ebay charging sellers the new buyers fee!

Tracy39

BEWARE! ebay seem to be charging the sellers the buyers fee on offers!

This is also being talked about on the ebay forum, at first I didn't quite understand the topic in the forum, but after experiencing this 2 weeks ago, I now see what the issue was about. So hopefully I can explain what's going on please bare with me there is no short way to explain.

We know that ebay state that sellers no longer pay fees. though it seems sellers are now paying the buyers fee when a buyer makes a offer, after i received an offer just a few days ago, something didn't seem right.

So ok when a seller lists an item for buy it now price example of £190 the seller sees their listing price, but the buyer sees a price of £203.48, which has the buyers fee add onto the original price of £190 (see my screen shot below) showing the top 2 photos showing the difference between what a sellers original listing price is & what the buyer sees when buyers fees are added). So hope that first part is clear.

So when a buyer chooses the buy it now price the seller receives the full but it now amount they listed it at of £195, the extra are fees on top the buyer pays, so the buyers fee was £8.48 plus any postage costs to be added to that as well afterwards.

So simply if buy now it now was £10 orignal listing price, a seller receives the full £10.

This information, as follows is from ebays policy:-

When a UK-based private seller lists an item on eBay.co.uk, we add a Buyer Protection fee to the listing price. This fee is paid by the buyer to eBay.

The Buyer Protection fee is calculated as:

• A flat fee of up to £0.10 per item, and

7% of the item price up to £20, and

4% of any portion of the item price from £20 to £300, and

2% of any portion of the item price from £300 to £4,000

Note how it says the buyers fee is ADDED TO THE LISTING PRICE and calculated as a percentage on top of the base price, so it's added on just like my previous paragraph above shows to be true so what their policy states should be happening.

So as there is only ONE policy and wording merely mentions the word "Price" this should apply to offers as well you would think, as in if a seller receives an offer of £195 they would receive the full £195, as buyers fees are supposed to be worked out on the "PRICE" just the same way as in the buy it now price works. So the offer they originally submit shuold be the"Price", NOT SO!

So then the fee is worked out on the "Price" AND calculated on that offer amount of £195, and added "TO THE PRICE" as their policy clearly states the same way as buy it now.

Hope your with me so far.

But yet if you take a lot at my screen cap photo again bottom of this post, the offer was £150, yet it said I would only receive £143.58?  The total amount including postage to the buyer was going to be £157.27. that can't be right because go back to how the fee is worked out on the "price" as they state and how it works for buy it now. 

That isn't correct as per their policy the base offer price submitted was £150, so then the buyers fee shuold be worked out on top of what they offered, of £6.42 plus the £7.27 P&P equals total price should be to buyer £163.69. As the buyers fee is calculated on top of the "Price" they want to pay, I can't specify enough times how the the fact the buyers fee is add on to the base price they clearly state in their policy, yet it seems the buyers fee is being taken off the "price" and leaving the seller with much less as in they are charging the buyer £157.27, they say that includes the fee and postage costs, but they can't say it includes the fee until the fee has been worked out on the "price then added" to that price.  But yet if the person had bought it now for £150 on a buy it now listing with no offers allowed, i would receive the full £150! I wouldn't receive £143.58 if somebody bought it now for £150.

I questioned ebay about it and all they did is send me the screen shots of what i see stating the fee is included. i said no the buyers fee is NOT included in the base "price" as per policy wording. the fee is only included when the fee has been worked out first on the "price" added onto the base price they want to pay if the buy it now price is £195 I receive £195, the higher amount would be seen buy the buyer as proved in screen shot.

Though it was saying i would receive a lot less minus the buyers fee. This isn't right and it goes against their policy wording above. so basically the sellers is paying the fee that ebay say the buyer pays the protection fee.

So I questioned ebay again replying back, so what was the offer price they submitted because it states they offered me £150, but yet says i will only receive £143.58. It DOESN'T say let me clear that the offer was £143.58. who on earth would submit an offer like that? you wouldn't send an offer with the odd penny at the end, you would round it up to say next 50p or £1 as an offer. so my conclusion was the offer price submitted was the £150 not the £143.58.

But now ebay have gone silent on me since asking these questions and three is certainly not two policy's in place one for buy it now and one for offer, yet they seem to be operating two different policy's for the way the byers fee is taken care off, one is being added correctly as per their policy the other is being subtracted form the offer leaving sellers with even less.

I told them it's crazy because if I had it set up only for buy it now £150 the buyer would see a higher price their end with the buyers fee worked out (as per screen shots enclosed) on that £150 and added to it an i'd receiev exacltey £150.

So to prove what's going on visually

The only way i got the information is having mum help me from her acocunt, so i could see what is going on from a buyers & sellers perspective.

So i've done a video showing what is happening with making an offer. My mum used her account to send me an offer of £150 on the doll, which you can see in the video, £150 offer typed in.

Yet when I received the offer it said I would receive the £143.58 spoken about above. so NOT receiving the initial offer "Price" there's that word again "price", of £150, so you can clearly see the buyers fee of £6.42 has been taken off the amount offered to me of £150, leaving me with only £143.58, but yet if the price was buy it now £150 then i would receive the full £150, no buyers fee would show being taken off with buy it now.

The buyers fee is clearly NOT being added to the base offer price submitted of £150, the seller is not receiving the amount the buyer input as an offer as shown on my video below.

I hope this is making things very clear that something is very wrong on ebay with making an offer. It's clear that ebay are not adding the fee onto the base offer price. Uk sellers no longer pay sellers fees for Uk to Uk deliveries. so what is going on?

Also note in my video how one minute when an offer is submitted it says i will only receive x amount as per the complaint above, but then the next offer i receive of £22, it says I will receive the full amount offered of £22, then the next offer i received it's reverted back to saying I will only receive x amount an buyers fee is coming off the offer, so three's also a glitch.

I have now sent a formal complaint to ebay head office as it's clear the fee is not being calculated on the offer price a buyer submits and added onto that offer prices, it's being taken off and the seller receives less than the offer.

ebays policy to refer to what should be happening regrds to how the fee is worked out on the price. https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/selling/pricing-items/buyer-protection-information-sellers?id=5595&st=3&pos=3&query=Buyer%20Protection%20-%20information%20for%20sellers&intent=buyer%20protection%20fee&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1812

My video link below, sorry it's not great quality as the camera can't focus on the screen very well so I've have spoken about the amounts i'm seeing so you can at least here it. please no comments about poor video quality as i know it's not great trying to film with one hand and type on the other.

ebay possible mis-charging fees & offers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CxgJB-AFEU&t=174s

Abbafan1972

I got lost at the 4th paragraph and had to stop reading. 

soolin

Abbafan1972 said:

I got lost at the 4th paragraph and had to stop reading. 

Hate to admit it, but so did I.

If this concerns the way the offers are shown, then yes it's always been like that since the new buyer fee was brought in, perhaps those just seeing it now hadn't had offers before?

I suspect it also depends on how you view your ebay page as that varies and I agree does cause confusion , on the app the offers are shown in full, but if you use a web based view of ebay the offer includes the buyers fee. When I get an offer on ebay on my PC I always check the bit that says clearly what seller will receive, it isn't hidden nor is it new. 

 I would point out that some ebay users also failed to understand or even read the new changes when they were bought in, resulting in all sorts of conspiracy theories and misunderstandings. Sometimes you have to look at more than just the first bit of any page or announcement, read through what is actually happening and what funds you will receive and not just make assumptions, it is also worth looking at your own view rather than just read the horror headlines from others .

I do read the community boards (never ever post though!)  and have always found it interesting how many people say they are closing their ebay accounts, or just leaving until ebay reverse any changes, or sort things out, yet several months later are still listing and using ebay. 

se2020

The seller normally 'pays' the buyer fee anyway.

Although you enter the price you want to receive for the item you have to account for the fee to keep the total price competitive otherwise the item will never sell.

Yes, the fee is removed from the offer a buyer makes.
This is because the buyer makes an offer from the total amount they want to pay and they need to be shown that total before clicking 'confirm order'

It makes no difference how the fee is removed.
If the buyer offered £150 and the total then shows up as £157.82 they will just click the 'back' button and enter £143.  Or £142. Or whatever.

I think that would actually result in slightly lower offers/sales amounts as I don't think many buyers would bother to calculate the fee, rather just round the offer down to the nearest £.

savergrant

soolin said:

Abbafan1972 said:

I got lost at the 4th paragraph and had to stop reading. 

Hate to admit it, but so did I.

If this concerns the way the offers are shown, then yes it's always been like that since the new buyer fee was brought in, perhaps those just seeing it now hadn't had offers before?

I suspect it also depends on how you view your ebay page as that varies and I agree does cause confusion , on the app the offers are shown in full, but if you use a web based view of ebay the offer includes the buyers fee. When I get an offer on ebay on my PC I always check the bit that says clearly what seller will receive, it isn't hidden nor is it new. 

 I would point out that some ebay users also failed to understand or even read the new changes when they were bought in, resulting in all sorts of conspiracy theories and misunderstandings. Sometimes you have to look at more than just the first bit of any page or announcement, read through what is actually happening and what funds you will receive and not just make assumptions, it is also worth looking at your own view rather than just read the horror headlines from others .

I do read the community boards (never ever post though!)  and have always found it interesting how many people say they are closing their ebay accounts, or just leaving until ebay reverse any changes, or sort things out, yet several months later are still listing and using ebay. 

Ebay has changed the way the BPF is displayed. Until earlier this month it was bundled so when you looked at your own listing you saw the inclusive price if you weren't logged in to your account, but only saw the net price if you were logged in. Now ebay is showing you the inclusive price when creating a listing. When an offer is made by a buyer ebay now shows the seller the total.amount offered and then underneath (in what seems to me smaller and lighter type) the amount the seller will receive. This has only changed in the last few days and may be being rolled out.