No more cash on collection allowed from 1st October

soolin

On the latest update from ebay see here ebay reducing free listings for private sellers — MoneySavingExpert Forum

There's an additional bit which I suspect will be overlooked.

Scroll down past the bit about listings and it mentions cash on collection. 

Removing cash on pickup for local listings

Many sellers offer free collection in person, especially for large items which may be difficult to post. As we continue to make sure eBay is a safe and secure place to sell your items, we will be removing the option for buyers to pay with cash for items from 1 October. Instead, all payments for local items will go through the site - with a simple digital confirmation on collection - to ensure that you get paid securely and promptly by buyers.

Find out more about local selling

Olinda99

how can they enforce this. a buyer can still pay cash on collection and all the seller has to do is mark the item as paid

soolin

Olinda99 said:

how can they enforce this. a buyer can still pay cash on collection and all the seller has to do is mark the item as paid

I assume they will in the first instance use their admittedly poor eBay BOTS to monitor descriptions watching for people to mention it in the description. Then of course it’s a simple matter to remove the option to mark as paid which means that without marking as paid a buyer runs the risk of seller marking it as unpaid and giving them a strike. From there it’s a fairly simple process to monitor messages for mention of addresses and arrangements for cash. 

From a buyers point of view and without cash on collection being mentioned anywhere they will only see the ‘pay now’ button with a warning a day or two later that item remains unpaid. 

RFW

It does sound ridiculous and I assume there are still people who collect and pay cash.

I do sell a bit different to what I used to but it must be more than ten years since someone has asked to pay cash on collection for me and I used to have quite a regular flow of customers doing it.

On a slight tangent I just had a customer on Amazon who was really near to me, in fact to drop off at Royal Mail I had to go past their house. I couldn't find a suitable way that I could drop the parcel off without being marked down by Amazon's system, so I just posted it. There are loads of anomalies within online trading, over the years the big companies have swapped one lot for another lot. There isn't a perfect system and with more reliance on automation and bots I can only see that increasing.

chrisdt

Not enforceable...Buyer can inspect...Pay cash and then tell ebay its not suitable....Seller ends listing...Cas is still King

goodfella66

Ebay are promoting this as protection for sellers but we all know that the real reason is they want the extra commission from the digital payment.

Doesn't affect me as I stopped collections years ago due to a few bad experiences, but it just annoys me with the spinning and lying.

soolin

chrisdt said:

Not enforceable...Buyer can inspect...Pay cash and then tell ebay it’s not suitable....Seller ends listing...Cas is still King

It depends on how closely messages are monitored, remember every message has to go through eBay. So seller asks buyer not to pay by managed payments, that could be picked up by a bot. Or buyer messages seller asking to pay by cash - again a bot could pick that up. There’s also no gain at all for either buyer or seller, buyer gets no protection (although I admit collection doesn’t give buyer a lot of rights anyway) but seller pays the same fees regardless. If it’s for tax avoidance then that doesn’t work as eBay will be reporting the sale, not the money taken. 

soolin

goodfella66 said:

Ebay are promoting this as protection for sellers but we all know that the real reason is they want the extra commission from the digital payment.

Doesn't affect me as I stopped collections years ago due to a few bad experiences, but it just annoys me with the spinning and lying.

EBay get the same money regardless as FVFs are charged on the sale now. 

goodfella66

soolin said:

goodfella66 said:

Ebay are promoting this as protection for sellers but we all know that the real reason is they want the extra commission from the digital payment.

Doesn't affect me as I stopped collections years ago due to a few bad experiences, but it just annoys me with the spinning and lying.

EBay get the same money regardless as FVFs are charged on the sale now. 

Oh, sorry. They must have changed it. Presumably when they brought in the barcode proof.

I remember when Ebay first started processing the payments themselves,  FVF's used to be charged only when the item had been paid for. So if someone paid cash, no payment was registered so no FVF's were charged. Happy days! 

FFHillbilly

chrisdt said:

Not enforceable...Buyer can inspect...Pay cash and then tell ebay its not suitable....Seller ends listing...Cas is still King

how are you going to tell them your address, or discuss where to meet? unless you put your phone number or address on the listing somehow, it's impossible to send them a message containing contact details

forgotmyname

FFHillbilly said:

how are you going to tell them your address, or discuss where to meet? unless you put your phone number or address on the listing somehow, it's impossible to send them a message containing contact details

If they are making everyone get business accounts then your details will be on the listings.

Is the the downfall of Ebay?