Ebay holding private sellers funds until proof of delivery from 4th Feb, 2025

goodfella66

From 4th Feb, 2025, Ebay will be holding on to all private sellers funds until an item is deemed delivered. Part of the T&C's update also states that private sellers will have to buy postage via Ebay only...no more paying at the post office (it states Q1 2025 for that but I'd be sure it would be implemented at the same time). None of this applies to business sellers...at the minute!

https://channelx.world/2024/12/ebay-uk-further-differentiate-business-sellers-from-private-sellers/

noitsnotme

More talk about buyers fees too.  Even though they introduced them in the US and then had to do a hasty back track just 21 days later because people stopped buying.

I barely use eBay to buy anything these days anyway.  If they introduce a buyers fee then I doubt I’ll buy on there at all unless it’s an absolute last resort.

My business sales on eBay are pitiful now.  I sell at least ten times more on Amazon and Etsy.

It’s not looking great for eBay.

Mark_d

I've sold items via ebay and use ebay's postal service.  The whole experience was very smooth..though I have heard of sellers who have had bad experiences with buyers on ebay.

MattMattMattUK

I am totally fine with buying postage through them, I always do anyway, but I do take issue with them holding onto funds. I have found eBay is becoming more and more anti-seller over the past few years and have had them decide to randomly hold onto funds for weeks at a time as well as universally side with buyers, even when I could prove the buyer was lying/defrauding me. eBay do not care about sellers, I guess because they have far more sellers than buyers these days. 

GadgetGuru

MattMattMattUK said:

I am totally find with buying postage through them, I always do anyway, but I do take issue with them holding onto funds. I have found eBay is becoming more and more anti-seller over the past few years and have had them decide to randomly hold onto funds for weeks at a time as well as universally side with buyers, even when I could prove the buyer was lying/defrauding me. eBay do not care about sellers, I guess because they have far more sellers than buyers these days. 

I agree. 
I always buy postage via eBay anyways, but I do not agree with them holding funds until the item is delivered. I feel like I am being forced out of all choice - so I have to buy postage through their agreed couriers, but then am held to ransom until the item is delivered..with their suggested couriers!

I recall something being discussed when eBay applied free seller fees where eBay would cover ALL delays/losses when postage was purchased through them?
If this is the case then why would they be withholding your money in the first instance?? It would be covered regardless?

soolin

I will wait to see the proper announcement from ebay in case that differs but I have both positive and negative thoughts about this.

1) The changes only apply to private sellers but no doubt for the wider selling body there will be all sorts of misunderstandings with business sellers claiming unfair practice and not realising it doesn't apply to them.

2) it once again looks like they are keeping an eye on the Vinted model, Vinted must be the only site which has caused them serious concerns for the smaller private sellers and Vinted already hold funds until items are delivered.

3)  Again with Vinted buyers pay a buying premium and sellers pay nothing - but I wonder if despite this working for Vinted as a model it is a step too far for ebay where traditionally sellers paid the fees. 

4)  I have no concerns at all about using ebay postage, I do it anyway but I tend to only use RM via ebay with only rarely needing a courier. Again- Vinted have integrated shipping.

5) This will stop a lot of dodgy private sellers who sell and either ship really late, or misrepresent their location. Instead of getting money quickly and letting buyers fret about delays the seller now also faces being out of pocket until item arrives, this might concentrate their minds a bit and encourage faster shipping!

6) slightly more controversial - private sellers are just selling their own items, they aren't running businesses - so for the majority I can't image waiting 4 or 5 days for payment is going to be a life changer. However it will effect those who are desperately selling off items to pay a bill or to fund an expense where perhaps the money is needed in a day or so and not 5 days later. The biggest group affected though is likely to be improperly registered businesses who work on tight margins and need a steady flow of 'income' to maintain the business, this is likely to be one of the reasons ebay have decided on this, it might make those sellers reassess their registration.

7) I will be interested to see more clarity about the 'deemed delivered' bit. As I buy my postage through ebay my parcels tend to have delivery confirmation in about 95% of cases but my LLs falls to around 75% of sales (I know LLs aren't tracked but there is delivery confirmation on ebay). I have items shipped which never show as delivered - I even buy things that I am happily using that are still not showing as delivered. So when is something 'deemed delivered'? On Vinted it is a slam dunk - no proof of delivery = no money but as Vinted pay for and supply the labels they reimburse both buyer and seller when courier deems an item lost. This will have to be different on ebay.

Point 1 though is the point to watch, forums everywhere will be full of business sellers complaining- who haven't actually bothered to read the article at all. 

goodfella66

soolin said:

I will wait to see the proper announcement from ebay in case that differs but I have both positive and negative thoughts about this.

Ebay did announce this via an email that was updating their terms & conditions. Sneakily, they didn't bullet point any of the changes and nobody is going to read through pages of T&C's so the vast majority of people (myself included) wouldn't have realised the changes until this article pointed them out.. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

MattMattMattUK said:

I am totally fine with buying postage through them, I always do anyway, but I do take issue with them holding onto funds. I have found eBay is becoming more and more anti-seller over the past few years and have had them decide to randomly hold onto funds for weeks at a time as well as universally side with buyers, even when I could prove the buyer was lying/defrauding me. eBay do not care about sellers, I guess because they have far more sellers than buyers these days. 

I think eBay is great idea that is in the hands of a poorly run business and has been for the last 20 years so I'm not some fanboy of eBay but they have always been anti-seller, or rather pro-buyer, and for good reason, people chasing money will always be there, the buyers are key (look at eBid).

Holding funds is to protect their interest and their policy has always been better than Paypal, Amazon and Etsy (who backtracked) with their rolling reserve idea which basically permanently places a % of your sales up to a certain amount on hold until you stop selling and wait for the last of the reserve to be freed up. 

Deciding cases is difficult, eBay have become better at it, mainly though goodwill refunds and a lot of the time it depends upon who you speak to at CS as to what kind of resolve they will offer you. 

soolin said:

7) I will be interested to see more clarity about the 'deemed delivered' bit. As I buy my postage through ebay my parcels tend to have delivery confirmation in about 95% of cases but my LLs falls to around 75% of sales (I know LLs aren't tracked but there is delivery confirmation on ebay). I have items shipped which never show as delivered - I even buy things that I am happily using that are still not showing as delivered. So when is something 'deemed delivered'? On Vinted it is a slam dunk - no proof of delivery = no money but as Vinted pay for and supply the labels they reimburse both buyer and seller when courier deems an item lost. This will have to be different on ebay.

Is there a current policy of hold funds for 21 days or until tracking shows as delivered for some sellers (maybe new ones selling high value), I would imagine something like this unless as they going to phase out standard post and push everything tracked, which I guess is fine for parcels but not so much large letters and there must be millions of letter sized items where fully tracked mail would cost more than the item. 

eBay has always sold themselves as cheap, years of tat from China with no VAT and a heck of a lot of counterfeit goods, with increased regulation the cheap prices are sliding away and if you want tat from China there are plenty of places to get it cheaper, if you want it super fast Amazon is there (for a premium). Sadly it seems eBay has little to offer buyers as they just don't come up with any new ideas, I expect charging them a fee to buy something is not going to go down well. 

As for pushing all shipping via eBay it seems anti competitive to me, hopefully someone like the CMA will look at it and decide they can't do it.... 

noitsnotme said:

I sell at least ten times more on Amazon and Etsy.

This is nothing new, 10-12 years ago Amazon was outselling eBay 20 to 1 for me, Etsy is more attractive for genuine handmade stuff, again eBay has no ideas, not even other people's, they've completely ignored handmade. 

soolin

The 21 day hold is for new sellers or existing sellers selling in a high risk category new to them.

I'm not sure insisting on using a certain postage option is illegal, Vinted already only allow sales via their postage system and this won't affect business sellers who can continue to use whatever postage platform they prefer.  A bit of digging around forums and private groups I belong to have already turned up a question about private sellers who use RM business accounts and how that can carry on. I admit that when I used my RM account, before it got expensive, I did put all my sales through it whether business or private as my RM postage manager encouraged this to keep my volume up. Now of course my private sales would need to have labels only through ebay - not an issue for me as I gave up my RM business account, but I imagine it will affect others. 

Langerhan

If we have to buy postage through eBay, I won't be using eBay any more, which is a shame. I work full time so I can't wait at home for a courier or go to a Post Office to hand things over, and don't have a printer to print postage anyway. At the moment, I can just stick a stamp on something and put it in a postbox (tend to sell flat things like birthday cards, badges, comics, etc). Maybe this would be doable if I was selling high value antiques or something. I know I'm going to be in the minority here as a low volume, low value seller though, so eBay won't really care if I leave.

purplevamp

I don't have a problem with this as I buy my postage through Ebay anyway.  But I sometimes sell things that are sent as a 2nd class letter and they very rarely show as delivered because there is no tracking.  I know they have been delivered because I get feedback.  Would Ebay hold on to these payments?  If this is the case, then I'll have to send everything at least as 2nd class large letter.