eBay UK VAT Glitch Stalls Sales With Inflated Prices Shown In Error On Some Listings

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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eBay UK sellers worry about losing sales as some items show inflated prices due to glitch adding additional 20% VAT in error.

The problem has persisted for several weeks now, with eBay customer service and community staff acknowledging it's a known problem but they are unable to provide a timeline for a fix.

Price increase on listings but havent changed them? Added VAT???
Over the last 12/14 hours Ive found over half my listings have increase with price (had VAT added to actual listing price). When i go to edit a listing it shows at the price I have set but when search for it it shows it more expensive - i.e Black Panther 2 BluRay eBay 135201485404 when I go to re…

Over the last 12/14 hours Ive found over half my listings have increase with price (had VAT added to actual listing price).

When i go to edit a listing it shows at the price I have set but when search for it it shows it more expensive...

...Cant seem to chat any CS on auto chat or request a call back.

The few sales I have done over night have been charge at the amount I put not the extra being advertised - anyone else seem to have this?

Perfect. On the last sales day of the month. I've just checked mine and I have had vat applied to some of my listings I've also noticed that a couple of my buyers have been charged sales tax

Surely this has big tax regulation implications. This glitch should be fixed immediately

why does eBay have so many of these glitches

Vat
Hello Why have all my eBay listings now have VAT added to them ? I am based in the uk and only sell my own personal used items. Thank you

Why have all my eBay listings now have VAT added to them ? I am based in the uk and only sell my own personal used items.

I am facing the same issue. I have thousands of listings and I am not sure how many are impacted but it seems that it is a big percentage. As you understand this is impacting my sales in a negative way.

The listing has 20% VAT set in the VAT field but eBay still adds 20% on top of that. If the VAT is set at 0% the VAT is still being added.

Alarmingly, this appears to be an ongoing sporadic issue that has lasted for years as the latest problem revived an eBay UK community thread from 2022 with almost 300 previous posts from sellers impacted by the problem.

Community rep Marco replied to that thread today to acknowledge eBay is aware and working on the glitch, but had no further details to provide.

New listings price not correct since yesterday
New Listings prices not correct all my new listings are showing the incorrect price from yesterday.. The listing itself is correct but the price shown to buyers is 20% higher.

Thanks very much for still flagging this with us. I've just checked for an update, and the team is currently working on it, and trying to resolve this as soon as possible, but I still don't have an estimated fix time. As soon I find out more about this, I will post back here to let you know.

Meanwhile, helpful sellers shared workaround suggestions, with many saying they were able edit listings individually or open their listings in the bulk editor and simply hit "save" without making any changes to trigger a revision that set the price back to what is should be without the additional incorrect VAT added - though they did warn if you use the bulk option it may take 5-10 minutes to see the changes reflected on the listings.

Are you experiencing this glitch adding VAT in error to eBay UK listings? Let us know in the comments below!

eBayFees & PaymentsTech Issues

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.


Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholderConcerned3 days ago
It is Slowwwwwww and is more expensive to the buyer. In the past items I have ordered will sit at the hub for around 2 weeks. I avoid ebay unless I cannot get it elsewhere.
Avatar Placeholdermarks30473 days ago
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar Placeholdercwi4 days ago
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.