eBay Raises Fees - It's Complicated

by: Vox29

Well I can tell you that it's time to get off eBay forever.
As a test, I took advantage of the free listing program to post a lot of items for sale over December and January. Up to 400, since they were experiencing glitching. I sold 2. Lo and behold, they charge me $1.50 PER TRANSACTION for the use of PayPal, since I was not enrolled in Managed Payments (I don't know why). It was the last straw for me, because I just pulled everything off again just a week ago for eBay's micromanaging my listings like putting "best offers" back on listings, when I specifically made sure that the box was unchecked. Then they charged me the fee a third time. I got on chat with them and complained, but there was no help. I told them to close my account. Then I went to several complaint sites and saw that eBay has cheated many other sellers in the las six months.
All I can say is, if you can't afford to do business with eBay, you are better off opening your own site. It's cheaper in the long run.

by: pace306

"I'd like to know what's pushing their stock down at such an alarming rate? $10 in a week? Who's caught on? "


I bad mouth eBay EVERY day on as many sites as possible ie stock sites.

When you tell people how bad eBay is - they dont believe it. They call you disgruntled seller (just cause I dont like to get stolen from - how stupid of me!) - but I persist.

After you tell enough people about eBays bad behaviors - some start to listen.

I hope the stock drop hurts them good. I peg eBay stock value at $25 a share not more.

Every penny it drops hurts the brass in ways that no one can even being to do to them. Their whole salary/compensation scheme is based off stock price - that is where to hurt them!

Sellers cant really unionize, we have no political representation, we dont have enough money to bring a Class Action case - but we can hit them where it hurts most - their wallets.

If every seller just spent a few mins a day emailing congressmen/women, senators, city counsel members, tv news - just use the same letter - over and over and over each day - some one will wake up! (hopefully).

Meanwhile some states are starting to open up (SKIPPING THE POLITICS OF IT HERE PLEASE) - people who are working and sending their children back to school - dont have time to buy stuff on eBay and their numbers will DROP. They will go back to the %4-6 a month (crap numbers) and the stock will fall again!

by: postbuster

@ COVID-19

When all of the scum is sitting at the bar,
Walkers West IS a trash can!  : )

by: toastedmutt

How bad is the site these days?

In addition to raising fees and banning books, you've got the hot mess the community boards have become with the much ballyhooed new improvements.  Giant head ache trying to read the Seller Update boards.  Gave up as there is no order to the posts and one doesn't know if a query received an official response unless you read through every thread from the beginning.  No wonder very few posts appear on those dedicated boards.

A post on the selling board quoted a 2016 post from castlemagicmemories as the answer to a question for an issue that recently arose from managed payments created in 2019.

How a post from a user ID that has been gone for several years can be cited as the answer to a problem with a program that didn't exist in 2016 is well ........

Perhaps castlemagic was a true visionary.  Or perhaps nobody who works for eBay can answer questions about managed payments since the MP team disappeared.

by: LasVagueness

Fee thickets, brambly fee structures, fuzzy fee math, circuitous fee legalese...all designed to obfuscate fees and keep you utterly confused.  

by: CanBrit

@toastedmutt

A lot of sellers who get permanently  booted from the community create new passwords. when they back onto the boards, one of the signs they use to show that they are an ex-klicked off member is to grab a old post and respond to it.  They usually pick someone who is or was pretty well known. Castle was certainly until Alan gave her the boot.

Their little community nitwits go through the posts everyday looking tor responses to old posts like that and guess what, that ID gets blocked. It is such as paranoid wacked out environment. They got rid of me, but I never wanted to go back again. Bunch of morons.

by: selling stuff

@ Rooster Corburn

The one aspect of selling that eBay has never addressed with Managed Payments is local pickup. When a buyer and seller get together via local pickup does eBay refund the seller the portion of the new Simplified FVF that is meant to cover payment processing, when cash is tendered by the buyer?

Or is the seller now expected to pay the whole new Simplified FVF which includes fees for payment processing services that are not required with local pickup style transactions when cash is tendered?

Give me a break. I had a buyer buy & pay for something this week but realized after the fact that the item would not work. She messaged me apologizing for her mistake & asked if I could please cancel the transaction. It was a low cost item & there was no reason not to cancel. Imagine my surprise when the refund went through the 30 cent transaction fee was not part of the deal. Basically I was penalized for good customer service & not forcing a buyer to get an item she could not use. ARGHHHHHHHH!!  

by: Silver Ice King

@Selling Stuff

That policy of not refunding the transaction fee has always been in existence, even with Paypal.  In fact, Paypal now does not refund ANY of their fees due to a refund or cancellation, so at least at this point in time Mangled Payments is actually doing more for the Seller than Paypal does, although I doubt that will stay that way much longer as they continue to squeeze every penny from their Sellers that they can as the competition continues to take more and more of their  share of the marketplace.

by: notfunanymore

It's like they are carving you up one little piece-at-a-time so you don't feel it. Drip, drip, drip.  "Selling fees and expenses will be collected from your earnings
- Fast, flexible financing from eBay Seller Capital"  Imagine what the interest rate would be on "flexible seller financing"!  It's all designed to take MORE money from you. They make way more money than you do on EVERY transaction. 4 years ago I pulled the plug, cold turkey. NEVER looked back, I come on here every now and again to see how creative they are with extracting more of your hard earned $. It makes me sick to see how sellers just keep absorbing these rules, fee hikes and whatever creative methods they use to quietly take more.

by: tkd

The selling experience on eBay is horrible. First and foremost, the fees are outrageous. As an example, I recently sold a piece of equipment for $760.08 including shipping. eBay fees were $101.41 -12.55%! This is approaching credit card rates. (If you have good credit, a good APR for a credit card is anything below 14%.)

Adding salt to the wound is the payout timeline. A payout will generally be initiated within 2 business days from the order confirmation. Once initiated, it typically takes 1-3 business days for the funds to clear in your checking account and become available. So, it can take five (or more) days to receive the payout, which means that you have to ship the item you sold before you have the funds in the bank.

Last but not least, there is very little protection for the seller. I once sold my used Oculus Rift system on eBay. The buyer later returned it under the pretext that it was the wrong size. VR headsets are all one size fits all, so this was obviously an excuse because the buyer changed his mind. I tried to deny the return but eBay forced me to accept it and I had to pay the return shipping. I couldn't even leave negative feedback about the buyer.

I sincerely wish there was a viable alternative to eBay. Whenever possible, I sell things locally via Facebook Marketplace, but it doesn't have the reach that eBay does, so I'm forced to swallow eBay's bitter seller's pill.