This is going to mean the end for many small private sellers. "Buyer Protection Fee"

[vinylscot]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/paying-items/buyer-protection?id=5594

75p plus 4% buyers fee, so something which was priced at £5 will be £5.95 in February.

[belascos]

Completely fair and in line with 'V Site'. If you are purchasing from an individual, there is an inherent increased risk of transaction difficulties vs a professional business seller, so the buyer has to pay for the protection. Private sellers balances held until delivery - Incentivises seller to provide good service and to send on time, providing customers a good experience. AND, Private seller still pays no fees.

Meanwhile, it pushes high-volume 'private' sellers onto business accounts, ensuring they provide customers with their legal consumer rights, which are denied when these sellers use a 'private account' as a facade.

All in, a good change.

[vinylscot]

...if you're not a private seller selling lower value items.

[mlemon99]

How do ebay have the gull to write these totally contradictory two paragraphs in the same email? 

We’re excited to announce that from 4 Feb, buyers will benefit from a brand new protection every time they shop on eBay. What’s even better is that this comes at no extra cost to you or your buyers.

...

 As part of this, from 4 Feb, a Buyer Protection fee will be added to listings from UK-based private sellers so we can make investments into these protections. This fee will be included in the item price and be paid for by the buyer. As a reminder, this is free of charge for business sellers.

[belascos]

Same with most sites, low-value items are difficult to make profitable. Raising a £2 item to £3 etc, just increases the baseline price. Distant selling a £2,3,4 item is always going difficult as a seller.  As a business seller yourself, surely this is fairly, of potential benefit to you?

[myriad*seller]

At least it will encourage buyers to choose business sellers

The boards will be full of "THIS SELLER IS RIPPING ME OFFFFFFFF!" threads soon though....

Will be interesting pointing out that as the seller is a business trading on a private account no buyer fee should be payable..... when the business is trading on a private account meaning the buyer has to pay MORE!

I wonder how eBay will deal with that!! 

[myriad*seller]

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@vinylscot wrote:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/paying-items/buyer-protection?id=5594

75p plus 4% buyers fee, so something which was priced at £5 will be £5.95 in February.

---

I wonder how this sits with consumer protection legislation?

As we already have the protection of our legal consumer rights, can we be made to pay extra for consumer protection? Is it actually legal to charge for something we already have by law? 

[vinylscot]

I'm not only looking at it from my own point of view as a business seller.

I also have a small private account, which I occasionally use to move on bits and pieces I no longer want.

I am also a buyer, who would like to help small private sellers when I buy second-hand items from them, and this will now become significantly more expensive.

[kempseykate]

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@belascos wrote:

Completely fair and in line with 'V Site'. If you are purchasing from an individual, there is an inherent increased risk of transaction difficulties vs a professional business seller, so the buyer has to pay for the protection. Private sellers balances held until delivery - Incentivises seller to provide good service and to send on time, providing customers a good experience. AND, Private seller still pays no fees.

Meanwhile, it pushes high-volume 'private' sellers onto business accounts, ensuring they provide customers with their legal consumer rights, which are denied when these sellers use a 'private account' as a facade.

All in, a good change.

---

Do you sell much to business sellers? Or are many of your buyers also private sellers? If they leave, which I think a fair few will, where will your sales come from then?

[kath3735_wxmjn]

lot of rubbish.  As a buyer I have had more problems when buying from business sellers rather than private ones, i will admit i have had very few problems from either though.  As for holding the money it would make no difference to me as i always post the day following being paid.  No one is going to alter the way they do things just because they MAY get the money a day earlier...     I would rather pay a fee than have e bay dictating how i post my items.  As it is i will just stop selling.

[myriad*seller]

I'm looking at is as a buyer

I will certainly make sure I buy only from correctly registered businesses from now on (as I buy mainly brand new items)

Obviously for one of a kind secondhand items I will buy from private sellers, but I will be careful to make sure all new items come from legally registered businesses from now on 

The boards will be "fun" when buyers are charged extra when they **think** they are buying from a business, but aren't because the seller "forgot" to register correctly and legally! 

[kempseykate]

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@myriad*seller wrote:

At least it will encourage buyers to choose business sellers

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With this and the other changes, it won't encourage me to buy off business sellers, it will encourage me to sell and buy elsewhere.

[myriad*seller]

Yes, I am likely to try other places to buy where the price you see is the price you pay

I can't be doing with carrying out calculations to work out how much it will actually cost me

I will just buy elsewhere where the first price I see is what I pay! 

We British are used to paying the advertised price, not like in the US where you get your item to the till and they add on Sales Tax on top of the already expensive price of the item!!

[belascos]

Just because you have no issues and it won't change your incentives, does not mean that applies to everyone. My father uses Ebay all the time and most his purchasing issues, come from 'uk' companies dropshipping from 1000's of miles away, or buying fake items from private sellers. Everyone has different experiences, regardless, most sellers (private or business) are overwhemingly genuine.

There had to be a solution to businesses masquerading on private accounts. Secondly, how is the fee different to how 'V' Site works? It's the same and noone is moaning about that.

[hobbit66]

Why doesn't ebay stop all this *bleep* !  It's obvious they don't want private sellers so why not just turn the site in to a business sellers only platform then they can continue to rip sellers off to their hearts content.

As a buyer I am certainly not going to pay a fee in order to buy. Good bye ebay, I'll stick to Amazon for my purchases in future !

[moldosgifts]

As i understand it you will not need to work it out as it will be displayed to you as a buyer.

It will be similar to V as in basic price and price with the added buyer protection.

[**incy**]

It does not contradict as that email is for a buisness seller.

[555njp]

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@myriad*seller wrote:

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@vinylscot wrote:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/paying-items/buyer-protection?id=5594

75p plus 4% buyers fee, so something which was priced at £5 will be £5.95 in February.

---

I wonder how this sits with consumer protection legislation?

As we already have the protection of our legal consumer rights, can we be made to pay extra for consumer protection? Is it actually legal to charge for something we already have by law? 

---

I seem to remember that argument came to nothing regarding the % fee added to postage costs. Also, pay to promote, or to unhide a listing that we’ve already paid to have seen!

Motor auctions charge an indemnity fee to buyers to ensure true title. It’s basically an insurance policy in case the vehicle turns out to be stolen or owing finance that an HPI check might miss.

At least it’s being paid for by the seller. If it was passed onto a buyer (the few that remain) then it would be the end.

[wargamers_vault]

As a business seller I see this as a welcome change, for once something that will give us a slight edge.

[belascos]

Of course, mainly to private buyers. We hear about changes meaning the end to Ebay every year, yet I haven't seen the drop off thus far. Maybe this will change things, but ultimately who knows. Personally, I don't see why buyers will leave the site, as ultimately, these changes are now pretty similar to 'the other site' people use. 

Regarding the fee, it should bring the final cost price for buyers when purchasing from a business vs a private account to a closer parity. Private accounts have always been able to undercut businesses by 5-15% due to fees.

There were probably other solutions Ebay could have undertook, but I don't think this is too bad, it is in line with other marketplaces..