New eBay fee method

Associate
Joined
28 Jul 2004
Posts
1,863
Paypal is wonderful.

I bought a graphics card on here using a credit card and sold my PC on Ebay to pay for it. The idea was to put the proceeds back onto the credit card.

I then discover that Paypal withhold your money until it has been delivered etc. I add tracking details and a note comes up telling me I will get my money one day after it has been received and signed for. Four days later, no money and discover it can take up to 21 days.

So basically the buyer can play with my computer and within 3 weeks, can break it or decide they don't want it and Paypal will refund them the money.

I appreciate it is to cover themselves with refunds etc but 3 weeks? What a wonderful system.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 May 2005
Posts
4,896
Royal mail if it's small and doesn't weigh much.

Otherwise DPD.

Don't use anyone else apart from parcel force through a reseller of I can't get a good deal with DPD.
I had a host of issues with RM.
A) sign for tracking is terrible. Doesn’t show where the parcel is in transit

B) RM usually have some special arrangement with certain companies or institutes where parcels are collected in bulk at depot.

on B) I had a problem where the iPhone I was sending showed delivered but the signature and the name was not the buyers and it showed it was delivered to depot. Not the address. So PayPal flagged the sale as risky item and refused to release the fund to my account. I spend a morning finding out what the hell was going on as it looked like someone just walked out with a £1000 worth of good out of the depot. When I called Royal Mail they just said it showed delivered. It wasn’t until I phoned the depot to find out what was going on, they told me that the parcel was picked up by a university mail services at the depot and the entire bag of parcels were collected by the uni man. Etc etc. Anyway at the end, I had to do a lot of detective work to find out if the buyer actually got it. Etc. Luckily it all worked out. But it could have all gone south. RM basically wasn’t going to cover insurance on that as it was delivered as far as they are concerned. Even tho I paid for £1000 insurance and special delivery.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
6,648
Location
Chillin' on the Boat
Plus why is eBay doing VAT collection? They are not HMRC. That doesn’t sound right.

if a business seller is doing commerce on eBay then as a market place eBay has the duty to verify business status and VAT registration. They shouldn’t be collecting VAT on sales on behave of her majesty’s government. eBay is not a branch of government. That money goes to eBay then HMRC is never going to see it as it will be washed with revenue and losses and costs. And end up with a -ve number that the government has to pay them as rebate somehow.
What do you think every single business you buy from does with regards to VAT? If a business charges VAT, it collects that money on behalf of the Government.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 May 2005
Posts
4,896
What do you think every single business you buy from does with regards to VAT? If a business charges VAT, it collects that money on behalf of the Government.
That’s completely different.

what you are describing is merchant. eBay is a market place.

Amazon is also a market place they do not charge VAT at source for those third party sellers to sell goods. They charge them the privilege of using their market place with a fee just as eBay does. That fee does not have a VAT of a completed sale in it.

Smithfield, Covent Garden, Billlingsgate are also markets. They charge stall and stand a fee, they don’t ask each seller of meat, flower or fish to pay them the VAT on their sales. It is the merchants job to declare VAT etc to the HMRC.

HMRC and the government may change the laws down the line to make online market places to collect VAT at source. But that is the the reality atm.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 May 2005
Posts
4,896
"signed for" isn't a tracked service, just a signed-for service. If you want tracking on RM you can use one of the tracked options.
Special delivery is meant to be fully tracked. But it is sketchy at best.

I can’t think tracked mail 24 and 48 are any different.

and it is highly uncompetitive when compared with Hermes for instance.

The cheap and affordable postage a previous poster mentioned for small items is in reference to signed for not tracked services.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
I had a host of issues with RM.
A) sign for tracking is terrible. Doesn’t show where the parcel is in transit

B) RM usually have some special arrangement with certain companies or institutes where parcels are collected in bulk at depot.

on B) I had a problem where the iPhone I was sending showed delivered but the signature and the name was not the buyers and it showed it was delivered to depot. Not the address. So PayPal flagged the sale as risky item and refused to release the fund to my account. I spend a morning finding out what the hell was going on as it looked like someone just walked out with a £1000 worth of good out of the depot. When I called Royal Mail they just said it showed delivered. It wasn’t until I phoned the depot to find out what was going on, they told me that the parcel was picked up by a university mail services at the depot and the entire bag of parcels were collected by the uni man. Etc etc. Anyway at the end, I had to do a lot of detective work to find out if the buyer actually got it. Etc. Luckily it all worked out. But it could have all gone south. RM basically wasn’t going to cover insurance on that as it was delivered as far as they are concerned. Even tho I paid for £1000 insurance and special delivery.

Never had any issues myself and I've sent hundreds of parcels through them.

The last time I had an issue was about 17 years ago iirc. I got my money back through compensation/insurance and the item turned up 3 months later. Must have gotten lost in a warehouse somewhere.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Apr 2007
Posts
23,414
Location
UK
I really wish some other company was able to take over this industry - eBay/Paypal have run the show for far too long, and always keep trying to take more and more money.

I assume the problem they find themselves in, is that there are less people advertising their items, so they increase the fees, which means less people advertise their items, which means they need to increase their fees etc. etc.

I started a business early last year, and was selling through eBay - I've since switched over to Etsy and it's been great - Far less complaining from customers - Think it's just a different type of customer over there :p
 
Back
Top Bottom