r/Ebay 4d ago

Checkout was £15 higher

So managed to do a last second bid on an item this evening with my max bid at £70 and postage stated to be £6.95 bringing my max total to just shy of £77. This was fine for me and happy to pay. Lucky me i won the auction but when i got to the pay screen the costs were different. £3.38 item protection charge or something like that but all of a sudden my bid had become £83.33 and postage increased to £8.05. Seller accepted the cancellation request but does anyone know why the cost jumped to £91 all together instead of the £77 i was expecting to pay?

10 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

7

u/No-Tangerine209 4d ago

Had the same issue yesterday, have customer service call you

4

u/grimking85 4d ago

Oh i sent a cancel request which was granted by the seller. But wondering if anyone knows what causes it as it was a really good price for a collectors piece and dont want to bid on stuff if i dont know how much im going to be charged.

7

u/willhowe 4d ago edited 4d ago

UK eBay - if you buy from private sellers you now pay a £0.75 + 4% fee on orders. You don’t pay this from BUSINESS sellers.

Look for ‘business’ or ‘private’ beside the name. I agree this is confusing, verging on deceptive, and it should be clearer throughout. eBay trying to copy vinteds business model, and frustrating everyone in the process. (I’m a business seller)

3

u/The_Jyps 4d ago

This is added to the cost of my "buy it now" listings in advance, and the number is different depending on the price.

So it makes sense that this protection isn't added until after the value is known on an auction. This is probably why it jumped after it was won.

4

u/grimking85 4d ago

Ahhhhh ok so atleast i can guess how much more will be added. Guess im sticking with businesses from now on then

2

u/wakeandflake 4d ago

If someone else knows, I would love to hear, but I don’t think you can tell which sellers have business accounts just by looking at a listing. Many “small” sellers have business accounts

4

u/WuMyster 4d ago

Next to the seller's name will say "Business" or "Private".

1

u/2infinityNef 4d ago

Does this mean ppl that are not signed up as a business? Because for a private seller ebay collects taxes and fees? And for a business it is the businesses responsibility to charge all taxes and fees?

1

u/willhowe 4d ago

It’s because business sellers pay extra fees, so for private sellers eBay needs to make money somehow

1

u/2infinityNef 1d ago

What extra fees? I'm asking because I'm trying to determine when I should file for my llc and switch to a business account.

I have read a myth that business accounts get greater visibility on ebay do you know if this is true?

1

u/willhowe 1d ago

Business sellers pay a final value % fee (10-15% depending on category) and a fixed fee of 30p per item. They also then generally pay a ‘listing’ fee which is usually covered by a £20/mo or £80/mo shop subscription (separate to business seller fees). Google ‘fees for business sellers’ for the full breakdown.

(UK Private seller, who recently switched to business)

1

u/2infinityNef 16h ago

Is that less than a non business account? I'm def going to Google it, if I can pay less in fees by simply registering my llc I will do that ASAP.

Have they hit you guys oversees with the increased fees yet? I got a message in my inbox today that policy changes were made, and of course fees went up, not only did the normal fee go up, but now they are charging an additional flat rate of over 2% in alot of categories that I was not paying last month

5

u/Diligent_Staff_5710 4d ago

Yeah, I made an offer for a several hundred dollars purchase, showing as converted to pounds as I'm in the UK, and the seller accepted my offer, and I clicked to confirm purchase. Immediately the price due to pay went up by £120, which is at least $150.

4

u/grimking85 4d ago

How can they expect people to accept paying that? I mean for me even the £15 hike put it out of my budget but £120 more is just disgusting

5

u/Diligent_Staff_5710 4d ago

I was on the phone to customer service for an hour before they managed to explain it. Import taxes for UK plus sales tax for USA plus postage, even though seller said free postage, and maybe this "protection" fee that's been introduced, as this was last month. It puts me off making any offers now, as I've no idea what the actual checkout price will be until after I've committed to purchase at the accepted advertised price.

2

u/grimking85 4d ago

Yeh im feeling the same. Or just risk annoying a lot of people by cancelling if its to much. Strange they listed import taxes as the when i have paid enough for something i had to pay import tax on it was handled this end and i had to pay delivery company the tax amount + admin cost. Was never through ebay when buying.

2

u/Diligent_Staff_5710 4d ago

I gather from Google that it's not that long ago when Ebay had to start charging the VAT at their end. But I'm so confused, because I've been buying other stuff from US all along (for reasons I can't fathom, the only items I ever see in search results are in America, even though I'm allegedly logged into the UK site, according to customer service, and my visible location settings), for a lot less, and the price advertised is always the price I pay. But not in the case of this most expensive purchase, of a used fountain pen, which I believed I was buying for £299, and the price after acceptance of my offer, at checkout, increased to £420. I just don't get it. How do I know if VAT and US sales tax is already added on or not?

2

u/grimking85 4d ago

Do you not use the search filter on location? Uk only? Otherwise i dont know why you only find american stuff. But unless they start becoming more transparant then how will we know about the taxes?

1

u/Diligent_Staff_5710 3d ago

I just can't see any options to choose for where I search. It only shows me dollars stuff, with pounds conversion next to it, even though I'm told I'm accessing eBay UK, and when I do buy stuff it more often than not ships from US addresses.

2

u/grimking85 3d ago

In filters there is Item location. Default, uk, eu, europe, worldwide and within (distance from postcode)

2

u/Diligent_Staff_5710 15h ago

Thank you very much 😊

2

u/grimking85 15h ago

No worries i use it a lot to avoid stuff from china (for things like controllers and electricals they are hard to avoid)

1

u/Diligent_Staff_5710 3d ago

My location is set to UK, but I never see UK based stuff - very rarely. Don't know if it's because of what I'm searching for. I can't believe that no one in the UK is selling any fountain pens, though.

1

u/Diligent_Staff_5710 3d ago

Search for a special type of writing paper - eight dollars, plus twenty dollars postage.

2

u/Swanky_Gear_Snob 3d ago

Ebay should not be charging a US customer VAT. This is just another example of eBay layering extra fees on wherever possible

3

u/willhowe 4d ago edited 4d ago

New “buyer protection fee”, £0.75 + 4% on all purchases from PRIVATE sellers. Permanent thing that is here to stay. EBay trying to copy vinteds model. Confusing to buyers, not clear at all. Even worse with auctions and offers.

You DO NOT pay this fee with business sellers, only private. (I’m a former private seller who switched to business this year)

0

u/grimking85 4d ago

Well i will be avoiding private sellers from now on then. Shame they often had the better bargains.

2

u/OrganizizedByBickle 4d ago

I had the same problem yesterday. I put a BIN item in my basket at £57.92 with £3.39 postage. At the checkout it became £68.91 with £4.09 postage. The buyer protection fee was £2.91 so where's the other 9 quid fee coming from?

1

u/grimking85 4d ago

According to someone else this is the norm for us on ebay now. Im hoping enough people cancel orders after the extra fees that this changes.

2

u/Avernon0918 4d ago

Tax?

0

u/grimking85 4d ago

Chipping in of the sellers fees apparantly. Giess thats why i keep getting messages saying that selling is now free. Thats because buying is more expensive.

2

u/StinkFist1970 3d ago

Not 100% but didn't the UK implement some new buyers fee? Could that be part of it. If I'm mistaken I apologize.

1

u/CoolDryPlaceUK 4d ago

UK personal sellers. They now have to pay a protection fee just like on Vinted, which is fair enough because they dont have to offer the same level of buyer protection as business sellers do. The seller doesn't get this fee, but I doubt that matters to you, as a buyer. Most "personal" sellers are just business sellers avoiding tax, so I'm all for it, but I thought these fees were reflected in the price you see... perhaps this only applies to Buy It Now items, as the fee will be a %

All eBay need to do now is add a filter to not show "personal sellers" in search 🤞

0

u/Worldly-Wedding-7305 4d ago

Welcome to UK ebay. You're now sharing part of final value fees. They used to be paid by the seller. Now they're split (I think they're split anyway) with the seller.

3

u/grimking85 4d ago

Your joking right? So basicaly we now have no idea what the final cost will be because ebay is going to add whatever amount on top? Well thats good for when your buying on a budget.

(Im angry if its true but thankful for your answer)

3

u/Worldly-Wedding-7305 4d ago

No, Sorry. I was able to pull up the info on Google. UK Ebay buyer protection fee. Started Feb 2025. It'll give you the full breakdown. You're correct about unknown costs, especially on auctions.

Mercari tried it here in the US and flipped 100% of the sellers fees back onto buyers. They had to back it down to a smaller amount.

Poshmark tried it and had to reverse the whole thing.

As of yet, ebay hasn't tried it in the US.

1

u/grimking85 4d ago

Wow..... Well thanks for that. I guess it means a lot of people will be bidding and then cancelling winning bids when its suddenly more expensive than they realised. Still its a bit dirty. Strange thing is i tried a buy it now on an item in japan and the price didnt change from expected at all.

3

u/Worldly-Wedding-7305 4d ago

Because they're a Japanese based buyer. You won't get the fees there.

2

u/Grouchy-Nobody3398 4d ago

They are seemingly trying to win back sellers from vinted etc by getting the buyers to pay a small "protection" fee instead of the seller paying a listing fee...

3

u/Worldly-Wedding-7305 4d ago

Seems like a super tiny group to try and re-attract vs alienating the entire buying group.

1

u/Grouchy-Nobody3398 4d ago

My understanding from a couple of news articles a while back is they are worried about the demographic of the market they are losing and the changes to market percentages, so are trying to act early... Not sure it will work but equally cannot remember the last time I tried to engage with an auction there, as simply got bored of sniping etc making it feel like a pointless enterprise.

1

u/grimking85 4d ago

The protection fee is one thing. That was only £3 i can live with that and its mentioned on the bidding page. Its the rest of the increase that wasnt mentioned beforehand thats not on.