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?

[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.''

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No idea how I managed to produce a total non-comment here! 

Apologies.  

[mawels_87]

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

Buyers want to know the total amount of the fees though. Not just knowing that its 4%+75p included in the price. 

[suelel1968]

No, you are over egging the pudding! We all hate it, but on balance hiding it is better for sales than making a  buyer realise they are paying a fee to eBay.

Until eBay drop the distinction between types of sellers this is the best way forward I think. Vinted do what you want, but it is the same for every seller on there regardless of type.

[mawels_87]

"No, you are over egging the pudding! We all hate it, but on balance hiding it is better for sales than making a  buyer realise they are paying a fee to eBay."

Personally I won't be buying any until eBay clearly show the total fees amount on listings and at checkout. Vinted does it very well so I'm buying there instead.

[*devils.advocate*]

I don’t.

As a buyer, the price is either OK for me or it’s not - no matter how a seller sets their price.

Wasn’t I paying approx 13% fees to eBay before now which private sellers included in their pricing?

[suelel1968]

Yes Devils , you were.

As a buyer I generally want the cheapest or the quickest to arrive. I don't even like working out what a price is with postage added on.   As a seller i don't want to see two ways of displaying pricing for types of sellers. 

[mawels_87]

"Wasn’t I paying approx 13% fees to eBay before"

Maybe so. I only listed everything when I had the 80% fee discount. Sellers inflated prices to help offset the fees. I've not seen  prices come down since selling became free. Buyers now are having to pay ever more dew to  the new buyer fees.  

[*devils.advocate*]

….. Sellers inflated prices to help offset the fees. I've not seen prices come down since selling became free …..

So private sellers didn’t reduce their prices when it became ‘fee free’ - they just pocketed that extra money for themselves at the expense of their buyers?

Surely if they had reduced their prices, due to no fees for them to pay, this recent small fee wouldn’t now be a problem to them?

I’ve always maintained that eBay wants rid of all the low-priced items - not all private sellers.

[goodibags]

You're almost there. It seems Ebay wants rid of all the low-priced items and the BUYERS of low-priced items.

You definitely won't be seeing as many in the future.

[mawels_87]

""I’ve always maintained that eBay wants rid of all the low-priced items - not all private sellers.""

It's hard to say. On a listing item of say £200 it's a whopping buyer fee of £8.00+.  Then the postage cost on top of that.

[*devils.advocate*]

I, and I assume others, have bought not only low-priced items but also higher-priced items.

If the price is right for the item, I'll be interested - but the price, no matter how it's made up, has to be right..

If it's not, I'll move on - whether it's low price or high price.

[*devils.advocate*]

There was always a postage cost - either shown as a separate amount or included in the price.

It was never "free".

The postage element will now all depend on how much of a pig's ear eBay make of Simple Delivery.

Their track record regarding postage partners has been diabolical.

[medealady]

Many sellers only listed when there was a fee promo. Many sellers were excluded from promos completely for 2 years. When the zero fees started for the latter there was no price reduction required. The former 'may' think about reducing prices a tad but with inflation extra costs to dispatch they might let it be. Certainly P&P needs to be stripped out of selling price making it artificially cheaper BUT saving 'buyer protection' on the included postage. An issue not covered is auctions where the fee cannot be calculated until the auction ends. Without testing not sure if ebay add the fee to a bid price like 'if this bid wins you pay an extra xyz BP'.  Time will tell if this results in a lot of auctions getting non payers, was bad enough before this with bidders regret. How many sellers are getting asked (or will be) 'what do I get for his fee?'...well 24 hr real people phone calls if you can understand the accent, you will get your purchase just like the ebay buyers guarantee and err um err...

[mawels_87]

For about  the last year or so I've purchased most stuff from Vinted as I've found it mostly a faction of the price compared to eBay prices. If the new buyer fees on eBay eventually have the same affect as Vinted I will buy here more often.  If the vast price gap remains Vinted will remain my number one choice to buy used items.

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[goodibags]

Yes, I've bought high price and low price items. Obviously, the higher priced ones will remain but for lower ones where will you be moving on to?

What you won't see are records at £1 and the dvds/cds at £2. In the former case, the seller can't list that low. In the latter they may decide it's not worth the effort and a waste of packaging materials. Either way those items are gone.

The same goes for stamps, coins, cards, badges, phonecards, leaflets and all manner of other collectables.

[doumind_7]

Well I have not seen this stealth tax added to anything yet. It's a shambles.

[doumind_7]

Correct. I have not heard a whisper from eBay. Obviously they are intent on squeezing this stealth tax through the back door. BPF/ Yeah right. They are losing sellers by the 100.

[doumind_7]

Not optional? It's a bloody rip off!

[papso22]

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@doumind_7 wrote:

Well I have not seen this stealth tax added to anything yet. It's a shambles.

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You are not looking in the right place!

[akemp1]

I just tried adding a private seller's used TV into my basket and didn't see any fee until I got to the checkout page. I was expecting the fee to be above the final top-right order summary checkout button but it was only the mention of the VAT on the protection fee. I had to look further down on the individual item's summary on that page to see it.

I guess it's good that they are not highlighting it to put the buyers off but it's hardly in the spirit of openness. If it's currently only being tried on electronics then I don't think any of my listings would currently qualify but it's going to make negotiating a price when a buyer difficult as I will have to remember the price they see might not be the price I see etc.

Argh I wish ebay would just go back to private seller fees this is awful.

Hate it.

They seem determined to break everything that was good about ebay.

Such a shame to see a place I like going downhill fast.