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

JWM

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I sell small, low value items as a private seller. Before the price increase I bought loads of stamps to last me for a couple of years. Can I still use them? (On the understanding that Funds will held for 14 days).

Thanks 

soolin

JWM said:

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I sell small, low value items as a private seller. Before the price increase I bought loads of stamps to last me for a couple of years. Can I still use them? (On the understanding that Funds will held for 14 days).

Thanks 

As long as you don’t opt into simple postage you will be fine to continue to use stamps. However as you have noted, you will be waiting 14 days for your money at least. 

Obviously at some point private sellers may all be forced onto simple postage, but worry about that when it happens.

JWM

soolin said:

JWM said:

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I sell small, low value items as a private seller. Before the price increase I bought loads of stamps to last me for a couple of years. Can I still use them? (On the understanding that Funds will held for 14 days).

Thanks 

As long as you don’t opt into simple postage you will be fine to continue to use stamps. However as you have noted, you will be waiting 14 days for your money at least. 

Obviously at some point private sellers may all be forced onto simple postage, but worry about that when it happens.

Thanks Soolin, that's how I read it.

I wonder if the 80% off Fees weekends will return?

GadgetGuru

JWM said:

soolin said:

JWM said:

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I sell small, low value items as a private seller. Before the price increase I bought loads of stamps to last me for a couple of years. Can I still use them? (On the understanding that Funds will held for 14 days).

Thanks 

As long as you don’t opt into simple postage you will be fine to continue to use stamps. However as you have noted, you will be waiting 14 days for your money at least. 

Obviously at some point private sellers may all be forced onto simple postage, but worry about that when it happens.

Thanks Soolin, that's how I read it.

I wonder if the 80% off Fees weekends will return?

You do realise selling is now free of all fees, right?

zackary71

Accessibility may be a key factor in determining if Simple Delivery becomes mandatory or not. Whether it be due to disability or location, dropping an item off isn't an option for some. RM collection works well for me, and dropping off would be more of an inconvenience than a deal breaker. 

I'm more concerned on how Simple Delivery would work on the cost front. 
eg. A £50 small lightweight item sent RM48. Additional costs over the £3.39 would be say 50p for a box, 10p bubble wrap and 10p fuel to drive to local drop-off location. If prices on Express Delivery are preset say at £3.39, surely the Seller is 70p out of pocket ?

soolin

zackary71 said:

Accessibility may be a key factor in determining if Simple Delivery becomes mandatory or not. Whether it be due to disability or location, dropping an item off isn't an option for some. RM collection works well for me, and dropping off would be more of an inconvenience than a deal breaker. 

I'm more concerned on how Simple Delivery would work on the cost front. 
eg. A £50 small lightweight item sent RM48. Additional costs over the £3.39 would be say 50p for a box, 10p bubble wrap and 10p fuel to drive to local drop-off location. If prices on Express Delivery are preset say at £3.39, surely the Seller is 70p out of pocket ?

The disability angle has not stopped Vinted implementing it across all sellers with no collection options available at all.

However, so far ebay is using language that suggests simple postage won’t be mandatory , we can only wait and see. Any on costs for dropping items off , will need to be covered by the seller as it always has, but instead of inflating the postage charge to do this in future the item cost will need to be increased. 

soolin

JWM said:

soolin said:

JWM said:

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I sell small, low value items as a private seller. Before the price increase I bought loads of stamps to last me for a couple of years. Can I still use them? (On the understanding that Funds will held for 14 days).

Thanks 

As long as you don’t opt into simple postage you will be fine to continue to use stamps. However as you have noted, you will be waiting 14 days for your money at least. 

Obviously at some point private sellers may all be forced onto simple postage, but worry about that when it happens.

Thanks Soolin, that's how I read it.

I wonder if the 80% off Fees weekends will return?

If there were offer weekends I would assume it applied to buyers not sellers. So perhaps, and I have no inside information this is just a guess, there might be a case of certain buyers being sent fee free weekends along the lines of ‘pay no buying fees on purchases from private sellers this weekend’. 

chompie

The issue I have with this is that I have quite a lot of items that although sent through eBay's shipping page using a tracked service are never marked as received. 

Even after positive feedback has been left, and on occasion when going through the couriers tracking page it says it has been delivered but the eBay tracking does not recognise that. 

In these instances what will happen? One is not seen as delivered even though the buyer has obviously received it and left feedback and the other eBay don't recognise as delivered even though the delivery company do...


I will not be happy having to constantly check if payment has been cleared for items that have been delivered.

Also when I have really been struggling for money I have had to pay shipping costs with the buyers payment. That would no longer be a possibility.

Tracy39

People are very upset about this I have started a petition at change.org. please sign & share these are my points!

Before that i feel that they maybe doing this because the money is no longer paid into your bank straight away as of a few months ago. i have been with ebay nearly 17 years and money is always transferred to your bank first as a seller, so you've got the funds as well to pay couriers to post your items some very expensive postage costs as explained in my petition below. your money now goes to what they call "EBAY BALANCE". basically it's ebays bank who ever they bank with, your money sits in their till you transfer it. now it will sit in their bank till delivery in which tracking is not 100% accurate, and also for 2 days afterwards in which anything could happen to your item in that time!

In the meantime I think they maybe gaining interest in their bank form your money sitting there. that's my concern about what;s really going on here, they must of thought some of us were born yesterday! I and my parents did think something was up with free listings coming in last year & no seller fees in uk, it sounded to good to be true. i'm going to write tp my mp as I feel something fishy is going on here and laws should be in place that a company like this cannot hold your funds. but most important point below is where do i get postage costs form to post my items if ebay hold my funds? ebay wont answer us properley!

Ebay uk are wanting to implement what I feel is a dangerous and disgracefully policy from 4th February 2025 so I'm petitioning to stop it!They have now said that sellers will no longer receive their funds straight away and only receive upon item showing it has been delivered. I list below the following reasons why I feel this hasn't been thought out well and is slightly dangerous to implement, my points as follows:-

Firstly I must stress any company putting 100% faith into a system or in this instance a tracking system to work 365 days a year without problems or glitches on couriers website is dangerous! Technology should NEVER  be trusted 100%.

Sometimes I have noticed items I've sent have shown only as posted or in transit for many weeks, and show not delivered on the main couriers website, yet some have left feedback saying they got their item. Now everyone lets you know they got their item. So what then? How do sellers get their funds released if ebays or the couriers system shows item still in transit due to a glitch that's never fixed? Yet the buyer hasn't complained they didn't receive their item. If the system of releasing sellers fund is solely based on tracking showing as delivered and there are serious tracking glitches, this is dangerous for ebay to trust & put faith into technology working 100% at any time!

Secondly in relation to paragraph above, it means nobody can now offer to send very cheap items under £20 untracked. Royal mail cover item of £20 in value even if sent with no tracking if they get lost, yet there will be no tracking to show It's been delivered, so therefore again as there is nothing to show It's even delivered, means funds won't be released to the seller. So therefore everyone will have to only send via tracked services which cost more to post.

Thirdly and VERY IMPORTANT! Some items sellers are selling are large/heavy and very high value items! Anybody who ever sent anything like this with values over £100 and then into the thousands will know not only how expensive it is for uk postage but internationally as well.

As an example on such item I'm selling is going to cost £295 to post to Australia fully tracked as this was the only service that would cover over £1000 in value!  If ebay hold ALL my funds till delivery, where am I going to get £295 from to pay the courier to post my item to Australia?

I feel a business seller who possibly makes a good profit may have this amount as back up funds in the bank to pay out whilst they wait for their funds. But where is the average private household seller who isn't a business, likely to find that amount to pay a courier to post the item, who is only selling personal possessions?!

So therefore if ebay hold my funds I will certainly not have nay funds to that amount in savings to pay a courier to post internationally let alone uk on most of my items. therefore this is most certainly restricting me from selling abroad the most.

So this means I will certainly NOT be able to offer international postage as international costs even on smaller lower value items are costly and you will have to find the money to post it, so therefore my sales will be restricted even more so, yet my biggest audience is international people outside the UK!

Ebay mention nothing about what happens if item is returned and you receive it in bad condition? How do I prove it wasn't me who did the damage, say a costume I sold was sent clean and came back with un -removable stain. What then as couriers only let the SENDER make a claim, NOT the recipient!

 

In ebays recent nice little message to members about this policy change they want to implement, they don't go into any nitty gritty like this, no does it seem to have been thought through very well at all. If your not happy with this please sign my petition today and stop ebay implementing this new change that many of us are not happy about! Also e-mail or message ebay through their website here or their facebook page messenger service to show your disgust!

www DOT change DOT org/p/ebay-gone-to-far-with-new-policy-change-from-4th-feb-2025

Tracy39

chompie said:

The issue I have with this is that I have quite a lot of items that although sent through eBay's shipping page using a tracked service are never marked as received. 

Even after positive feedback has been left, and on occasion when going through the couriers tracking page it says it has been delivered but the eBay tracking does not recognise that. 

In these instances what will happen? One is not seen as delivered even though the buyer has obviously received it and left feedback and the other eBay don't recognise as delivered even though the delivery company do...


I will not be happy having to constantly check if payment has been cleared for items that have been delivered.

Also when I have really been struggling for money I have had to pay shipping costs with the buyers payment. That would no longer be a possibility.

Hi, yes i've had that and i've made a point of it in sending them angry complaints via e-mail on their website nad their facbook page. This is one of many points I have raised with them and they arn't answering us directly. I have started a petition at change.org. I have some very expensive items on sale and very large/heavy items that cost a fortune to post. if ebay hold my funds where does I get money form the pay courier, this is one major point many of us have asked. my response was "use the ebay postage systme so you won't be out fo pocket". well um call me stupid but either way using the ebays postage system to pay a courier or your one courier through their website, you still have to have money available to pay the courier, where am I going to find that money if ebay hold my funds. please read my points and sing /share my petition. www.change.org/p/ebay-gone-to-far-with-new-policy-change-from-4th-feb-2025