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.

[maujohwai]

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@suelel1968 wrote:

Postmen are supposed to scan large letters on delivery. They are not fully tracked but do update on ebay when delivered if scanned. Buy the postage via ebay and the tracking number is automatically populated on the item. You can make a claim with RM up to £20 for non delivery, damaged and extremely late delivery.  Simple delivery may make all of that irrelevant if it is not on the list to select from. 

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Ah, thanks. I've long bought online postage direct from Royal Mail because I've found that simpler.

[papso22]

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@johnwash1 wrote:

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@jow1995 wrote:

Maybe worth upgrading to business account with 22k of sales and over 7k of listings.  Looks like a full time job with those sort of figures!

...

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Or perhaps not.  Many of those listings have been relisting and relisting and relisting for years.  Create a few listings a day, price them unattractively, include things that nobody on the planet wants...  It's not hard to accumulate a lot of listings.

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And the 22,000 sales?  It's not hard to accumulate a lot of listings but each one requires an item, so that's nearly 30,000 items sold or available for sale.

[jma2815]

The disaster has been…postponed. 

And its ‘squib’, not ‘squid’. (Sorry to be that person…) 

[m-bevis-1815]

"Why not release all, as it was" because by holding onto the money for 4-5
days Ebay earns 4 times more in interest than when previously holding it
for 1 day. That and the sales tax for buyers is just another corporate
moneygrab, pure and simple.

The CEO of any corporation is obliged to increase their profits, and the
shareholder dividend. It will be in his contract of employment, therefore
legally binding, which is why corporations blindly destroy the planet and
seem not to care.
His contract of employment will not state that he must 'improve the ebay
experience of buyers and/or sellers', or make it a nice place to be, or be
environmentally conscious. Everything is window dressing as long as the
money flows from poorer people into the hands of already richer people.

[dch2112011]

Wouldn't one ovious way of increasing profits to enable dividends be to increase the number of users buying and selling on ebay which would naturally increase revenue ?

[m-bevis-1815]

Yes, indeed, but sometimes people get greedy. And modern technology is a
great enabler. It is quite clear that ebay can make payouts available
instantly if they were so minded, or after any time delay they choose - the
technology is quite capable, same with Simple Delivery, they can rope in
all local delivery services.

I looked at the fees that business sellers have to pay. It's horrendous,
c16% of their sales goes into Ebay coffers. They've made it complicated
with different fees for different items, different schemes and promotions
and so on. Sometimes companies do stuff just because they can, not because
they should.

[johnwash1]

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@papso22 wrote:

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@johnwash1 wrote:

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@jow1995 wrote:

Maybe worth upgrading to business account with 22k of sales and over 7k of listings.  Looks like a full time job with those sort of figures!

...

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Or perhaps not.  Many of those listings have been relisting and relisting and relisting for years.  Create a few listings a day, price them unattractively, include things that nobody on the planet wants...  It's not hard to accumulate a lot of listings.

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And the 22,000 sales?  It's not hard to accumulate a lot of listings but each one requires an item, so that's nearly 30,000 items sold or available for sale.

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I think you should be asking the person in question, rather than me.  It just annoys me when people yank threads off topic with unsubstantiated suppositions and accusations.  And in those cases when it's shown to be unjust, are there ever any apologies from the accusers?

22,000?  Well, the guy has been on ebay for more than 22 years.  So 1,000 items a year.  Less than 3 per day.

I've not poked into his listings in detail, but it's not like the obvious ones where the seller has loads of brand new items in just one or two categories.

I don't think I'll ever reach 22,000 myself.  But I do have a vast rambling property with outbuildings and have foolishly hoarded for decades.  I'm increasingly realising that to make significant inroads I've got to list job lots rather than individual items.  Evidently I find it easier to empathise and to give the benefit of the doubt to some sellers.

All that said, ebay need to crack down.  Should be easy to spot the flagrant ones with a bit of AI.  I guess they're scared of driving away sellers who give them good fees.

Now back to the main topic.  I won't reply further on this digression.

[hideawayvideo]

Are they not going ahead with the buyer 75p + 4% tomorrow - 4th?

[dch2112011]

ebay have tried instant payouts for private sellers - maybe the number of occasional sellers  who get the money, don't ship, don't respond, delay shipping, pack poorly, pay the wrong postage  have become problematic and the number of buyers has decreased and the hold on payments is a perceived method  to force sellers to correct these problems and reinstate buyer confidence. 

These sellers have had ample opportunity to sort themselves out - ebay are now sorting it out for them ! 

Regretably the honest decent genuine private sellers who treat buyers well may be in the minority and are going to suffer as a result.

Maybe a reward system for this hardcore of decent sellers would be introduced but I feel that businesses masquerading as private sellers would fall into the reward process - hopefully ebay will find a way to identify and reward the decent seller with something like the top seller program.

[m-bevis-1815]

It now appears it will be on selected types of items at first, then spread
across all items later; quote:
"Starting from 4 February, Buyer Protection will be live to give buyers
more peace of mind when shopping on ebay.co.uk. To minimise any potential
disruption on our platform, the *Buyer Protection fee will be gradually
rolled out across items listed by private sellers*, *starting in
Electronics and coming to all eligible categories in the following weeks*."
https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Announcements/Buyer-Protection-Pok%C3%A9mon-Day-VAT-invoices-amp-oth...

[jma2815]

Only in ‘electronics’. 

Other categories will be added ‘in the coming weeks’. 

I expect the payment holds will start across the board as planned in …oh look, about half an hour. 

[vintique*violet]

Possibly - however I took a pro-active look at this and decided to " hold funds" for myself 😉 

[jma2815]

I think you meant to reply to @m-bevis-1815 

[vintique*violet]

Starting from 4 February, Buyer Protection will be live to give buyers
more peace of mind when shopping on ebay.co.uk.

Peace of mind from what ? 

Private sellers? 

Knowing eBay hold their funds  until the buyer decides they are  UN " satisfied" after using said item for a week or so?

Being able to "chat" 24/7 ? 

Encrypted transactions secured? ( already is) 

Lost in transit - claim via postal courier... 

Damaged item/not described... MBG 

There is nothing in the BPF that is new ... other than the " customer service 24.7 chat" 

It's a test run to see how it works, how many use it and at what cost or profit it makes for eBay... In my opinion. 

[vintique*violet]

ebay have tried instant payouts for private sellers - maybe the number of occasional sellers  who get the money, don't ship, don't respond, delay shipping, pack poorly, pay the wrong postage  have become problematic and the number of buyers has decreased and the hold on payments is a perceived method  to force sellers to correct these problems and reinstate buyer confidence. 

These sellers have had ample opportunity to sort themselves out - ebay are now sorting it out for them ! 

Poor sellers were around 20 yrs ago... eBay are not quick off the mark are they? 

Poor sellers do not sort themselves out they are in it for a quick buck and run... unfortunately its the name of the game... 

Penalising those who are responsible and actively provide good customer service for years,  eBay have lost on this move ... 

Reward? eBay could have activated this years ago, and/ or blocked problematic sellers and unscrupulous buyers many years ago... they chose not to... instead they have created a " divide and rule" chaotic scenario to appease their stakeholders and have lost their way by trying to compete with amazon , copying Vinted and such like. 

Innovative? Forward thinking? 

A.I will solve it - Not! 

[vintique*violet]

No , you said,I expect the payment holds will start across the board as planned in...

My response was I chose to " hold funds" for myself..ie not play the game. 😉

[jma2815]

Ok. Sorry, I still don’t get it. I know you’ve stopped selling. 

I’ve stopped too but my point was that even though the buyer fees will now be phased in, payment holds will start tonight as planned for all those still selling. We’ll know soon enough…

[vintique*violet]

That's okay... I mean I have my own monies on hold ie not spending them on eBay... they are in my pocket so to speak... not selling and not buying. 

[pitstop.pippa]

Sure will, as I sold a low value item early this evening. It was only some surplus ribbon, I'd never have managed to sell it with tracked shipping so it's going second class with a proof of posting tomorrow. With the best will in the world I can't see it arriving in less than two days, then if my buyer leaves feedback upon receipt - which I've asked her to do - I then twiddle my thumbs for another two days meaning I'm unlikely to see my money before the weekend. So you're looking at the best part of a week from selling to payment.

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!

[pitstop.pippa]

Quick update! Just checked my account and the money was there so it must have just slipped through the net. Rest assured I swiped it out as fast as I could! 😉