eBay have announced that the eBay Deferral Program, to delay paying your eBay fees, is now up and running and business sellers can now apply if it will assist you. eBay have now done two things to assist sellers directly so far, effectively telling you:
- Don’t pay us any fees this month
- We won’t hurt your business if you can’t pay us today, and we also won’t let buyers hurt your business by protecting your seller status
This is just the opening salvo from eBay and we’re pretty sure the situation globally is going to radically change in the future, currently eBay are making sure that your business is protected for the beginning of the onslaught. Yes, fees will need to be paid down the line as things stand… but no one in the country is worried about what will happen when things are reviewed in a month’s time and many things could change between now and then. People are more concerned about today, staying healthy and putting food on the table and so eBay have started where they can help the most in the very short term.
eBay Deferral Program cash flow assistance
Many businesses are struggling for cash flow at the moment and have additional expenses unforeseen just a couple of weeks ago. The government have put a raft of plans in place including rate relief for some small businesses and 80% pay for furloughed employees (backdated to the 1st of March), delayed VAT and income tax payments, grants of up to £25,000, and access to loans which the Government will pay the interest on for the first 12 months.
It will take time for this government relief to start flowing and that’s why in the mean time eBay want to also help with the eBay Deferral Program – it can free up cash to pay bills such as perhaps staff wages until such a time that you receive funds through the various government programs. We’re also still waiting to see what type of government assistance may be forthcoming for self employed people and for these people who’s income has collapsed a delay to paying their eBay invoice could be vital, and for other’s eBay might be a life line and it’s their day job which has vanished and who are also cash poor.
If this relief from the eBay Deferral Program won’t help you it’s entirely optional and you don’t have to take up their offer. Simply pay your fees as normal. Frankly however, at this point in history, most people will appreciate keeping as much cash on hand as possible for emergencies and, unless you have savings, delaying your payment could literally be a life-saver.
Other assistance from eBay
eBay have already put other measures in place such as mobilising customer service to work from home, freezing seller standards so that the status you have earned will not be impacted and acting on price gouging including starting to block consumers from selling certain types of products that a consumer normally wouldn’t be listing. Doubtless there will be more assistance to come from eBay, but it’s an extremely fluid situation and they’re targeting help one step at a time in the areas where sellers are telling them the assistance will be most effective.
eBay Deferral Program detail
Brief details are that if you want to take advantage of the eBay Deferral Program it means you won’t pay your next eBay invoice and it will become due with 50% added to your May invoice and 50% in June. The scheme is open to sellers to apply for an eBay Deferral Program until the 10th of April so if you don’t apply until after you’ve paid your April invoice it will apply to the following month with fees again split 50:50 and added to future invoices. If your invoice is mid-month the dates will apply from your invoice date.
eBay aim to approve as many sellers as possible but you must have been a registered business seller for more than 30 days and your account is in good standing with eBay.
The fees that will be covered in the eBay Deferral Program include final value fees, insertion fees, store/shop subscription fees, optional listing upgrade fees, and promoted listings fees. If you have other fees due then you will still need to pay them on your normal invoice date.
eBay have been working around the clock to introduce the eBay Deferral Program in multiple territories and it’s ready now for you to apply to defer your fees if it would assist you. Due to the speed this program has been implemented, you will need to go back to the eBay Deferral Program page to see if your application has been approved – there simply hasn’t been time to put notifications in place as that would have delayed roll out. You should expect a decision within 72 hours of applying.
Apply by the 10th of April
You can apply here.
Full terms and conditions are available here.
32 Responses
I love the working round the clock to do absolutely nothing but charge you double bubble next month. They are not helping at all.
Maybe when this all ends we can have a more humane eBay run by a better type of people.
We should hope that of many of business out their that puts the pursuit of profits at any cost above people and some out their still costing life’s right now by forcing people into dangerous work environments, cause am guaranteeing plenty will not even have basic safety measures in place for staff.
We need less people your Mike Ashley for example in the new world we will all be facing soon.
please sir can I have some more
What a joke of a company. Are they suggesting everything will be back to normal in 60 days?
A most welcome gesture by ebay.
@ Jim – you have already had enough! But I do like you calling me “sir”. Can you address me as “sir” in all future posts?
@Alan
Sometimes your posts I have seen over the years are helpful and can offer some useful insights, some am sure you know are downright rude, am surprised you have clients if you treat people the way you speak to some, am sure your very different live in person however.
However I stand by my comment and everyone knows this is a fake gesture much like the banks are offering people with there so called mortgage breaks if people read the small print.
eBay is not the issue it is the type of people running it, and they have been running into the ground for a while now.
Every business has its own issues and needs I genuinely cannot trade right now , and I think the vast majority off us just want a price break on the stores while we are not trading, allowing us to put stores in vacation mode with listings hidden and then allowing us to easily kick start again would be genuine help.
Anyway sometimes there are more important things in life than what goes on the world of eBay.. good luck and stay safe.
This does not help at all!! Corona effect will last probably several months! Delaying what we owe and pay more than the usual bill following month does not help! in fact, it will make it worst for many businesses. Shame on eBay I pay no less than £50.000 per year, they could at least give %50 discount for 1 month!
Unless you are in business policies, you can’t extend your handling times other than by cumbersome bulk editing of items. With my two anchor shops and 150,000 listings this will take me about a week to achieve.
Tools on Ebay still not up to scratch.
Sir Alan get well soon mate
Our apologies if we upset you
these are are not The times to
Fall out over ebays virtues
Time will tell
Who is right
The court of public opinion will sit
sometime In the future
Ebay will face that judgment
Jim,
Take the week off pal.
Oner thing they should do it stop charging £10 a month for a near useless packaging voucher.
Come on ebay Hows about donating
Part of the fees to the NHS
Actually Help your community rather than
Use your vaunted community
We have applied… and been declined
“eBay Fee Deferral Programme
Current Status: Not Eligible
Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, you don’t meet the eligibility requirements for fee deferment.
You are not meeting one or more of our minimum requirements for customer service quality.”
Which is a worry as we are a top-rated seller with a feature shop and have been top-rated for months…
I’m hoping that its an error and will be resolved when I call them and that it isn’t a “We are helping” PR stunt without actually helping anyone.
ebay uk approved me for fee defferal . Today they took the full invoice amount. load of bull.
Well after being on live chat with ebay on Sunday and them stating that we qualified they just couldnt get it to apply to our account and they would look into it asap and be back to me… They took the full invoice payment today 🙁
“01:24:21 UTC Melody
got it. hold on because it its showing on my end that you need to meet these requirements which you did *Have been a registered business seller for more than 30 days *Your account is in good standing with eBay”
Anyone else in the same boat at the moment?
You also need automated payment method on file otherwise you will be rejected. No mention of that in T&Cs.