eBay buyer protection fee is being added by stealth to private sellers' listings.

[poshboutique2]

eBay are adding the buyer protection fee to electronic items being sold by private sellers but unlike Vinted they are hiding the buyer protection fee by adding it to the private sellers item price whereas at least Vinted make the buyer fee separate from the listing price. Are eBay allowed to hide the buyer protection fee like this? Should they not make it clear that buyers are being charge a buyer protection fee as appears on Vinted?

[papso22]

They make it clear before the buyer pays, which is what matters legally.

It is also part of the user agreement that started on the 4th.  Any member that buys or sells on ebay after that date has agreed to the terms of the user agreement, whether they have read it or not.

[poshboutique2]

I am checking electronics listings by private sellers - there is no mention of a buyer protection fee it is just added to the listing price. At least Vinted are transparent about the fee when you buy on their site eBay are not.

[poshboutique2]

Not on the electronics listings by private sellers I have looked at - eBay have sneaked in the buyer fee without any breakdown - where do you see the breakdown on the listings page, or even any mention of the added buyer fee? 

[*vyolla*]

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@poshboutique2 wrote:

eBay are adding the buyer protection fee to electronic items being sold by private sellers but unlike Vinted they are hiding the buyer protection fee by adding it to the private sellers item price whereas at least Vinted make the buyer fee separate from the listing price. Are eBay allowed to hide the buyer protection fee like this? Should they not make it clear that buyers are being charge a buyer protection fee as appears on Vinted?

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eBay are allowed to just add the buyer fee to the item price.

eBay have messaged buyers to announce their new buyer protection fee, it's also in eBay announcements and has been covered on the various consumer websites such as Money Saving Expert.

I agree that I prefer to see it shown separately, same as Vinted display theirs.

[poshboutique2]

How many people read emails from eBay? I am sure many people are totally unaware of the buyer protection fee being added to electronic items being sold by private sellers. Are the consumer websites aware that eBay are hiding the fee unlike Vinted? I don't think eBay made it clear how the fee would appear but now we know they are adding by stealth I wonder what the consumer bodies think of this policy? 

[poshboutique2]

How many people read emails from eBay? I am sure many people are totally unaware of the buyer protection fee being added to electronic items being sold by private sellers. Are the consumer websites aware that eBay are hiding the fee unlike Vinted? I don't think eBay made it clear how the fee would appear but now we know they are adding by stealth I wonder what the consumer bodies think of this policy? 

[jonat_broad]

You don’t see it in the listing page, it only appears in the basket/checkout.

as has been stated they don’t legally have to show it on the listing page though it would be preferable.

that being said an equivalent would be ticket sales on say ticket master. At least with eBay the whole price is being presented on the listing page!

[goodibags]

"eBay have messaged buyers to announce their new buyer protection fee"

When did that happen? I never received a buyer message. There's a whole long thread (or more than one) asking how many buyers know about the fees and when Ebay was thinking of possibly letting them know?

[poshboutique2]

Very sneaky - hardly visible on the checkout page - nowhere near as transparent as Vinted.  Clearly eBay have full confidence in this buyer fee scam.

[wintersdawn1]

I received a message from ebay about the upcoming changes as a seller, not as a buyer.

[suelel1968]

I think i like it the way they have done. Its not optional. Why draw attention to it? 

[goodibags]

Yes, buyers were NOT notified about the new fees but then why would Ebay deliberately scare them off  letting them know in advance there would be massive increases (at least 10% for ANY item up to £12.50) to pay from 4th Feb? Or as and when thereafter.

As it happens, Ebay seems to have found alternative ways to keep users off the platform and transaction volumes low. Thus far, these appear to be 'working'.  😉

[*vyolla*]

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@poshboutique2 wrote:

How many people read emails from eBay? 

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Oh, must be eBay's fault for not coming up with a method to force people to read their emails then. 😀

Seriously, if you buy or sell on a platform and don't keep up to date (given that all platforms have changes and tweaks on a regular basis) then whose fault is that?

On the other hand, if buyers are oblivious to the new fee and still look at an item and decide to buy it then it's no different to how it was before buyer protection was added.  They look at the price and the postage cost and decide if its worth it, or not. 

[*vyolla*]

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@goodibags wrote:

"eBay have messaged buyers to announce their new buyer protection fee"

When did that happen? I never received a buyer message. There's a whole long thread (or more than one) asking how many buyers know about the fees and when Ebay was thinking of possibly letting them know?

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All of my eBay accounts that I use for buying received the email on January 3rd, I do wonder if you have to be opted in to receive them though, if anybody has tweaked their communications preferences to exclude them I guess they may not. They could also end up in spam if emails.

[goodibags]

To be fair, I did my fair share of warning buyers. I added a warning to every single listing about the imminent new fees starting on the 4th. Had a whole flurry of sales last weekend, but then everything went quiet again.

I subsequently removed the warning when the whole thing officially collapsed last week. Luckily, have not had one price-related mis-selling case to answer - yet.

[lucy_farmer]

'I do wonder if you have to be opted in to receive them though, if anybody has tweaked their communications preferences to exclude them I guess they may not.'

[goodibags]

"I do wonder if you have to be opted in to receive them though"

Apparently I must be, since I received a message as a private seller. Unless this has nothing at all to do with user settings?

Evidently, unlike the noisy fanfare around 'free selling' last October, Ebay simply didn't want everyone to know. ☹️

[poshboutique2]

To show that it is not private sellers inflating the sale price but ebay.

[*devils.advocate*]

The listing will show a price for the item.

How will a buyer know if that price is inflated or not?