Updates to Buyer Protection Fee as of 17 July - give with one hand and take back with another!

[thelma-louise80]

I have just read eBay's recent email excitedly letting us all know they have reduced the flat fee of 75p to a more palatable 10p per item.  BUT...they have made changes to the percentage added on top of that.  They used to add 4% for anything with a value up to £300.  This has been changed so they now add 7% to items up to £20 and the 4% only applies to items between £20 and £300. 

Ebay have made it look like they are doing us private sellers a favour, but it's not as good as they make out. 

[crafty_cat_lover]

It is much better than you make out on items under £20, and on all items over £20 there is a small saving of 5p.

Plus it may pursuade buyers to buy more than one item from you as each additional item no longer has an extra 75p fixed fee added.

[gjalp]

I actually approve of this change. I sell many things under £10 and auctions at 99p starts. The flat fee of 75p killed my sales. This means I can go back to listing my cheaper start auctions and I may actually remain selling rather than go elsewhere. I'll see how it pans out on some test items.

[thelma-louise80]

I am happy with the reduced fixed fee, I just don't know why eBay then felt the need to claw back some of that saving by increasing the percentage for items up to £20.  Why couldn't they just leave it as it was?

[crafty_cat_lover]

Probably because they are a business rather than a charity and need to make money for their shareholders.

[porsche1980]

Skullduggery. Nothing to see here, folks.....

[cabletie555]

Further back, if I remember correctly, it used to be 10% eBay fees, 3 or 4% PayPal fees and a 30p listing fee, although with occasional lower fees or fee free listing offers, so this is pretty good taking the longer view. On a lot of low value listings it's a job to drop my price enough to make a significant difference and still make it worthwhile to list, wrap and sell given the postage cost placed on top so it's a big help not to have that higher fixed fee. It also brings some hope this isn't a one way process and perhaps Simple Delivery might change too. Being forced to use restrictive and overpriced postage will negate this on some lower priced listings though, which will still become virtually unsaleable. I usually only get to drop my prices, never raise them, and frequently put in hours of work to make a few pence or a pound or two from a sale, so it can seem a bit unfair at times especially when the majority of the price paid by the buyer is taken by everyone else who are all being paid properly.

[thesmokingrunner]

So less than six months after eBay started rolling out the Buyer Protection Fee they have introduced a fairly major re-working of the flat-rate fee and percentage calculation with no prior notice.

The new rates have almost doubtless been introduced in an attempt to stem the loss of income from introducing the BPF in the first place. Give it another six months and the rates will probably change again.

Sheer desperation on eBay's part.

[bessie17u]

I am missing something? If I sell an item for £20 at 4% with 75p on top it comes to £1.55

At 7% plus 10p it comes to £1.50. How is that much better? 

[crafty_cat_lover]

For starters no-one is worse off as single items over £20 give a saving of a few pence.

It is the lower priced items that have better savings and the chance of buyers buying more than one item from you as there is no longer a fixed fee of 75p on each item. instead if a buyer buys for example 3 of item they will be a 10p fixed fee rather than £2.25 fixed fee.

If you sell an item for £10 at 4% with 75p on top it comes to £1.15

At 7% plus 10p it comes to 80p

That is 35p better off

[thesmokingrunner · Accepted solution]

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@crafty_cat_lover wrote:

For starters no-one is worse off as single items over £20 give a saving of a few pence.

It is the lower priced items that have better savings and the chance of buyers buying more than one item from you as there is no longer a fixed fee of 75p on each item. instead if a buyer buys for example 3 of item they will be a 10p fixed fee rather than £2.25 fixed fee.

If you sell an item for £10 at 4% with 75p on top it comes to £1.15

At 7% plus 10p it comes to 80p

That is 35p better off

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According to the Help& Support page, crafty_cat_lover, a single flat fee only applies to multiple purchases of an identical listing from the same seller (the example given is the purchase of 2 identical t-shirts would attract a single 10p flat fee), whereas multiple purchases of different items from the same seller would attract a 10p flat fee for each item (the example given is the purchase of two different items from the same seller would attract a flat fee total of 2x10p).

Oh, and it's not 35p better off, it's 35p less worse off. There is a difference. It's still 80p more than a buyer would have paid before BPF was introduced...

[crafty_cat_lover]

My example does say "3 of an item", sorry I caused you confusion by excluding the word identical.

As for whether we are better off or less worse off, I'd say as a buyer than I will be paying less today on buy it now items from private sellers than yesterday so as far as I'm concerned I am better off.

[gjalp]

Works out even better if you sell items at £5 too. Many of my items are priced around that mark or lower so in that respect, it makes the items more reasonably priced.

[lyndylooops]

The reduced Buyer Protection fee is supposed to be showing on items today but so far when I calculate on low price items it isn' t correct....

[bessie17u]

Mm hm, I mentioned a £20 item which is just 5 pence, plus buying more than one item is contentious as postage cannot always be combined.

[crafty_cat_lover]

My experience as a seller is that postage can be combined - I sold 3 items on Tuesday to a buyer and there was only one order and one simple delivery label.

I know you mentioned a £20 item but I did actually say items under £20 and the cheaper items have caused a lot of complaints from sellers where the BPF. Obviously for sellers like you where the majority of your items are over £20 the is minimal savings but for most people buying from me the savings are definitely worth having.

Plus, of course, most private sellers will no longer have to wait for their money.  I guess I'm a glass half full type of person:-)

[bessie17u]

I always always combined postage before simple delivery - if my buyer paid before me sending an invoice I would refund them. Now I am unable to do that. If I accept a buyer offer (and they purchase more than one item) they are forced to pay for postage separately. 

I have queried this with ebay but you know how they are - they can't do anything about it. This is the biggest flaw with simple delivery imo, but maybe these reduced fees are at least a step in the right direction. Personally, I would rather have the seller fees back.

[theelench]

Some people are easily pleased, others just as easily fooled.

[flip_my_stuff]

Yes , my listings are the same. I tried ending and relisting an item but the new fee structure isn't being applied. Hope they sort it out soon!

[snowylilliput-2]

Many sellers have had to drop the price since BPF was added or they would have never got a sale .  A item which was once selling at £10 suddenly became £1.15 more expensive if they did not reduce the price to try and generate a sale .