Upcoming ‘Buyer Protection Fees’

[lady4838]

I’m a member for 14 years - I have today complained fiercely to EBay with regards to 4% + 75p charge on each item purchased as we all know this is a Back Door way of recovering the Seller Fees which were scrapped recently - Buyers already have adequate protection - as to payment 2 days after delivery - we’re at the mercy of Royal Mail to scan all  items when collected (not guaranteed) 😡

 Fellow  members I urge you to let your disproval known - SHAME ON YOU Ebay😡😡

[hollyh321]

I’m pretty baffled by all of this. If you have no local drop off places/no transport, who pays for collection from home?

My printer stopped working so I’ve used RM Collect and bring labels for second class post. It works brilliantly for the 2/3 things I sell over 10 days. Will this still be OK to use?

[valueaddedresource]

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@trevdbowler wrote:

With Simple Deliovery, will overseas buyers of my items have to pay extortionate International Signed For of around £7-8 per purchase ?   If so, bang go the overseas buyers.

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@trevdbowler Simple Delivery is only for domestic sales within the UK (with some UK zip codes excluded for clothing categories at the moment) - it will not apply to overseas buyers.

[0124gill6]

I totally agree, I am absolutely livid regarding the receiving payment 2 days after delivery which will come into play from 4th February 2025. 

How does ebay expect sellers to post out items if they are withholding the delivery charge paid by the buyer??? 

Example - if I sell 5 items all with a postage fee of £3.95 each (Royal Mail tracked 48), that amounts to £19.75 that I need to find out of my own money, which I won't receive back for at least another 4-5 days+ if I'm lucky, and within that 4-5 days that I am waiting for my postage to be re-imbursed, what if I sell another 5 items, that means I have to find a further £19.75 from my own money to post these items also!!! and so on.

That's £39.50 so far that I have had to find from my own money before I have even received a penny from ebay!

I don't know about anyone else but I don't have spare cash that I can call on for postage fees, £39.50 (maybe even more) is a lot of money for me to just pluck out of the blue.

So what happens if I sell an item but then I am unable to post it because I don't have the available funds to do so and ebay are withholding the postage cost, that the buyer has already paid in good faith?? 

IS IT EVEN LEGAL FOR EBAY TO WITHHOLD THE POSTAGE FEE??

It was bad enough when they charged commission on postage fees but this is just a disgrace!!!

Don't even get me started on the Buyer  Protection Fee - how are the buyers paying this if it is included in the selling price - is it just me or does anyone else actually understand how that's going to work?????

[jckl1957]

If you use Ebay Simple Delivery, the buyer will pay Ebay directly for the postage.  You will just have to print the labels and drop the items off so you won't have to pay out for postage at all.

If you list an item for £10, the price will be shown to the buyer as £11.15.  (£10 + 4% + 75p)

They will pay that price which includes the new buyer's fee and you will get £10.

Vinted use a similar system - sellers don't pay fees but buyers do.

[vintique*violet]

@0124gill6 For those wanting to continue to sell after " funds held" is in place. 

eBay state that you can access your " pending funds" to pay for eBay postage labels and for any refunds... the remaining they keep on " hold" until " considered successful delivery?" 

However, I certainly am not using eBay simple delivery and neither will I allow them to hold my funds for my items sold. 

[jma2815]

I’ve completely stopped buying due to prices in my area of interest (certain brands of boutique clothing) suddenly going through the roof about six moths ago - when Free To Sell was introduced. A couple of months ago and only have a couple of items listed that would be desirable to someone and really too good to go in the recycling. 

I said in another post that I thought the changes would actually result in prices going higher, as @anne.craig has confirmed - The prices I’m seeing for ‘high end’ (not ‘designer’) second hand clothing are astounding since free to sell came in, pieces that would go for half their new price a year ago are now listed for well over  the new price, in used condition, often with the justification ‘this is what similar items are selling for in the shops now’.  That’s a new thing and I don’t quite understand it. 

Has this happened in other categories?

[podlingsmum2007]

I think you can buy postage labels from eBay with the held funds 🤔 

The bpf is added on to the price that it is currently listed for. I have put MY price in the title and in the description so buyers would know. Unless ebay AI can detect that and force me to remove it.

[vintagevilarosa]

The trouble is everyone will moan and groan for a while ebay will introduce a few people will leave and then it will go back to normal like every other change that ebay have put in place and people dont like it.  The problem is that there is no cohesive fallout for ebay...they just keep on making their money and taking more and more away from sellers.  I remember what a hoohaa there was about only allowing buyers to leave negative feedback and boy did the buyers love that...they could basically scam the life out of you by saying something was no good, you refund them even on occasion let them keep the item and then they leave you negative feedback but nothing happened people complained bitterly but nothing happened! Then it was the global shipping program, still people didnt leave and ebay know full well that those hardcore sellers and the businesses will stay because where else are they going to go!

[vintagevilarosa]

yea unless the buyer says i havent received it then what?

[vintagevilarosa]

You only just figured that out...not being funny but I figured that out years ago I mean they have all these chinese sellers and big businesses selling on here why would they want small sellers they dont make them enough money!

[jonestim6]

So if I sell to an overseas bidder, do they have to pay this 4% and 75p?  Or is it just UK buyers?

Also, can I just use standard international shipping and get paid straight away as it is currently??   Or must it be tracked abroad too?

[vintique*violet]

That is interesting re clothing... 

I wonder if they have increased on Vinted - I don't sell clothes ( although I should LOL) so genuinely have no idea. 

I am not aware if it is happening in other categories - I have always listed  at a start of 99pence or my start price would be the "reserve"  I want to achieve so anything else is a bonus and those at BIN I research  what the item may be selling at or may have sold at...so I certainly haven't changed my selling patterns;  albeit I have received ridiculous offers with the message of " I can offer this as you don't have to pay any fees" in their trying to justify an offer of  £10 or £15 for something with an RRP of  £60 new,  others selling at £45 preloved,  and mine at £24.99 with free postage was more than "cheap"... and  I am not going to give them away especially as I only charge flat rate post ( or free) with no additional costs for packaging ( I use brand new packing peanuts, tissue etc etc, everything is parcelled up extremely well - I enjoy it, but there is no way I am doing this for my funds to be held and the option of my choice of postal services taken away) 

I wonder if private sellers will now receive similar messages with  " low offers" to recompense the BPF? 

[insidethe93]

buffster1963 wrote: "The standard and the express have the exact same delivery times so buyers will always choose the cheaper one."

It sounds as if they have the same delivery times - in eBay-world, who knows?! (look at their fantastical EDDs) - but both are "windows". A buyer's expected to realise that the Standard delivery will most likely occur toward the end of the delivery window, and that the Express delivery aims for toward the start of the delivery window. But in both cases, especially Express in case of delay, the length of the delivery window covers their back (eBay's for sure, the courier's?, the seller's?). Of course, all that means quite a bit of thinking for some if, like me, they're tired, in a hurry, distracted by others demanding attention etc.

[0124gill6]

That is utter rubbish!! 

I never upped my prices to cover the selling fees, I listed the item and the amount I wanted for it and stood to the fees if it sold. When ebay discontinued selling fees, it was a bonus for the seller and an encouragement for more sellers to list with ebay, especially as fees would no longer be charged on the postage costs also.

I had no need to adjust my listed selling price but I may consider it now if this ridiculous buyers protection fee (along with the not being paid until item delivered) fiasco greatly impacts what I receive for the items I sell.

[jma2815]

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@hollyh321 wrote:

I’ve used RM Collect and bring labels for second class post. It works brilliantly for the 2/3 things I sell over 10 days. Will this still be OK to use?

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There could well be the facility to book a collection once you’ve got the label but that will be no good to you when your buyers choose Evri, which I think will be the majority as it will always be the cheaper option. 

[hollyh321]

I don’t have a printer so how would that work do you think?

There is no Evri drop off locally and I can’t drive. Couldn’t carry parcels onto a bus. So pretty anxious now.

[jma2815]

Thanks for explaining your category! In high end clothing dresses that cost about £300 new always used to be sold in lightly used condition one or two years after release for about £150. As you’d expect. 

Those same dresses have now gone up to £400 - £500 when bought new due to Brexit, Covid, generally rising prices, which I suppose is only to be expected. What I did not expect was that when they are now sold on on eBay I can expect them to be also £400 - £500, even if several years old. ‘This is what similar ones cost now’ has become a familiar refrain in descriptions.

I’ve also seen a rise in sellers cancelling auctions early and relisting if their already high price doesn’t ‘take off’. I saw two sellers do it only this morning. That must be very annoying for anyone who had placed a bid really wanting the item. 

Your Anthropologie plant pots are really cute, by the way! 

[game_raid]

I like the correct use of the word, as a business seller I like the word profit, prefer the word margin because that is all we work to not so much as a private seller as I rarely need to use it.

Maybe you should look up what financial gain means.

Financial gains are profits or revenues that exceed the costs of producing or supplying something. They can be earned or unearned, and can be the result of events, transactions, or circumstances. 

How can you make a profit/financial gain on something you buy and sell for less?

Of course there is a rule for profit margins in business, If a business has a negative margin they will eventually go under because they will be selling everything at a loss.

A private seller selling unwanted clothes like I have been listing today or whatever else should not even be thinking about a margin, and with all due respect most would not even be able to work the the true margin of an item sold and why should they? I know I couldn't when I was a private seller and don't need to now when I list something privately, I list according to what the market is paying to give me the best chance of a sale.

The post response was to another poster who claimed that it isn't worth selling anything for a loss and the item isn't worth the time to list if not profit is made and I argued that it is worth a seller's time if they want to get some cash in no matter how much they make on the sale.

You can define profit as you want but in the real world it doesn't work like that.

[twin--turbo]

This is by far and away the most commented post on the forum , followed by a smattering of other similar threads. 

Someone at Ebay will be tasked with taking notice and feeding back "The Mood" to someone.  The question is, are they listenig at all and considering or just putting on the blinkers.

1) the buyer protection is no help to either seller ot buyer, only to ebay who glean a nice new revenue.

2) Holding funds is unnecessary as ebay can recover them anyway so why do this ( we all know it's that 3% interste which however small mounts up/)

3) low value items are now dead in the water. the protection cost outweighs the risk.

4) Simple delivery criticaly impacts the methods used by seller, prevents or excludes them from using the tried and trusted methods that suit them whilst providing little benefit to the buyer.

Yes everyone will be hit the same, so a postcard from Fred will suffer the same imposed excess charges as a postcard from Lola, but Geoff is not going to pay either of them for an item that's doubled in price. 

The buyer protection was already punative enough with a "buyers always right" stance.. 

someone in eBay towers has done some comercial palm pressing with Evri and Rm, they have failed to analyse their user base, failed to understand the market and then come up with a singular overall plan to apply across the board.  

Ebay will lose.

Buyers will lose.

Sellers will lose.

Landfill wil win.. 

[vintique*violet]

Wow - I was unaware of anything like that... but I suppose as " times are harder" people would try and get what they can especially if they are selling at that price.   I have never cancelled auctions with bids, even when they have sold just for 99pence and treat every " customer" the same whether 99p or £99 as its the " roll of the dice" really with auctions, but they can be fun... or should I say they used to be, as I find the whole palaver with all the changes etc,  has drained the " colour"  out of the eBay world.  

I adore the pots - thank you... if they don't sell I am keeping them and taking them with me when I move... I have far too many pots really  ( love pottery and glass ) and some which would probably sell very well, but I am not parting with them as they hold more sentimental value.  One of my  large vintage garden pots sold last year, and now I wish I had kept it, but I need to downsize as I can't take everything with me.  The most I am concerned about is the furniture as I was going to list some pieces but I am not prepared to have my funds held, and at the moment not ready as the cabinets and wardrobe still store stuff 😉 ... particularly as they would probably fetch "a few bob" 😉 Taking a  look at local auction houses ( bricks & mortar ones) so considering those at the moment.  Someone did mention that there are "agents" who take a commission and sell on eBay for you, but I haven't found any in my area ...yet!

Edit - spelling