Ebay rips off small sellers!

[mizcuriousteddies]

I am a new seller, I have another account with excellent feedback, but I wanted a new one to sell my teddies on. Ebay holds the my payements from customers for 21days, plus I must have an account over 90 days and sell over $250. Ok, wish they told me that before I made my first sale. Twenty or so sales later, with excellent feedback, they are still holding my money the max time.

I contacted them well after I received feedback for an item last week, and asked my funds be released. I am allowed to do that once the person has their item for three or four days depending on who you speak to at Ebay. They said my funds would be released within 24 hours. Waited a bit longer, contacted them and they said the funds would be released asap. A few hours later I got the money.

Yesterday, I contacted them and asked for funds to be released, he PROMISED it would happen. It didnt...I contacted them again, and the supervisor told me they could not release my funds because my items were in transit. Not those items! I gave them the item numbers already...sigh! I asked, repeatedly, why my funds were not being released, but he refused to answer me and kept saying my items were in transit...

Four hours I have spent with them explaining that I really needed the funds to be released, as promised, because I didnt want to follow up yet again!! I have a disabled partner and children, Ebay is causing us to starve. I explained all that...repeatedly...I have taken my items I was selling down and will close my account asap. BEWARE of Ebay!

[lyndal1838]

This thread is 2 years old!

If every seller offers free postage ebay will not need to remove the fees on postage.

They will still be getting it as sellers will be building the postage into the cost of the item.

There is no such thing as free postage.

[ilce]

ebay does not agree with you.

They want you to provide free postage and not increase your item price.

Thats what companies like Big W, Target, Good Guys etc do. 

[davewil1964]

Their business models are unlikely to be the same as an individual seller's.

They would also get reduced prices from AP/couriers due to their volume. Again unlike individual sellers.

[sugar249]

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@ilce wrote:

ebay does not agree with you.

They want you to provide free postage and not increase your item price.

Thats what companies like Big W, Target, Good Guys etc do. 

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Sadly that is not the case.

Just an example Bg W only offer free delivery if you purchase over $45 of clothing, and then the list of exclusions is a mile long https://www.bigw.com.au/free-delivery#apparel

I just put an item in my cart on the Good Guys.  $55.00

But do you really think that it if they offer free,  they add that to the price of every item they sell,  sure it may only be a few cents, but the people who go instore pay a contribution to your ''free'' delivery.   

[springyzone]

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@ilce wrote:

ebay does not agree with you.

They want you to provide free postage and not increase your item price.

Thats what companies like Big W, Target, Good Guys etc do. 

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I don't think that's quite right.

I haven't checked all the stores out but I had a quick look at Target online.

They only include free delivery if you spend $45 or over and that specifically excludes larger items. The list of larger items can be viewed and delivery cost depends on destination. I imagine the more remote the location, the more you pay.

What I am finding on just about every online sales site (and I am in Melbourne so believe me, I have had to buy almost everything online over the last few months) is almost all of them charge separately for postage. They will throw in 'free postage' only if you buy a certain amount. That amount varies from site to site but often it can be quite hefty eg $150 on some sites.

With ebay, if you want to provide 'free postage', then you would need to increase your item price to cover it. Otherwise, just list postage separately. Ebay may suggest the free postage listing but you don't have to do it that way and buyers will mainly be concerned with overall total price.

[ilce]

Most of Big W's items are free postage

I didnt say all. I just said they do it. anything over $15 to be exact.

But my point was to answer the questions posed as to why postage is included in the commission calculation. I answered that. I added that eBay wants you to include free postage and no price increase. Which they ultimatley do. 

Nitpick all you like. Thats their aim. Not achievable by most small value items I know but eBay dont really focus on small sellers who sell small value items

[*tippy*toes*]

Despite threats to leave, the OP is still selling 2 years later. Good to see they have stopped their 99c auctions though.

Mods, PLEASE stop moving old, dead threads. It serves no purpose at all. Why not spend the time locking them instead of moving them? Much quicker to lock than move.

[springyzone]

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@ilce wrote:

Most of Big W's items are free postage

I didnt say all. I just said they do it. anything over $15 to be exact.

But my point was to answer the questions posed as to why postage is included in the commission calculation. I answered that. I added that eBay wants you to include free postage and no price increase. Which they ultimatley do. 

Nitpick all you like. Thats their aim. Not achievable by most small value items I know but eBay dont really focus on small sellers who sell small value items

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You are right in saying that ebay now has charges that include the postage amount because quite a few sellers several years ago were using a loophole where they listed items cheaply but loaded the postage cost to make up for it & so avoided some of the commission they would otherwise have had to pay.

Ebay isn't likely to change the current situation, they would be mad to as the situation in the past was fairly misleading to buyers too.

Yes, I think ebay do encourage sellers to list with free postage & I understand what you are saying, that it is pretty difficult to provide that with small value items. But if you look at even the big stores, they don't provide free postage on small sales (even the Big W case you quoted had a $15 minimum and a lot of stores have much higher thresholds). 

To be honest, I don't think your main problem is ebay though, because sellers of small items can still list with postage separate or else bump up their overall price. Your real problem (depending on what you are trying to sell, I suppose) is likely to be with Chinese sellers as they can list small items with free or amazingly low postage rates and it is probably almost impossible to compete with them on some products.

[ilce]

It wasnt me compaining. The person I responded to was. I was just giving exampIes of how other sellers do buisness.

I am quite happy with ebay. I always charge for postage and have no intenstion of changing that. 🙂