New eBay rules

[stevezodiac]

Just heard about new ebay rules in 2025. See below:

In fresh terms and conditions emailed out to sellers last week, eBay said that "proceeds from the sales of private or non-professional sellers will become available for disbursement after the item is deemed delivered to its shipping destination".

Essentially, sellers will not get paid until their buyer confirms they have received the item.

So what is to stop someone receiving their item and then not acknowledging it meaning the seller doesn't get paid? I will no longer sell comics on ebay under that condition.

[Into The Abyss]

Just heard about new ebay rules in 2025. See below:

In fresh terms and conditions emailed out to sellers last week, eBay said that "proceeds from the sales of private or non-professional sellers will become available for disbursement after the item is deemed delivered to its shipping destination".

Essentially, sellers will not get paid until their buyer confirms they have received the item.

So what is to stop someone receiving their item and then not acknowledging it meaning the seller doesn't get paid? I will no longer sell comics on ebay under that condition.

Looks like there's a gaping flaw in eBay's payment changes that those with malicious intent could exploit stevezodiac. The only way to counter that is to send any item sold by recorded post and state the reason why in the listing. A pain I know.

[Adam Eterno]

Everything I sell on eBay is sent via tracked 48. As soon as it’s delivered, I get a confirmation via the Royal Mail. I can’t see this being any different as the buyer doesn’t confirm, the Royal Mail do.

[stevezodiac]

If this rule comes in there will be thousands of bad guys opening an ebay account, buying something very valuable and then closing their account upon receipt of the item. EBay staff will be overwhelmed by complaints. Seems like a foolhardy change.

[Hawkeye]

Checking back over my ebay purchases over the last few weeks, about a quarter of them that were sent to me tracked do not show as delivered, even though they have been. I presume the postman is supposed to scan them just before he puts them through the letterbox, and has failed to do so.

[Hawkeye]

Something you can't do much about.........
a buyer opened a 'not received' case against one of my sales, a Parcelforce delivery as it happens. Tracking wasn't any help at all, so I rang them.....the van carrying my parcel had been stolen!
Refunded the buyer, waiting for my refund from Parcelforce.

[SID]

My problem here is that postal tracking would make a too big a dent in the profits of my cheaper items. So either would have to suck it or I will have to hike up my prices.

[jim244]

As a member of the Ebay community for two decades I have the following observation to make:
As a seller on my original account,99.9% of customers were honest.
As a buyer on my current account,99.9% of sellers are honest.
In reality, Ebay is a fantastic community of very like-minded people who are in general collectors themselves.
Yes of course there is the odd crook or two, I have encountered such in both buying and selling.
However, in general it's a very nice friendly community and is a credit to human integrity, ingenuity and friendship.
The very SIMPLE answer to the new rules is to provide postal tracking as Adam Eterno stated above but I would just add to that by saying only for expensive items as ,as SID says above, it wouldn't be worth doing so for cheaper items.
Ebay is a fantastic place and protects both buyers and sellers and the new rule is to protect buyers.

[stevezodiac]

I received an email from ebay this morning with the new seller rules. It all seems unnecessary. It says that if I send an item by tracked service the funds will be sent to me once eBay receives confirmation of delivery. Does this mean that the buyer still has to pay immediately (or thereabouts) and those funds will be held by eBay? Here below is part of the email: (I have no idea what simple delivery is)

Now, to give your buyers even more confidence when shopping, UK-based private sellers will be paid after item delivery, from 4 Feb. Your funds will be available in your eBay balance two days after delivery confirmation.*** We know it's important to get your money fast, so we recommend using a tracked delivery service either through Simple Delivery, or arranging for local collection.

I'll give these new rules a try with some low priced items and see how it goes.

[stevezodiac]

I've googled Simple Delivery and it looks like the most complicated thing in the solar system. Will I still be allowed to send items by royal mail as I've always done up till now?

[SID]

I've googled Simple Delivery and it looks like the most complicated thing in the solar system. Will I still be allowed to send items by royal mail as I've always done up till now?

In my experience: Yes. I sold something where I couldn't warrant adding tracking. So instead, I just got the Post Office to give me a receipt of posting. Buyer got the item and I was paid. However, I did find that eBay gave me the money as credit, rather than paying directly into my bank account.

Will have to see if there is an account setting that needs tweaking.

PS My seller account is a private account.

[SID]

I received an email from ebay this morning with the new seller rules. It all seems unnecessary. It says that if I send an item by tracked service the funds will be sent to me once eBay receives confirmation of delivery. Does this mean that the buyer still has to pay immediately (or thereabouts) and those funds will be held by eBay? Here below is part of the email: (I have no idea what simple delivery is)

Now, to give your buyers even more confidence when shopping, UK-based private sellers will be paid after item delivery, from 4 Feb. Your funds will be available in your eBay balance two days after delivery confirmation.*** We know it's important to get your money fast, so we recommend using a tracked delivery service either through Simple Delivery, or arranging for local collection.

I'll give these new rules a try with some low priced items and see how it goes.

Have just bought an item using these new rules and I still had to pay to process the order. So from the buyer's point of view, nothing has changed (for this anyway). However, what I see is that eBay now gets to keep the money until the delivery is acknowledged as done, Therefore, they get a few days' worth of interest. Considering how many transactions are done a day, a nice lot of money (especially if they keep it as credit).

[stevezodiac]

You do have the option of transferring any funds to your bank account straight away. That's how it worked when I first joined eBay in 2006.

[SID]

Thanks, Steve. That's how it used to work (getting my money automatically transferred to my bank account once transaction was complete). It just didn't work this time. Will do another check once I get more money in.