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.

[blue_lamp_vintage]

Seller WILL pay the fee because they will have to reduce the asking price to account for it as NO buyer will want to pay additional fees.

Buyers already have a wide range of protection options, can easily obtain refunds for damaged/incorrect items etc.

There is NO need too bring in these measures, they are only to 'showcase' EBAY itself as some sort of consumer champion, which it is not....certainly not a champion for Sellers

Sellers will have to lower their prices but will no longer be able to offset any fees to their tax expenses, because there will be no record of it, as Ebay will claim the buyer is buying it.

[lucy_farmer]

'......And incidently, when I made my feedback request, the buyer didn't even know about the coming changes so either not a private seller or only an occasional ebay user. If changes are going to be implemented surely everyone registered on the site should be notified!......'

I agree with you that there's probably an enormous amount of buyers and private sellers who don't have a clue that the changes are happening.

The proportion of ebay users who find and read these boards is tiny . And, lets be honest, the vast majority of people using any online business/site never read a word of the T's and C's before ticking and using! (and ebay's rules don'e even need to be 'ticked'- you've agreed simply by *using* ebay...)

So although ebay may or may not have notified users of the changes, whether users have read their messages and absorbed the info is another matter....!

[incredible_how]

I think the 48 hours is to give the buyer the opportunity for saying something is wrong. The payment after feedback ought to be asap because there clearly isn't a problem. But if you are a new or infrequent seller this has been going on for some time - my mother started an account last year and money on hold even after 2 months of sales - about 30 sales!

[m-bevis-1815]

I'm not putting my prices down, if they don't sell because of ebay's
stupidity then that is ebay's problem, not mine. If a buyer wants an item
of mine enough, they'll pay the fee anyway.

[tressygirl]

Some of your lower priced items will benefit from this latest announcement from yesterday,  no need for expensive tracking to release payouts sooner.

We’ve also heard your feedback and understand that shipping costs are particularly top of mind for low price items. When you’re selling a single item for £10 or less, and it’s sent untracked, funds will now be available 24 hours after you receive positive buyer feedback. This will be live by the end of February.

@m-bevis-1815 

[ett1954]

"Sellers will have to lower their prices but will no longer be able to offset any fees to their tax expenses,..." - Anyone offsetting fees against their tax expenses should be registered as a business seller and the buyer protection fee doesn't affect business sellers.  Buying from a business seller already gives that protection by law.

[m-bevis-1815]

"Sellers will have to lower their prices but will no longer be able to
offset any fees to their tax expenses,..."

I must have missed something here from the original poster.
The sellers aren't paying the fees, the buyers are, so there is no fee for
a seller to claim as an expense in any tax returns. If you put your prices
down and they still sell then that is less income to declare an any tax
return.

If a buyer is a business and buying a private seller's stuff for future
business use, then the buyer can claim the whole price of the item,
price+fee+postage, as a legitimate business cost in their accounts.

[m-bevis-1815]

Thanks for the heads up. Relying on feedback is less reliable than relying
on a tracked service though, I often fail to leave feedback!
I do tend to send most stuff tracked anyway, because a lot of what I sell
is too bulky to go in envelopes, or needs the protection of a box.

But more recently I found that using the Royal Mail £2.10 large letter you
get a registration number anyway, which is the same as a tracking number,
so for my thinner stuff I've started using that. The same envelope 48Hr
Tracked is £2.70 in comparison.
And the standard box is £3.75 untracked but with the same 'registration'
number, compared to £3.95 for 48Hr Tracked.

I think Royal Mail are responding to ebay/other sites requirements, and
using the advances in tech I mentioned elsewhere, to provide a tracking
service without actually mentioning it, to encourage the buying of the
slightly higher priced 48Hr Tracked service.

[ett1954]

The original poster was implying that the seller wouldn't be able to claim his fees back for postage; and I presume the packaging element.  As you correctly point out the buyer is paying for the postage and the associated BP fees.  A private seller can simply remove the postage element from their listing fee to maintain their income from the item being sold.

A business seller would probably be using a discounted service or cheaper carrier to eBay's chosen preference.  If however they were operating on a private account they would have to discount at a higher rate to maintain their competitive edge (4% + £0.75 + postage costs)  against a correctly registered business seller.  This would in turn reduce their margin - hence they are unhappy with the BPF even though they continue to maintain a large advantage over a correctly registered business seller who has all the associated selling and listing fees to account for in any margin.

Some private sellers would make Trading Standards job very easy if they ever had a mind to clamp down or investigate.

[incredible_how]

small parcel tracked 48, if bought online, is £3.39
The registration/delivery number is not 100% relaible, but pretty good - more reliable than buyer leaving feedback!

[m-bevis-1815]

Talking of Trading Standards, don't sellers have the right to with-hold
delivery of an item until payment is received? Or is just an advisory?

[ett1954]

I doubt this would involve Trading Standards.  I am sure that within eBay's terms and conditions which everyone as signed up to that there will be a clause that payment is considered made when eBay have been paid acting as your intermediary in the transaction.

I can't believe eBay will not have this covered and to be honest I don't fancy wading through all the T & Cs to find it.

The only way I think you could legitimately hold back dispatch is if eBay declared themselves insolvent before you received the payment and even then I wouldn't be too sure.

[felinesrfun1]

Private seller here of nearly 17 years. Like many private sellers I take care with items sold ensuring they are well packed, communicate fully and honestly with buyers, with 100% feedback. I even had one feedback where the buyer expressed amazement the item was posted next day with snow!

My aim was to post the next day but if I was going out it was the same day. If I couldn't post the next day I always told my buyer when and why.

[jokers_toybox]

Those QR codes on standard labels printed from RM are a life saver against DNA's, and as eBay support those as proof of delivery more people should be aware

[black2black1234]

This could be the end for private sellers on ebay. Sometimes I sell something for a minimum price so may only be making £1, so now that will be too expensive for the buyer who won't want to pay an additional 75p. Also I won't get paid until it is successfully delivered. Virtually all Royal Mail deliveries don't show when they are delivered as they are not tracked and sometimes tracking is not updated when other couriers deliver items - does that mean because ebay can't see it has been delivered I won't get paid. Ebay already doesn't allow sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers which in certain cases would be useful. I had a buyer who bought a phone, I posted it to him and he left negative feedback to say it was faulty and was returning it. Never heard from them again and they had no previous feedback. I could not leave negative feedback and ebay won't deal with these buyers. Who is running ebay ? It is like they want their business to fail. Just bring back sellers fees and everyone knows where they are. I knew as soon as they said 'It's now free to sell on ebay' there would be a catch and they would make that money a different way. Maybe they have Rachel Reeves working for them - sounds similar to the not charging the employee to pay extra National Insurance, but charging the employer instead

[geemac2]

I never enter the delivery number after despatch as firstly it is not a tracking number and secondly if the buyer knows what it is they can claim a refund if the postie hasn't scanned it.

[gileroz09]

The majority of the items I sell are priced at 99p. After 4th February, those items will effectively be priced at £1.79. Are you really suggesting that I knock 80p off my selling price? I can't do that anyway as eBay's minimum "Buy It Now" selling price is 99p. So perhaps you are suggesting I list everything as an auction item starting at 19p? No thanks.

[goodibags]

Buyers fees are still being rolled out, one slow category at a time. Hopefully they'll take a while to reach the ones with 99p items up for sale. I sell old records, postage stamps and coins and will have to start bundling items together. Either that or take them off completely.

Technically, the starting price is 23p for a buyer to see 99p, but as you've spotted that's auctions only.

[edwardian-dreams]

Look on bright side 

if people can’t get things for 99p anywhere they might fork out

[kath3735_wxmjn]

exactly, the upside is that all private sellers are in the same situation so either a buyer will want the item and have to pay the higher price or find somewhere another site/shop/car boot that sells at that price.   Not that i agree with it but i am just waiting to see what the real affect will be when it starts in my main stuff which is clothing.