eBay Balance Frustrates UK Sellers: Is Withdrawing Funds Too Complex?
eBay UK private sellers are struggling with recent changes to payments with introduction of eBay Balance - has eBay made it needlessly difficult to withdraw funds in attempt to keep money circulating on the site?
The payout policy changes became active on October 16th as part of eBay's larger consumer to consumer focused efforts that dropped fees for private sellers across most categories on the UK site.
Liz Morton
eBay Balance allows sellers to use sales proceeds to pay for shipping labels and shop for new items on the platform.
But that "greater flexibility" comes with one really big tradeoff - getting rid of scheduled payouts completely for private sellers and forcing them to manually request payouts instead.
Defaulting to leaving funds on account is a shrewd move for eBay, since they earn interest on those funds, but requiring sellers to manually request transfers is a giant step backwards in convenience and user experience - and that's assuming it actually works as advertised.
Unfortunately, many UK sellers are reporting problems with requesting payouts now that they have been forced into eBay Balance, but it's not clear if it is a technical issue, confusing UX design, poor communication from eBay about how the new program works or some combination of all of the above.
Several sellers said their accounts showed available funds to withdraw, but when they tried to complete the process, it didn't work.
i have funds available the withdraw page opens but when i press withdraw it will not allow withdrawal
Ebay's new system is holding onto my funds, and I have not seen any way to withdraw them. 'Help' has been useless, with a continuing loop. I wish to withdraw my funds on a Daily basis, but cannot...
...There is no hold...the funds are showing as Available, but there is no way to access them.... clicking on the box has no response. 'Help' chat just goes around and a round, telling me exactly the same as you have said.... I need to get past that to access my Funds. So at the moment, the item has been despatched, but eBay still has my sale proceeds....
I have done as someone suggested and cleared Caches and cookies. On the Payment screen I can no longer see the option for Withdraw funds
Some suggested the problem may simply be a UX design that isn't very intuitive, requiring sellers to click an arrowed to get a pop up screen that then has to be scrolled down to finally see the "withdraw" button.
Go to my ebay, then selling. you will see payments at the top, click that and you will see this
Click the little arrow on the right hand side as I have highlighted.
A pop up window will appear with your balance and a withdraw button.
When you click withdraw another pop up window opens and you have to manually enter the amount you would like to withdraw.
That is using a desktop PC with seller hub enabled.
But others said that didn't work unless they opted out of seller hub.
Thanks so much. Just realised why it showed me my balance but not in blue with the withdraw arrow.... I was using the new selling tool, as soon as I switvhed the old selling tools I got exactly what you said, so thsnk you both and all is sorted. Its ashame Ebay hadnt added a special link to the new and old selling tools to avoid all the confusion.
I had the same problem, opting out of seller hub solved it.
One thing's for sure, the process is certainly not transparent or clear to many users, which could raise concerns about whether certain design elements are designed to intentionally introduce friction into the experience in order to try to "encourage" users toward a desired behavior - in this case, leaving funds on account with eBay rather than requesting frequent withdrawals.
eBay has already been caught engaging in some questionable practices with promoted listings ads that some believe crossed the line into predatory dark pattern design and it's not out of the realm of possibility that the eBay Balance feature for the UK may also include some similar design practices.
Liz Morton
Dark design practices that can deceive or harm consumers often attract attention from government regulators, especially in the UK where consumer protection laws tend to carry more weight than in the US, and once the regulators are involved, investor lawsuits may follow.
Liz Morton
One such recent lawsuit against Amazon related to alleged dark patterns in Prime Membership signup and cancellation processes named multiple specific design elements or strategies, including these two which may be relevant to the way eBay has implemented withdrawals for eBay Balance:
- Forced Action - “Forced Action” is a design element that requires users to perform a certain action to complete a process or to access certain functionality.
- Obstruction (“Roach Motel”) - “Obstruction,” also known as the “roach motel” technique, is a design element that involves intentionally complicating a process through unnecessary steps to dissuade consumers from an action.
Arguably, removing the previous options for automated daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly scheduled payouts and requiring sellers to navigate a complicated multi-step process instead could fit the definitions of both "forced action" and "obstruction" dark pattern design practices.
And while we're on the subject of intentionally complicated processes requiring unnecessary steps, it appears some users were also confused by eBay choosing to initially show the payout amount as £0.00, rather than the amount of funds actually available, and requiring the user to manually enter the amount they want to withdraw.
This information is for anyone struggling with the new ebay balance system when it comes to withdrawals.
I had a problem when you get to the pop-up that says £0.00. and then various other things below. I didn't realise you had to enter the amount you wanted to withdraw of your available funds. This is done by clicking on the £0.00.
After advice from a good samaritan I cracked it. Ok, maybe I was a bit slow on the uptake.
However, I would suggest to the ebay I.T. people that it would be clearer in my opinion if this pop-up stated at the top of the page "funds available for withdrawal" instead of "£0.00" and shows the amount available and then "amount to be withdrawn". Then navigate to the bottom of the page to confirm amount to withdraw.
If you're a private seller in the UK and have been having troubling navigating the new eBay Balance process, I'd love to hear about your experience - leave a comment below or contact VAR!
