Why are sellers having to pay the buyer's protection fee on EBay if we, as sellers, accept an offer?

ailey

I don't quite understand how this works. If a buyer on EBay now pays their buyer's protection fee, why does the seller have to pay this for the buyer if the seller accepts an offer at a lower price? Surely the buyer should still have to pay the protection fee themselves?

subjecttocontract

I don't understand the point you are trying to make. Why do you think it should be the buyers responsibility to pay the fee just because they made an offer that's been accepted ?

swingaloo

You are not actually paying the fee though. If I buyer offers £6 then that is the total that he is willing to pay including the fee.  Its only the same as if you sell an item at £10, the buyer will have paid extra fees on top. 

The offer they make includes the fee which they are still paying.

Spoonie_Turtle

It's basically the same effect as they used to do it, except they take the fee before giving you the rest instead of paying you it all and then billing you for fees.

As buyers we can see the breakdown if we click on the bit that lets us, on the 'review offer' page, but I would doubt many people know that (I didn't until just a few days ago).  It would be better if it showed us on the offer page so we can very simply adjust our offer accordingly, without having to go back and forth.  Very annoying.  Whereas before, when sellers listed it for the whole price including fees, it was implicit that they had factored in fees already.

savergrant

ailey said:

I don't quite understand how this works. If a buyer on EBay now pays their buyer's protection fee, why does the seller have to pay this for the buyer if the seller accepts an offer at a lower price? Surely the buyer should still have to pay the protection fee themselves?

When you list an item the buyer sees a higher price than you listed it for. If the buyer makes an offer ebay tells you how much they have offered and underneath how much you will receive. So if you set your price as £10 the buyer might see £11. If the buyer offered £9 you might receive £8. If you send the buyer an offer for £9 they might have to pay £10. Ebay takes its cut between what you accept and what the buyer offers, but what the buyer offers is not what you receive.

vacheron

To be honest this buyers protection fee has added so much confusion to everything.

Now when I list an item I have to calculate how much the buyer will see as the fee is not added. Then if I log into my own ebay auctions via My Ebay, the price I see is the price without the fee, but then if I click on the auction the price includes the fee. 

When someone makes me an offer this price won't include the fee, but when I respond I have to remember whether or not the fee is added and compensate for it, otherwise I could end up counter offering an offer from a buyer with an amount less than their original offer!

I've been a seller since 2001 and I have honestly never been as confused as to where I stand as I am now, and am frankly so tired of this smegging fee that that I wish they would just start charging the sellers again after the sale like they used to, and just give that money to the buyer to cover this stupid fee if they're still convinced that it's such a wonderful idea! 

As I said at the time, if I list something as buy it now for £19.99 it is shown to the buyer as £21.45, so of course to make it say £19.99 to the buyer you have to drop your price, so you are paying via being obliged to reduce your asking price anyway!

swingaloo

vacheron said:

To be honest this buyers protection fee has added so much confusion to everything.

Now when I list an item I have to calculate how much the buyer will see as the fee is not added. Then if I log into my own ebay auctions via My Ebay, the price I see is the price without the fee, but then if I click on the auction the price includes the fee. 

When someone makes me an offer this price won't include the fee, but when I respond I have to remember whether or not the fee is added and compensate for it, otherwise I could end up counter offering an offer from a buyer with an amount less than their original offer!

I've been a seller since 2001 and I have honestly never been as confused as to where I stand as I am now, and am frankly so tired of this smegging fee that that I wish they would just start charging the sellers again after the sale like they used to, and just give that money to the buyer to cover this stupid fee if they're still convinced that it's such a wonderful idea! 

As I said at the time, if I list something as buy it now for £19.99 it is shown to the buyer as £21.45, so of course to make it say £19.99 to the buyer you have to drop your price, so you are paying via being obliged to reduce your asking price anyway!

You dont have to calculate how much the buyer will pay as when you put your price in the box there is another which says 'The buyer will pay xx' so its done for you.

When someone makes an offer it shows you how much you will actually get so you can factor that into doing a counter offer or not. Likewise if you choose to do a counter offer you can adjust it so that you actually get the price you want.

When I put ,my asking price in it shows me straight away what the buyer will pay so occasionally I find that is it says for instance that the buyer will pay £9.25 I can adjust my price by a few pence till it show the buyer will pay £8.99 which is obviously more appealing to the buyer.

I don't understand why there is so much confusion, I think its a far better system for sellers.

vacheron

Maybe confusion would be better replaced with frustration. Even your own post refers to having to "factor this in", "look at two figures to establish which is which", "adjusting your price penny by penny" (as do I) until finally (through trial and error), eBay re-calculates the number that you wanted which you think the buyer would find appealing.

Previously, I listed an item for £9.99, the seller offered £7.99 and I countered with £8.99... done!
I then knew to knock about 10% off for fees.

Each to their own I guess, but to me that was so much quicker and easier and less prone to oversight / error.

se2020

vacheron said:

Maybe confusion would be better replaced with frustration. Even your own post refers to having to "factor this in", "look at two figures to establish which is which", "adjusting your price penny by penny" (as do I) until finally (through trial and error), eBay re-calculates the number that you wanted which you think the buyer would find appealing.

Previously, I listed an item for £9.99, the seller offered £7.99 and I countered with £8.99... done!
I then knew to knock about 10% off for fees.

Each to their own I guess, but to me that was so much quicker and easier and less prone to oversight / error.

You don't need to calculate anything.
You can just click on the 'buyer will pay" box and enter the amount in there.