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?

[kath3735_wxmjn]

so you cannot answer the question then???

[kath3735_wxmjn]

so once again you did not answer the question.  The buyer has always been able to claim non delivery/not as described.   Nothing has changed as far as that goes regardless of how long you have to wait for payment.

[myriad*seller]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Err....no.

On two occassions they never refunded me for lost items. If its tracked you can often get it back via the carrier.

---

Err yes, when private sellers use the new Simple Delivery system, the buyers ARE refunded by eBay

It is literally in the terms and conditions of the new system.

The only time a private seller using SD has to refund is if the item is not as described on the listing. If it gets lost or broken in the post, eBay now refunds the buyer. It is clearly written in the NEW T&Cs. 

Sounds like you bought under the old system, where the seller was responsible for refunding

Now when you buy from a private seller using Simple Delivery the items are covered by eBay

What happened to you in the past is immaterial as it was under the old system, which has, you know, CHANGED. 

[crg_music]

While business sellers pay fees the old way its the only way to keep it uniform. It would get confusing having multiple formats. If they were to make it free for business sellers also with a buyer fee then they could show it on the item.

Either way it is clear upfront, had they hidden it totally and added it to the cost only at checkout as an extra fee there would be an issue but its included so I dont see the issue.

There is always a fee and either the buyer or the seller is paying it depending on seller status, the buyer will pay the price on the listing page and can choose to buy or not on this alone. Everything else is just fine details that shouldn't bother a buyer.

[Anonymous]

Funny it seems to be bothering rather a lot of people.

[crg_music]

But surely the site would be a mess and more confusing than it is already. I guess they could list buyer fees as 0.00 but surely its just more straight forward to include any fee in every price. Either way you cant go mixing systems to the buyers.

I'm hoping business sellers might get free listings and buyer fees + simple shipping in the future(as a familiar vinted seller), its a great system that works well 99% of the time, at that point it would make sense to show all buyer fees but while there are 2 different systems running together I dont see how else they can do it.

[Anonymous]

Why on earth would I subscribe to SD? Compulsory postage from bloody eBay? No thank you. How I post my items has nothing to do with them. Its just part of this,while .com trick. Sell, paid then send! Stuff them.

[sasquatch416]

Seems suspicious that since it's now free for private sellers to list items this new " buyer protection fee" has surfaced.  Personally I think it's a way to make up for the loss of listing fees as 95% of ebay transactions go smoothly  with no need for ebay to step in and help.

Think how much money this generates.

[stuwiz01]

1000% agree!  Very obvious!

[tehjumpingjawa]

I'm genuinely surprised eBay's current behaviour isn't a contravention of the DMCC Act (2025-04-06)

It seems to me like a clear example of 'drip pricing'; excluding mandatory fees from the headline price.

Take my listing here for example:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/277045662806

Headline price £8.91, free postage.

Click "Buy it now", and at checkout the price has now been subtlely & surreptitiously changed to £9.81.

Through no fault of my own as seller this comes across as being incredibly deceptive.

The sort of scummy checkout process you expect on Aliexpress, not eBay.

:edit: 

Huh?!? I just looked again at my listing, and now the headline price is £9.99, yet at checkout it goes back to £9.81?!

Does eBay have some kind of bodge fix in operation (to conform to the DMCC) that only comes into effect ~10 minutes after a listing is published?!?

What a gigantic mess.

[zillabudgie]

An Ebayer  from Serbia has asked me why he's being charged a buyer protection fee. Is this correct, I thought it was only for UK buyers. Thanks in advance...

[sml192]

---

@zillabudgie wrote:

An Ebayer  from Serbia has asked me why he's being charged a buyer protection fee. Is this correct, I thought it was only for UK buyers. Thanks in advance...

---

The BPF applies to anyone purchasing when using ebay.co.uk.  If they purchase using ebay.com instead then they wouldn't be charged the fee. 

[zillabudgie]

Thanks for the info...

[lucy_farmer]

'Huh?!? I just looked again at my listing, and now the headline price is £9.99, yet at checkout it goes back to £9.81?!

Does eBay have some kind of bodge fix in operation (to conform to the DMCC) that only comes into effect ~10 minutes after a listing is published?!?

What a gigantic mess.'

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't worry too much : it's Friday! (Glitch day/maintenance day)

If it still makes no sense in 24hrs time, come back 😁