Sneaky VAT additions

StaffsSW

The VAT after ebay confirmation is a pain in the donkey, I was hit buy it a few weeks ago and all the accountants jumped on the thread to really clarify the water...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=557891

As I see it, ebay is a retail site, so should include VAT on the price quoted. Not only that, but those items listed exc VAT will appear higher on the price-based searches, giving an unfair advantage.

Hintza

stevew8975 wrote: »

VAT will appear higher on the price-based searches, giving an unfair advantage.

Aye but if it wasn't the VAT it would be the P+P that was ramped to keep the headline price down.

custardy

as TKPeters states,theres a good financial reason for not adding VAT to the listed price for vat registered sellers

Aaaaant

Well I received a reply to my email from eBay and they pretty much seem to back me up. They say they'll make the buyer aware and to ask him to make the + VAT text a bit more prominent. I understand the accountants point of view.

eBay adds that it would feel cheated if it got to the checkout realising they have to pay extra for an item and that they are working on a solution to make this process more transparent for sellers and buyers.

frivolous_fay

Aaaaant wrote: »

Well I received a reply to my email from eBay and they pretty much seem to back me up. They say they'll make the buyer aware and to ask him to make the + VAT text a bit more prominent.

Holy cow... who did you email? You found the holy grail of ebayers - a reply from ebay customer support that actually makes sense, and has been written by someone with more written comprehension skills than a pancake!

TKPeters

eBay should allow VAT Reg'd customers to

• enter the excluding VAT price
• enter the relevant VAT % (like we already do)
• BIN/Auction Price shows as inclusive of VAT.
• eBay charge at the excluding VAT price

RFW

As far as advertising goes, the law is that any product listed as ex VAT should show the VAT amount the same size as the selling price and not in small print at the bottom. Ebay listings are arguably not advertisements but its something Trading Standards would look into and certainly something that should be addressed by Ebay.

custardy wrote: »

as TKPeters states,theres a good financial reason for not adding VAT to the listed price for vat registered sellers

There's no good business reason though, you are just going to alienate customers.

If you sell inclusive of VAT, it is an interesting point that final value fees and insertion fees are based on the prices inclusive of VAT, I'm just totting up the difference in my head, that's a chunky amount of money, should we ask for it back?

StaffsSW

Aaaaant wrote: »

eBay adds that it would feel cheated if it got to the checkout realising they have to pay extra for an item and that they are working on a solution to make this process more transparent for sellers and buyers.

Something like this...

I've got a new phone and been looking for a 4 gig Memory card. I found what I thought was the cheapest and clicked the BIN button.

I saw this screen.



All is good, so I login to paypal to complete the purchase. I then see this in paypal!



The seller has added VAT after the eBay payment review screen!!

mcwarre

Rtfm.....................