Selling on ebay...OUCH!

[keysan]

I had the same problem when I sold off most off my collection that I would never use. They will hold the money back for 10 to 14 days until you have sold 10 items. However, they are really helpful and if you phone them. I was pleasantly surprised that if you request a call back that they call you within a few minutes and if you have sent it tracked and received feedback they will release the money early. Give them a call.

[PhilJ W]

Last week I ordered an item advertised on E-bay and was notified that it had been posted and even received a tracking number. Yesterday I went to check on its progress only to find that there was no record of the despatch or tracking number and when I tried to contact the vendor I found that they were no longer on E-bay. I immediately notified E-bay and my money was returned within ten minutes. I'd assumed it was done and dusted but this afternoon there was a knock on the door and the postie handed me a parcel with the item inside. Unfortunately the case is closed as far as E-bay is concerned, the vendor is no longer on E-bay and there was no senders address on the parcel. So I now have goods that I haven't paid for and no means of paying and unable to contact the payee.

[cctransuk]

16 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Last week I ordered an item advertised on E-bay and was notified that it had been posted and even received a tracking number. Yesterday I went to check on its progress only to find that there was no record of the despatch or tracking number and when I tried to contact the vendor I found that they were no longer on E-bay. I immediately notified E-bay and my money was returned within ten minutes. I'd assumed it was done and dusted but this afternoon there was a knock on the door and the postie handed me a parcel with the item inside. Unfortunately the case is closed as far as E-bay is concerned, the vendor is no longer on E-bay and there was no senders address on the parcel. So I now have goods that I haven't paid for and no means of paying and unable to contact the payee.

 

Do you have a note of the vendor's Ebay identity?

 

If so, Ebay should be able to put you in contact, or otherwise arrange for you to make payment.

 

CJI.

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by cctransuk

[PhilJ W]

20 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

Do you have a note of the vendor's Ebay identity?

 

If so, Ebay should be able to put you in contact, or otherwise arrange for you to make payment.

 

CJI.

 

I do but the vendor is no longer on E-bay and they don't seem to want to know.

[Hal Nail]

On 26/08/2023 at 16:21, PhilJ W said:

and they don't seem to want to know.

Given the seller had left before this went wrong, they might well get back in touch with eBay when they realise their money has gone awol. 

 

Although I suspect your last point sums up the response they will get. 

[PhilJ W]

Oddly E-bay keep asking me to give feedback but when I try to I get the message 'No longer on E-bay'. I wonder if it is a fraudster and they were picked up by E-bay as it appears as soon as I had paid the item was relisted. Someone selling the same item over again perhaps? 

[Hal Nail]

22 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Oddly E-bay keep asking me to give feedback but when I try to I get the message 'No longer on E-bay'. I wonder if it is a fraudster and they were picked up by E-bay as it appears as soon as I had paid the item was relisted. Someone selling the same item over again perhaps? 

 

Except they sent you them!

 

Ebay's reduced fees offers don't apply to multiple listings of the same thing so it could just be as soon as they offloaded one, they took up another offer and listed the next one.

 

 

[PhilJ W]

9 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

 

Except they sent you them!

 

Ebay's reduced fees offers don't apply to multiple listings of the same thing so it could just be as soon as they offloaded one, they took up another offer and listed the next one.

 

 

But the item was relisted and then almost immediately the vendor was no longer on E-bay?

[cessna152towser]

Sold a boxed Dapol wagon to a buyer in USA last month.  My net proceeds from the sale after paying eBay fees and domestic postage to the Global Shipping depot in Staffordshire amounted to £1.21.    I've just noted when checking my sold items that buyer paid to eBay £34.57.    Not worth the hassle by the time eBay, couriers and customs have taken their share of the proceeds.

[Crosland]

54 minutes ago, cessna152towser said:

Not worth the hassle by the time eBay, couriers and customs have taken their share of the proceeds.

Don't use the GSP!

[Hibelroad]

About 20 years ago I was a prolific seller on eBay, partly because I was given the job of selling a large inherited stamp collection. After that I did very little but have returned this year in order to shift some unwanted household items. It has changed out of all recognition and I do struggle with the sellers interface. However I can understand that ebay have had to address  many new scams and fraudulent transactions since my early days so things have had to change.  In the event my few transactions have gone smoothly and payment received without too much delay. In my case I was more concerned with getting unwanted goods out of the way than making a profit so the week or so that payments were delayed were not too concerning. It is still a good way to move unwanted stuff providing you are not looking to get rich quick. 

[GWR-fan]

After returning to selling on eBay after several years abscence,  I must say that eBay have really done their best to complicate the process when one wants to look at one's selling platform.  Previously it was simply a matter of opening up one's account and all was there on view.  One simple click.  Now one has to open their account,  select "Selling",  then select active listings (three clicks).  If one wants to respond to feedback given then athe account has to be opened, then select "Selling",  then "All Orders" , which opens up the page showing items still to be posted,  then select "All Orders" link from the left side of the page to reveal all sales in the selected time period.  Then not only scroll down the page but also scroll across the page once the selected item is found to find the feedback link as it seems the page is too wide to fit my screen.

 

Also to further complicate matters,  why is the cost of postage included in total sales?  I am not selling postage and find that including  the postage cost artificially inflates the total amount of sales in the period.  The fee for postage is the same as the fee for the final value price,  so including the cost of postage in the total sales for the period does not affect the total amount of fees paid,  but I see no reason to include the cost of postage in one's actual sales.

[Gareth Collier]

22 minutes ago, GWR-fan said:

 

Also to further complicate matters,  why is the cost of postage included in total sales?  I am not selling postage and find that including  the postage cost artificially inflates the total amount of sales in the period.  The fee for postage is the same as the fee for the final value price,  so including the cost of postage in the total sales for the period does not affect the total amount of fees paid,  but I see no reason to include the cost of postage in one's actual sales.

Because to avoid selling fees sellers would have a buy it now price of a £1 despite the item being worth more with a £30 postage fee. Another loophole eBay closed.

[GWR-fan]

14 minutes ago, Gareth Collier said:

Because to avoid selling fees sellers would have a buy it now price of a £1 despite the item being worth more with a £30 postage fee. Another loophole eBay closed.

 

Yes,  I understand that loophole was closed many, many years ago with the main offenders being the huge power seller sites with feedback in the millions.  My point though is if I want to know just the amount received in actual sales,  do I need to first calculate the total postage cost for each item sold in the period and then subtract from the "total sales" for that period.  Surely,  one should be able to see at a glance exactly what sales they have received in a period without needless calculations.  For those with perhaps just a few sales,  the arithmetic is simple enough,  however, it becomes time consuming and wasting to go through all one's sales for the period just to see how much actual sales were.  I do not care how much the postage cost is as unless I make a mistake and undercharge,  then I am not paying for postage, the buyer is.

[John M Upton]

The big issue is that ebay now take a percentage of whatever you are paid for postage now as well (questionable legality) which now means if you charge the flat actual postage rate to your buyer you actually wind up out of pocket by about 15 to 20 percent which is used to line ebay's already bulging coffers (the words money and old rope spring to mind) so sellers really need to be overcharging for postage just to break even!

 

Madness!!

[njee20]

Why is it of questionable legality to charge fees on postage? You may not like it, but it’s totally reasonable. EBay is still vastly cheaper than a traditional auction house. 

[Michael Hodgson]

On 06/09/2023 at 18:53, Hibelroad said:

About 20 years ago I was a prolific seller on eBay, partly because I was given the job of selling a large inherited stamp collection.

 

So did you manage to sell them?  I thought that the trouble with stamp collections was that nobody was collecting them any more and that the lack of demand had made them pretty much unsaleable,

[Hibelroad]

The stamps sold well,  but it was a good few years age. 

[Mad Axeman]

Hi all

 

New to this topic but thought I would add my little bit. I've been buying and selling on ebay for many years, mainly 2nd hand electronic test equipment. When I sell I always use the ebay link to pay for the postage for 2 reasons,

1 - it automatically marks up the item as posted and adds the tracking number. That way if there's a problem with the buyer saying the item hasn't been delivered ebay can also track if needed.

2 - It's slightly cheaper than going to the Post Office.

 

When I sell the money is in my account the following day. 

 

Have I had problems? Only a few. One item had a buy it now price or offers. Guy posted an offer, I wasn't online at the time but accepted around 1/2 hour later (think I have 24 hours to accept/refuse). The guy refused to pay saying that I should have accepted straight away. I reminded him about the ebay rules on offers. He still refused so I reported him to ebay. Nothing was done by ebay about it.

 

My wife also sells a lot on ebay. He father croaked a few years ago and left her boxes and boxes of stamp albums. We tried a auction house that specialised in stamps. They said they were worth next to nothing.  A couple of years later buy selling individually they are selling well she's now a few thousand quid better off so stamps do still sell.

[John M Upton]

11 hours ago, njee20 said:

Why is it of questionable legality to charge fees on postage? You may not like it, but it’s totally reasonable. EBay is still vastly cheaper than a traditional auction house. 

 

My argument is that by taking a percentage of what a buyer has paid for postage, they are in fact taking money owed to the Royal Mail that is not theirs to take.  The fees should be taken from the sale price paid and not any legitimate business expenses to which ebay have no entitlement.

[woodenhead]

1 minute ago, John M Upton said:

 

My argument is that by taking a percentage of what a buyer has paid for postage, they are in fact taking money owed to the Royal Mail that is not theirs to take.  The fees should be taken from the sale price paid and not any legitimate business expenses to which ebay have no entitlement.

But sellers would load their postage costs to reduce their fees so it was only natural that Ebay would apply fees to them as well.  If Ebay had control over how the postage and packing costs were regulated then it would not need to apply a fee to them but while the seller can load whatever they want into that element then the risk remains they sell an item for £1 but charge £20 p&P to only pay about 20p in fees.

[Crosland]

1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

 

My argument is that by taking a percentage of what a buyer has paid for postage, they are in fact taking money owed to the Royal Mail that is not theirs to take.  

It's a percentage of the total sale price (inc. delivery) owed to the seller. Royal Mail do not have any special claim to it. What the seller charges, and who they engage to deliver (doesn't have to be RM), are entirely the sellers business.

[Michael Hodgson]

Yes, Ebay charge fees on your sale price and on your P&P charge.  But I really don't see the problem, other than the fact that I think ebay are exploiting their de facto monopoly by charging excessive fees compared to my assumptions as to their costs - but that's just our capitalist system in action. 

 

If you decide how much you want to receive for the goods, calculate what start price/fixed price to set after allowing for whatever figure ebay will take for their services (I think it's typically  around 13%, but varies, especially on cheap listing days).  Then calculate your P&P in exactly the same way, add to the price of the stamp any packaging costs plus about 13% on top because you know how much they'll dock from what they pay you.

 

Or lump the whole lot in together and advertise it as "post free"

[hayfield]

On 24/07/2023 at 07:47, GWR-fan said:

With around $600.00 in sales yesterday,  I now need to await the funds into my account.  I have input the tracking numbers (I do not use the eBay postage label link) and marked the items as sent.  I find the new web layout very cumbersome and time consuming to input the postal information,  unlike the setup around three years ago when I last sold items. 

 

Just takes a few listings to get used to the new system, I tend to use templates which is a much quicker way of creating a listing. What's changed with the posting system ? its ever got a memory which creats a short cut !!

 

On 24/07/2023 at 07:47, GWR-fan said:

 

Another fault with the system is that buyers select an item and immediately pay the required postage on that item and then select another item and pay the postage for that item,  thus paying excess postage which I need to refund once I have combined and posted the items.  This necessitates wasted time.  In days of old one would select the items to purchase and then request a combined postage charge.

 

It was the buyer jumping the gun, either they should have requested a combined invoice or waited for you to send out an invoice after adjusting the postage amount, which from memory is much the same. I do try and circumvent this issue, by sending out invoices on both single and multi buy sales soon after all listings have ended. I get fed up with some sellers who don't send invoices especially when I buy 2 or more items 

 

On 24/07/2023 at 07:47, GWR-fan said:

What I liked with the old system was all the sales were on one page with a drop down link on the right column whereby one would select the required task such as marking as sent or inputting tracking information.  All the sales, whether sent or unsent, would remain on the selling page until removed or time expired. 

 

Change can sometimes be a good thing, now I have got used to the new system I think it is far better, you can select the task you require by accessing the drop down box next to the description, how much easier can they make it

 

On 24/07/2023 at 07:47, GWR-fan said:

 

 Now it seems that every task requires a different page selected.  Until I know better it seems that I have to select the specific item sold then open the "order details" page and then input tracking info and marking as sent.  The item then "vanishes"  leaving just the unsent items listed.  To get all the sent orders shown,  one has to select "show all orders".  It is a very cumbersome, time wasting platform.

 

I find having a different pages for un-paid ,paid items and dispatched items, both less confusing and far easier to use

 

Yes at the start it was a bit of a shock, but like all things once using the system it becomes second nature

[njee20]

11 hours ago, John M Upton said:

 

My argument is that by taking a percentage of what a buyer has paid for postage, they are in fact taking money owed to the Royal Mail that is not theirs to take.  The fees should be taken from the sale price paid and not any legitimate business expenses to which ebay have no entitlement.

That couldn't make less sense. If they mandated you had to use a specific Royal Mail service then maybe you'd vaguely sort of almost be onto something. But they don't. So it's absurd. They're very upfront the fees are on the final price, including postage. This is not of questionable legality. I've seen you say it in a few threads, that you don't like it doesn't make it 'questionable'.