eBay Scrapping Private Seller Fees

[smokey mow]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Well, I had my first experience as a buyer buying from a private seller under the new regime

The price of the item is £28.80 and it doesn't mention the Buyer's Fee at all. Offers accepted. So I offer £26, still no mention of Buyer's Fee. Proceed through payment details (as it requires immediate payment if offer accepted) and only then does it say "£26.00 incl. £1.69 Buyer Protection fee" with a little hyperlink which, if you click on it, gives a breakdown saying the seller will receive £24.31 of the £26

You then get to click either the "Edit Offer" or "Send Offer" button.

So there we go. What a pile of crap.

Why is that a pile of crap?

You offered £26 and paid £26 for it.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

smokey mow said:

Why is that a pile of crap?

You offered £26 and paid £26 for it.

From a buyer's perspective, sure. But this is a thread about private selling.

I was pointing out how obfuscated it is to the buyer. The buyer offers £26 as before, without knowing (or caring) that the seller is now only getting £24.31 of that. Hence the seller is effectively paying the buyer's fee.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Wednesday 5th March 10:49

[smokey mow]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

From a buyer's perspective, sure. But this is a thread about private selling.

I was pointing out how obfuscated it is to the buyer. The buyer offers £26 as before, without knowing (or caring) that the seller is now only getting £24.31 of that. Hence the seller is effectively paying the buyer's fee.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Wednesday 5th March 10:49

It depends which way you look at it

The seller sees an offer of £24.31 and has the choice to accept or decline.

The seller is happy to accept £24.31 and the buyer is happy to pay £26 so neither the seller or the buyer are loosing out and making/paying less or more than they’re happy with.

EBay is a business at the end of the day and they need to pay for the platform somehow.

There’s no cloak and dagger, the fees are clear to see for both the buyer and seller.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

smokey mow said:

It depends which way you look at it

The seller sees an offer of £24.31 and has the choice to accept or decline.

The seller is happy to accept £24.31 and the buyer is happy to pay £26 so neither the seller or the buyer are loosing out and making/paying less or more than they’re happy with.

Yes, I know all that and we have discussed it at length on the thread already.

smokey mow said:

There’s no cloak and dagger, the fees are clear to see for both the buyer and seller.

I disagree; they could be far clearer. Also, you only need to read back in this thread to see that it is causing confusion.

smokey mow said:

EBay is a business at the end of the day and they need to pay for the platform somehow.

For sure. But there is no need for them to piss on our heads and tell us it is raining by saying that there are no fees for private sellers when there clearly are.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Wednesday 5th March 15:54

[Clockwork Cupcake]

I suppose at the end of the day we'll all get used to it. But I still say that eBay have implemented things in a really crappy and obfuscated way. And, as I said, it rankles me that they keep disingenuously plastering "It's free to sell!!" all over the place when the reality is they will take a slice of your pie however they want to try to spin it as being otherwise.

[KTMsm]

The stupid think the Buyers pay the fees whereas in reality the Sellers pay the fees - as they did before

So the same result but a cack handed implementation and I need a calculator to work out what I have to charge to hit the psychological price markers

[Clockwork Cupcake]

KTMsm said:

The stupid think the Buyers pay the fees whereas in reality the Sellers pay the fees - as they did before

So the same result but a cack handed implementation and I need a calculator to work out what I have to charge to hit the psychological price markers

EXACTLY!

Same with the Collecting Cars auction site. They also say the buyer pays the fee. In both cases the buyer has a maximum price in mind and that is what they will pay. The seller gets that price less the buyer's fee. So who is paying the fee?

Yet eBay keep spamming private seller pages with banners and popouts saying how selling is free.

As I said, don't piss on our heads and tell us it's raining.

[Simpo Two]

Just to conclude my lack of a 6-digit code...
eBay phoned me from America and confirmed that even if I can't get the code from the buyer, the money will be released in 15 days. They added that this code thing is specific to the UK and that lots of sellers hit the same problem I did.

[KTMsm]

Sold a set of wheels, sent via ebay postage using DPD

DPD shows it was delivered on Friday

Ebay tracking hasn't been updated for 3 days

So I have to call ebay after talking to 2 departments they have released the funds

But their ineptitude has cost me time and cost them more than the funds I've paid

Great system ebay !

[I-am-the-reverend]

They have just started this 'simple delivery' nonsense as a default setting. They can get fked with that. It's Royal Mail tracked and signed for, or Fedex/UPS. Thankfully you can opt out.........for now.

Should Ebay be stupid enough to force private sellers into simple delivery it'll be game over for me.

[VeeReihenmotor6]

Another annoyance from me on ebay selling. Parcelforce have screwed up the delivery and sent my parcel to the wrong depot. It was purchased through ebay as a 48hr delivery service dropped off at the post office on 4 March and collected at 1447 that day. Sent to the Norwich depot in error, the Stoke depot was required, parcel is out for delivery today and I will have to wait another 2 days to actually get paid through no fault of my own.

Interestingly I had an item up for collection, where the buyer needed longer than 2 weeks to slot into his diary. He paid on purchase through ebay and ebay released the money 15 days later, before the item had been collected. So at least we know you will get your money after 15 days regardless (I had an issue last month where the tracking information wasn't updated on ebay systems but I did get paid 15 days later).

[Clockwork Cupcake]

I-am-the-reverend said:

They have just started this 'simple delivery' nonsense as a default setting. They can get fked with that. It's Royal Mail tracked and signed for, or Fedex/UPS. Thankfully you can opt out.........for now.

Should Ebay be stupid enough to force private sellers into simple delivery it'll be game over for me.

I just looked up what Simple Delivery is and I haven't even had that offered to me on any of my listings and have no experience with it.

I notice that the information page says "Simple Delivery is available for private sellers in the UK listing eligible items" so maybe the kinds of stuff I sell aren't eligible .

I tend to specify the shipping method(s) when I create the listing, and then when the item sells I generally buy postage through eBay using my funds. I find that it's the same price as going direct, and it's less hassle, and it shows up as a deduction on your item details in the Seller panel which makes record keeping so much easier.

[I-am-the-reverend]

I only use a proper recorded/signed service and upload the tracking details before I drop the parcel off.

[Bighoose]

I've just been selecting custom delivery a d selecting my preferred method of postage as before. It's been fine.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

I've just sold an old CPU for just under £8 (free postage) + buyer's fee, so just sent it 2nd Class Large Letter for £1.55 (Tracked 48 would have been £2.70). Sod it, I can wait 15 days for that kind of pocket money amount.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Wednesday 12th March 11:42

[Narcisus]

£12.72 Buyer Protection Fee on a £300 Lego set that's collection only..... I only used to list on the 80% weekends ...

[Tony_T]

ashleyman said:

Just make absolutely sure you stay within the eBay returns process and you’ll be okay.

Just do the eBay process. Film the opening and unboxing if you want too. Ideally from the moment the phone is handed back to you by the courier. You probably won’t need it and if you can’t film from couriers hands to open box they can’t be sure you didn’t remove items and reseal before starting to film.

Don’t listen to the advice about letters before action. Not at this stage.

I had something similar. I stuck to the process. I got paid out for the missing item.

Update on this:

Return was due to be delivered today, asked my mrs to stay in and film the delivery for evidence.

Just had a message from ebay saying that the item had been delivered and i can go ahead and refund the buyer. Royal mail tracking also says delivered, but no photo.

So called the mrs and you guessed it, no delivery.

I think its basically some sort of scam where they send the item (empty box) to an address via the same delivery office or something. But why no photo on royal mail website?

Anyway contacted ebay and they said when they check on royal mail it tells them more info than me or you can see, but in this instance its telling them that something isn't right basically. They have now asked the buyer to provide evidence of where the return was sent (i used an ebay return label, so they have obviously doctored this somehow).

Unless i am talking absolute rubbish and one of the neighbours has it

[CorradoTDI]

Tony_T said:

ashleyman said:

Just make absolutely sure you stay within the eBay returns process and you’ll be okay.

Just do the eBay process. Film the opening and unboxing if you want too. Ideally from the moment the phone is handed back to you by the courier. You probably won’t need it and if you can’t film from couriers hands to open box they can’t be sure you didn’t remove items and reseal before starting to film.

Don’t listen to the advice about letters before action. Not at this stage.

I had something similar. I stuck to the process. I got paid out for the missing item.

Update on this:

Return was due to be delivered today, asked my mrs to stay in and film the delivery for evidence.

Just had a message from ebay saying that the item had been delivered and i can go ahead and refund the buyer. Royal mail tracking also says delivered, but no photo.

So called the mrs and you guessed it, no delivery.

I think its basically some sort of scam where they send the item (empty box) to an address via the same delivery office or something. But why no photo on royal mail website?

Anyway contacted ebay and they said when they check on royal mail it tells them more info than me or you can see, but in this instance its telling them that something isn't right basically. They have now asked the buyer to provide evidence of where the return was sent (i used an ebay return label, so they have obviously doctored this somehow).

Unless i am talking absolute rubbish and one of the neighbours has it

If you're near a sorting office they should be able to track and tell the exact location where is was marked as delivered...

If it's not a scam, another thing that happens regularly is that RM scan stuff as delivered when it's still in the system, like they have the scanner on the wrong settings.... I regularly get 'item delivered' notifications and it then turns up over the next day or 2.

[TownIdiot]

Our postman sometimes marks stuff as delivered if he isn't going to make it on time. Turns up later in the day or tomorrow.

Now he's told me I don't mind but the first time was really annoying as I was sat in the front room waiting when I got the message

[ashleyman]

It's true stuff sometimes gets marked as delivered early.

Personally, I would let Ebay do their thing, see if RM come back. Otherwise leave it to Ebay to organise.. It's their label.