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.

[sweetcharity.2013]

It will encourage this particular buyer to

a) Buy less (great for my bank balance) &

b) Any offers I do make will take into account the pre-charged 'buyers protection fee'.

I'll now be looking at other selling sites, business sellers own sites & not ebay as a 'go to' site.

With the system as it is I've not had an insurmountable problem when perhaps a seller has sent the wrong item or it differs, with either business or private sellers & rarely had buying problems at all over the years. I'm not sure why I should be expected to pay extra when the private seller is advertising for free.

If this is ebay's way of dealing with the problem of 'private' business sellers, it could be to the detriment of genuine private sellers.

[blue_sean]

Don't forget that we will now have to pay couriers extra for signed for delivery in order to get paid. Call me cynical but does anyone think there will be a dramatic rise in "I didn't receive it" and "collection only" ?

[kath3735_wxmjn]

i will just go back to the car boot and trawling charity shops for my clothing items which is what i buy mostly on e bay.  It used to be great because you just sat there and put in your few key words and that M & S dress in your size and colour appeared in the search, not any more - it is a real chore to find what you are looking for.  Well it will drag me out from in front of the screen...   

[kempseykate]

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@golfballersuk wrote:

Looking at it, you will still pay the price you see. If a private seller lists an item at £5, you will see the price as £5.95 and pay that price. 

The concern i have is the private seller should be paying that fee instead of the "buyer". Even though it will technically amount to the same any business re-sellers will be paying a fee to buy an item to sell on and pay another big fee on. 

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But if the item is only worth £5, the seller will need to list it at around the £4 mark to allow for the extra fee.

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@golfballersuk wrote:

Apart from that it's good news for business i feel....for once! 

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Not sure about that. I'm inclined not to buy on this site ever again, and I think many other sellers who leave will feel the same. Again I ask the question, what percentage of your sales are from buyers who are also private sellers?

[lionrock_technik]

Agreed, not fun anymore, plus Amazon is as cheap now with faster delivery 

[sweetcharity.2013]

LOL! I agree & I also am looking forward to getting out & about more.

[hobbit66]

I certainly wont be buying from ebay again !

[incredible_how]

I thought it said the buyer will see exactly what they will pay not have to calculate anything.

[dantwocats]

AS I see it its 4% +75p out of your £5 + you pay for postage ,before you get paid who can afford this

[akemp1]

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@incredible_how wrote:

I thought it said the buyer will see exactly what they will pay not have to calculate anything.

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I'm guessing they will itemise the fee at checkout?

It will make negotiating an offer via messages a bit more complicated.

[incredible_how]

yes - but previously there were often promotions for private sellers which reduced the percentage fee and the 30p would only be paid once if multiple items were on one invoice.

It does affect low priced items a lot

[plpmr]

No idea if it's 'legal'.

what I do know is that a charge is now being made for a service that was free BUT we are not being given the choice of opting out.

[microvolk]

As this only applies to private sellers there is no existing consumer protection. They are going to add the fees to the amount the seller sets so that buyers are now paying for protection where there is none. I can see how this may end up getting rid of those business falsely masquerading as private but what about the thousands of genuine private sellers. I have been selling for years. Everything is secondhand, I have cleared or helped to clear at least seven properties of relatives & neighbours to get them a little back from their possessions as well as several hundreds of pounds to charities where friends give me things to get rid of. Not to mention decluttering our own 45 years worth of stuff. So much is low value & tracked postage is disproportionate. I will have to wait 14 days for payout if I use standard postage or, as happens so often,  the tracked never gets marked as such. Time for a serious re-think.

[dantwocats]

buyers are already well protected ,,very well protected,,

[lionrock_technik]

As this is a thread about private sellers, unsure as to when the requirement for business sellers to come in here being smug was requested

[incredible_how]

I had wondered if eBay would not go this way as they are probably making more money now by keeping hold of sellers sales money until transferred "manually".

The 75p bit is a lot, compared to the old 30p fee and will make a difference I think to small/cheap items. Also the old transaction fee was only paid once for a combined invoice, the 75p does seem to be per item

[lionrock_technik]

and as previously stated, everything will HAVE to be sent tracked now, so the buyers will be paying more as well as us having a reduction in our cut

[hobbit66]

In the good old days ebay was the place to find a bargain. Not any more 😞

Business sellers giving a bargain ?  I think not !!!

[zillabudgie]

Yet another bad move by Ebay plc. How is this 'fee' actually protecting buyers better than it did before. So it's 4% + 75p for each transaction. So might cheap cr*p won't be quite as cheap any more. This will only lose sellers, I guarantee Ebay that. They might as well revert to getting their cash from private sellers with 10% from the fee and 10% from postage, rather than punish the buyer when there isn't really any better protection than there is today. Any rare stuff I find in my boxes of stuff will probably go on Discogs now.

[danoota]

So It is new 4%+£0.75 private seller fee called "New buyer fee" and Ebay will hold my money longer. Nothing changed to buyers as they will see prices after all fees.