Messed up again costing me money

[vroom321]

I'd just like to point out I'm autistic / dyspraxic and I don't understand lots of things.

I can't work so I buy things to sell on eBay. I sold something for £105 which would make me £10.00 I send the money onto a company for them to send it on. There wasn't enough money in my account to pay the £105. (Luckily otherwise I wouldn't have found this out). EBay charged me £16 in fees. So not only will I not make money I'll actually be in the negative.

I've messed up before where I've had to pay £3/£4 not taking into VAT so I didn't think the fees would be so high. My account is at risk as I've had to cancel items that cost me over £8.

I know eBay have to make money and it's my fault. I can't even put the price up as this is the first I've sold at this price so no one will pay more.

What do I tell my seller?

Please don't be mean this is why I no longer work as I mess up like this all the time.

Thanks.

You cancel the sale and apologise to the seller.

yeah, what LeafHunter said. Apologise, move on, try to learn from your mistakes. What you were trying to do is called DropShipping. There are probably lots of pages online about how to do it profitably, what problems to watch out for.

£16 is high on a £105 sale. Do you understand what the different parts of that charge were?

ps: and do send a cancel request to buyer rather than refund without cancelling; cancelling means you get almost all the ebay fees back.

Where does VAT come into your sales?

Yes drop shipping. I didn't take into account the VAT before either but I've learned now. I think £16 is a lot.

I don't learn though. I'm trying to have my pip reviewed. I get £23 a week at the moment 🙁.

Thanks for being kind.

It’s just something you’ve learnt as you’ve gone along. We are all in the same boat learning different things through mistakes. It’s very normal and you shouldn’t beat yourself up

What do you mean?

EBay fees are high and difficult to understand. Now they've done away with PayPal it usually equals about 12% I think. Don't beat yourself up, learn from it and move on.

Are eBay saying they will restrict you as you've already cancelled a few items? If you're not at risk of being restricted, I would tell a white lie to the buyer and cancel the sale. I have done this when I listed something at the incorrect price. I just said that the item was damaged and I could no longer sell it. As long as you don't wait too long to cancel the sage most buyers are understanding as they get an immediate refund.

if you are drop shipping you are a business
£10 profit on a £100 item is never going to be worth it as the variables are too great.

I mean this really kindly but if you have difficulty with learning processes then drop shipping like this probably isn't the easiest way to earn. I've never got my head round eBay despite working In a professional role! You will definitely need to understand VAT and how that works; it's added to the price of goods. Tbh I would be looking at alternative ways to earn. For now, apologise to the seller.

Hi I'm tried other ways. Be tried everything but I mess up.

If I wasn't so desperate I'd laugh 😂 WTF is wrong with me

I feel such an idiot.

@vroom321 When you mentioned VAT I thought you meant you were registered for VAT, but I understand eBay were charging.

@vroom321 also you are not an idiot, I think its great you had the initiative to start a small business. Treat this as a learning curve, you wont ever make this mistake again. At least you have proved you can sell items, as a rough guide what ever you pay for something at cost price mark it up by 2.8. So if you buy for 6.00 you should be selling for at least 16.80.

I agree OP.
Not always easy but certainly true.

Are fees really £1.94 on a £12.99 sale? Or have I misread that?

Sorry £2.33

2.8% oh god I'm confused lol. This is why I can't work.

I mean I pay vat on the item I order to sell on eBay does that make sense?

There are loads of jobs where being able to calculate VAT Isn't necessary. I'm sorry you're feeling down on yourself OP but it's not helpful to imply that this is a necessary part of being able to work- it could be discouraging to others who are battling with various issues.

And on a personal level I've never got my head round eBay and I hold down a professional job! If drop shipping is causing you a lot of stress and difficulty you may find there are better ways for you of earning

Thanks ha. I've got I've head around the vat now as it basically shows you if you go to order the item before I list. It's just the eBay fees. I chatted to what. My eBay performance is low because eBay had to step in on two open cases. Both times I'd sent eBay the tracking numbers and they then refunded them. I claimed via Royal Mail. I don't understand why they can justify my fees being higher than some because of that.

I don't understand it 😯😯