Latest trick to bypass eBay fees?

[Pinoyuk]

Place listings and include a very cheap item almost “free” . The other items are high end stuff . Buyers “purchase “ the cheap item and then instantly gain access to full contact details .Allowing them to “privately purchase” other listed items ? eBay loses fee. And no paypal /fraud issues . As the items will always be the “collect “ only type .

[CrunkleFloop]

Are you saying you're: doing it, suggesting it or are witnessing it?


I seem to find thousands of fake listings though (the ones that say in the description don't buy it now instead email [e-mail]) etc. They have now changed to putting in a description of the vehicle (generic) but putting the email me message in a picture.

Ebay really needs to sort this out as when looking for a car I'm finding more fraudulent listings than genuine ones.

[Scrump]

I thought the cheap item amongst a listing of more expensive items was there to make the ad appear at the top of the search results when sorted by price.

[Pinoyuk]

Just seen a few .They always use terms like “Interested in purchasing this , Please see other listings for assistance” etc . As during the purchase process .The messages etc are not “screened” to take out contact details etc. So in effect .You could be selling a £5000 item .And a serious buyer can link up with you for less than a pound . Rather thanks risk been binned by ebay for trying to list/mention phone numbers etc etc .

[Gareth79]

Scrump said:

I thought the cheap item amongst a listing of more expensive items was there to make the ad appear at the top of the search results when sorted by price.

Ah yes, the "Cable only: 99p" trick, it's very annoying.

Pinoyuk said:

Just seen a few .They always use terms like “Interested in purchasing this , Please see other listings for assistance” etc . As during the purchase process .The messages etc are not “screened” to take out contact details etc. So in effect .You could be selling a £5000 item .And a serious buyer can link up with you for less than a pound . Rather thanks risk been binned by ebay for trying to list/mention phone numbers etc etc .

eBay do monitor private messages between buyers and sellers though, I know they do charge final value fees if they see a transaction conducted outside of the listing (in private messages), I assume they will ban accounts if they see this trick going on.

[Pinoyuk]

Thats only I believe pre purchase. This method skips any issues. The seller and buyer get to communicate via phone or email etc . eBay ain’t the CIA ! . Listing can be pulled .Or Price suddenly dropped to £1 etc and the sellers other account buys it :-)

[red_slr]

This has been going on for years and nothing new.

Car breakers are the classic example. Breaking BMW M5 complete engine and gearbox £0.99. Then in the small print it says "you are bidding on a used bolt from a BMW".

Then because its a business listing the full contact details of the breaker can be in the description.

This is done IMHO because:

A Takes too much time to list every individual part or combination of parts
B Costs less as transactions outside ebay not subject to fees

So punters can call / email direct.

Ebay do check every PM sent. They use AI to check the messages for key words and even codes.

If they catch you doing anything outside of ebay you normally get a warning first then on the second time you get a ban.

HTH!

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Nothing new - it just means the item gets to the top of the search list if you select lowest price first. They still have to pay the final value fee, doesn't affect that.

[S11Steve]

Scrump said:

I thought the cheap item amongst a listing of more expensive items was there to make the ad appear at the top of the search results when sorted by price.

Since "Best Match" (where eBay tries to second guess which listings to show for any given search term) was introduced about 10 years ago, there have been many tricks to game the system.

The more items sold from a listing, the higher ranked it becomes in searches - so a 99p cable or dust cover on the same listing as a more expensive item will feature higher in results than a listing for the item itself. That listing may have sold 200 dust covers and only 2 full price items.

Another way was to list a 99p with free P&P widget as a loss leader, sell a few hundred, then revise the listing category, title, images and description to the higher margin item. Instant high ranking for the listing.

[bonerp]

I was charged £250 by ebay for selling a watch I never sold (I actually still have it and have sent dated photos!), all because the bloke who wanted to see it sent me a message and didn't click on Buy it know - which apparently he should've and I should've cancelled if it hadn't sold!

I will never sell from ebay again - they are robbing s who don't follow UK trading standards law.

[red_slr]

bonerp said:

I was charged £250 by ebay for selling a watch I never sold (I actually still have it and have sent dated photos!), all because the bloke who wanted to see it sent me a message and didn't click on Buy it know - which apparently he should've and I should've cancelled if it hadn't sold!

I will never sell from ebay again - they are robbing s who don't follow UK trading standards law.

Ouch, £250 is the maximum ebay fee too.

I presume they took it out of your paypal account? This is why I don't have automatic payment set up.

[bonerp]

red_slr said:

bonerp said:

I was charged £250 by ebay for selling a watch I never sold (I actually still have it and have sent dated photos!), all because the bloke who wanted to see it sent me a message and didn't click on Buy it know - which apparently he should've and I should've cancelled if it hadn't sold!

I will never sell from ebay again - they are robbing s who don't follow UK trading standards law.

Ouch, £250 is the maximum ebay fee too.

I presume they took it out of your paypal account? This is why I don't have automatic payment set up.

Yes they did. It was criminal and they didn't back down. That link no longer exists!

[Dont like rolls]

bonerp said:

Yes they did. It was criminal and they didn't back down. That link no longer exists!

Or just make sure it only has limited (tat purchase) funds in it ?

[bonerp]

Dont like rolls said:

bonerp said:

Yes they did. It was criminal and they didn't back down. That link no longer exists!

Or just make sure it only has limited (tat purchase) funds in it ?

Not interested. They overstepped their mark and didn't back down. Its a US company who think they can behave like this without recourse. I contacted trading standards about this and my credit card company. None of them were interested. Ebay has got too arrogant. I sell more than this during a year but now I'm not through ebay. They lose out as a result. I'm afraid I saw the same approach with Indiegogo and GoPro. I will be very careful in doing business with US companies now. I hope the UK government do going forward too!!!

[Lemming Train]

Dont like rolls said:

bonerp said:

Yes they did. It was criminal and they didn't back down. That link no longer exists!

Or just make sure it only has limited (tat purchase) funds in it ?

They will send Debt & Revenue Services (Ardent Credit Services) after you to get the money if you do that. And they are persistent.

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Lemming Train said:

Dont like rolls said:

bonerp said:

Yes they did. It was criminal and they didn't back down. That link no longer exists!

Or just make sure it only has limited (tat purchase) funds in it ?

They will send Debt & Revenue Services (Ardent Credit Services) after you to get the money if you do that. And they are persistent.

It has to be linked to a Bank account now...gone are the days of simply ignoring the debt collection agency and they'll eventually go away.

[R Mutt]

bonerp said:

I was charged £250 by ebay for selling a watch I never sold (I actually still have it and have sent dated photos!), all because the bloke who wanted to see it sent me a message and didn't click on Buy it know - which apparently he should've and I should've cancelled if it hadn't sold!

I will never sell from ebay again - they are robbing s who don't follow UK trading standards law.

I had similar where I sold under a free final value offer. I pulled the item towards the end to prevent any non eligible auto relisting, and relisted a few days later under the same (new) offer. Somehow I was charged the fee because it 'didn't sell in the first listing period' which I presume meant I listed the same item under the same offer twice. I was also warned that I would be charged the final value fee by an automated message when I tried to send a potential buy my phone number as he had questions.

Going a bit too far to close any loopholes IMO

[BERGS2]

Just resurfacing this, as have had a highly negative experience of Ebay in my last three transactions;

After advice/experiences on how to re-coupe final value fees taken from auctions that did not result in a transaction (& just to be clear - no out of ebay going on it was just a bust motor in the pump...)

Firstly, I had a medium value item that didn't sell (was bid to £4oo odd quid), as on testing it, I found it to be faulty, so withdrew from sale.

£55 charge from ebay in addition to the £3.50 promoted listing cost...


This was having paid an eye-watering £75.82 in a combination of final value, a 'seller selected' ad rate of 9% (i have no recollection of selecting this - i though the promotion was a flat £3.50 and not related to sales price)

This was on a set of wheels that sold for £320 - netting me £237... Thats 26% commsion for the platform

Finally, sold some old RC gear to a dude who wanted a refund - agreed the process (fk all value - was just clearing out the loft)

I agreed the refund, he says his payment hasn't been returned, i havent had the goods back, and it looks like the funds are still residing in ebay..... do they give a st? do they fk

absoult pi$$take - read the small print people (as i know I should have)


Will i have any joy persuing the £55? or should i just chalk it up, and close my account?

Normally, I'd let it go - but in the context of the other two 'sales', I'm half a mind to have a run at gettting it back (though thoroughly unlike to have a positive outcome....)

Assume closing the account and removing the payment card will just result in the passing over to some faceless recovery agency?

Any alternatives sites/apps for selling?

Use Vinted which a really like (albeit rather slow) - but suspect not the ideal place for car parts & guitar stuff

[Allan L]

Recently, when I listed an item to be collected, I had trouble telling the buyer my location, as eBay detected the tell-tale signs . . .
15-odd years ago I sold a lot of stuff that had to be collected and it was simple and straightforward, but that seems to have changed.

[gotoPzero]

Bergs best bet is to ring them. They are actually usually pretty good on the phone and will explain things and if they can they will sort it.

If you have had your account for 2 weeks and 0 feedback don't expect much though.... but IME if you have an account with trading history they will usually do something.