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[zirk]

Youngest Son has been raising some extra dosh for the xmas build up for himself, so in a nutshell anything thats not screwed down in His bedroom has ended up on the Bay at the recommended  99p Start, so whilst He has done well, needless to say most of the stuff got sold for 99p.

So now having emptied the PayPal Balance, I warned him about the charges and the Ebay Invoice He has yet to receive! looking confused at me I decided to break all the costs down and was a bit shocked myself !!

Item sells for 99p, PayPal take 20p plus 3.5% Commission, eBay take 35p listing fees plus 10% + Vat Commission, for the sake of Maths add the two commissions together thats 15% Total which is 15p, so from the 99p, - 20p, - 35p, - 15p leaves a grand total of whats left 29p profit.

Then take in to account eBay nicks another 11.5% of your Postage Cost, The Bubble Wrap, Jiffy Bag, Packing Tape, your Time and Effort for Photo's, Item listing, dealing with Idiot Messages, Items getting lost in the Post, Messrs not paying or saying I don't want anymore after you've posted it, more Idiots raising Disputes coz the item hasn't arrived within 10 nano seconds of them pushing the PayPal Button, issuing full refunds and not getting your 20p back from PayPal, issuing Postage Return Fee's because the Buyer says She thought it was Pink even though the Description clearly states its Man Blue. Mum and Dads Taxi Fuel to the Post Office and Back and Dad nearly getting Arrested for threatening to punch someone in the Face in the Post Office Queue.!

Cant help thinking it would be so much easier just to put the Items in the Bin and be done with it. 

   

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

It's difficult to see how a profit is made.

I received a tyre valve tool and 4 valves for the princely cost of just £1.20.

It arrived in a jiffy bag with a first class (large) stamp attached.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

A first class (large) stamp is 93p.

Profits must be SFA.

As you rightly say, Mr Zirk........Why bother?

[zirk]

It's difficult to see how a profit is made.

I received a tyre valve tool and 4 valves for the princely cost of just £1.20.

It arrived in a jiffy bag with a first class (large) stamp attached.

Exactly, apply the above charges to your £1.20, and the only people that make money is PayPal, Ebay, the Jiffy Bag Shop and the Post Office.

[plym ian]

My mate bid on a brand new multi gym the other week and won it for 99p

the look on the guys face when we went to collect it and hand over the money was priceless

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Ebay have raised the charges on 99p listings - the idea being to get rid of the 99p starts clogging up their servers, they presumably want more higher value stuff, and less of the 99p people 'getting rid of their tat'-type customers (yes, the very customers that built up ebay in the first place) to a fairly whopping 35p in a £1... plus all the other junk you have to pay.

It stinks - and, if a buyer complains, they send an email to ebay, who guarantee on your behalf and without any say-so on your part a full money-back refund if the item does not match its description. Ebay suck the money out of your paypal, and give it right back to the buyer, without your consultation. Only afterward, can you raise any kind of dispute - for instance-
"The buyer asked me if the item was green, I said no, it is red. He then proceeded to buy it, and demanded his money back as the item I sent was red, and he wanted a green one." In that instance, you'd probably have a 50/50 chance of a reply off ebay's automated robot reply system, and maybe 25% of getting your money back off the moron buyer. 

The system stinks - and - if you actually give a full refund before they demand it from ebay, apologising and saying you're very sorry, but the 8 times you mention in the description that the item is red shall be amended, it now says it 10 times, and have a full refund, plus I have sent you a green one, which I personally paid £5 at a local shop, which I am sending you for free........

.... wait for it....



....this is good....



...the buyer can still leave you negative feedback, and rate you 0/5 stars on the 'Detailed Seller Rating' system (measured out of 5 starts for things like postage charges - of which you have no control over, the sodding well post office does - accuracy of the description and so on.) Your feedback is your livelihood/reputation on ebay. People don't want to buy off people with less than 100% feedback. It's like having a midwife you heard 'only killed one baby out of negligence' - you just wouldn't trust them would you? And as for the 'DSR' starts - anything below..... 4.7 out of 5 and you get penalised by ebay!!!!

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

I'm surprised that Ebay haven't featured on Watchdog.

Rogue Traders they most certainly are.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

 

I suppose it falls into that category of 'well we never asked you to sell stuff on here - you know the rules before you sell etc...' but as you say, that kind of argument doesn't wash with Watchdog etc..

"Look, it's in the smallprint 'roof may start leaking days after fitting, in this case no repairs shall be undertaken' what do you expect us to do about it?"

"Actual damage to property, though all attempts will be made to avoid, may occur. And no gesture of goodwill shall be made. This can extend to 8 foot long scratch down the side of your classic car made by clumsy man with ladder"

etc... as you say - Rogue Traders should look at ebay - though whenever it does get brought up, it's always from the perspective of the poor, injured buyer "I saw a picture of a Steinway Grand Piano, never bothered to read the advert, because my reading glasses were on the other side of the computer table, and I won it for 99p freepost. When it arrived it was a picture of a Steinway. I feel I have been taken advantage of and now it's ruined my Birthday, which is in only 11 months. I'm aalllll sad." type of rubbish!! 

[TheBoy]

Welcome to the world of business.  Most clearing houses are far more on the side of the customer than the seller, Paypal seem much fairer.

Ebay is clearly in financial do-dah, hence selling off Skype a couple of years back, and now trying to find a buyer for Paypal.  People forget that running that sort of infrastructure costs a fortune, and it takes an awful lot of those 20p commissions to pay the bills.  There is a naivety that because its on the internet, it must be cheap/free to provide such a service. Trust me, it ain't.


That said, egay has been completely ruined by the Hong Kong tat, and retarded UK sellers. Hence I rarely use it now.


Zirk - I skip stuff of little value.  More valuable stuff gets moved on through more appropriate channels.