the price I pay - if I see £10, I pay £10.

Yes, it’s broken down in the order details but it’s not added at checkout as you keep posting - the total I pay is still £10 no matter how it’s broken down - nothing is added.

But that is most certainly not unique to eBay.

As said, Simple Delivery has just made the whole situation worse for so many innocents and I don’t blame them one little bit if they decide to leave and try elsewhere.

I've always said SD would be a disaster - just look at eBay's past history with postal partners - but it's just, regretfully, the usual mess that eBay always seems to make of everything they do.

[rugbyguy1960]

I guess that's the bonus of being a business.

It's obviously why the freedom of choice for private sellers has been taken away here and because this platform would lose out on the money it now makes from the ridiculous SD.

[gmij1961]

As is a BPF an advertised cost  to the buyer it will have a direct  negative impact on the final sale price as most people will have a top price which they are prepared .  With traditional  sellers fees those fees were not so obvious so BPF has a double whammy . So if sale prices drop by more than selling fee then selling for free is really just a marketing scam . 

BPF is also a higher average rate than what most private sellers were actually being charge prior to free to sell .  As like many I  took advantage of the  regular bi-weekly discount offer on sales fees , I was paying less the 4% a year on selling fees . With BPF I would guestimate the Ebay are getting about 12% now on private sales . 

Prior to BPF the sellers fees were paid when the slae was done ( more or less)  but unless unless you get track  you could easily lose sight of these fees. The HMRC implications changed that for me as I started keeping records and the advantage of Ebay discounts became really noticeable ! 

I am only buying at present ( thanks to Ebay) and as a buyer I have no real issues whether I buy from a business or private seller providing they selling what I want for a price I want to pay . I practice l am more likely to buy from a private seller as the price is general lower  and one of the reason are the risks attached with buying from a private seller and more often than not the cheaper prices far out weigh those risks  .

Some of the debates on this  thread and probably other  about Private and Business seller   are quite entertaining to say the least .  To me SD & BPF just creates a bigger gap between the two and that really is not a good thing for Ebay to sustain .

Business sellers are good for Ebay as the revenue is more consistent and regular  but I doubt Ebay are following their current "strategy" to get rid of private sellers,  it just monumentally misguided by dodgy leadership .  

Another thing I find mind blowing is nearly 5 months since this all kicked off , SD still doesn't seem to be in place across the board . That alone shouts out things have not gone to plan .  Last year Ebay sacrificed the busier winter period selling fees to promote " Free to sell" .  If this actually led to a tangible downturn now is probably the time were things might start to change .   Lets hope 🙂

[rugbyguy1960]

Ebay should never have messed up the old final value fees for sellers. In those days listings werent altered and sellers could incorporate sellers fees into their listings so what a buyer saw was the price they paid.

Everything then was transparent for both sellers and buyers.

[jonatjonatjonat]

Of course I'm aware not everyone is a business. I know what the purpose of a Private Seller account is. I'm on one myself. But they make boxes. Literally make them.

[rugbyguy1960]

I agree with a lot in your post.

The bottom line here at the moment is that this platform isn't really bothered about things apart from making money any way it can from it's users.

User satisfaction here must be at a all time low especially for private sellers who have really suffered from all these draconian measures introduced.

I really used to be a advocate of this platform but those days have well and truly gone.

[rugbyguy1960]

I have to agree with the SD timescale being mind blowing. Like you said its nearly 5 months since it was introduced and it's still a long long way off being the finished thing.

So many changes still being made, literally no real communication from the platform.

It just shows how this has been so poorly thought out and so poorly implemented by a company of this size.

It just smacks of desperation by a platform in decline that knows its best days are no more.

[infohelps]

I agree that being a private seller at the moment is too risky for me too!  However, if eBay really wanted to address the situation of business sellers masquerading as private sellers they could do so easily.

Back in the 90s when I worked for a high street bank, we would receive monthly reports of customers who were suspected of using their accounts for business purposes.  This was based on turnover, the paying in of large amounts of cash, frequency of pay ins, and the type of withdrawals etc.  We then sent them a letter telling them to contact us to open a business account (or bank elsewhere) by a certain date.  I reiterate that this was back in the 90s using the computer software available then, which was much less sophisticated than the AI being used now!

Therefore, all eBay would have to do would be to get AI to search for various indicators of potential  business use, such as high numbers/value of sales, new items, multiple options (colour, size, styles) etc and certain keywords like 'hand made'.   Easy peasy. 

So why don't they?   Their failure to apply such a simple solution suggests that this situation irritates their business users far more than it does eBay itself!  I'm guessing that they know that business fees would frighten off many people who are just running a 'side hustle', and it's better to make something from these people rather than nothing, which would be the case if they leave.  

eBay also don't seem bothered by all the other things that irritate buyers and sellers, such as Chinese sellers pretending to be based in the UK.  In fact, they do not seem to be concerned at all about restoring the reputation of the platform, and making it enjoyable, safe and fair for all users again, whether buyers or sellers, be they private or business.  Their current business model seems to be make as much money as you can while you still can.  It smacks of desperation, as though they know only too well that the ship is sinking fast.

[blacksea213]

The new BPF is rather like the indemnity fee you pay at a car auction. It
protects the buyers from any potential legal issues etc. It is added on to
the hammer price plus any appropriate VAT. However car auctions are aimed
at professional car traders who understand such things. EBay is absolutely
not the same thing at all.

[goodibags]

It's also possible to have amassed a collection of things that WERE handmade or custom painted but not necessarily by the seller. They're just personal possessions.

[rugbyguy1960]

I just wanted to let everyone know this original thread has been unlocked and reopened.

PLEASE KEEP POSTS AS CLOSE TO THE THREAD TOPIC AS POSSIBLE.

THANK YOU.

[sunflowers4me59]

Thank goodness, I almost panicked when I saw it locked! Just when  a simple delivery hasn't moved since Monday (supposedly 48 hour delivery), I thought I might need help from now known IDs on this thread. But today it is saying they hope to deliver tomorrow. So fingers crossed.