VAT on ebay sales

[pnagames]

hi all

i have seen a competitor in ebay listing games on a very lower price because he adds the vat while on checkout ( so in effect he tricks customers that do not read the listing fully)

does anyone know how is that possible?

[leehack]

Why would you want to learn how to "trick customers"?

He probably sends his own invoices.

[Stereo Steve]

Don't go down that route, however tempting. You can set paypal to add VAT if you wish or you can invoice your buyers before they pay.

However, it is technically against the law to do this on Ebay sales if you are dealing with mainly private customers and trading standards take a dim view of it. You should check with them first. The only place for it is if you are sure most of your trade is B2B but I doubt yours is.

I know about this as we looked at it a while back. As an Ebay trader with 30k feedback, it would save us a packet on fees. We decided not to do it though as we deal 95% with private customers.

If you do go ahead, expect a good few negs as well. It's always good to be exploring ways of reducing overheads but this is a dead end I think.

[brian.mc]

Instead of going down this route, why not market your products along the lines of "All our prices include VAT @ 17.5% - some competitors add VAT to their advertised prices" or something similar.

[pnagames]

Don't go down that route, however tempting. You can set paypal to add VAT if you wish or you can invoice your buyers before they pay.

However, it is technically against the law to do this on Ebay sales if you are dealing with mainly private customers and trading standards take a dim view of it. You should check with them first. The only place for it is if you are sure most of your trade is B2B but I doubt yours is.

I know about this as we looked at it a while back. As an Ebay trader with 30k feedback, it would save us a packet on fees. We decided not to do it though as we deal 95% with private customers.

If you do go ahead, expect a good few negs as well. It's always good to be exploring ways of reducing overheads but this is a dead end I think.

Hi steve

we were thinking about it, but the more we are thinking about it the more we do not want to do it.

as you said it will probably bring us a lot of negative feedback (something that we hate) and also a lot of complaints after people have bought the games.

we deal with 100% private customers at the moment.

P.S. can you mail me your ebay id / ebay shop as i want to have a look (always try to learn from experienced sellers)

[pnagames]

Instead of going down this route, why not market your products along the lines of "All our prices include VAT @ 17.5% - some competitors add VAT to their advertised prices" or something similar.

not a bad idea but we do not want to mention anything about competitors on our listings.

[Mike Hughes]

Quote:
Originally Posted by brian.mc
Instead of going down this route, why not market your products along the lines of "All our prices include VAT @ 17.5% - some competitors add VAT to their advertised prices" or something similar.


not a bad idea but we do not want to mention anything about competitors on our listings.

Change 'Competitors' to 'ebayers' and that would avoid the issue.

Mike