New buyer fees confused ?

[jactac7]

Please could someone explain in simple terms how this new buyer fee thing works.

I'm a private seller who lists the usual used clothes, plus the odd bits & bobs that are no longer required or needed.

When this new buyer fee thing was announced I read the info that ebay released, and after reading it my take was that, if I list something for say  £2 as a bid or buy it now, ebay would then add their fees to that amount and the buyer would see the increased amount on the listing, but all my listings are still showing the same amount that I listed them for ?

Theres no added fees showing on the amount, at least not that I can see ?

I've asked a friend to look at my listings to see if they can see something different but apparently they are seeing what I'm seeing, the original amounts with no added fees ?

They've even clicked on one of my items to buy but the total amount stayed the same ?

Am I looking at this all wrong or just not getting it.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

[the_bay_shop]

It's ridiculous, it's made my shop look silly when I want the price to look like a bargain, eg. with a 00 or a clean 50 or a 99 at the end.

Ebay, what are you doing???

[tresoweshillbilly]

seems ebay has finally lost the plot,i agree small price items just dont make sense now iv stopped listing anything under £10 . i havnt sold anything for awhile anyway  since stupid buyers fee ,prices just look weird and higher /plus with tracked post the buyers already fully covered ? . protection racket.!

     iv taken to clicking on revise item see how much the fee is then reducing my price by a bit less than that  then buyer sees price i originally wanted to list at ,,CRAZY what a faff.

[rcrowt]

The new Buyer Fees make selling so much more complicated.

When I want to sell something on eBay, I look at the prices similar items are selling for. I used to just list my items for that price and be done with it.

Now, I have to work out how much the "buyer fees" are and deduct that from my price.

Regardless of whether you call it a buyer or seller fee, it still costs the seller because the price the item sells for has had to be reduced to cover the buyer fee and make the price competitive.

[maujohwai]

Months after the Buyer Protection Fee came in, there are still anomalies:

• In their information for sellers, eBay say that the BPF is calculated as 4% + 75p, but on all my listings, it is 4% + 72p. Why?!! (That is why I am pricing many of my items to come out as £X.95, so that if the BPF actually changes to 75p, the end prices will still be just below the next £.)
• They say that offers from buyers always show how much the seller will get, but they don't say whether, if a seller makes an offer, that is the figure they will get.
• An item's page shows the price with BPF, but the BPF is not included if the item shows under "Pick up where you left off". I'm not sure what this category even is, because while most of the items I see are mine (and current listings, not drafts, as you might imagine from the heading), not all are.
• If you want to adjust a price to a normal figure (ending in .00, .99 etc.) in "Manage active listings", the box sometimes tells you what the BPF will be and sometimes it doesn't, even though eBay say it will. (When it doesn't, you have to open the whole listing to edit it, which is a faff. And in neither case does eBay do the addition for you, let alone just let you directly set a final price.)
• The information for sellers says: "If you send a partial refund to the buyer, we'll provide a prorated refund of the Buyer Protection fee to the buyer. For example, if you refund 50% of the item price, we'll refund 50% of the Buyer Protection fee back to the buyer." Why would eBay thus refund more BPF than if the buyer had only paid the 50% in the first place (because of the fixed 75p)? Doesn't seem in character...

[helva56]

THE WHOLE THING IS POORLY THOUGHT OUT, AND IT'S SOLE PURPOSE IS FOR EBAY TO CREAM MORE REVENUE FROM EVERY ANGLE, FACT!

I just bid £151.99 on an item,, winning bid shows " Sorry, you were outbid. This item sold for £147.45." as the so called buyers fee is worked as a percentage it increases as the bidding goes higher, so now before placing a bid I have to work out the bid will be after the fee is added, it can get confusing to say the least, and infuriating, the percentage on the lesser bid is less than the percentage on the higher bid, so it doesn't count as a higher bid. but as long as ebay get another bung eh!

I have comunicated with many sellers and buyers and everone is getting fed up with the constant "add ons" that impact sales, don't even get me started on "simple delivery" another idea to generate even more revenue for ebay. no wonder other sales outlets are becoming more popular.

[papso22]

You just bid the maximum you are prepared to pay, exactly like before.

[maujohwai]

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@helva56 wrote:

THE WHOLE THING IS POORLY THOUGHT OUT, AND IT'S SOLE PURPOSE IS FOR EBAY TO CREAM MORE REVENUE FROM EVERY ANGLE, FACT!

I just bid £151.99 on an item,, winning bid shows " Sorry, you were outbid. This item sold for £147.45." as the so called buyers fee is worked as a percentage it increases as the bidding goes higher, so now before placing a bid I have to work out the bid will be after the fee is added, it can get confusing to say the least, and infuriating, the percentage on the lesser bid is less than the percentage on the higher bid, so it doesn't count as a higher bid. but as long as ebay get another bung eh!

I have comunicated with many sellers and buyers and everone is getting fed up with the constant "add ons" that impact sales, don't even get me started on "simple delivery" another idea to generate even more revenue for ebay. no wonder other sales outlets are becoming more popular.

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I don't think this anomaly can be because the added-on fee is proportional to the bid, which I think is what you are describing: a bid of £151.99 would obviously beat a bid in similar terms of £147.45. Yours will have included the fee, but do you think the winning bid was expressed to you before the fee was added (the total would be £154.06 or so)? This would be just another symptom of the botched way this fee has been introduced.

[helva56]

 yes, I expected that to be the case, as you say "botched," every so called new addition to ebay  under the guise of new and improved is a botched up mess, sellers fees, simple delivery, the ridiculous message page that gives you a minuscule box to write the message in while the rest of the page is a blank space?, resulting in having to scroll up and down either to check your sent message, or read the reply, why on earth the keep insisting on mending things that aren't broke and working better without their constant meddling is a mystery.

[tresoweshillbilly]

tempted to bid on something last night only to find it was private seller /i hadnt noticed ,so my max bid was reduced to allow for stupid buyers fee  thus i loose item.

   id assumed ebay would let you bid what you wanted then add buyers fee afterwards ...but oh no .   ok so buisness sellers you bid your max and the bidding makes sense .

          but reducing max bid to allow for fee ? THIS REALLY DOESNT

[tresoweshillbilly]

yep i too  was so put out when same thing happened surely buyers fee should just be added to winning bid after private auction ends then at least you know what your bidding . ANNOYING SYSTEM !

[papso22]

Your max bid should be the max you are prepared to pay overall, which includes the buyer protection fee.  If you lose it's because the other person was prepared to pay more than you, overall.

[tresoweshillbilly]

er not exactly .ebay actually reduces your max bid on private sellers items  to allow for the buyers fee.

 so you now  need to add that fee onto what you were thinking of bidding . just my opinion but its a crazy two tier bidding system meaning you have to check if auction is buisness or private

[helva56]

seems you don't get it? others above get it ok.

as has been said more than once, if the buyers fee was added on afterwards it could work better, but I guess ai bots cant comprehend that.

[sml192]

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@helva56 wrote:

seems you don't get it? others above get it ok.

as has been said more than once, if the buyers fee was added on afterwards it could work better, but I guess ai bots cant comprehend that.

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I don't see how adding it on afterwards would help?  There would be just as many complaints plus it wouldn't be legal if the fee was hidden until the end.  Surely your maximum bid is the most you are prepared to pay, not maximum bid plus Buyer Protection Fee? 

[helva56]

Why do you think it would be hidden? nobody in their right mind would think that was acceptable, however it would be perfectly legal  to state your bid of for example £100 would have the buyers fee amount added at checkout or sooner.

[helva56]

the amount you bid as it stands is less the buyers fee, so not the amount the seller receives at all is it.

[helva56]

How did you come to the conclusion there would be as many complaints ?

please divulge your source.

[papso22]

An auction bid includes the buyer protection fee, so obviously what you are prepared to pay for the item includes the fee (and then any postage on top).

Ebay does not 'reduce your max bid', you max bid is your max bid.  You need to stop thinking about the item and the fee separately, it's what the purchase is going to cost you that matters and that is the total.

Where it does get confusing is that sometimes ebay shows an auction price as fee exclusive, and sometimes as fee inclusive, but it is the inclusive that matters. 

The seller gets the amount you bid, less the buyer protection fee.

[helva56]

yes we know, that's exactly what we are saying also.

sometimes it's inclusive, ????

sometimes it isn't.???

but only one of those matters.???

ebay doesn't reduce your bid.???

the seller doesn't get the amount you bid, ebay deducts the buyer fee, so effectively your bid has been reduced and the seller gets less.

yep, clear as mud,eh!

[the-nutwood-collection]

sometimes it's inclusive, ????

sometimes it isn't.???

Exactly.  That's the problem. 

Sometimes it is ... sometimes it isn't ... before you bid, check whether the seller is business or private (different selling T&Cs apply) ... make sure you read the text in the dialogue box to be sure that you're bidding what you intend to bid ... 

At a B&M auction, the buyer's premium is stated in the catalogue and announced at the commencement of the sale.  It doesn't flip-flop between lots.  The only additional premium that may apply to some lots is VAT - and that's stated in the catalogue and announced from the rostrum.

Why can't eBay understand that you have to make things easy for online buyers.  They must have simple, straightforward rules to follow.  They don't want to be challenged by an exercise in mental arithmetic.

IMO, auctions should have been excluded from the BPF malarkey.  All sellers, business and private, should be charged a commission on the sale.