Help thread for 4th Feb 'Buyer protection fee'

soolin

I thought that it would be useful to have a new thread just for the buyer protection fee to point any newbies or worried existing users to from the 4th Feb. I am sure that many buyers will be unaware of this change and may post on MSE for clarification, and I also suspect that many private sellers have either not read the policy or have failed to understand it, and hopefully a dedicated thread, just for questions might be useful. I'll start a separate dedicated thread for the 48 hour hold.

The main announcement was made as follows:

” What’s changing for private sellers

We recently made changes to our fee structure so it’s free for private sellers to sell on eBay (excl. Vehicles). As part of this, from 4 Feb, a Buyer Protection fee will be added to listings from UK-based private sellers so we can make investments into these protections. This fee will be included in the item price and be paid for by the buyer. As a reminder, this is free of charge for business sellers.

To give buyers more protection and encourage timely shipment, private sellers will be paid once the item is delivered. There’s no change for business sellers and you’ll still receive your payouts as quickly as you do today.”

The Buyer Protection fee will be calculated as:

• A flat fee of £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

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/paying-items/buyer-protection-fee?id=5594

THe FAQ on ebay shows the following:

Buyer Protection | eBay

We're committed to making it easier for buyers to shop, and recently changed our fee structure so it's free to sell for private sellers. As part of this commitment, we're launching Buyer Protection to give you even more confidence and security when shopping on eBay.

From 6 Feb, a Buyer Protection fee will be included in the item price when you buy from private sellers, to enable our investment in these extra protections. But you'll only ever pay what you see, so there are no surprises at checkout. Buyer Protection is included at no extra cost when buying from business sellers.

BargainJunky

Thank you for adding this thread.  I wonder how it will be displayed for the buyer?  In simple terms does it mean that for a £5 item a buyer will pay an extra 95p?  

soolin

BargainJunky said:

Thank you for adding this thread.  I wonder how it will be displayed for the buyer?  In simple terms does it mean that for a £5 item a buyer will pay an extra 95p?  

The buyer will see the price inclusive of the charge for BIN items and for auctions the bid will also show the premium amount added. 

Frecklepie

Just to let people know, this update was announced to the Ebay community yesterday:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Announcements/Buyer-Protection-Pok%C3%A9mon-Day-VAT-invoices-amp-other-launches/ba-p/7762759

Starting from 4 February, Buyer Protection will be live to give buyers more peace of mind when shopping on ebay.co.uk. To minimise any potential disruption on our platform, the Buyer Protection fee will be gradually rolled out across items listed by private sellers, starting in Electronics and coming to all eligible categories in the following weeks.

So no idea when they’ll be adding clothing which is mainly what I sell.

purplevamp

I listed an item today for £11.50 and it looks like this is the price the buyer sees as I went onto my husband's ebay page and searched for it.  I use Chrome and he uses Edge so no cross-contamination .  Not sure if the buyer will see it after they go to buy it, unless ebay hasn't been applied it yet.

noitsnotme

purplevamp said:

I listed an item today for £11.50 and it looks like this is the price the buyer sees as I went onto my husband's ebay page and searched for it.  I use Chrome and he uses Edge so no cross-contamination .  Not sure if the buyer will see it after they go to buy it, unless ebay hasn't been applied it yet.

What category did you list it in?  As per the post above yours, eBay have decided to only initially apply the buyers fee to the electronics category.

purplevamp

noitsnotme said:

purplevamp said:

I listed an item today for £11.50 and it looks like this is the price the buyer sees as I went onto my husband's ebay page and searched for it.  I use Chrome and he uses Edge so no cross-contamination .  Not sure if the buyer will see it after they go to buy it, unless ebay hasn't been applied it yet.

What category did you list it in?  As per the post above yours, eBay have decided to only initially apply the buyers fee to the electronics category.

Ah, ok.  I've got nothing in that category, so this makes sense, thank you.  I need to learn to read posts before I post

sarahb

Buyer protection fee has been added overnight to my item listed in Electronics - price now showing as £26.71 but was still £24.99 last night.

soolin

sarahb said:

Buyer protection fee has been added overnight to my item listed in Electronics - price now showing as £26.71 but was still £24.99 last night.

Thank you for updating, it is as announced then that the fee would be added to the price the buyer sees. I know that’s what eBay said, but it’s good to see they haven’t changed the way they planned to show it. 

sarahb

soolin said:

sarahb said:

Buyer protection fee has been added overnight to my item listed in Electronics - price now showing as £26.71 but was still £24.99 last night.

Thank you for updating, it is as announced then that the fee would be added to the price the buyer sees. I know that’s what eBay said, but it’s good to see they haven’t changed the way they planned to show it. 

I was hoping that a seller price/ buyer protection fee breakdown would be visible to buyers but this is not the case.

GadgetGuru

sarahb said:

I was hoping that a seller price/ buyer protection fee breakdown would be visible to buyers but this is not the case.

Yeh I was hoping for the same. 
Shame.