eBay Sending Out Mass Emails for Private Sellers to Upgrade to Business

soolin

MR1988 said:

@soolin is that they won't be able to list at all or the account will be restricted to a certain amount of items per month? Where have you found this info?

@Shaps Nah, I don't think they can backdate to something they offered and agreed for you to do previously.

I’m not sure it is actually prescribed anywhere in the T and Cs but it has always been the case and it is the only logical way it can work. The threat is you either upgrade or your account is unusable , eBay don’t make idle threats, they won’t tell you to upgrade or else and then let you carry on as a private seller regardless. 

I haven’t checked the latest gossip on this to see whether there a majority view is that this is an error or is real. 

soolin

Shaps said:

Can anyone know if the free fee promo  includes items sold using the GSP if you sign up as a business seller ?  In the small print I unable to find any mention of it . 

• 100% off fixed order level fee of 30p and variable percentage final value fees (“FVF”) if the Eligible Entrant upgrades their account to business status by 23:59:59 Local UK time on 04 September 2024 following which their listed items sell by 31 December 2024 (“Promotion Period”). 

• The Promotion Period will commence within 4 business days from when you upgrade to a business account. 
  

It does state 100% off FVFs so it would seem that charges would be unlikely. 

Shaps

soolin said:

Shaps said:

Can anyone know if the free fee promo  includes items sold using the GSP if you sign up as a business seller ?  In the small print I unable to find any mention of it . 

• 100% off fixed order level fee of 30p and variable percentage final value fees (“FVF”) if the Eligible Entrant upgrades their account to business status by 23:59:59 Local UK time on 04 September 2024 following which their listed items sell by 31 December 2024 (“Promotion Period”). 

• The Promotion Period will commence within 4 business days from when you upgrade to a business account. 
  

It does state 100% off FVFs so it would seem that charges would be unlikely. 

Thanks , guess I have to bite the bullet and accept .. Do you know if business accounts are generally offered promos on fees?
 

Rantband

The only promo business sellers receive is having to pay monthly fees which range from £27 to £437 + Vat.

Shaps

Our records show that you need to upgrade to a business account. Upgrade before 04/09/24 to avoid selling restrictions & access a bespoke benefits package.

Any ideas on the what the restrictions could be , the items are currently been sold from a business which is winding down .. 

soolin

Shaps said:

soolin said:

Shaps said:

Can anyone know if the free fee promo  includes items sold using the GSP if you sign up as a business seller ?  In the small print I unable to find any mention of it . 

• 100% off fixed order level fee of 30p and variable percentage final value fees (“FVF”) if the Eligible Entrant upgrades their account to business status by 23:59:59 Local UK time on 04 September 2024 following which their listed items sell by 31 December 2024 (“Promotion Period”). 

• The Promotion Period will commence within 4 business days from when you upgrade to a business account. 
  

It does state 100% off FVFs so it would seem that charges would be unlikely. 

Thanks , guess I have to bite the bullet and accept .. Do you know if business accounts are generally offered promos on fees?
 

I think my last promo was about 18 months with reduced fees of trainers (I have never sold a pair of trainers in my life) . Previous to that I seem to recall some half price shop fees a few years back, and about the same time I got some FVF reduction, but that was probably 5 years or so ago. 

soolin

Shaps said:

Our records show that you need to upgrade to a business account. Upgrade before 04/09/24 to avoid selling restrictions & access a bespoke benefits package.

Any ideas on the what the restrictions could be , the items are currently been sold from a business which is winding down .. 

As mentioned above you will probably just not be able to list anything unless you upgrade. 

A few threads seem to have disappeared now on the community boards, but the last time they were available the consensus seemed to be that this was for real, but it still doesn’t make a lot of sense with some of the people targeted. 

In your case the upgrade requirement seems to be correct and you should be using a business account. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Shaps said:

Do you know if business accounts are generally offered promos on fees?
 

It happens but it's rare. They do offer incentives to use new ideas, e,g credit towards advertising options this year. 

For anyone looking at business accounts remember the fees eBay advertise for business accounts are net of VAT, another 20% will be added on top so the listing fee with no shop is 36p, the fixed order fee is 36p and the FVF are the category specific %+20% 

Same goes for add on fees such as international order fee and regulatory operating fee.

soolin

This seems to have died down a bit, although I am aware that the official ebay discussion boards closed most of the threads.

Reading around forums, and the ebay threads before they disappeared this seems to have only affected a very small number of random people. Interestingly, someone asked whether anyone forced to upgrade also had a business account already - and no one said yes. I think a theory was being hinted at but it might have been that just not enough people saw the thread in time to reply and some of the forced upgrades were given to sellers who already had a business account running. 

MR1988

Any idea why the discussions on eBay got shut down? Is it because of the backlash from Business Sellers towards the incentive?