Seller making no money

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: How does the seller make any money from this? Just wondering..

trads2

I probably won't use ebay uk or vinted ever again as an above standard quality individual seller. Royal mail or Evri receives their postal or parcel fee. The buyer they receives a good quality item. The elected charity Shelter received nothing, but I had selected the option that they should receive 20% of the sale, I as the seller received nothing. Money is disappearing, but where is it going ? Surely if as a seller I don't receive anything, the item is still legally mine ? Transfer fees on the platforms. When vinted transfer the money to the seller there is a transfer fee. Listings being cancelled and relisted money is going missing or the transaction becomes jammed because a parcel tracking number is incorrect or vinted say their website isn't working properly. Vinted holding payments in pending, promising they will release the funds, then the pending payment goes missing, where does this go ? Seller gets nothing only the platforms and delivery companies.

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82071692#Comment_82071692

I’m sorry but I can’t quite follow what happened here? You mention both eBay and Vinted and ‘transfer fees’ but neither Vinted nor eBay charge additional money to withdraw funds.

Could you perhaps explain the issue you are having with both sites individually and maybe someone can help ?

peteuk

I suggest you read the terms ad conditions for selling. It should explain what you are agreeing to when selling.

If a buyer complains about an item then they will hold the payment in case they need to return it to the buyer.

savergrant

The only bit I understood was the platform collecting the postage costs. So if you sold an item for £5 but agreed to pay £5 to post it to the buyer you wouldn't receive any money, what you'd receive is an address label to post the item as a swap.

I'm not sure how you'd know that the charity 'receive nothing', what does the order breakdown say?

born_again

Surely if as a seller I don't receive anything, the item is still legally mine ?

No the item is still not yours if you sell it & make no profit.

Sadly that is your error for wrong pricing.🤷‍♀️

trads2

A sellers perspective:

Scenario 1: The particular problem that is more recently happening 2026, and hasn't happened in previous years. Funds are placed in pending, the buyer receives the item. The pending money is returned to the buyer. The buyer has usually communicated to me they are happy with the item. I don't receive the funds and the item sold is not returned to me. The listing is then marked by the platform as cancelled and not delivered. However I have tracking number and confirmation delivered within 48 hours. The buyer messaged to say they were happy with item.

Scenario 2: The Ai courier produced label is being generated to the same cost that say I sell a book for. Book sells for £3.50, postage label is generated at £3.50. However local post office can probably send the item for £2.12 so seller should receive £1.38

Scenario: 2:1 The buyers protection fee that has recently been added to both Ebay and Vinted is probably, possibly - the transfer fee. Paypal charge £2.03 nowadays.

Scenario 3: A listing was duplicated in error, I don't remember entering two listings. The first listing sold for two wax designer candles in cellophane and the payment placed in pending. Another buyer contacted me through the second listing and I had to explain to them their was an error in a duplicate listing and the item was already sold. I removed the second listing. The pending payment from the first listing was refunded to the buyer on the second listing, however it wasn't clear what happened to the payment on the second listing as that should have automatically been sent back to the buyer, when I realised there was a duplicate listing. I was then told by ebay that I had sold a prohibited item of some candles, however they had allowed me to list the item and sell the item on the first listing. I had to contact ebay to tell them about the duplicate listing. Again 2026 - Item sent. Money that was in pending disappeared. Seller, (me) lost goods that were sent and told prohibited item…Never paid.

Scenario: 4 Ebay some years ago went through a phase where buyers gave wrong addresses, items were delivered to pickup points, but the item was never pickedup by anybody, it was a bit of a scam happening. At around that time, I sold a large retractable projector screen, to play dvds, or you could place slides on or a power point presentation. A buyer approached me on ebay to purchase it, the item delivered to the address the buyer gave. I was paid, however the buyer contacted me to say he hadn't received the item, item was delivered to the address he gave, however courier reported to say the address, I was given, was a building site and not lived in. Buyer and ebay demanded I gave back the money to the buyer, again stating buyer hadn't received it. I delivered it to the address given to me on ebay uk and messaged the buyer to try to resolve the situation and get the correct address. I did return the money and again I lost the goods, never returned by the buyer. Never recovered. It was a scam.

So as much as I am very positive about Ebay most of the time, I think it is time to just stop…and turn the internet off.

I think, the above are examples of financial abuse towards me as a person and it is repeatedly happening on sites like ebay uk and vinted. The reason possibly because I am female and buyers are at times, aggressive towards me. All the items that have not been paid for and are in the buyer's possession, they are still legally mine. I don't approach buyers, they approach me on the platforms, I don't choose who the buyers are, they choose me. Total losses probably in the region of about £600.00.

soolin

I’m still a little confused, so stick with me.

1. EBay don’t just refund buyers , so what exactly happened ? If this was a simple delivery item then as long as seller shows item was posted it becomes eBay’s problem. If it was a custom postage item then you reclaim from your courier using your POP. If buyer has the item then again I’d ask what were the circumstances?
   
   
2. buyer pays the buyer protection payment not the seller , on eBay it replaced the seller fees, on Vinted the fee has always been charged and is not new.

3. Slightly confused with this, if you were unable to supply something then of course the buyer got a refund. EBay are also quite hot on duplicates . If however the first sale was cancelled then item never needed to be sent.

4. Did this item showed as delivered as if so eBay were wrong to cancel the sale.

I’m not sure what the significance of being female is? I too am female but I don’t use a personal image on eBay and a random user name so browsers have no idea what gender I choose to be. Obviously they do know when they buy something if they check my details although on my business account I think it does show my full name rather than an initial on all selling pages and I can’t say that I have ever received targeted abuse based on my gender.

savergrant

When you say a listing was duplicated do you mean there were two different listings (ending at different times) for the same item? Or do you mean the listing remained live after the buyer purchased? In that case it will have been.a quantity error. If the listings were completely separate cancelling the second listing cannot impact the first sale.

If you're using seller pays on.simple delivery you will pay the prices ebay has negotiated, it may be possible that if the sale price doesn't cover the postage price ebay are discounting you. Sadly the minimum price on simple delivery is/was £2.70 for a large letter and £2.94 for an economy parcel. I'm not sure what service your local post office can offer but there is no-one offering parcels for £2.12 in my area.

If you have sent to the address REGISTERED with ebay and uploaded tracking information it is extremely unlikely that ebay will side against you (unless perhaps you have sold an item weighing 25kg and have proof of delivery for an item weighing under 2kg. If the buyer has asked you to send to a different address (recently moved or need it delivered to a family member etc) be very suspicious. In actual fact I once had a buyer who bought two items from me but when I went to pack them together I noticed they had changed the registered address between orders, so I guessed that they had two addresses registered and were buying one item for a family member. Ebay will tell you 'POST TO...'

savergrant

"All the items that have not been paid for and are in the buyer's possession, they are still legally mine"

Why would you send out an item that hasn't been paid for?

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82072840#Comment_82072840

I’ve just realised I did t answer this bit.

’Scenario: 2:1 The buyers protection fee that has recently been added to both Ebay and Vinted is probably, possibly - the transfer fee. Paypal charge £2.03 nowadays.’

Just as clarification the eBay PayPal link no longer exists, hasn’t done for 3 or 4 years, it’s all now managed payments . Even when PayPal was in play there hasn’t been a transfer fee for over 20 years , around 1999 they used to charge a small fee if you withdraw less than £50.