eBay UK have a god-awful habit of bastardising and twisting global announcements, and since Richard Ambrose was elevated to Head of Trust and Safety, they also have the worst reputation of all eBay sites for treating their paying customers like criminals – that guy really is the classic example of a clinical workplace psychopath, just read the furore from sellers every time he “pinks” in an eBay UK forum.

When the sellers are smouldering over something, his words just pour petrol on the embers and turns them into an inferno. I feel sorry for the other Pinks, they get the backlash of feelings towards RA.

Gaz

I’ve just had the most awful thought about the wording of Ollie’s post ….

It can be read two ways -
1 – All registered PowerSellers who are not businesses, will be removed from the program.
2 – All PowerSellers who are not registered as businesses on eBay, will be removed from the program.

There is a subtle yet distinct difference between the two.

The January announcements stated from the outset that there would be space for non-business sellers to continue to qualify as PowerSellers, and for non-PowerSellers to qualify for the DSR-based discounts on Final Value Fees.

Gradually the UK has nibbled away at the edges of those exemptions, and bastardised (localised) them, and this announcement now reads (to me) as if the only UK sellers that will qualify for them must be both -
a – Bona Fide businesses registered as such on eBay
plus
b – PowerSellers with qualifying DSRs
In other words, there will be no exemptions on eBay UK very soon, and if you don’t fall into the above grouping, say bye bye to those discounts, because the January fee changes will become very real fee increases for successful sellers.

There’s cleaning house, and there’s cleaning house – but this is starting to look like the clearing of the Warsaw ghettoes with Reichfuhrer Richard directing UK operations, and on this occasion he cannot claim to be “only following orders” as the UK’s actions conflict with the public words of his superiors in San Jose.

Ed