Ebay are now charging buyers a hidden fee.

[TonyW]

 

I've just listed some built models on Ebay. I listed them at a £9.99 start. The listings show them at £11.11.

Contacting Ebay to find out why, I'm told it is an added 'Buyer Protection Fee' it's not optional and it gives no additional protection to the buyer, just a higher price. The seller doesn't get the added charge, Ebay does.

The charge is not shown as a separate item, it appears as part of the buyers start price.

There's nothing on the listings to show an added charge.

Ebay becomes more unpleasant every day. 

 

Tony.

[spruecutter96]

Very much in agreement with you here, Tony. Since E-Bay introduced this new charge, my sales have slowed down very significantly.

 

Chris.   

[Troy Smith]

2 hours ago, TonyW said:

I'm told it is an added 'Buyer Protection Fee' it's not optional and it gives no additional protection to the buyer, just a higher price. The seller doesn't get the added charge, Ebay does.

It has been discussed, this is what they have introduced now they have made it 'free to sell'  the seller does not pay a fee, the buyer does.

 

2 hours ago, TonyW said:

Ebay becomes more unpleasant every day. 

It goes in phases, and what is the alternative?   Nothing else really has the reach,   but you do wonder at some of the changes,  like far too much it seems the need to tinker, I suppose someone's admin job requires showing work....   

 

Be interesting to see how this pans out....

 

[TonyW]

 Ebay has ramped up their take and hidden it all behind the seller. It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. 

As a seller, I resent them taking a percentage of any postage costs for themselves on top of their stated fees. Now they want the buyer to pay them a fee as well. It's also a percentage of the final price.

 

Had they put the charge up front so the buyer could decide whether to pay it or decline, I could go along with it, it's their shop after all, and they can do as they please. They have hidden the charge from view and that is just unacceptable deception. 

 

I've informed Ebay that I will be buying nothing through their website anymore. It's been a shopping mall for some time now with private sellers being squeezed out by constant new restrictions and charges. My buying will switch to Model Shows and websites that are not Ebay.
 

 

Tony.

[Circloy]

Been known about for quite some time

 

As I understand business sellers still pay E-Bay a fee, with no additional fee from the buyer, whereas the private seller lists for free and the buyer gets hit for the fees. So the business seller lists @£10 and that's what the buyer see's. The private seller lists @ £10, the fees are then added so the buyer see's the item @ £11.12.  Guess who's at a disadvantage.

 

It's E-Bays ill thought out response to the likes of Vinted

 

[Graham Boak]

As often said, there's no such thing as a free lunch.  Or in more basic English, you don't get owt for nowt.  You want a service, you pay for it.   After all, someone has to fork out for website maintenance, staff wages, directors' bonuses, etc.

[Duncan B]

I stopped selling on Ebay a while back. I don't miss it at all, my own website traffic is up, I don't have any hassle with the swindlers that plagued my Ebay sales and my costs are down. Best of all, I can charge a fair and competitive price for my products without having to inflate prices to cover the horrendous fees that eBay used to charge me.

 

Duncan B

[3DStewart]

Ah diddums.  Nasty eBay is insisting that someone pays them for the service they provide.

It's hardly surprising that they've introduced buyer fees for private sellers. Offering free selling to private sellers was never going to be acceptable to business sellers who still have to pay fees.

Since we no longer have to pay 10% selling fees (including on P&P, which always annoyed me), the obvious way to stay competitive is to reduce our listing price by 10%.  We'll end up making the same amount in the end.

Is this way of doing things a good idea by eBay?  Probably not, but I have little sympathy with people who think they can make money on a complex international site and not pay something towards it.

 

Edited February 25 by 3DStewart

[Farmer matt]

It seems the problem is more one of presentation than anything.

They should just set a rate, announce it, and let life continue, instead of trying to dress it up and hide it somehow.

Most (bricks and mortar) auction-houses take commission from both buyers and sellers at flat rates clearly flagged so you know that not only do you pay hammer plus x percent, the vendor receives hammer less x percent. Sometimes the x is eye-watering too.

As said above no freebies, it's business.

 

Matt

[Noel Smith]

Let's not forget that Ebay is a business with the purpose of making money, not a benevolent society.

Whether it be the Buyer or Seller some one has to bear their fees.

 

Now if their fees are felt to be fair or not, well that is a different matter altogether.

[-Ian-]

To make it worse, the fee is in the form of a flat rate plus a percentage of the selling price so impacting low price items to a far greater degree.

Edited February 26 by -Ian-

[TonyW]

On 2/25/2025 at 3:09 PM, 3DStewart said:

Ah diddums.  Nasty eBay is insisting that someone pays them for the service they provide.

It's hardly surprising that they've introduced buyer fees for private sellers. Offering free selling to private sellers was never going to be acceptable to business sellers who still have to pay fees.

Since we no longer have to pay 10% selling fees (including on P&P, which always annoyed me), the obvious way to stay competitive is to reduce our listing price by 10%.  We'll end up making the same amount in the end.

Is this way of doing things a good idea by eBay?  Probably not, but I have little sympathy with people who think they can make money on a complex international site and not pay something towards it.

 

 

 

Didums? Is that tone necessary? 

 

I'm not aware of any selling ever being free. I've had intermittent 'offers' of 80% off sellers fee's but it's never been free.

 

The subject has been raised and acknowledged.  Ebay can run their business as they please, and they do. I can make comment, and I did. I have nothing more to add.

 

Tony.

[Noel Smith]

So if a buyer gets charged a flat rate and on top of that a percentage fee if buying for example a very expensive  Pocher car kit. Ouch!

[-Ian-]

1 hour ago, Noel Smith said:

So if a buyer gets charged a flat rate and on top of that a percentage fee if buying for example a very expensive  Pocher car kit. Ouch!

It's far worse for cheaper items. The flat rate is a 75p then 4% on top, effectively this means a £100 items has a 4.75% price increase but a £5 item has a 19% increase.

Bear in mind this is per item not per purchase, so if you buy multiple cheap items from the same seller at the same time (e.g. 10 different model paints) you're hit with multiple flat rate charges.

[Mike Dean]

So what are you getting for your Buyers Protection Fee?

 

24/7 customer service: Get support around the clock if you need help

It's an AI generated "help bubble". Good luck getting anywhere with that.

 

Private sellers paid after delivery: When you purchase from a private seller, payment is sent after the order has been successfully delivered.

Didn't sellers always get paid? Depends on whether the item was delivered or not. Now they've made it after delivery, which makes sense. For tracked deliveries, the seller will receive payment 2 calendar days after eBay receives confirmation from the tracked delivery service that it was successful. For untracked deliveries, or tracked deliveries with no delivery confirmation, funds will become available 14 calendar days from the order date. For untracked, single-quantity, single-item orders priced £10 or less, funds will be available after positive feedback is received from the buyer, or 14 days from the order date, whichever comes first. For sellers wanting their money quickly, they'll send everything Tracked. I always do, but that's more expense to the puchaser.

 

Secure transactions: All payments are encrypted end-to-end and handled by our trusted payments partners.

Wasn't this always the case? What has changed/improved?

 

Buyers Protection Fee has nothing to do with the free eBay Money Back Guarantee, which is still free and it covers the purchase price and original shipping costs on eligible purchases.

 

It is not extra insurance in case anything goes wrong. If it's lost in transit, ebay will help in getting your money back from the courier. The courier pays them, ebay pays you.

 

And it is not a flat fee on every purchase. It's a percentage of the final sale price. Which doesn't make sense and is disproportionate to the service provided

 

Discuss

 

Edited February 27 by Mike Dean

[Circloy]

If the final price I see is acceptable, I'll buy, regardless of who's paying the fee's.

 

Unless they are a trader passing themselves off as a private seller, and there I'll take other actions.