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@diamond-halo wrote:

people are un happy because we are getting ripped off by fees that ebay dont supply the service. I get that, but that isn't what is happening. I have tried to explain what is happenning, but people just don't seem to want to understand that. I not only asked eBay for their position on this, but I also asked my uni professors, one of who is an ex High Court judge (I'm studying Law/Commerce at uni), so I kinda figured they had a reasonable idea of what they were talking about.

do ebay pack your items no. They don't own, possess or do anything with the actiual items we sell either, yet they still charge a fee for us to sell them. What is the diofference? I even learned recently that some people even sell services on here themselves (hotel acommodation) and it seems psople are ok with being charged a fee on that/those, when eBay doesn't supply those either.

For a lot of people, this issue isn't about what eBay can legally get away with, it's about what is (and has been for a very long time) considered ethical.

I don't want to get into the back and forth about what the legal difference (if any) between the price and postage components of the contract total, what I am going to do is attempt to tell you why people (not the law) see these as two very different things (since you keep asking why), and why they therefore object to paying fees on the postage component.

For a moment, let's exclude the postage pirates, because I think the majority of eBay sellers price P&H at fair and reasonable amounts, and certainly most of the sellers that will be hit the hardest by this change do (in that they probably couldn't risk inflating the already high postage prices).

The price of an item is dictated entirely by the seller, after consideration of product / business costs, then desired profit. The product cost is 100% static (sales and reductions notwithstanding), i.e. the same to everyone, no matter where in the country or world the buyer is located. Sellers understand and accept that their sale costs are a commission on an item they have (generally) made a profit with, ergo it is considered an ethical and acceptable cost of doing business. 

The cost of postage is largely dicated by a third party plus necessary (and actual) costs to package and post an item, does not tend to contain any profit for the seller, and is variable according to buyer location (some may be able to offer flat rate for both domestic and international purchases, but it will still generally mean that postage is variable by location). Most people feel (and I'm using the word feel for a reason) that eBay do not deserve to profit on this component of a sale, when for most it is a "not-for-profit" service in addition to the goods being advertised and sold, and they certainly don't feel ebay deserve to glean a greater profit from this service should the buyer happen to be located in another country (which could mean the difference between something like [arbitrary numbers] a $3 FVF if bought by a local buyer, $8 if bought by an interstate buyer, or $20 FVF if bought by an overseas buyer - unless, of course, eBay give us the same courtesy as the US and only charge FVF on the first, lowest domestic postage option, which would go a long, long way towards customer relations here at this point). 

You may not agree with this reasonings, or understand them entirely, but they are just some of the reasons why people make a very clear distinction between product price and postage price.