Ebay Uk Chops Support & Discounts For Expats

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From - http://www.buildaskill.com/blog/2008/09/22...verseas-sellers

UK Withdraws Support for Expatriates & Overseas Sellers

Monday, September 22nd, 2008 by Ed

Late Friday afternoon (19th September) one of our readers posted that in a telephone call with PowerSeller Support, they had been told that UK non-resident sellers would no longer receive email or telephone support from eBay UK, even if they had a UK-registered seller account. I called the Dublin support centre and was told the same.

This is intriguing because we both live in “the Far East” region. Yet, on Saturday, Sue at TameBay published a blog post which implied she had received help from UK Support that day, even though she lives in France.

Recently querying why Seller Performance Discounts had never been applied to their invoice in months that they qualified, the same reader was told by UK PowerSeller Support that the discounts would only be paid to UK-residents with UK-registered seller accounts. Again, UK PowerSeller support also repeated this to me.

This has never been stated in any official announcement, although it was posted in the PowerSeller forum by UK Head of Trust & Safety that -

“UK sellers who qualify for discounts in the UK won’t get any discounts when they list on eBay.com. The same is true in the other direction, and for other sites.”

This in no way addresses the issue of residency for UK sellers registered on the UK site but living elsewhere. It is however, the nearest thing to an “official” announcement matching what UK PS Support are saying. I blogged about the above quote here. The issue of UK-residency being a requirement for UK-sellers to receive FVF discounts has never been officially announced, nor directly referred to in forums on eBay as far as I can find. (If you know different, please post a link in the comments box below).

Does PS Support’s assertion therefore mean that the UK has written into eBay law yet another off-the-cuff decision? If so, who originated that decision and was it based on the tone and attitude of the seller when they contacted UK support, rather than the context of the Seller Performance discounts scheme?

If PS Support is using Mr Ambrose’s forum post for their assertions, have they considered the effect it will have on eBay UK’s revenue and seller-side user numbers?

At the start of February, just 2 days after the original US announcements about Seller Performance discounts, the Asian eBay sites all posted official announcements that Asian-resident PowerSellers, registered on their sites, would receive the FVF discounts from all countries offering them - including the UK, US, and Germany. Again, I discussed this in a lengthy blog post, warning sellers in those western countries to prepare for an invasion from the East. UK’s attitude seems intent on driving expatriates to move accounts to the Eastern sites.

The Asian announcements made no reference to UK-registered non-residents needing to move their accounts to Asian eBays to receive the discounts from UK, yet these announcements would have been the perfect channel to do so, backed by announcements on the UK site. Participating Asian sites include -

* India

* Malaysia

* Philippines

* Singapore

Also, the same announcements were made on China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Thailand, but I don’t have links to their announcements in English. But it’s not just Asia. Known European countries that made the same announcement include -

* Spain

There may have been other European announcements that I missed - please let me know of any (see next paragraph about France & Italy).

This latest move by the UK is stunningly self defeating, not only because of what was blogged on BuildaSkill recently about the cost of shop subscriptions on different sites varying enormously, (allowing UK & US sellers to save hundreds of Pounds per month in subscription fees), but also when placed alongside current promotions from the Asian sites listed above, such as this DSR-related promo from Singapore, which earns sellers 5 days of 50% insertion fees on the USA, and extends the list of non-Asian sites giving the FVF discount to Asian sellers to include Australia, France, and Italy.

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There's more (lots more) that's only about a third of the article, which cites and links to eBay announcements, User Agreements and so on to validate points raised. It also puts out a call for various eBay Seller groups and the UK's Federation of Small Businesses to jump on the case (and makes a case for them doing so). It also throws down a gauntlet to eBay staff - be interesting to see if they pick it up.

If you're selling on eBay and an expat in Thailand - give it a read, regardless of where your home country is, as it might also roll across to yours (UK has long been a test bed for the most unpopular and heavy handed policies).

Gaz