Can a kind person please explain to me how ebay's (Free Selling) now works please.

badlywornroy

badlywornroy

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Hope I can make this understandable.

I listed an item for £95.00

Ebay added on £4.50 (the buyers protection fee) Hence price now £99.50.

Accepted an offer of £88.00

Now ebay shows this

i-DtgCqNw.jpg

So I assume I'm to receive £81.00 ? Now if you add £81.00 + £4.06 + (BP fee) + £2.94 (postage) It totals £88.00. But that is charging me £4.06 for the buyer protection fee ??

" eBay's Buyer Protection fee (BPF) is paid by the buyer, added to the item's price, and included in the total at checkout "

So it seems the buyer and the seller pay a 'Buyer Protection fee ' ?

So I googled " Doe the seller also pay the Buyers Protection Fee "

This is the answer: " No, the eBay seller does not directly pay the Buyer Protection fee; the buyer pays it as part of the item's price, but it's included in the total the buyer sees, meaning sellers effectively absorb it by receiving less money from the sale, as the fee is deducted from the final price before the seller gets paid. "

WTF ! Call me a confused old man but I don't really understand the 2nd part of that sentence. What happened to Free Selling ?
 
They added the insurance to the original retail price. When you accepted the lower price they have kept the BPF within the total price so technically the buyer is paying it, but you are receiving less.

I agree with you. It is confusing and penalises sellers.
 
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Well, I thank you Clive for helping but I'm still struggling to understand how the buyer is paying the BP fee but it has been taken off the £88.00 I accepted. Doh
 
None too sure I understand "their thinking".....but as I don't use eBay I surmise that:-

The original price was based on your submission price plus the BPF therefore when you accepted the lower amount that is still, for eBay, the BPF inclusive price i.e. they deduct that before they pay you your money.
 
If you've worked in a selling environment, it's obvious that this operates in a generally accepted way,

If not, it can be very confusing. Technically, the £88 is the gross sale revenue but the £81 is the net price, that is, what's left once the protection fee and the postage has been deducted by "your agent" (Ebay). It's a way for Ebay to pretend that they're not charging you commission for selling the item while actually obtaining a profit (I assume) on both the insurance and delivery charges.
 
basically for the last few years ebay have struggled with free sellers like vinted and FB marketplace undercutting them and they have tried different strategies including at one point true free selling there latest is the seller protection fee which you still paid because it came of the price accepted, to be a real protection fee it should be added to the amount after purchase paid by the buyer but hey ho.
 
Thank you Andrew, I understand the gross & net values. What I still don't understand is the Buyers Protection Fee. It seems it was added on to my sale price, ergo the buyers pays it. This seems logical. Then as seen on my snapshot - £4.06 ( ebay collected from buyer ) is subtracted from my payout. I'm beginning to feel stupid here is there something simple I am not understanding ?
 
OK, I have thrown 'Teddy' out of the pram and cancelled this sale with ebay and initiated a refund, ebay had taken funds from buyer but were holding them (as expected)

I tried to contact ebay customer services twice and was given a time (twice) when they would ring me back . . . . no-one called.
It is not the small sum of money that I appear to have lost it is the principle of me wanting to understand this financial transaction. If ebay cannot be bothered to
ring as promised and attempt to educate me then I am not prepared to 'play' I have apologised profusely to the buyer and attempted to make him understand my position :mad:
Sadly the buyer is caught in the middle. I have been on ebay since 2003, not a major customer 525 sales/purchases with 100% feedback. They may decide they are better off
without me if I can find a way to post some feed back. So be it, frankly who cares.
Thank you for your help everyone.
 
I think to get round it when accepting an offer it necessary to add the “buyer protection” fee on the offer ie so you would still receive £88, I did this at the weekend on a sale, the buyer mumped but accepted my offer, he still saved money over the actual purchase price.
 
mj4456 said:
I think to get round it when accepting an offer it necessary to add the “buyer protection” fee on the offer ie so you would still receive £88, I did this at the weekend on a sale, the buyer mumped but accepted my offer, he still saved money over the actual purchase price.
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Well that makes sense. Sadly nowadays ebay and the customer relations of many ( most) organisations have ceased to employ efficient knowledgeable staff. Highly likely if either of the calls from ebay had materialised I would have been struggling to understand pidgin english ?
 
It’s just the way they do it now , and to be fair I’ve gained by using there postage system . As rather than sending expensive items by special delivery etc out of my own pocket ,I just print off a label and take it to the post office , the insurance / delivery is then there problem . Think Royal Mail give them preference as the label states marketplace seller .
And now payment is available the day after buyer pays .. personally I would relist your item and let it run on auction had some really silly ( ) last minute bids lately . The last minute usually goes frantic
 
badlywornroy said:
Well that makes sense. Sadly nowadays ebay and the customer relations of many ( most) organisations have ceased to employ efficient knowledgeable staff. Highly likely if either of the calls from ebay had materialised I would have been struggling to understand pidgin english ?
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i think you have behaved quite foolishly when its all worked out you have paid a small %age fees much less than the old ebay.
what did you expect from ebay?
 
badlywornroy said:
Well that makes sense. Sadly nowadays ebay and the customer relations of many ( most) organisations have ceased to employ efficient knowledgeable staff. Highly likely if either of the calls from ebay had materialised I would have been struggling to understand pidgin english ?
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I sell a lot on eBay (or at least the charity I'm involved with does). They are a lot easier to speak to than Amazon, and I've never had the slightest language problem when they've rung me back, from Ireland.
Mr Bump said:
i think you have behaved quite foolishly when its all worked out you have paid a small %age fees much less than the old ebay.
what did you expect from ebay?
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I can see why you're annoyed, but they're a business, they can't exist without fees and their fees are very reasonable compared to other online platforms.
 
Mr Bump said:

" I can see why you're annoyed, but they're a business, they can't exist without fees and their fees are very reasonable compared to other online platforms. "

" what did you expect from ebay? " err, maybe a call back when they told me twice they would call back in xx minutes.

Anyway, good to hear someone is ' beating the drum ' in support of ebay. Methinks they need supporters.
 
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Mr Bump said:
i think you have behaved quite foolishly when its all worked out you have paid a small %age fees much less than the old ebay.
what did you expect from ebay?
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I do many things foolishly, keeps me young :giggle: Not this time. I am happy. Original buyer has a refund. I have the satisfaction of 'dumping' ebay and I sold the coat same day for £90.00 via the cyclechat forum.
 
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