Ebay rules

Just noticed an email from ebay which states the following:

users are not permitted to complete outside of eBay any sales transactions with each other arising from items listed on the eBay platform. Offers to buy and sell or communicate outside of eBay constitute policy violations and may be subject to a range of actions including limits on buying and selling privileges as well as the application of final value fees for such transactions, the application of fees for the introduction of a seller to a buyer and the recovery of expenses for policy monitoring and enforcement. The same can result from sharing or requesting contact information with the intention to trade outside of eBay. You can read the relevant policy here.

​ Now some of this may be fair enough if someone is listing with the sole purpose of gaining new contacts for business but it seems to catch anybody who justs wants to have a conversation with a seller without going through the ebay system.

​ Is it just me or is this a bit too much of big brother.

Doug

Hello Douglas,

I don't think the change will stop you asking questions about the item offered by a seller, what they are trying to stop surely is backdoor dealing which cuts out their fees.

I can't think of many other reasons why I would want to talk to sellers, it is hardly in the format of a forum like this one

Regards Brian

I recently bought an item from an ebay seller. The seller enclosed a note saying 'you could have bought this same item cheaper through our web-site'. I wonder what ebay would make of that?!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!
 

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 24/09/2017 15:30:01

Typical modern bait and switch business operation. Basically now they are a near monopoly they want to raise auction and final value fees as much as possible to maximise return.

What really annoys me is that its now apparently impossible to arrange viewing of anything from private seller. Like I'm gonna buy a car or machine or anything needing refurb without looking at it first. At the moment business sellers can still provide contact information but how long that will last is anyones guess.

Their big problem is probably setting listing fees for low value items. How much would I pay to list something that might only go for a £ or two? They need to accept that most folk will play the auction game. Possibly imposing a retrospective listing fee for items removed from E-Bay would be fairer. So it becomes, as it pretty much used to be, an advertising site with an auction option bolted on.

Is it just me or has the amount of stuff of interest to folks like us dropped off significantly over the past year or so.

Clive.

People are finally waking up to realise that there is a premium on most UK stocked goods sold on eBay.

Naturally eBay don't want to become a 'shop window' for people who then go and buy elsewhere.

You will almost always get a better deal from someone's own website than their eBay shop, simply because they don't have to pay the eBay fees.

I recently searched MT2 blank arbors. A number of our advertisers who use eBay were cheaper on their own websites and the best price was one of our advertisers who doesn't use eBay at all.

The most expensive were the eBay only sellers.

The same applies to many machine tools, the chilling effect of eBay on specialist retailers is beginning to fade as the small volume eBay sellers realise they can shift their relatively modest stock to people who still assume eBay always means a bargain.

Neil

As a trader on ebay I think they are pushing things just a bit too far - fees are high and support is zero. A customer can buy something, use it and send it back with me having no say in it, and I have to pay postage. Money is automatically taken from my account. It is a buyers market for sure but traders are looking for other similar avenues which offer them a little respect and protection.

LOL!

I just looked for a brake disc on eBay, googled the seller's own website, and it was more expensive.

Ignored my own advice and bought the ebay one.

Close the eBay window and a pop up had appeared over their own shop offering me 30% off and making it £1 cheaper then eBay...

Obviously they give you a minute or two to make a 'snap purchase' at the higher price!

Rats

Neil

At first I was 'peeved' at what I too thought was a big brother approach, although, on reflection I can see their point.

As a buyer of overseas produced kit. EBay is/was a major source of my shopping, however, Banggood has no such policy.

I now 'visit the buyers website'. and take it from there.

I think they will either stop allowing you to end an item before the auction ends or charge a fee if you do. I think they will also stop you putting phone numbers in an message to the buyer as they have done with email addy's.

The thing that annoys me most is as "fizzy" says taking money from your account without your prior permission.

I sold a face plate and a couple of other items on Ebay and told the buyer before hand that he needed to check the thread pitch on his spindle. He insisted that the items would fit so me being a bit of an idiot sent them to him in Ireland. .The items I had were for a Boxford and he had a early SouthBend. The thread pitches are different. ie 55 and 60 deg' At the time I have both types of lathe and they wee not interchangeable. He complained that I had described the items incorrectly and they refunded him from my account. I never did get the face plate or the other items back so lost out twice.

I suppose we are in a very weak position, since by default we all agree to any changes of conditions. The only alternative is to abandon the site altogether, and few of us are prepared to do that.

When I first started using ebay there were a lot of really good private sellers and I picked up a lot of really cheap good quality carbide tips etc. In the past few years the site has become swamped with traders and the number of bargains has reduced considerably.

​ Mind you the Chinese still seem able to produce deals that seem too good to be true and I have taken advantage of this a number of times with good results in general. I still don't know how they can send a decent quality £1 item all the way from China with free postage and still make a profit.

Doug

China does not have to make a profit on EVERY transaction, just the big ones.

But the sellers need to!

It's because China Post is very cheap and they have a reciprocal agreement with other countries under international treaties. Basically they keep the charges through nationalised post office very low to encourage exporting and keeping the foreign currency flowing in to China - at all levels.

Those communists can teach us a thing or two about capitalism

Neil

Hi Neil,

Not true. We work with REAL companies - broadly speaking nationalised with a CAPITALIST face. In the old days 1980's to 90s, what you suggest was true, but now days it does cost real money to post/EMS and courier from China. Many times, you will see that the sender 'company' on the parcel is different from the seller - 'hu flung dung' and therein lies the clue.

The real truth is something which really does not effect the buyer.. It is money laundering combined with taxation fiddle on a monumental scale. For far too long, HMRC has preferred to stay ignorant and blind to postal imports from China. To be fair, HMRC is starting to pay some attention.. even if it is a little late, especially as it sees its revenues being hit by such organisations.

I could say more, but I will shut up now. Apologies for causing any offence.

Ketan at ARC.

A friend (importer) told me that if a shipping container (outbound from China) had any unused space then the traders of small items were encouraged to utilise the spare space at miniscule fees prior to departure of the container ship.

This actually made sense to me at the time as why send a 95% full container 1/2 way around the world when a 100% full one costs just as much?

* Danny M *

Most of the small packages I buy from China come by airmail at very low postage cost and arrive in about 3 weeks. If they had come by container ship the delay, I presume, would be longer.

​ The customs declaration is usually a work of fiction however and I have never had a package that has been opened for inspection by customs. I wonder if many (any) small packages are inspected in the destination country.

Doug

Hi Danny,

That is part of a different scam. Such space is often offered to the shipper by the Chinese freight forwarder 'for free'. It is well known for the shipper to even get 'an incentive' to ship through that particular freight forwarder. But there is no free lunch. The Chinese freight forwarder has an agreement 'an arrangement' with his counterpart in the country of destination. The counter agent charges 'a small fortune' to clear the small quantity of pallet/s which are filled in the balance space of the said container. The profit is shared between the two agents. Very common practise. This applies to many LCL (less than container load) shipments, and often the smaller importers don't know, can see it/dont get it, and don't care, as they only see a 'free lunch' out of China.

ARC get FCL (full container load) and LCL shipments, but for reasons of consistency, we use regular well known 'proper' service providers. one way or the other, the buyer pays the price.

Ketan at ARC.

Edited By Ketan Swali on 26/09/2017 10:43:40

Yes Doug,

The sender on the package and customs declaration is often a work of fiction. Stupidly, the postal related HMRC arm has traditionally been used to concentrate on U.S. and Japanese import, and turns a blind eye to Chinese airmail/EMS. The real revenue in their eyes is greater on the U.S. and Japanese imports which carry a higher rate of duty then the Chinese or Indian.

However, with a growing number of complaints from legitimate importers, HMRC has started to pay more attention to the Chinese airmail imports.

The answer for HMRC is simple. They could MAKE Amazon and eBay collect revenue on their behalf at point of purchase by the U.K. buyer. But with key politicians/ex-politicians working with them 'as consultants' the chances of that happening are open to question. I am sure it would fail to go down well with many

Ketan at ARC.

As I understand it, the Chinese government subsidises postage for small business . Hence free postage to us buyers. I did read somewhere that this is scheduled to end next year. As an amateur, the stuff is good enough quality for me to use and I don't have expensive once used tooling sitting on the shelf. If I find that I use a bit of kit reqularly enough to warrant it, I buy 'good'

Doug,

The airmail arm of HMRC recently 'confiscated' one of our airmail spare part imports from China. The spare - a spindle assembly for the KX3 - was officially sent by SIEG with SIEG paperwork and correct declarations of value.

The reason given was 'infringement of intellectual property'. We challenged this as it was total load of fiction. We demanded to go and see HMRC representative, and the very next day the parcel turned up on our doorstep without question.

Talk about penalising legitimate imports!

Ketan at ARC.