Why am I getting pressured to change from private seller to buisness

[cherrylips74]

I am disabled,  I sell on average less than ten items a month. No set particular item as most surplus to my requirements or I have bought and decided to sell on for a small profit ie a second hand item etc.

I haven't had any issues since I came to ebay 2008 and have had 100% feedback in all this time.

Suddenly this month ebay have started treating me appalling.  Eg when try to list an item under health and beauty it turns around and says I can't list any more high end products...ie Declor for example.  Stuff I have bought myself and no longer need or want .

I CONTACTED ebay who were useless and fobbed me off with a .gov link to a email address who apparently suppose to deal with setting limits . Am like why are you assuming am a buisness? ID Be pretty rubbish if only sold 5 items month....secondly the total in £ is less than £1500 in 90 days what sort of buisness would that be ...pretty rubbish...am just absolutely mad as hell how they will not help or listen or mediate with this other apparent government agency who apparently advised such limits never heard anything so ridiculous in my life...it applies the restriction if I want to list trm under health and beauty...if I list it under Misc....or joblot it adds the item.

I am also fed up with how my items when listed do not come up in search bar yet other sellers do despite paying extra to promote the item.

Frustrating when for eg I was selling an item at £30 and no views yet exactly same item different seller selling at £50 had 21 watcher....which makes me think ebay are getting greedy and manipulation is occurring as obviously if they sell higher item more fees for them!!! 

Any thoughts help appreciated 

[lesney_robin]

I have 4 personal accounts with 1000 each on a bin,and 1 useless shop account that sells 1 thing a week,eBay sent messages to all 4 personal accounts that I must move to become shops because I must be a business seller,I can appeal it says,I wonder is this because I have new items on my 4 personal accounts,but mostly second hand,I can not afford to change all 4 to a shop,as there's not the cash every month to pay+ there fees,as well,if I do nothing,on the 4th next month thay threaten to restrict the 4 personal accounts,so please give me a clue about the restrictions if you can,thank you for reading.

[kempseykate]

If you are buying to sell then you need to be registered as a business seller. You don't need to open a shop as a business seller, but if you do, it would possibly be worth selling everything on one ID, as you get so many inclusive listings with the shop.
Once ebay tell you to register as a business, you probably won't have any choice about it.

It may be worth checking if the email was meant to be sent - see this thread:

Tech support says :messages to upgrade from a priv... - UK eBay Community

[lesney_robin]

Thank you very helpful,thank you.

[cobwebcottage]

On this account with 1000 listings, 314 of them are new items and some have multi buys. If you have 4 other accounts, one being a shop it looks very much as though you are a business seller trading on private accounts.

Although there seems to be an influx of Ebay sending messages to sellers to upgrade their accounts and incorrectly to some sellers who are genuine private sellers, I doubt if you will win any appeal due to the quantities your are listing on numerous accounts.

The worst case scenario for you is that if you do not register correctly, they will delete your listings and close your accounts.

[lesney_robin]

Thank you for the good advice,I will talk it over with the wife,I will update soon,thanks again.

[notstopbuying]

Have a look at this post with regards to private sellers been asked to become business sellers. 

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/Tech-support-says-messages-to-upgrade-from-a-p...

[lesney_robin]

Thank you for your kind reply,I am unsure,do I need to have a shop(and pay a fee per month +the approx 14% thay take per sale)to be registered as a business seller? If no then I could simply change the sales page from personal to business?,thanks again.

[cobwebcottage]

Have a read of these. At the moment, you are not complying to consumer law and need to offer returns and display your personal details. It really does look as though you will have no choice but to register as a business as Ebay are catching up with private sellers who are trading.

Business seller policy | eBay

Fees for business sellers | eBay

[the_book_seekers]

I've just had a look at your feedback - what you're buying and what you're selling - and I've seen potential exmples of buying to resell. Is this how you use your accounts? Are you buying to resell which is business selling? In addition to having 4 accounts ebay will have seen this activity and have identified you as a business seller. Once ebay makes this decision it pretty much expect sellers to upgrade to a business and failure to do so will mean accounts are either closed or loose the ability to sell.  What ebay won't tell you is that the upgrade to a business account is one way. Once done an account cannot be returned to private. 

[papso22]

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@lesney_robin wrote:

Thank you for your kind reply,I am unsure,do I need to have a shop(and pay a fee per month +the approx 14% thay take per sale)to be registered as a business seller? If no then I could simply change the sales page from personal to business?,thanks again.

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Having a shop is not the same as being correctly registered as a business on eBay.  You have to have a business account to comply with consumer law. 

Although we can't see your other 4 accounts,  what you sell on this one shows you are illegally trading on a private account, I see no reason why that shouldn't apply to all your others too.

I think you know exactly what you are doing.  You have spread your business accross a number of accounts to maximise the free listings which, as a business,  you are not entitled to. 

As this unfair advantage will no longer be available to you, you may as well consolidate all your accounts into one business one.  With over 4,000 listings a shop should be worth it.

[pg_kicks]

@lesney_robin 

Tell me to mind my own business if you wish but as eBay have found you theres no disadvantage to not sharing the info, but can you tell me across all of your accounts how many sold items you have, current listings and have you just been using the same IP address/home address for each log in?

Just eBay have been claiming to always be on the look out for businesses trading on private accounts so if your other 4 are similar to this one thats around 16k sales across numerous accounts with the same name/address for years that they didnt think was suspicious.

Hopefully you can upgrade to a business account on the best account and still run a successful business but now legally. 

[kempseykate]

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@lesney_robin wrote:

Thank you for your kind reply,I am unsure,do I need to have a shop(and pay a fee per month +the approx 14% thay take per sale)to be registered as a business seller? If no then I could simply change the sales page from personal to business?,thanks again.

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I can see why ebay are saying you need to be business reg. It's a bit risky to have a business account with just 505 items listed, when you have four 'private' accounts, selling pretty much the same stuff all at around 1000 items each. I think ebay would see that as taking the mick!

[papso22]

We know he has a shop, we don't know that it's a business account as well.  If it is a business account then it's not ignorance but deliberate deception.

[howmuchtobid]

Your behaviour here has been disgraceful. 4000 buy it nows on private accounts and you come on here posting like you have, shameful.

[kempseykate]

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@papso22 wrote:

We know he has a shop, we don't know that it's a business account as well.  If it is a business account then it's not ignorance but deliberate deception.

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It is a business account.

[papso22]

Not ignorance of the law then.

[*vyolla*]

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@lesney_robin wrote:

I have 4 personal accounts with 1000 each on a bin,and 1 useless shop account that sells 1 thing a week,eBay sent messages to all 4 personal accounts that I must move to become shops because I must be a business seller,I can appeal it says,I wonder is this because I have new items on my 4 personal accounts,but mostly second hand,I can not afford to change all 4 to a shop,as there's not the cash every month to pay+ there fees,as well,if I do nothing,on the 4th next month thay threaten to restrict the 4 personal accounts,so please give me a clue about the restrictions if you can,thank you for reading.

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The mind boggles. 

How on earth can you believe that you should be trading on a private account on one eBay account, let alone 4 of them? 

A private seller is one who is just selling off their own personal items such as clothes from their wardrobe, bits from their loft/garage etc.

A Business seller is someone who buys or makes items to sell on.  They need to be registered as a business to meet the requirements of UK law

Shame on you for masquerading as a private seller, and shame on eBay for taking up until now to spot this and action it.

If you haven't been completing your tax returns correctly you are going to be so stuffed next January, when HMRC will be looking back over your years of trading.

[lens-sage]

Interesting to note that OP is still on a private account and now has nearly 200 new items for sale and 33 sales last month.

I'd heard of a few sellers who said nothing happened after the deadline to switch to business account had come and gone, and this seems to support that.

Almost like it was an empty threat just to see who would be scared into switching and paying full fees, and anyone who doesn't? Just leave them as they are.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

they may get a bit of a shock if HMRC do start looking into them next year - as they say they are disabled right at the beginning as though that was an excuse for whatever they do to be ok i would assume they are getting some kind of disability allowances, credits etc and those could be badly affected if the tax man starts making enquiries.