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.

[reassuringly.crazy]

I thought I would see what the ‘buyer protection fee’ meant in real terms before passing real judgement. 

My feelings are, I may as well close my eBay account. 

it was irritating enough that eBay chose to hang on to your money for a couple of days before releasing funds, but now it’s 2 days after the item has been marked as delivered when sending by tracked services. And in real life that means a little more than two days. I’m writing this on February 12th. Three items were delivered today and eBay says payment will be released on February 14. What that actually means is February 15, as the payment is released at midnight on that day. 

Now prices to buyers for items I sell have increased. For me, this has, at least in the first week or so, meant a 25% reduction in the final selling price - and this is despite eBay running a coupon that saves 5% I believe. The same items that sold for £100 in January sold for £75 today. 

as a buyer I have seen the prices of many items on my watch list increase. 

the buyer protection fee is a clumsy and cumbersome device for collecting money. It seems to be putting buyers off shopping from private sellers. It’s perhaps a negative selling strategy, making people think there’s something wrong with private sellers that they need ‘protection’ or just preferring business sellers now because the start price is £54.73 or some other strange number. A lot of people become uncomfortable really quickly. 

Long waits for payment, reduced selling prices, offputting for buyers, a clumsy implementation, and largely pointless for items under at least £10 unless you want to wait 17 days for your sale without tracking to be paid to you, I contacted eBay to ask about closing my account. They explained what to do (effectively no eBay activity for a month), sent me a link , and after 26 years on eBay, didn’t once ask why I was asking about closing my account. I think that certainly implies a lack of interest in private eBay accounts. 

[akemp1]

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@reassuringly.crazy wrote:

My feelings are, I may as well close my eBay account. 

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Wow your account is from 1998 and I thought mine was good from 2001.

While I also hate this change it's not going to cause me to close my account because I still have loads of junk to shift and it's probably still the best way for me to sell but I have also noticed the items on my wishlist creeping up in price as more categories fall under the shadow and it's obviously putting me off buying. I did have a bit of a peak of spending activity with private sellers in anticipation of this change but going forward I will be buying less and my items will be selling slower.

It's just utterly depressing to see ebay doing so much damage to their platform. They just needed to have competitive seller fees and a fair market with all sellers participating on the same terms. These changes are really not the answer and going to drive us long terms users to leave or reduce activity.

[lucy_farmer]

'Makes quite a difference when your item is only a couple of quid anyway. '

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Yes, selling stuff for a few quid is going to be where the most pain will be ☹️

Though, from the end of Feb, ebay have taken their boot off the neck of sellers of low price stuff slightly ; they will release money after 2 days of the buyer leaving pos feedback.... This is for untracked items that were sold for less than £10.00 (where sending tracked is crazily uneconomical)

If they buyer doesn't leave feedback, you have to wait the full 14 days .

It looks a bit like ebay no longer want the low value sales....😒

[sdjwales]

Did anyone else see a sharp and sudden drop in promoted views the day after this all came into effect?

[scentedhomecandles]

https://www.change.org/p/ebay-gone-to-far-with-new-policy-change-from-4th-feb-2025

[angus69uk]

Many Ebayers have commented on the new way of 'control'. My wife and I have come to the conclusion that, as it is becoming increasingly clear, Ebay do not like private sellers. Funny really when you consider that Ebay was originally set up purely for private sellers to sell off their unwanted items.

It was the business sellers that saw the opportunity to 'crash' a sales platform and sell at reduced costs. Now Ebay very quickly cottoned on to the problem and ensured that business sellers did have to pay properly for the service. From about 2000 in this country, it seemed that both business and private sellers were able to trade in relative harmony.

That clearly has now changed and I guess that private sellers will slowly be squeezed out. I think it was a shame that Ebay felt the need to 'do away' with seller fees last year. At least we knew where we stood. Now, like a lot of people have posted, buyers will be put off when they see inflated prices for items for sale and accusations of private sellers making more money than ever will proliferate. Interesting that they are rolling it out steadily and applying the new rates to certain areas first. I would have thought they would have done the lot in one go.

Will I leave? Unlikely but I will not be buying anywhere near as many items as I used to and no doubt there will be less buyers of my excess items. Overall though, I might be better off, who knows!!

One thing I do not do is by my new items from Ebay sellers. Apart from tape and envelopes, when I purchase something new, I will buy off other platforms - likely I am missing a trick but usually I get better terms from business sellers on the other platforms. It might take a while but I think Ebay will see a drop in overall sales as a result of this new way to levy a fee. They really shouldn't try and emulate one of the competition (V)

[akemp1]

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@angus69uk wrote:

Ebay do not like private sellers.

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The worst thing is that these awful changes seem to be a misguided attempt to attract private sellers away from other platforms under the misleading double-speak that 'selling is free' even though its clearly not as private sellers will need to consider that the buyer had to pay fees when pricing their items lower than they otherwise would have to achieve the same sales rate.  But then talking to the younger generation they tend to sell on the V platform as there are no selling fees they don't seem to consider the buyer fees as a problem. I have some sympathy that ebay needs to attract younger sellers else it will become a bit like Facebook only good for looking up older people and maybe to achieve that they need to upset a lot of us.

[maujohwai]

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@maujohwai wrote:

At least, if you revise a listing, the buyer protection fee is quoted just above your price, which makes it easier to calculate a new basic price which will result in what the final price used to be. It would help, though, if there were a button to adjust it automatically, or even the facility to do this to several or all your listings in one go in Bulk Edit!

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Doh! I just tried reducing a price to restore the buyer's price I had before, by subtracting the BPF quoted, but of course if you change your price, the BPF changes as well. E.g., I noticed that a £99 book had been viewed today, so I looked at the listing and it was now £103.68. I subtracted the £4.68 to give a price of £94.32, and the end price became £98.81, not £99. At least when you click ouf of the price box, the BPF updates, so you can, by arithmetic and trial-and-error (or calculus, probably!), restore your old end price without saving. Why can't ebay just let you choose an end price? (Because then the BPF would feel like a seller fee again, I suppose!) Previewing doesn't do the addition for you, as that still shows your price, not the buyer's.

And if you send an offer to buyers, you can't see their price before you send the offer.

Aaaargh! And I'm sure I'll find more inconveniences.

[technthread]

There are a few differences on Vinted. I think the buyers don’t mind paying the buyer fee over there as their total order price isn’t noticeably affected. Why:

The postage costs are cheaper.

Buyers have way more control over delivery. They can have items delivered to InPost lockers cheaply. They can use delivery to an Evri / Yodel parcelshop etc and pay lower postage. eBay hasn’t matched this with simple delivery. 

Item prices are lower. 

It is a lot easier to bundle items and have discounts automatically applied. 

There are just a few areas where the buyer fee is offset so buyers don’t feel it the same as they are doing over here. 

I really don’t think eBay have balanced this correctly or applied the changes in the right way. Since last year there have been so many changes people don’t know whether they are coming or going. 

[ratecheap_comics]

Yes, my £3.95 item is now £4.83, what an absolute *bleep* take! It’s the death of low price items it seems.

[joe_fonebone]

Y' love to see all the barely concealed contempt that a number of Business Sellers have for Private Sellers.

Q. Why is there a two-tier Business / Private system on eBay? 

A. Because eBay wants there to be.

Q. What purpose does a two-tier Business / Private system serve?

A.  All the while some Business Sellers are venting about Private Sellers then they're not giving eBay a hard time for eBay loading Business Sellers up with charges. If there were unity amongst Sellers they might have to actually change their business model so that the profits were more equitable.

Smoke and mirrors, divide and conquer.  

[qualityshipments]

Noticed this myself absolute shambles.

Think I'll leave all my listings as is until ebay fix this as it's a mess in it's current state.

10/10 update

[bidnbuy-uk]

eBay having promoted the changes in effect from 4th February for private sellers then send out an email stating that the new fee structure will be rolling out over a number of weeks starting with electronics - what a total shambles!

The only change that came into FULL effect on the 4th of February was eBay keeping money and gaining interest on it for 6+ days whilst items are sent, delivered and then private sellers waiting a further 2 days to receive payment. The fee element is a total shambles. You either roll something out or you don't. What you don't do is roll it out according to which categories you think your business is going to make the most money on i.e. electronics first leaving other categories unsure of when their fee roll out will happen?!

Online shoppers are exceedingly savvy thanks to g**gle shopping which clearly shows where the cheapest prices are. I stopped weekly shopping on eBay many months ago - My money has wisely gone elsewhere as my experiences of buying from business sellers over the past 2 years has been exceedingly less favourable than private sellers.

[maha-maya]

If eBay wanted the buyer to pay the private seller fees then why didn't they just say that's what they wanted to do? What is this charade about? Who came up with this? I bet they tick DEI checkboxes.

As a buyer I'm disgusted that eBay are FORCING me to pay for buyer protection insurance. (Is that even legal? Forcing buyers to pay eBay for insurance? I ALREADY HAD BUYER PROTECTION. Not that I've ever needed it. Nor has any buyer needed protection from me as a private seller.

In fact, I think this insults me the most; as a buyer, not a private seller. 

[Anonymous]

Wow. Yet another thread on ebays private seller rip off. There must be losing sellers by the 100. Ive,suspended all my items and won't even buy anything of this corrupt lousy platform. You now need a Maths Degree to even work out what your getting or likely not getting. EBay will have to find some answers to their shareholders on this appalling state of affairs. They are not holding on to my money under any circumstances!

[maha-maya]

Actually what is the buyer insurance for? Considering eBay keep the payment funds until 2 days after delivery, why do they need extra money? What will it be spent on? 

Things were much easier when I paid eBay a small fee as a private seller. As a buyer I don't want to pay eBay for insurance I don't need.

[akemp1]

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@maha-maya wrote:

Actually what is the buyer insurance for? Considering eBay keep the payment funds until 2 days after delivery, why do they need extra money? What will it be spent on? 

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It's clearly a platform fee being presented disingenuously.

If ebay want to be a trusted platform for market transactions they need to stop obfuscating as it reeks of dishonesty and low ethics. That's what I find most disappointing in how low they have fallen.

The lack of respect they are showing long term private sellers in suggesting buyers need to pay for protection against them on those listings is insulting.  I'm not going to suddenly turn dishonest or uncreditworthy in more than 1 in 25 transactions (4%... plus the 75p) after decades of selling with ebay never having to force a payout of even my own money let alone theirs.

If they wanted to shame themselves and irritate everyone they have succeeded.

Bring back private seller fees - this is a clown show.

[papso22]

Any contempt businesses have for 'private sellers' should be reserved for those clearly trading as a business but using a private ebay account.

Looking at the various responses and posts on these boards, the recent changes have brought these fake private sellers out in force, many of them are the biggest complainers yet the solution is so simple.  Upgrade to a business account,  trade legally, avoid the changes.

[Anonymous]

Yes its a clown show alright. But its worse than that: its a big con. EBay cocked up when they did away with private seller commissions. Putting your takings into a holding account so to tempt you to spend it on goods bombed. People took their money out rightly so. They bleat on about "no seller fees" while taking even more from you via the back door. And while it may be lawful to keep your sale money for 14 days (dubious) it stinks to high heaven from a customer care perspective, something they no nothing about it seems. Where does it go? Into their high interest accounts at our expense.  The BPF has no more to do with buyer protection than ULEZ has with the environment. Blimey and you need a Maths Degree to even work out the fees when posting! 

EBay has gone to the dogs, walk away. I am.

[akemp1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

And while it may be lawful to keep your sale money for 14 days (dubious) it stinks to high heaven from a customer care perspective, something they no nothing about it seems.

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The stupid thing is I was far more likely to respend on ebay the evening after selling something as even after all these years  I am still on an adrenaline high of  getting some free money (as anything I have for sale is already written off in my head from a cost perspective). I would often peruse my wish list and decide what to buy when the funds become available circa 11pm.

Now I have to wait until after delivery / a couple of weeks then I'm not going to do that impulse purchase anymore so it's doing all types of sellers out of potential sales. I'm far more likely to withdraw to my bank account as a result of the delay and not respend on ebay.

The most annoying thing is the payment delay is so pointless on established sellers. I don't know what their default rate would be on refunds not recovered on private seller accounts at least 10 years old or having done 100 successful sales over a period of at least 1 year but it's probably well under 0.1% of sales volumes.