Reduced fee promotions since February 2023 ?

[lostloads]

I used to receive regular reduced fee promotions, whether it was 70% off, 80% off or maximum £1 etc.

Apparently, like many on here, these abruptly stopped in late February 2023.  My wife has continued to receive a promotion every 2 weeks on her eBay account without exception since that point. Not a single one for me. eBay advise that they are random, but the evidence appears to contradict that.

Anyway, there are several threads on this situation from others.

My question is for anyone in this position who also experienced these promotions suddenly ceasing in February. Has any private seller had a promotion granted to them since then, say after a couple of months without any. I'm curious if most people are in the same position as myself - when the promotions stopped, they have disappeared completely (so far). 

Or whether sellers in that position have been gradulally seeing them re-appear once again.

[make-my-day-357]

Once I have found an offer I click on it and it will either accept or it will state offer has expired. I that happens I just continue looking until I get one that accepts. Then the offer goes live 0:00 hrs on the Friday.

[the_book_seekers]

I've followed the threads on the withdrawal of FVF promotions and a large number of those who have posted about it are or give the perception of being business sellers registered as private sellers either by what they are selling or the quantity sold. Some genuine private sellers have lost the FVF promotion. This could be ebay's way of clawing back some of the revenue they have missed out on from lost shop subscriptions/FVFs.

ebay will never admit this is the case. 

[litp*records]

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@the_book_seekers wrote:

I've followed the threads on the withdrawal of FVF promotions and a large number of those who have posted about it are or give the perception of being business sellers registered as private sellers either by what they are selling or the quantity sold. Some genuine private sellers have lost the FVF promotion. This could be ebay's way of clawing back some of the revenue they have missed out on from lost shop subscriptions/FVFs.

ebay will never admit this is the case. 

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It seems that is the case.  Such sellers have had it good so long and they don't even realise it - some don't even realise they are businesses (regular selling/buying or making to sell/high total value of sold items).  Ebay obviously knew they would only list on 70% off promos.  Leaving properly registered business sellers to subsidise their own competitors.

FWIW I have an active business account with lots of items, which has had about 3 promo offers in the last 5 years.  I also have a genuine private account which currently has 1 low value item for sale.  A couple of weeks ago, my private account received a 70% off fees offer.  Can they not see that sellers would be tempted to just move all their items over to their private account where they are getting a discount, it's human nature (I didn't take that offer up, though).

[9bujennie123]

Hi.

I have tried looking. What are you putting in the search engine please.

thanks

[9bujennie123]

Did you manage at all?

[make-my-day-357]

No it is not working for me - but it is probably because of the Christmas Holiday period;

I seem to remember NO OFFERS last Christmas, They will probably start again in the new year.

[gizby]

Appreciate this is an old thread but the issue keeps coming up and it's something sellers are concerned about.

I got reduced seller fee emails for years on a regular basis during a period I wasn't selling on ebay. They stopped in the Spring last year. When I started selling again (Oct 2023) a friend who wasn't selling on ebay at the time said she was still getting the promo offers every other weekend and to look out for them.

I contacted ebay customer services who said they're sent out automatically and that I'd get a seller fee discount email "soon".

A month later, still no offer. I contacted customer services again and the advisor said she needed to check my seller status and if I'd been selling on a regualr basis in the last 3 months. She subsequently said I qualify for a fee discount and that it would be sent to me but she could not say when. I asked if she could generate the offer and she said no but she had another offer for me as a buyer! I said I didn't need to buy anything but want to sell. The advisor went silent on me for about half an hour without disconnecting. I waited while getting on with something else.

Another advisor then joined the chat and went through the same questions again. I asked if I hadn't received it because ebay is discouraging private sellers with low value items. She said that isn't the case and that ebay relies on both buyers and sellers. This was about a week ago and I still don't have an offer.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has joined the ebay focus groups and raised this issue.

[trevdbowler]

I did try on a Wednesday , and clicked on all promo links.
All failed due to either ‘offer expired’ or ‘not for you, by invitation only’.

[trevdbowler]

Been there, done it, got the same responses from EBay.. I.e. that it's random.  Promises but no promos.   I've been selling lots over last 2 months, many items around £5-20.

my local pal has been getting them every 2 weeks, my last one Feb 23rd.

[make-my-day-357]

Just to let you know how I think the "promo offers" work through my experience over past Year - 18months :

The "promo offers" are random and sent to private sellers which are selected randomly but mostly to sellers

that have not sold anything for a set period of time, say 4 - 5 weeks or a month.

I have a cousin whom was selling his collection of sought after books, films and some music. Because of his

work commitments he was not listing stuff every week and he was getting the 80% off fees offer every fortnight.  Also, he has now cleared all he wanted to and hasn't listed for many weeks now but is continuing to receive the offers, obviously trying to get him listing again.

In his period of selling, which as I said was not constant, I was listing and relisting items every week and constantly. I was not getting any regular offers and only once a month if I was lucky. That is when I decided to start searching for offers through Google and found out I could find 70% off fees every fortnight and as ealy as Wednesday pm for the follow 4 day stint starting on Fridays.

Basically what I think is happening is that if you list items all of the time, ebay will only send you the offers rarely / once in a while, where as, if you don't sell regularly they will "tempt" you with their promo offers on fees.

The way to try and get the offers frequently whilst continuously listing, is to search google for any offers.

It has been working for me through the last 6 months of '23. I think it has not worked this weekend for me because of the christmas break? -  And No One has received any offers this week !!

Hopefully my google system will work from next week because I have a lot more films / items sitting in the draft folder ready to go. - - - - -

Of course having put this idea out there in an earlier post, my fear is I have shot myself in the foot  😞

[gizby]

Thanks for the tip 😃. I googled and found an expired discount offer so at least I know where to look next time! As you say there doesn't appear to be any over the holiday so think I'll do the same as you and draft listings and set them live when I find the discount. 👍

[colonel-sanders]

Ask £280 for it, then the fees won't matter.

[make-my-day-357]

Just to CONFIRM so you all know - still NO OFFERS on fees for Private Sellers and now it's Friday it confirms we will now have to wait until Next Week  😞

I will just leave all my unsold items in the "unsold folder" and the dozen or so Drafts in that Draft folder.

They will stay there until I receive a Fees Offer.

I can not be the only private seller that does this ??

I still think we are in the "slow" period just after Christmas/NY and maybe the "offers" will return after

mid January.

It would be interesting to know if ANYONE has had any offers - I Don't Think So !!

[trevdbowler]

then it wouldnt sell.

[make-my-day-357]

Yeah but I can wait because I am sure an offer will arrive to temp me and if not one has two options either increase the prices (to cover fees) or dare I say it look elsewhere to sell.

[you_quiver_we_deliver]

Hi, As a private seller, I used to receive the reduced fee offers every two weeks. It stopped a week before Christmas and haven’t had any new offers. I also have items in Draft and Unsold so will wait a little longer and see if they return in the coming weeks before listing them.

Fingers crossed 🤞 they return soon, normally on a Friday morning. 

[gizby]

I checked google and all of the offers of seller fee discounts were either expired or invite only. Plenty offering discounts as a buyer!

The following might be worth a try. I contacted CS yesterday a third time and the agent advised me to go to my Communication Preferences page and tick every boxes. The last two were unticked which says if you untick these options you may not receive notification of offers. This rings a bell because I was fed up of spam and think I unticked them at some point. I've now ticked them, the agent said I'll get the offer soon and he voluntarily raised the issue with Dublin. Fingers crossed, I'll post on here again if I get any offers. Good luck everybody 🙂

[make-my-day-357]

I just spoke to my cousin whom has not sold anything for about 2 months but still gets offers fortnightly and he said a received another 70% off offer last Friday 29 Dec.!! ?

[trevdbowler]

I'vce just ticked them all, 2 higher ones were unticked.  But they were irrelevent ones.
Please tell me - what phone number did you use ?   I find it so difficult to contact them, on Live Chat I ask them to phone me, 1 hour later get a msg saying they tried to ring me but a fault on my line - rubbish !  

[humphrey7436]

None here

in 2023 had the 70% variations every two weeks on the Friday morning without fail.  Now 2024 was hoping to get one today but nothing there.  I wanted to sell a watch but nearly 13% of a couple of grand is a big hit for me.  Oh well maybe next week!!