Revising prices with Buyer Protection Fee now implemented

[pinkychukkles]

Morning, I'm a private seller starting to sell off my record collection. Now that the BPF has been implemented, all the BIN prices that display to buyers are showing as odd amounts rather than the round pound amounts they were previously.

I've amended a couple individually but it's a bit of a pain because you can't input a figure that includes the BPF that you want to be the one that shows to buyers.

Whilst I've only got around 60ish listings at the moment, it would really help to be able to bulk edit the prices to figures that included the BPF so the totals would be what the buyers see but that isn't possible as things stand? Is anyone aware of any movements from eBay that this could change? Thanks.

[andha-21]

I admit I'm not fully awake yet, but how exactly do weird numbers help you spot pseudo private sellers?

The BPF fees apply to all private sellers regardless to their actual commercial intent.

So even legit private sellers could still end up with weird numbers.

[badger1-0767]

just getting my head round this for the buyer.

if i sell an item for a £1.85 and offer free postage basically adding the second class stamp to the selling price

it works out as £2.64 

but if i sell the Item for £1.00 and put the postage as 2nd class 85p

it works out cheeper works it out at £2.61 

so it works out cheeper adding postage than offering free postage ??

[sml192]

Yes, the buyer protection fee is only added to the item price and not the postage so including the postage in the item price will, therefore, increase the buyer protection fee. 

[badger1-0767]

thankyou i thought i was loosing the plot, as before they took a % of the postage which was one of my gripes

[fordcux36]

BPF is simply a totally unfair 'Buyers' Premium' in disguise & with which I vehemently disagree. It's bad enough having to wait for MY money until the item is deemed as 'delivered', even longer if it's an international package, but this latest fiasco is very worrying, especially if it deters people from buying via eBay. Postage-wise I've always used Royal Mail, with virtually no issues in over 12 years of selling, so delivery confirmation should  be accurate; we shall see.

Personally I would rather revert to the old & trusted system of paying commission; at least you knew where you were. These new arrangements are unforgivable; if there was a viable alternative I'd leave eBay tomorrow. Just hope upon hope that someone will see sense.

As Basil Fawlty famously once said: " that's another avenue of pleasure closed off"!

[dorothy3131]

As a buyer wasn't happy to find out about buyer protection fee added on. Your are not even given the choice whether you want it or not .  It's putting me of Ebay .  Another site I was on does that only bought one item of it cause didn't like paying extra. Why couldn't they leave thing's the way they were.

[delvyn45]

I can only assume from eBay bringing in this unnecessary buyer protection nonsense that it is a process of getting rid of private buyers.   As I have already said in my comment above the eBay buyer already had excellent buyer protection without having to pay for it. My own personal private selling appears to have stalled on eBay but I am using another auction site now plus Freeads, Gumtree to sell my personal items with some success and my buyer's doesn't have to pay this ridiculous buyer's premium. 

[mawels_87]

I've not listed or sold anything here since last May. I thought I would try listing one item just to see how things work now as a Private seller. The listing price I wanted to show to buyers at £69.00, so listed at £65.65p for it to be seen as £69.00. So yes my listing does show as £69.00 to the Private buyer I think. But I then realised that Business sellers buyers don't pay buyer protection fees, so they must be seeing my listing as a Business buye at £65.65p, not £69.00. Have i got this right in what I'm thinking? 🤔 

[lucy_farmer]

I think *everybody* who looks at your listing will see the £69.00 price.

It doesn't matter *who* the buyer is, it's only the seller that determins whether or not there's a BPF.

[andha-21]

@mawels_87 

I don't know about seeing, but they should certainly pay the lower amount.

[mawels_87]

I understood that business buyers don't pay buyer protection, so why would they need to see the buyer protection fees  included in the listing price at £69.00? It seems logical that they would see £65.65 without the fees added.

[andha-21]

Logic can be found at Amazon. Here bat*bleep* crazy rules the roost.

[lucy_farmer]

'.....understood that business buyers don't pay buyer protection...'

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Ooohhh....... I thought *every* buyer had to pay it? Just that business sellers don't charge it.....

(need valueadded's help here :  she can read turgid business T's and C's and turn them into English 😄)

[sml192]

The buyer protection fee applies to all purchases from private sellers on ebay.co.uk.  It isn't determined by the type of buyer. 

I think you are misinterpreting the bit in the Buyer Protection help page about buyer protection being included at no additional cost when purchasing from a business seller. 

Business buyers will still pay the buyer protection fee when purchasing from a private seller but can reclaim the VAT element of the fee if they are VAT registered. 

'Who pays the Buyer Protection fee?

The buyer pays the fee to eBay when purchasing from UK private sellers (excluding Cars, Motorcycles & Vehicles, Classified Ads and Property).

Buyer Protection is included at no cost to the buyer when purchasing from business sellers, or from private sellers based outside the UK.'

[mawels_87]

Thanks for that.  It's all so confusing. Vinted have it right by showing what the seller has list it for, and what the price will be with buyer protection added just below that.

[delvyn45]

You are correct.  Business sellers do not pay for buyer protection.

[lucy_farmer]

'Business sellers do not pay for buyer protection.'

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Business sellers don't charge for buyer protection (the BPF) when they sell something, but they do have to pay  it (like everybody else)  if they buy something from a private seller.

[buffster1963]

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@delvyn45 wrote:

You are correct.  Business sellers do not pay for buyer protection.

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That is not correct. They do have to pay it. 

[honeybee288]

Totally agree and hope ebay re-evaluate this decision.  As a buyer  of many years I feel cheated by the new system as it does not offer a choice and is not straighforward.  To ebay I ask them to go back and think again.

[thegubman2012]

As a private seller the BPF has killed my sales and selling low value items a waste of time. Before we had unfair selling fees, now that has been passed onto buyers. EBay are just plain greedy, this will be my last year of selling on this platform. Why not charge a fair fee that encourages sales, afterall 5 to 10% of something is better than nothing?