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

charlies_mum

cyberbob wrote: »

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

Nope, only been selling for about twelve months, and lots of repeat items, definitely not a private seller

Billman

If Mrs.Money does not intending to make a profit and is not buying items deliberately to sell them on, she is not a business at all. If there is any evidence you can think of which should easily prove this then may be write to them. There should be an address somewhere on the site to write to although I have not looked into this before.

Money_maker

charlies_mum wrote: »

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

And I am a private seller with just over 3000 fb (100%).

But I have been around a long time...

And I only have a few outgrown clothes and books listed - with lots of clutter to list in the future.

Mrs_Money

Billman wrote: »

If Mrs.Money does not intending to make a profit and is not buying items deliberately to sell them on, she is not a business at all. If there is any evidence you can think of which should easily prove this then may be write to them. There should be an address somewhere on the site to write to although I have not looked into this before.

Yes, I've found a link to appeal against the upgrade as "an exception" in Ebay's words. I haven't heard back yet - so we'll see. I have no idea how they assess sellers as to whether they are business or not. I was told in the "live chat" that my volume of sales was such that it could only have been achieved by a "professional seller" - I asked what the limit was for that volume and was told they did "not have that information" - unhelpful. Evidence is difficult to find to prove you are a private seller when you don't actually know what the criteria is to be one!
I have around 230 feedback and have been selling rubbishy old bits and pieces now for about 11 months. In a way it's a sort of constant flow of things to sell - we are a family of 5 with a smallish house and so there's always clearing out going on (largely because we are always buying or being given stuff!!) so I'd like to keep selling like this if I can.

I often sell our old books on Amazon - I'm waiting with baited breath to see if they introduce some similar arbitrary rules!

soolin

Amazon is different all sellers are treated the same and are expected to inform HMRC if they are a business. There ar eno 'private' or 'business' sellers, the only option is for large volume sellers to upgrade to pro merchant but again there is no requirement for them to be a business to do that..

alfiesmum

The worry might be now that if ebay think it's a business, then maybe the tax man will have similar opinions. Make sure you can prove it's your personal stuff, or more explaining could be on the way.

If I'm being totally honest, it's the 99p repeat listings that have sent ebay down hill in my opinion (nothing aimed at the OP here by the way). And anything that ebay can do to get genuine businesses off this scheme the better. It puts us on a level playing field as it were, and might get rid of several pages in a search. If the listing wasn't free, most people would not list.

Mrs_Money

Yes, I totally agree about the 99p thing - I have noticed private sellers with huge volumes of the same (new) article at 99p - and I'm a bit cross that I've been singled out as it were!
I find it strange that if Amazon doesn't have to abide by these "European laws" as Ebay quoted me - then why does Ebay?
I don't think we've heard the last of this.
By the way, I submitted my claim for Business seller exemption at 3.50pm yesterday - no reply yet. They are usually faster than that in my experience.

soolin

Mrs_Money wrote: »

Yes, I totally agree about the 99p thing - I have noticed private sellers with huge volumes of the same (new) article at 99p - and I'm a bit cross that I've been singled out as it were!
I find it strange that if Amazon doesn't have to abide by these "European laws" as Ebay quoted me - then why does Ebay?
I don't think we've heard the last of this.
By the way, I submitted my claim for Business seller exemption at 3.50pm yesterday - no reply yet. They are usually faster than that in my experience.

The Amazon question is an easy one, they treat *all* sellers as businesses and expect us all, even if we only sell one book a month, to abide by all consumer laws like automatic rights to a return. Ebay are more lax and allow private sellers to state that they do not accept refunds purely due to change of mind.

If you wanted ebay to use the Amazon system then you would be worse of.

bylromarha

On the other end of the scale, I've just reported a "private" seller who is blatently a business. No one has that many new items of the same thing which you only ever need 1 or 2 of in a lifetime.

Surprising don't feel bad about the email I've sent off, first time I've shopped someone on ebay!!!!

alfiesmum

bylromarha wrote: »

On the other end of the scale, I've just reported a "private" seller who is blatently a business.

Which options would you choose from the drop down lists to report a person trading as a business then? They don't make it easy to do!