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.

[theelench]

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@papso22 wrote:

People are voting on the basis that they think they will never get paid.

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Perhaps not. 

Perhaps they're voting against the increasing un-certainty of when they'll get paid and although not strictly accurate it does encapsulate some of the negative feelings they have, not only about the latest restrictions but also the increasing use of Payment Holds by ebay on private sellers.

I asked when this topic first started if the 14 day compulsory hold would be used by ebay to clear-up any of the other reasons ebay uses to hold funds, or would they sit on their hands and after 14 days 'discover' more reasons to extend the hold.  No-one has ever answered that question.

Now private sellers have very good reason to question when they might get paid.

Up to 14 day hold just for being a private seller.

Up to 30 day hold for being a new or returning seller.

Indefinite hold for I.D verification, bank verification, photo I.D 'request'.

Ebay should be able to sort-out any of those within 14 days but its systems for doing so are still as non-user friendly as ever.  Can you blame private sellers for distrusting ebay when it is now obvious that it is to ebay's advantage to prolong payment holds for as long as possible? 

[andha-21]

@theelench 

When they first announced that delayed payments were tied to BPF/proof of delivery and that Royal Mail were one of the 2 courier options I knew they had us all by the short and curlies.

Royal Mail run an "umbrella programme" for everything outside of Special Delivery. They allow 10 working days after an item enters their network for delivery and you cannot claim till that time period finishes. As long as they deliver within that total timeframe they view that as a good service. It's already implemented in their terms and conditions. & that covers First Class, Tracked 24 and all the lesser "aim" delivery services.

& the above doesn't even account for Evri who almost certainly have something similar/probably worse to go with their competency issues.

[papso22]

Can you blame private sellers for distrusting ebay when it is now obvious that it is to ebay's advantage to prolong payment holds for as long as possible? 

I don't blame them at all.  I also don't blame them for the anger against the impact of the BPF on low value items and I had the same sympathy when the fixed fee element of the FVF had a similar distortive impact.

I just really object to the plethora of misinformation on these boards, that continues to be perpetrated by members even after their errors are pointed out, either because it suits their agenda or because they get some weird kick out of the thumbs up.   And yes, I know I have a lot of those but I don't post to get them.

I obviously also object to the misuse of private accounts by business sellers, but that's another matter.

[bittyboy101]

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@papso22 wrote:

Since you can't actually get blood out of a stone, but you do get paid by ebay,  you are also guilty of  misleading people. 

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Misleading people ? - Not at all - Only telling the truth that it is now very difficult to get your money out of eBay AS A PRIVATE SELLER but still easy-peasy for BIG BUSINESS SELLERS.... especially the dishonest Chinese cheat sellers who LIE about item location - claiming "UK SELLER"  &  "FAST UK DELIVERY" when they are drop shipping from China !

"Getting Blood Out Of A Stone"  Definition;-

"Getting blood out of a stone" is an idiom that means something is very difficult to achieve. For example, you might say "Persuading Chris to buy a round of drinks is like getting blood out of a stone". 

"Explanation

The phrase is often used to emphasize that someone is not being helpful or that the situation is very difficult. For example, you might say that getting information or persuading someone to talk to you is like getting blood out of a stone."

[ett1954]

"Things never used to be this bad when eBay treated private sellers and business sellers EQUALLY."

Private sellers and business sellers have never been treated equally.  Business seller have always provided the bulk of fees to eBay's coffers.  No free listings for business sellers, no discounted fees, every listing has to be paid for whether through shop fees or individually.  VAT on all fees for business sellers whilst private sellers, when they had fees, were vat inclusive. 

Business sellers have legal responsibilities to buyers under the Consumer Rights Act whilst private sellers have minimal obligations to buyers. 

Be careful what you wish for.

[bittyboy101]

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@ett1954 wrote:

"Things never used to be this bad when eBay treated private sellers and business sellers EQUALLY."

Private sellers and business sellers have never been treated equally.  Business seller have always provided the bulk of fees to eBay's coffers.  No free listings for business sellers, no discounted fees, every listing has to be paid for whether through shop fees or individually.  VAT on all fees for business sellers whilst private sellers, when they had fees, were vat inclusive. 

Business sellers have legal responsibilities to buyers under the Consumer Rights Act whilst private sellers have minimal obligations to buyers. 

Be careful what you wish for.

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I knew someone was going to say that !

Very clever.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

so far it is working for me, i have posted 6 parcels since this started and 5 were scanned as delivered and i have received the payments in the 2 days quoted.  The 6th has still not been scanned, posted on the 7th, money into my e bay account for withdrawal on the 20th.  So far things are looking okay as in the times given by e bay have been met.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

but you have nothing for sale so how do you know personally how it is working?

[kath3735_wxmjn]

i have not had a problem so far, all 6 items have been paid as stated they would be by e bay.   There may be other reasons people are not getting paid within the framework and you can only go by your own experience.   Some of the people on here (a minority maybe) are not even affected by it because they have nothing for sale but are commenting on other peoples alleged experience not their own.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

then they should start a new petition which is accurate in what it is saying.  I will never put my name to a petition which is based on an untruth even if i agree with the general subject matter.   Surely there was always a hold for new and returning sellers and the hold for ID verifications,  i recall many threads on here commenting about such holds.  The 14 day hold is the only new thing and it is up to the individual to decide on whether they will still use e bay because of it.  I will and so far for me it has worked as they said.  Same with BPF, I do not like it but i have bought and sold on here since it came in.  Now SD is another thing, THEN i will leave.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I have had no problems so far, wonder what the % of people who have/have not had problems is.  As they say you will always get the ones with a problem (or think they have a problem) doing the moaning and not so much the ones who have not saying so.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

you only have to look at the comments in regard to 70/80% fee reductions, it always amused me when the ones moaning about not receiving the offer always said they only listed when it was on.  Personally as a real private seller i kept my listings on all the time, if they sold during the fee promotion then it was a bonus, if it sold outside then i still got what i had been asking for. 

[vinylmad2023]

I understand that @kath3735_wxmjn, however i clearly stated it was my own experience (and referred to other threads for similar issues for others, but I can only comment on my own experience as I know the full facts related to my payout issue).

I'm glad you have not had any issues, and I am sure there are others who have not.

This does not mean there are not issues for other users.

I see so much bias attributed to peoples own experiences (be that about payouts, whether someone having X listings makes them a business because they themselves don't own X amount of unwanted items and so on and so fourth).

On a forum where there's enough misleading information, it all becomes smoke and mirrors when some individuals steadfastly refuse to acknoweldge some of the issues all 'because its worked fine for me' or quote ebays guidance (scripts) without fully reading the posts and addressing the actual concerns/issues raised (as some clearly do from looking at the other threads).

I have never used the foums before, largely because I see so much toxicity and finger pointing between users, but this change and the impact it had on my recent experience meant I couldn't sit quietly by and I wanted to share my experience to hopefully help others experiencing the same. 

I wish you well with your future endeavours

[goodibags]

"plethora of misinformation on these boards"

Would you still advise private sellers that they would be completely wrong to open an Ebay business account UNLESS they were actually running a business?

Because Ebay itself now seems to be taking a very different approach to yours. I'm getting the impression that even your cat or dog may be able to open one.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I have never stated that there are no issues, however a lot of the issues may be nothing connected to the new system.  People used to complain about delays in payouts before this new system came in.  I was also making the point that several people on here are commenting with NO personal experience of what is happening (just going off what others say) as they have no items for sale, all taken off in a huff at the beginning of this.  I do not like the changes but i have been willing to see how it works out.  One thing i will not be doing though is Simple Delivery when it comes in.  I will also be leaving the site and that includes the forum.  Maybe a quick flash back to see if they ever rescind the SD when it does arrive.  I have better things to do than waste my time trying to change some things that will not change until E Bay decide they are losing money.

[pinkrabbitprinces82]

it's nothing about a so called buyer protection fee many of us have figured it out now if you use your head, never ever trust what a company say something is about because it never is there is always another reason. when they introduced free selling so ebay I just had  a gut feeling it sounded to good to be true, it was like watch this space to what they really have planned and I was waiting for it then suddenly we all got messages mid janaury. many of us think there is a swindle going on here where ebay hod your funds in advance and for two more days after delivery and in that time think about what they are doing with your money as there no law that says a firm can't invest your money, so they could put it in  daily high interest account in the meantime gaining interest from your money they are holding for those few days or weeks. Think about it hard can ebay really afford not to charge a fee anymore?

ok they will get some income from allowing business adverts on their site that they charge business for the pleasure. but it wouldn't be enough to make it free for everyone to sell. but the main question is how much more protection can you really have and the answer is nothing more, so how they can claim the fee is going t provide more protection we should already have is questionably and suspicious! hence i've ended all my listings and will only sell on other platforms now.

[vinylmad2023]

"I have better things to do than waste my time trying to change some things that will not change until E Bay decide they are losing money."

I couldn't agree more. I reached my limit with the introduction of BPF and my delayed payouts that didn't follow the ebay guidance/rules as advertised. This was more to do with my own principles and refusing to be suckered, not any other reason. Yours, from the above reply, is the introduction of SD.

Unfortunately, like many things in this world, the ones at the top (ebay) are more than happy that we users (buyers and sellers) bicker amongst ourselves, blame each other or throw our dummies out...so long as we are distracted from blaming the real culprits who continue to watch the cash flow in (...for now at least; until that stops, nothing will change).

Good luck with your future endeavours and I hope for your sake SD does not become mandatory anytime soon.

[ian_w42]

Is the fee still calculated including postage costs? Just checking.

I think to avoid checkout shock it'll probably be best to use 'free' shipping as much as possible given the alternative, I can calculate the fee to avoid looking bad in listings but don't want buyers feeling conned at checkout.

[vinylscot]

The fee is NOT applied on postage costs, so, at the moment anyway, it makes no sense to include postage in your price, as that will unnecessarily inflate the amount your buyer will need to pay. (by 4% of whatever amount you have included for postage)

So it now makes sense to charge as much as you can for postage, and reduce the item price accordingly, IF you think buyers' priority is the TOTAL amount they pay. Of course it's debatable if that is the situation, and higher postage prices will more likely put off potential buyers who don't know WHY you're pricing things that way.

[a45heaven]

@vinylscot 

But if the buyer goes for multiple items from a Seller - (which is often the attempted case on low value items),

is not EACH item impacted with a separate Postage cost?

Please don't go down the road of refunding excessive postage paid to allow for combined postage, that definitely would cease any order from the buyers point of view.

Its a shame those who created these insane process' answer why they made them as such, excessive greed is the only one that comes to mind, but it would be nice to see from the other side, if there is another reason.