Sneaky fees banned in the UK from today

[andha-21]

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/apr/06/uk-bans-22bn-sneaky-fees-and-fake-reviews-for-online-p...

The CMA are in charge of the crackdown

Fingers crossed. We may have some light at the end of the tunnel now.

[andha-21]

@fantailsforme 

There's also a specific part in the article that refers to unavoidable fees.

Sound familiar?

I do hope they try to counter argue this bit. 

[vinylscot]

I would take the word of @*vyolla*  and @papso22  any day, before I took yours @andha-21 

Both of these posters have been posting on here for many years, and have been unafraid to be critical of eBay if they feel it is justified. You, and certain others who are over-running the boards at the moment, are working to a pre-judged negative agenda, becoming more and more detached from reality, as time goes on.

I've said before, eBay, with access to some of the finest (and most expensive) legal minds in the country, are not going to be caught out by a couple of randoms on a message board.

The recent changes are not popular; I don't like them myself, but I have no doubt they are perfectly legal. If they don't work, or prove detrimental to eBay, I am quite sure they will be amended sometime in the future.

[fantailsforme]

Even if it does work out as perfectly legal, if it gets challenged and becomes common knowledge of what they are doing (colluding) eBay's reputation would be shot to pieces and mud sticks.

There has got to be a reason why in the whole world of eBay, its only the UK site that is having SD.

[akemp1]

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@fantailsforme wrote:

There has got to be a reason why in the whole world of eBay, its only the UK site that is having SD.

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It's probably a combination of how our postage market operates, we are the ideal size to test ideas (big and developed enough to work on scale, but not too big for it to affect the mothership's financial position), that we mostly use the same language, and how people of the UK seem to be generally resigned to the ongoing decline in our prosperity and Americans setting the rules by which we operate.

Whenever I go on calls with Americans they laugh at me and say I am drinking tea when I am actually slurping their diet coke.

[andha-21]

@fantailsforme 

Thank you.

@vinylscot and others here seem to think that just because they've done it, it must be legal.

It's a fairly normal logical fallicy.

But when you start applying that rationale/logic to the world at large, at any point in history it becomes blatantly obvious how flawed that thought process is.

If we challenge this via the legal authorities and they don't agree, lose whatever, we know where we stand.

With eBay we never do because transparency seems to be the last thing on their agenda at all times and all things.

If the legal authorities think we are on to something and act on it, we may see 1 or more of these programmes hit. Maybe they have to make alterations, maybe they have to remove some entirely.

We don't know.

But there's a bloody easy way to find out & quite frankly, in a reciprocal throw back @vinylscot , I'd prefer to find that out from legal authorities than take the word of 3 posters that have been on eBay a long time ..

[vinylscot]

0.01% of the time, you might have a case.

The other 99.99% - not so much.

Of course, the sure way to find out, would be to take that legal advice/action, and none of you blowhards seem to be doing that.

[andha-21]

@vinylscot 

How exactly would you know that?

Do you honestly think I would be stupid enough to come here and give a concise breakdown of the time and nature of any reports I made?

Ha ha. How charming!

& I'm the one with a thin grasp on reality.

That's beautiful.

Thank you. You've made me laugh.

[akemp1]

I hope the debate doesn't get personal as the issues with SD are important so we don't want any threads deleted or the sharing of views or information to be curtailed.

I actually agree with @vinylscot that if this is a disaster for Ebay UK they will have to change it but I disagree that we should just roll over and accept whatever they say as they have expensive lawyers because there are numerous examples in the past where big expensive lawyers have been completely wrong (sometimes found to be acting illegally themselves) and in the area of competition law and consumer harm it's more nuanced and subjective and none of us know what the CMA would consider fair, what relevant disclosure might exist within ebay/evri, or even if they would bother to investigate. All we can and should do is report our concerns if we see something that looks wrong and hope they take appropriate actions.

[vinylscot]

I do agree with you @akemp1 , but face it - nobody's doing anything about it in real life.

You can tell quite easily, from the tone of people's postings, whether they are really the sort of people who will actually take the action they advocate, and whether they are intellectually capable of doing so.

I would rather this doesn't get personal either, but I've been here long enough to have seen this type of posting many many times. Extremely rarely, if ever, do these posters ever follow through, and apart from one recent post (unrelated to this matter), I can't remember any of these "campaigners" ever coming back to let us know how they get on.

It's all just so much noise.

[akemp1]

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@vinylscot wrote:

You can tell quite easily, from the tone of people's postings, whether they are really the sort of people who will actually take the action they advocate, and whether they are intellectually capable of doing so.

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I get the impression that a number of people here who are upset are filing reports with relevant authorities hopefully detailing how it is individually affecting them. I don't personally see value in calling customer services or raising a complaint with ebay as I think the decision makers will only be motivated by the profile of transaction volume decline and if they see signs of recovery or it starts looking terminal.

At the end of the day we are just ebayers and we don't currently have the resources or organisation to be employing our own lawyers or starting a group litigation Alan Bates style against oppressive contract terms being imposed by a big company with expensive (and wrong) lawyers. Maybe if ebay SD upsets enough postmasters...

[andha-21]

Hope you are having fun. You honestly have me laughing.

[irobot100]

Exactly  recent history shows with the PPi  mortgages and now the car finance mis selling that large companies, financial institutions can get it drastically wrong...could these not afford the best lawyers in town ?

in theory Ebay could have a 99% selling fee and charge 99p to sell a £1  item and that would be perfect legal. Ebay have been careful with clarity over these fees  and its all shown in the order details ect so they can work around the sneaky accusations...The Grey area is are they forcing customers to pay for a service that is not needed ....

One item on the news which is a negative is our government's softening to large American companies regarding tax etc ....ie   go very easy on them and we get lower tarrif's and trade deals.

Who knows how it will all pan out......will the storm blow over and buyers and sellers adapt and carry on as before - as Ebay hope ???

 One thing always for sure is that only time will tell...

[wintersdawn1]

I don't think we should *assume* that just because ebay have access to expensive advisors and lawyers that they wouldn't do something illegal.  They may have received advice against doing something but decide to do it anyway.

When greed is in the driving seat, as with ebay, anything is possible.

[whiteescargot]

Ebays BPF charges for something you already get from credit cards, banks, PayPal and even ebays own moneyback guarantee. You're paying for nothing you don't already have. 

[action_man]

What an interesting and revealing thread this is. You can almost predict who will show up and what they will say. I look forward to seeing more of the familiar faces show up.

The posts saying things along the lines of "NOTHING about that has anything to do with eBay" seems to me to be a strange thing to assert. If that is true then why would someone questioning it be so threatening to need to pass comment on at all, let alone assert NOTHING in capital letters. It's only a forum and people commenting on things like this shouldn't be a problem.......... unless you have something to hide, or actually the wheels are beginning to fall off the wagon.

Don't look at the wheels. There is NOTHING to see there.

Actually, I think I'll make my own mind up as to what I want to look at and pass comment on. I don't need "experts" or "mentors" to "inform" me. I'm quite capable of making my own mind up, as are most people.

If eBay are doing everything above board then it doesn't matter at all what any of us are saying. It's all only opinions and speculation. Unless you actually work for eBay then you can't speak for eBay. Also, some people seem to think they know the law inside out and can say what is correct and what isn't. I don't think so. This is why we have courts. So, forum "experts" are really just blowing hot air like the rest of us. It's only a forum, it doesn't really matter. We're all just expressing ourselves.

But one thing is for sure. All eyes are on eBay and their SNEAKY ways and there is PLENTY to see.

[pulseofthedead]

Yes an interesting thread. Can the Post offices actually refuse SD parcels…

[wintersdawn1]

Hey, I received a notification that my post was selected as the 'solution' to this thread, then two minutes later it wasn't, who's the mind changer?!

[action_man]

vinylscot: I would take the word of @*vyolla*  and @papso22  any day, before I took yours @andha-21 

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Wouldn't it be more balanced to focus on what is being said, rather than who said it? Surely each person has some things you agree with and disagree with, no matter who they are?

This isn't a school playground where we back up our friends no matter what they say, is it?

Or is it?

Is that what's going on here?

Obviously you get a general feel for the flavour of what someone posts and you will naturally gravitate to who you feel more in tune with. But to state that you would take the word of particular people over other people any day seems a bit more like you're trying to diminish someone rather than their words. It shouldn't become so personal. It shouldn't be about taking sides. I don't agree with much that you say, but I still try to read your posts with a more neutral stance. This post from you though I feel highlights something a bit distasteful. We should all be focusing on the words being said and not forming cliques (highlighting the other people's names so they get informed that you have made that post appears to be calling for them to come and comment too).

As Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder said in Ebony & Ivory, there is good and bad in everyone.

We all need to be more tolerant and accept that each person wil have things to say that we agree with or disagree with, but not gang up to put someone down. This should be somewhere where people are free to say whatever they want (within reason). Trying to silence people or intimidate them into silence is bullying. The forum should be free from any of that.

[wintersdawn1]

@andha-21 Thanks for accepting my post as the solution:

[andha-21]

@wintersdawn1 

My pleasure. There were a few worthy posts here. Unfortunately some of the Mentors seem to have other opinions and appear to have decided their opinions are worth more than mine.