Ebay Selling Fees on Selling Stuff Outside of Ebay

darker.angel · 20 March 2019 at 12:11AM

I recently listed a collection I have for sale on Ebay under the £ 1 MAX Selling fee.

Long story short I delivered the goods, when I got home I thought I had better mark as sold, didn't even think to ask buyer to do.

Only option available was cancel the listing which I did. I had done all negotiations thro Ebay but now they are trying to charge me £ 250 sellers fee.

I admit I made a mistake which I would not have made if Ebay had facility for me to "MARK AS SOLD" . I tried explaining to them but its like hitting my head repeatedly against a brick wall. All this for a £1 selling fee.

I have also wrote a letter of complaint, again being ignored.

I have told them I will pay the £1 Final Selling Fee, which should have been what they charged me, are they allowed to do this to me? I have tried reading the T&C's, but it does not make it clear.

Any help would be appreciated, I am tired of the big multi billion pound companies bullying me!

mgdavid · 20 March 2019 at 2:39AM

darker.angel wrote: »

I recently listed a collection I have for sale on Ebay under the £ 1 MAX Selling fee.

Long story short.........

Too short by far - I think you are missing out a lot here.

If it sold on ebay why did YOU want to mark it 'sold' as it would automatically have done it for you.
Or did you sell it outside of ebay?
Please fill in the gaps.....

darker.angel · 20 March 2019 at 3:33AM

I arranged all thro Ebay, did all negotiations for delivery of goods, delivered them just assumed I could mark as sold (as on Facebook) when I got home, paid cash and a deposit by Paypal so all in the open, just Ebay system did not give the facility to Mark as Sold, so just cancelled transaction, didn't think much of it until they restricted my account.

Been selling on ebay for years and never found myself in this situation before.

As I said before I would not have done all this on purpose for a £1 Final Fee, buyer has no come back once they have the goods to mark as sold, I should be able to do it,.

soolin · 20 March 2019 at 9:11AM

darker.angel wrote: »

I arranged all thro Ebay, did all negotiations for delivery of goods, delivered them just assumed I could mark as sold (as on Facebook) when I got home, paid cash and a deposit by Paypal so all in the open, just Ebay system did not give the facility to Mark as Sold, so just cancelled transaction, didn't think much of it until they restricted my account.

Been selling on ebay for years and never found myself in this situation before.

As I said before I would not have done all this on purpose for a £1 Final Fee, buyer has no come back once they have the goods to mark as sold, I should be able to do it,.

So basically you sold outside of eBay having used eBay to facilitate the sale.

I'm sorry but if you could find the cancel button then you could have easily managed to ask buyer to just click the 'buy' button . Ebay take their fees as soon as item has been bought by someone, if you sold the item and then cancelled the sale on eBay then you did act outside eBay terms and conditions and as per their rules are liable for fees, you didn't sell using the terms of the £1 FVF offer so are liable for the lot.

Yes it's harsh , but you were in very dodgy ground as soon as you started using eBay to talk about the sale then you made it worse by cancelling the listing.

You can appeal, and as long as you remove any link to your PayPal or any other automatic fee payment facility they can't take the money from you. Obviously you can no longer use eBay as any further monies received on that account will be taken for this debt, and I would be careful to warn any one associated with you that might use the same address or details, as their account may be at risk as well.

charlies_mum · 20 March 2019 at 9:15AM

Sorry, I don't understand the "I arranged all through eBay" bit. Did the buyer purchase the item through eBay and if so it would show as sold.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like the buyer contacted you, you negotiated a price and they paid you cash. If that is the case then you did sell outside eBay and they will continue to chase you for the fees

mgdavid · 20 March 2019 at 10:56PM

OP is still not giving the whole story, with detailed actions. I agree with c-mum, it clearly wasn't 'ALL' arranged through ebay as the buyer never hit 'BUY'.
The OP is confusing 'mark as sold' (which has never existed) with 'mark as paid' which is used for cash on collections or deliveries.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head · 21 March 2019 at 9:11AM

This that and the other aside, if OP listed under the £1 promo eBay can't collect £250.

Small claims only allows you to claim a loss (£1 in this case) and assuming the OP is a private seller the fee is a penalty which is classed as an unfair term in consumer contracts.

If not paid the matter would likely be passed to debt collectors who have no power, other than to annoy you, and either eBay or the debt collectors would have to go to small claims before any action would be taken.

Downside is if not paid eBay are very likely to stop you using their services again.

soolin · 21 March 2019 at 9:34AM

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

This that and the other aside, if OP listed under the £1 promo eBay can't collect £250.

Small claims only allows you to claim a loss (£1 in this case) and assuming the OP is a private seller the fee is a penalty which is classed as an unfair term in consumer contracts.

If not paid the matter would likely be passed to debt collectors who have no power, other than to annoy you, and either eBay or the debt collectors would have to go to small claims before any action would be taken.

Downside is if not paid eBay are very likely to stop you using their services again.

I agree that as long as OP is happy to walk away from ebay and paypal then this is likely to be a mere inconvenience. However, the £1 FVF offer had terms and conditions, anyone not abiding by those terms and conditions cannot then claim the offer- it's exactly the same as trying to force ebay to only charge £1 even if you failed to list in the correct time frame or category. The T and Cs required the sale to take place on ebay (UK or IE) which this did not.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head · 21 March 2019 at 10:18AM

Just looking at the T&C from the offer on the 22nd of Feb (as it was the closest I could find on Google), there's nothing to indicate eBay have any get out clause, it just says "if the item sells" which eBay are claiming it did.

I don't think it's a bad idea for eBay to charge people who deliberately avoid fees but who would sell something for around £2500 and be worried about paying a £1 fee.

Assuming what the OP has said is correct about the item being part of the promo it's clearly a misunderstanding rather than a deliberate action to avoid the fee and eBay, as usual, are showing disregard for their customer.

soolin · 21 March 2019 at 10:54AM

This will be their get out clause:

Any items listed that don’t comply with eBay’s listing policies or prohibited and restricted items policies.

selling outside ebay is not complying with their policies and user agreement, therefore they have not complied with the offer terms.

Yes this is a difficult situation but OP really didn't help themselves at all with it , I doubt they will bother coming back to this thread anyway as none of us can offer an easy way out .

Edit: I copied that from here

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/promos/2017/103655.html

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head · 21 March 2019 at 11:46AM

Possibly but I think you could argue selling outside of eBay isn't a "listing" policy, the links don't mention anything about trading outside of eBay (at a quick glance I couldn't see it).

Being a consumer contract it has to be clear, an omission can be classed as misleading.

They should specifically state if the purchase is made outside of eBay the offer doesn't apply should they wish to try and impose this charge in such a situation.

Ebay Selling Fees on Selling Stuff Outside of Ebay

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