eBay is profiteering at the expense of Sellers

[wysiwyg_steve]

eBay has given their reasons for the thinking behind the new 'payments on hold' policy. I would ask Sellers to question the integrity of that policy in light of the two following incontrovertible facts:

1) All the while eBay has your money eBay are earning interest on it.

2) All the while eBay has your money you are earning no interest on it.

Each day eBay will have millions upon millions of £ / $ rolling over each day into their accounts.  Because that amount of money is extremely large, it can then attract an extraordinarily large interest rate.  The beauty of this from eBay's point of view is twofold:

1) They literally have to do nothing but sit back and watch the interest increases their bank balance.

2) They can claim that this policy is being done in the best interest of their users.

The definition of profiteering is: "The act of making an unreasonable profit not justified by the corresponding assumption of risk, or by doing so unethically."

 

Food for thought I think.

[luvvintagecharms]

Buyers already had protection. The odd time my parcel did not reach a buyer they claimed through ebay as 'item not received', ebay refunded them (and then deducted this payment from either my cash balance or from my bank) and then it was up to me to claim from Royal Mail. This happened very rarely and all worked out fine when it did as I  have had always had 100% feedback. So they need to say it as it is, they just want the interest, and sellers can take all the risks from now on.

[papso22]

My thoughts are that interest is not profit, so earning it is not profiteering. 

[wysiwyg_steve]

Please ignore - a Reply was made instead. (There's no 'Delete Post' option)

[wysiwyg_steve]

"My thoughts are that interest is not profit, so earning it is not profiteering."

I'm intrigued. How is money made via interest not profit?

[magpiecorner1]

I don't think they can profit.

The owner of monies placed in escrow accounts - that is monies kept by a third party until certain conditions have been met - cannot be used to earn interest.

Might be slightly different in US but there only 15 states allow interest to be paid to the person who has lodged the money, so presumably they allow interest to be earned on the money also.  I don't think California is one of those states.

[wysiwyg_steve]

I don't think they can profit.

That's an interesting opinion. They can profit.

The owner of monies placed in escrow accounts - that is monies kept by a third party until certain conditions have been met - cannot be used to earn interest.

This is interesting.  Are you talking about a specific country / countries and if so which?

Might be slightly different in US but there only 15 states allow interest to be paid to the person who has lodged the money, so presumably they allow interest to be earned on the money also.  I don't think California is one of those states.

This, slightly confusing, statement infers that there are states that would allow eBay to make a profit.  I'd refer you to your original assertion that "I don't think they can profit."

[wysiwyg_steve]

Yeah, I'm done with replying to this topic for now.  If people want to argue the toss, great - I'll be interested in the replies. The post was made to encourage people to challenge my assertion but "I think" and illogical statements aren't really the same as good old facts.

Cheers. 👌🤓👍

P.S. Why is there no monocled face emoji?!!

[the_mirror_cracked]

1  How do you think they would make profit?

2  Specifically the UK, as this is a UK only issue, though also EU, as eBay.UK banking is  done in the EU.

3 I felt was worth mentioning as eBay Inc, is in California, therefore the anomaly of overriding state laws re escrow don't come into play either.   eBay doesn't have private sellers in US and doesn't have this condition on US sales.  Therefore I stand by my original comment, I don't think they can profit.

Though I'd like to be a fly on the wall as their accountants and legal eagles argue this this is not escrow.

[asleepingdragon]

I wonder what they actually earn interest on.

Many moons ago on the original eBay forums early 2000s I recall a claim that some money did not earn interest and was just held.

[tressygirl]

I too thought no interest was earned, but it  does, and this apparently was changed in the User Agreement in October, to read this:

You do not have any ownership interest in these investments and any interest earned from these investments will be retained by us. To the extent you may have any beneficial ownership in the interest or proceeds of these investments, your acceptance of these terms constitutes an assignment of any right, title or interest therein to us.

🤔

[fatbobfan]

Its a common world wide business practice

[wysiwyg_steve]

---

@fatbobfan wrote:

Its a common world wide business practice

---

What do you mean by "It's"? Profiteering? This is an eBay Forum so we're primarily talking about eBay as this is where we trade. Profiteering on eBay won't be tolerated by Sellers or Buyers - bottom line is they'll leave the site. Or were you trying to make a point that I've overlooked?

[wil_san_tech]

the reason they are doing this is because their sales for the past few years have been flat. 

[game_raid]

Who actually cares?

They put our items in front of millions of potential buyers, they process payments, often they refund us and the buyer to make things right between both parties when things go wrong so no one loses out, they generally cover all the fraud cases as long as the evidence is there which must cost hundreds of thousands per year.

They process all payments which will attract processing fees by the banks, it is never free to process a payment, look at the VISA and Mastercard profits.

All of the above and more costs money, some think they are not allowed to profit on anything and the seller is the only one that should be making from the transaction.

If you sit at home all day worrying about how much interest eBay is making from that £50 they are holding of yours then you have to start looking at your life choices.

It is pretty much standard now for a marketplace to hold your funds because of the amount of fraud that is committed by both buyers and sellers, sending an item tracked can reduce the fraud considerably.

[jow1995]

Great post, well put, too many sellers think Ebay are running a charity.

[a45heaven]

And when that was not the case and the coffers were over flowing , i dont recall a drop in fees or other benefits awarded to the sellers.

The days of working together have long gone, does anyone mention to folks that they are proud to work with ebay these days?

Ive been here long enough to have shared in the expansion and growth of the platform,  sadly as it now hurts.

[lucy_farmer]

'And when that was not the case and the coffers were over flowing , i dont recall a drop in fees or other benefits awarded to the sellers.'

Well, no. Ebay is not a co-operative.

It's an american Mega-Corps whose only purpose in being is to make money for their shareholders.

I'm always slightly suprised by the amount of ebay users who seem to think that these changes are 'illegal' ,or somehow against user's 'rights', or even down to the UK Labour govt. being useless!

It's BIG business; this is how it works.

[a45heaven]

So lets not get caught up in the fantasy ebay does something for the users then .

Is that why you stopped selling on this platform?

[lucy_farmer]

I've packed my selling list away for the time being, mainly because  I've managed to sell 2 things in the last nearly-4 months !  (for a grand total of less than 35 quid)

My enthusiasm for selling is running out... 😔