eBay "Buyer Protection Fees" (New charges for buyers from private sellers) - Details just recieved

Rantband

You leave yourself open to non delivery on each transaction and no defence against a charge back.

soolin

Rantband said:

You leave yourself open to non delivery on each transaction and no defence against a charge back.I think people do forget the chargeback which I accept is rare but we have had more than one instance here on MSE as a chargeback on a F and F payment cannot be defended. Having said that though paypal changed their T and Cs yesterday to cover push scams, and I haven't had a chance to read that yet.

For F and F the chargeback would be for a scam or misuse of a card - and yes people forget that this is possible- we've had at least 2 instances here on MSE in the past year or so. The paypal T and Cs changed yesterday though to cover push scams, and I haven't had the chance to read what those changes are yet.  However whilst a chargeback for g and s can be defended there is no defence possible on an F and F payment. Admittedly it is rare as buyer would need to convince the bank it was a proper scam rather than just a lost item or suchlike. 

People are free to use what they want really, but as I said earlier none of the sites I use would allow paypal f and f, and most people see it as a red flag for a scammer anyway- so it's up to them how much they trust random people on the internet. I suppose it's the same people who in the old days (I am old) used to give a stranger down the pub £20 on the promise that the next day they would deliver some rare videos or music tapes to the same pub - and were then surprised when they never turned up again. 

2dareis2do

When I first saw this I thought that the user had opted for buyer protection. I now realise this fee has been added to the bid. i think this could put quite as few people off. 

I guess the promise of free listings was too good to be true. 

It seems odd to me as I have always accepted that the buyer pays a fee and was at first skeptical and then surprised when they removed this.

Looking at ebay's web page on this, it does not mention anything about certain categories afaict.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/selling/pricing-items/buyer-protection-information-sellers

From what I can tell, it seems that buyer protection is only applied to items over a certain value. My guess is this is around £10. This makes more sense as 75p + 4% on an item for a pounds seems like a lot of money to me!

Also buyer protection fees only appears to apply to UK customers? Not sure if they have something similar for other countries?

soolin

2dareis2do said:

When I first saw this I thought that the user had opted for buyer protection. I now realise this fee has been added to the bid. i think this could put quite as few people off. 

I guess the promise of free listings was too good to be true. 

It seems odd to me as I have always accepted that the buyer pays a fee and was at first skeptical and then surprised when they removed this.

Looking at ebay's web page on this, it does not mention anything about certain categories afaict.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/selling/pricing-items/buyer-protection-information-sellers

From what I can tell, it seems that buyer protection is only applied to items over a certain value. My guess is this is around £10. This makes more sense as 75p + 4% on an item for a pounds seems like a lot of money to me!

Also buyer protection fees only appears to apply to UK customers? Not sure if they have something similar for other countries?

I’m not sure where you saw the lower price limit for when the buyer fee kicks in, it is (or will be ) applied to all purchases from a private seller.

There is a slight change in what is charged on higher prices items and a top limit

The Buyer Protection fee is calculated as:

• A flat fee of up to £0.75 per item, and
• 4% of the item price up to £300, and
• 2% of any portion of the item price from £300 to £4,000

Any portion of the item price over £4,000 won't incur any additional fee.

It appears to be a soft roll out as it hasn’t yet been applied across the board, I, and plenty of other sellers, have the strange anomaly that even items in the same category are treated differently, so I have several widgets listed , exactly the same category where some have the fee applied and some don’t. Every time I look at my listings though slightly more of my items show the fee. Eventually they all will. 

2dareis2do

It appears to be a soft roll out as it hasn’t yet been applied across the board, I, and plenty of other sellers, have the strange anomaly that even items in the same category are treated differently, so I have several widgets listed , exactly the same category where some have the fee applied and some don’t. Every time I look at my listings though slightly more of my items show the fee. Eventually they all will. 

Yes, you are right. An item I listed a week ago, after the 4th Feb, is now adding the buyer listing fee. Pretty sure this was not applied on the 7th.

The other thing is usually the listing is automatically renewed, but on this occasion, was not. When you do re-list it now does so with buyer protection added.

Kind of sucks how they have rolled this out. It can easily double the price that buyers can pay for fairly in-expensive items.  Once you take postage in to account that does not leave much left for the seller. 

The problem is there is no alternative that I am aware of.

2dareis2do

Ok looking into this a bit more it appears that ebay are blaming the government for this change. 

You’ve been asked to upgrade your account to a business account in order to comply with government consumer protection legislation outlined in our Business Seller Policy. If you don’t upgrade your account by Wednesday 4 September 2024, you may be subject to selling restrictions.

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/upgrade/

Business sellers are required to follow all government regulations, including registering as a business on eBay, and providing contact information and a return policy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/business-seller-policy?id=4710

Changes to legislation:

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 11 February 2025. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/contents

This might also explain why it only applies to UK buyers.

soolin

2dareis2do said:

Ok looking into this a bit more it appears that ebay are blaming the government for this change. 

You’ve been asked to upgrade your account to a business account in order to comply with government consumer protection legislation outlined in our Business Seller Policy. If you don’t upgrade your account by Wednesday 4 September 2024, you may be subject to selling restrictions.

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/upgrade/

Business sellers are required to follow all government regulations, including registering as a business on eBay, and providing contact information and a return policy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/business-seller-policy?id=4710

Changes to legislation:

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 11 February 2025. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/contents

This might also explain why it only applies to UK buyers.

I’m not sure I follow your reasoning at all. The requirement to comply with business regulations has always been in place in recent years. 

Also there is nothing there that suggests non UK buyers don’t pay the fee ? 

savergrant

2dareis2do said:

Ok looking into this a bit more it appears that ebay are blaming the government for this change. 

You’ve been asked to upgrade your account to a business account in order to comply with government consumer protection legislation outlined in our Business Seller Policy. If you don’t upgrade your account by Wednesday 4 September 2024, you may be subject to selling restrictions.

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/upgrade/

Business sellers are required to follow all government regulations, including registering as a business on eBay, and providing contact information and a return policy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/business-seller-policy?id=4710

Changes to legislation:

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 11 February 2025. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/contents

This might also explain why it only applies to UK buyers.

I think two things are being conflated here. The message about upgrading your account is specific to you, either because of the kind of items you are listing, the volume, or the value.
Although I haven't received that message I did have a couple of listings removed (a wooden train set bridge and some ball pit balls) and was informed that only business sellers could sell them due to toy safety regulations.

The buyer protection fee applies to items listed by private sellers and is being rolled out category by category. One of my items (some old annuals) has been listed as a buy-it-now since Christmas and now includes a buyer protection fee. Another item (a board game piece) I listed today doesn't include a buyer protection fee as eBay haven't added that category yet.

Rantband

2dareis2do said:

Ok looking into this a bit more it appears that ebay are blaming the government for this change. 

You’ve been asked to upgrade your account to a business account in order to comply with government consumer protection legislation outlined in our Business Seller Policy. If you don’t upgrade your account by Wednesday 4 September 2024, you may be subject to selling restrictions.

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/upgrade/

Business sellers are required to follow all government regulations, including registering as a business on eBay, and providing contact information and a return policy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/business-seller-policy?id=4710

Changes to legislation:

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 11 February 2025. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/contents

This might also explain why it only applies to UK buyers.

You are quoting business sellers, this only applies to private sellers who still list for free. As Ebay say it is a buyer protection fee which will eventually be applied to all private seller listings. 

2dareis2do

I’m not sure I follow your reasoning at all. The requirement to comply with business regulations has always been in place in recent years. 

Also there is nothing there that suggests non UK buyers don’t pay the fee ? 

It looks like there has been a change as it says the new regulations come into force on the 11 February 2025. Not sure.

Yes the buyer fee applies to all buyers buying from UK sellers, including UK buyers if I understand the changes correctly