Help! Ebay wants me to upgrade to a business account.

Mrs_Money

I need some advice - I've received a message from Ebay today to say I have to upgrade to a business account - they don't seem to be giving me any say in the matter.
I am not a business, but have been selling stuff from the house and personal items for about 9 months now - most of which I list for 99p and most of which do not sell - so I relist a load of stuff every week.

Is it likely that I can appeal against this - and what would changing to a business account actually mean for me? Advantages and disadvantages?
Any advice really appreciated!

alfiesmum

If you're a business then upgrade asap. It's better for the whole of eBay really, so everyone knows who they're dealing with. A business account can have a lot of advantages, including lower fees. But there are draw backs as well, like no more 99p free listings. If you are genuinely not a business, then don't upgrade. If you have a large turn over, of similar items, it can easily look to eBay, and the inland revenue that you are trading without declaring it.

You can have seperate account, for private sales, and business too.

Mrs_Money

I am not a business and unfortunately it looks like I don't have a choice about upgrading - they have said;
If you do not upgrade your account by 25 March 2010, please note that you will be unable to list items on eBay until you complete the upgrade.

So I actually don't know what to do next.

alfiesmum

Live chat might be worth a go. You could explain to them that you are only selling stuff from around the house? Is it reasonable that they think you're a business? I mean if you're selling loads of the same thing or what ever? Explaining it to them could keep you as a private seller. Worth a try.

soolin

There has been quite a lot of anecdotal evidence that ebay are finally beginning to take a firmer view of business v private sellers. I've come across a couple only recently where they were dealing in second hand items from charity shops and car boots and had a suspiciously large amount of second hand clothes in lots of different sizes and enough nick nacks to fill a small warehouse.

However if you really are onyl selling a handful of things, all different then it can't hurt to phone and talk to them. Otherwise your only choice is to upgrade.

Someone rpeviously said that one of the European countries had a different approach, they did it on number. So a private seller had a cap on how many things they could sell, say 100 listings per month under which unless they looked suspicious in other ways they would not be bothered, but the moment they tried to list the 101st auction that month the system just blocked them.

Mrs_Money

Yes, I think the 100 listings way sounds much better to me - it avoids any misunderstandings - well, I've appealed against it - asking for exemption - so we'll see what happens. It's very hard when you've got a lot of cheap (99p) stuff to get shot of!

I don't want to be lumbered with an Ebay business account as I mainly only list for free and paying to list items that would probably only sell for 99p or not at all, wouldn't be worth it!
Plus I'm assuming I would have to get a second Paypal account as well?

soolin

Mrs_Money wrote: »

Yes, I think the 100 listings way sounds much better to me - it avoids any misunderstandings - well, I've appealed against it - asking for exemption - so we'll see what happens. It's very hard when you've got a lot of cheap (99p) stuff to get shot of!

I don't want to be lumbered with an Ebay business account as I mainly only list for free and paying to list items that would probably only sell for 99p or not at all, wouldn't be worth it!
Plus I'm assuming I would have to get a second Paypal account as well?

The paypal account is unaffected, all my ebay accounts filter into the same paypal accounts (Plural because thanks to Fay I have a wonderful shiny new micro account as well as the basic premier account).

charlies_mum

soolin wrote: »

There has been quite a lot of anecdotal evidence that ebay are finally beginning to take a firmer view of business v private sellers.

About time, I saw a seller recently with 2,000+ feedback, who wasn't registered as a business seller :mad:

soolin

charlies_mum wrote: »

About time, I saw a seller recently with 2,000+ feedback, who wasn't registered as a business seller :mad:

Feedback doesn't bother me at all but when I see 'private' sellers selling hundreds of items all different and all over and over again I do get rather frustrated. Everyone I am aware of so far though has been caught selling second hand items, I';m not personally aware of anyone being blatant and selling new items that has been asked to upgrade. I rather suspect therefore that these are personal reporting with work mates or relatives turning people in.

cyberbob

charlies_mum wrote: »

About time, I saw a seller recently with 2,000+ feedback, who wasn't registered as a business seller :mad:

If they had been selling for 10 years thats 200 items a year which is easily doable on private sales. So they may not be a business. Its not the amount of feedback but more the selling patterns and what they are selling that points to them being a business

Techno

Excuse the ramble - I will get to the point honest! I am a private seller but Christmas before last got a dolce gusto coffee maker and made exceptionally good use of the voucher in the Asda magazine for free boxes of the coffee pods. Towards the end of last year the ones I hadn't used (and there were quite a lot as I had decided I didn't like the sweetened coffees) became close to their best before date so sold them on e-bay. Anyone looking might have thought I was really running a business but they were honestly things I couldn't use within their bbe. Most buyers are still really nice but there are getting to be more and more who aren't. Back to the small ads in the paper for me