eBay UK Private Seller Funds To Be Held Until Delivery As Fee & Payments Changes Continue
eBay UK just dropped the other shoe on private sellers, revealing the cost of fee-free selling will be longer wait times to get paid starting February 4, 2025 for existing sellers and December 4, 2024 for new sellers.
The change to payout processing was tucked inside today's Payment Terms of Use Update, with a section added stating:
Proceeds from the sales of private or non-professional sellers become available for disbursement after the item is deemed delivered to its shipping destination as detailed on this help page.
If you are a business seller, as defined in our business seller policy, proceeds from your sales on eBay typically become available for disbursement within 1 business day of confirming the buyer’s payment.
The Payment Terms page for the UK also links to a help page specifically about this change, giving more details about how payouts for private sellers are handled in different scenarios like if the item goes through Authentication, is part of the Global Shipping program, offers local pickup or is shipped without tracking for delivery confirmation.
Changes to funds availability
On or after February 4, 2025, eBay will typically make the sales proceeds of private sellers available after the order has been delivered or otherwise completed, unless subject to a hold. We’ll use the following criteria to determine when an item has been delivered:
- For tracked deliveries, funds will be available 2 calendar days after we receive confirmation from the tracked service that the delivery was successful
- For local collection, funds will be available after you exchange the 6 digit code or QR code with your buyer
- If the item includes Authenticity Guarantee, funds will be available after the item is successfully authenticated
- For items sent via Global Shipping Programme, funds will be available after the item is delivered to the UK shipping centre
- For untracked deliveries, or tracked deliveries when there is no delivery confirmation, funds will become available 14 calendar days from the order date
Funds will appear as Pending until the order is delivered and any applicable holds have been resolved. If we place a hold on your funds, it will usually be resolved within 30 days, but in rare circumstances it may take longer. You can use your Pending funds to buy postage labels and give refunds to the buyer.
This update comes on the back of eBay's recent attempts to boost consumer to consumer (C2C) sales by shaking up their fee structure in the UK, dropping selling fees for private sellers in all categories (except Motors) in October and planning to institute buyer fees in Q1 2025.
But as the old saying goes, "there's no such thing as a free lunch" and it appears the cost of no fees for private sellers will be taken in time and interest earned on payment delays.
When fees were dropped, private sellers were forced into using eBay Balance which allows sales proceeds to be used to make purchases on the platform or to pay shipping and other fees but also removed the option for private sellers to received automatically scheduled payouts.
What was once an easy automated process has now been turned into a complex and confusing manual process that some believe has been intentionally made unnecessarily difficult in order to keep money circulating on the site or on balance and earning interest for eBay as long as possible.
Liz Morton
This new policy of holding private seller funds until after delivery will push that timeframe out even further, which could risk alienating C2C sellers even further.
It's a particularly thorny problem as consumer sellers often may be selling their own used items to free up cash - especially during difficult economic times, in the winter when heating bills skyrocket or around the holidays to have a little extra budget to spend on gifts.
New consumer sellers are often already caught off guard by eBay's policies which allow for holding funds for new or infrequent sellers for up to 3o days but this new policy will expand those potential cash flow problems to all private sellers, which may not be the best way to attract new C2C activity to the platform.
Sellers are discussing the changes in the eBay UK community forum, with some comparing the policy to competitors like Vinted and others suggesting the delay might have the positive benefit of convincing some of the many business sellers falsely listing as "private" to update their accounts in order to avoid payout delays.
bigshu2
Similar to the V site, actually many sites, encourages faster shipping and it might end up meaning a transaction is complete sooner than currently, the 48 hours might be the acceptance window or why have it?.
It might persuade a few more business sellers using private accounts to register correctly?
Didn't etsy try compulsory payment holds some time back and provoked a widespread revolt?
Private sellers on ebay won't revolt but the number of those who won't come back after being bitten once in February, will swell the number who will leave in January if ebay starts collecting NINOs then.
As this, as usual, is aimed at slowing-down payouts to private sellers, is ebay guaranteeing payment after 14 days? Using the 14 day Hold to ensure that all the other criteria for hanging-on to private seller funds (such as bank/ personal info. re-verification) are completed within the 14 day period? Or will this new hold just be the preliminary, enabling ebay time to dream-up further Holds on the funds to keep the cash longer?
If ebay wants to revive itself by attracting new Private Sellers in any great numbers, compulsory payment Holds and slower pay-outs isn't the way to go about it.
Years ago ebay had an advertising slogan that DID attract many sellers -- "List it - Sell it - Get paid."
I don't think "List it - Sell it - Get paid when ebay finally gets around to it" has the same ring to it.
At least one seller says eBay's decision is going to backfire as they would have been perfectly happy leaving their funds on account previously but due to this change will now be withdrawing funds as often as they can on a rolling basis.
When ebay recently announced no FVFs for private sellers there were so many questions on here as to how ebay would then make any money.
First thought on reading of this latest "improvement" is that we now have the answer to that question! Interest from holding onto our monies.
Was just going to leave my payouts in my ebay pot for the quarter, unless I ever sold anything for a reasonable sum.
Come Feb I will be downloading my money to me as soon as I can on a rolling basis.
What do you think of eBay holding private seller funds until after delivery? Will it impact your decision to continue selling on the site? Let us know in the comments below!
