eBay problems, resolutions, shenanigans, questions and info (not bike finds)

already found in my favour :-)

One thing I've always pondered when you have new/refurbished, sealed stuff (mobile phone and a chromebook) do you break the seal before ebaying so you can check it is working and take full pictures or just sell sealed and hope they don't complain about it?

already found in my favour :-)

Both ebay and paypal have been super quick at resolving issues I've had recently. Definitely seems like they've upped their game in this regard.

I'm hoping it's third time lucky for this chainring I'm trying to buy!

First one I exchanged a few offers and counter offers with the seller and we settled on a price, which I duly paid. About 3 days later I get a message "Ah, I'm on holiday the now, can send it in 10 days time". Like, you didn't think to mention this when we were exchanging offers, or when I paid, or for 3 days since? Seller went in a huff that I was objecting to potentially waiting a fortnight from the transaction date to get the item but said he refund me, which of course he didn't. Then said he'd chased it up with ebay and my refund was on the way when I chased him up but of course he hadn't and it wasn't. But Paypal refunded me within a few hours of me opening the case.

Next one I bought the ring, it didn't show up. Chased up the seller who sent me what looked like a screenshot of the parcel on a floor I didn't recognise. I asked if that was from a tracking site (no tracking details on ebay), "nah, that's it on my floor, before I sent it". Alright cool, how the fuck does that help?

I'd already opened an item not received thing on ebay so asked them to step in about 6am this morning and had a refund before 7.

So it seems eBay are removing fees for private sellers.

“Free selling for UK-based private sellers
It's now free for UK-based private sellers to sell on eBay (excluding motors: Cars, Motorcycles & Vehicles listings). You won't pay final value fees or regulatory operating fees when your items sell.

Fees will apply if you list more than 300 items in a month, if you add optional upgrades to your listing, or if you deliver to an overseas address.”

Insanity!

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So they're adding the fees on to the price you set when it's a BIN and it seems like a lot that they are adding. I just listed a Gates belt, set the price at £40 and the fees have inflated that to over £50.

Not sure how auctions are going to work as I've done a couple of them too and where I've chosen lets say, £10 start price, that's what it goes in at.

I imagine they will deduct a fee from whatever the buyer sends, similar to how PayPal business works?

I dunno, if the thing I listed starting at a tenner only gets one bid, of a tenner, and they deduct from that then that’s not free to sell is it?

Done some searching around the site to see if I could see how the fees work for auctions and it really isn’t talked about.

What I did find however is that as of 16th Oct, they won’t automatically send funds to your bank anymore, it’ll sit as a balance on eBay and you’ll have to manually withdraw it to your bank.

Ah, I thought they'd just specified listing fees but it looks like it should be all fees, in which case yeah I dunno

set the price at £40 and the fees have inflated that to over £50.

As I understand it there trying this to compete with Vinted, but Vinted's fees on £40 would be £3 ish from experience.

Not sure how auctions are going to work as I've done a couple of them too and where I've chosen lets say, £10 start price, that's what it goes in at.

Looks like a straight auction with no added options (so 99p start price, 7 days and no reserve) won't have fees. If you start adding options then there will be fees on all of those.

£10 start bid was free as well. I think.

They must be adding a fee somewhere though, they ain't just doing it for the fun of it.

Or do you think that auction listings are now such a small fraction of what goes on on ebay that they are going to do them for free and just make their money from BIN?

Edit: Can't remember what it was like prior to the change to free selling as I haven't listed anything for a while but it seemed like the listing process was very much trying to make BIN the default.

As I understand it there trying this to compete with Vinted,

Good to see that there is finally a bit of competition for ebay then. They've had the monopoly for too long.

I just listed a Gates belt, set the price at £40 and the fees have inflated that to over £50

Are you 100% sure about this? All my listings are the same price as I set them.

Haha, ok fuck knows what I did!

I just went on and went to 'revise listing' thinking the price would show as £40 but nah, it's saying £50.10. I changed it to £40 and that's what it's stayed at!

How the hell did I mean to type £40 and instead hit £50.10?!

Yes, I think it's just driving a bit more business to the site and getting a bit of cash from the added extras for the auctions whilst making the big chunk from BIN and commercial sellers. There have been increasingly fewer auctions on there over the years I've found so probably not a huge amount of the business.

I list everything as BIN. I sold about £400 worth this weekend and wasn't charged a penny in fees.
As I see it, for private sellers you'll only be charged fees on motor vehicles.
For sellers it's a great move but I don't get how they can just dump a multi-million pound revenue stream just to 'compete' with far smaller competitors...

Yeah it seems strange.

Mrs M_V has been selling some clothes on Vinted and on there it’s the buyer that pays the fee so I presumed this was how eBay was going but no, it really seems like no fee at all.

It’s only for private sellers though right? Maybe it’s not that auctions have become a small part of the business, maybe it’s that private selling full stop is now such a small part?

More private sellers listing things = more visits to the site = more sales for the fee paying business sellers = more profit for eBay?

I sold a stem, and admit I made an error in the description, so accepted a return, and it came back damaged :(

I can't find any option that actually allows me to reduce the refund I have to pay. I've seen things that I should have the option to do that, but no way of doing it. Any pointers please.

Or how can I message eBay customer services for help ? I only have until tomorrow to make my claim

Thanks in advance....

Best to get eBay CS involved, if you're lucky they'll make a courtesy refund to the buyer that doesn't come from your funds. That's been my experience of how they resolve issues like this.

Just had a thought - do you reckon that eBay are not charging sellers now because they're making the extra money on the cash sat in the bank making interest for them rather than being automatically sent like before? Makes sense to me, lots of people will forget to withdraw it and leave it there I'd think.

I already feel like this is a stupid question and I should know better but...

I purchased a bike on eBay, collected face to face. Once I got home and took everything apart, I noticed the stem was cracked probably from over-tightening of the bolts. The seller has offered me a partial refund, but has asked:

1. I wait until the 22nd.
   
2. Has asked for the money to be transferred into my bank account.
   
   

Normally I would consider this fairly dodgy. The only reason why I am giving them the benefit of the doubt is they were an older person and really didn't seem to know how eBay worked with regards to buying/selling (they were expecting me to rock up with cash and I had to show them via the app that the money would be transferred directly into the account after collection etc...).

Would I be asking for trouble if I handed over my bank details. Even for an account I rarely used and don't store money in?

Ive given bank details before on pinkbike and fb and had no problems

Ebay may automatically block your message from sending if you try give bank details

Ebay may automatically block your message from sending if you try give bank details

Probably not now that there's a transaction between them.

@CasualLime it should be possible for the seller to offer a partial refund (I just did this for postage for someone that bought two items from me) but understand that your seller may not be able to figure this out on ebay. There might be a possibility for you to request a partial refund which they'd just have to accept. Otherwise, I don't think there's much someone can do with your bank deets.