Clearing out the Aegean Stables, a few questions about how to do it.

[magpiecorner1]

First - business days.  I've just removed Friday and already had Saturday and Sunday removed - does this mean that if I offer tracked 48 and therefore same day despatch up to my cut off of 8 am,  I don't have to post anything ordered after 8am on Thursday until the following Monday, should I prefer to? 

I am going over to free postage, at the moment still standard first and second class postage for very cheap items  and tracked 48 which will mean same day despatch, we generally post anything ordered before 1.30 or 2 pm,  but I don't want to be forced to send items on Friday, or any day.  Seriously thinking of moving to a three day week - well, I sometimes think we are going back to the 1970s!  Not going to be affected at all by Simple Delivery but I suspect if buyers can now phone and speak to someone, there could be a rise in untracked items not delivered, and we all know eBay have such a way with words, very likely they will invite folk to reported not delivered, or am I just pessimistic?

And I also think anything affecting private sellers will be extended to business sellers sooner than later.

Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 - is anyone sending letters by these postage options - I appreciate that letters are not an shown option, but letters can be sent by Special delivery so strikes me as the same principle.  Can't find this info on the RM site.  Not talking a separate letter charge- but my post office has stated letters are not allowed.  We've a mountain of eBay plastic bags so will just use those and padding for the time being to meet the criteria if we have to, but letter envelopes are cheaper than padded envelopes and when you are sending thousands over the year, it can be significant.  

Is signed for postage considered to be tracked postage by eBay - not only can I send letter signed for but we can use stamps still, for signed for, special delivery and standard postage.   Still using stamps I bought 3 years ago, cost of a first class stamp March 2022 was 85p - today it is £1.65.   Its been a grand saving.

We used 'signed for ' for many years without issue and have only recently moved to the tracked options - can't find anything in the help section regarding signed for.

Free postage - 10% discount.  We used to do free postage and international sales (with postage) also attracted the 10% discount - is this still the case?  

Think that's it, except does anyone know if eBay are recruiting CS in Scotland - might be nice to be the poacher instead of the fox for a while, and I'm a night owl!

[5216elisabeth]

I've sent Large Letter Tracked 24 and 48 recently.  Interestingly I did send one item I was selling as large letter standard and after a couple had gone smoothly through the postmaster told me I could actually send them normal letter as they would just fit.  Nice chap :).  I'm thinking that if you pay tracked large letter I think it's a maximum size but no minimum?  Like you suggest you can always put the item in a package that's bigger than a standard letter size just in case.  Also as long as I get the tracked ones to the post office before 5pm they get collected the same day and usually show as moving through the system by next morning.

[magpiecorner1]

Thanks, it sounds logical - I know a birthday card is considered large letter even though it is less than 5mm deep, if its over a certain size - I've had to pay excess postage last year and this year - I suppose we could just use bigger envelopes.   Daft though.

We have a cut off of 4 pm.  Nearly missed it yesterday, other half parks in the pub carpark opposite the post office - saw what he thought was a smoky exhaust next to his car - turned out his car was on fire.  Fire brigade showed up and were a bit put out that he stayed in the post office to finish his parcels - obviously not ebay sellers - he had gone out while staff where doing a batch and attempted to stop the fire with the pub's fire extinguisher but its only lasted 3 seconds.  Turns out RAC wouldn't bring it home - a couple of miles.   Grand start to the New Year!

[auctionmike1]

It is very disappointing the frequency with which "Signed For" letters do not get a signature at the other end - posties across the country just shove the letter through the door, so you do not know whether your item has been delivered or not.

The new "Tracked" 24 and 48 services cannot be paid for with your own stamps.

The "Signed For" service may soon be withdrawn.

[bravergrace]

Has your spell-checker converted Augean to Aegean?.

[bravergrace]

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:

First - business days.  I've just removed Friday and already had Saturday and Sunday removed - does this mean that if I offer tracked 48 and therefore same day despatch up to my cut off of 8 am,  I don't have to post anything ordered after 8am on Thursday until the following Monday, should I prefer to? 

I am going over to free postage, at the moment still standard first and second class postage for very cheap items  and tracked 48 which will mean same day despatch, we generally post anything ordered before 1.30 or 2 pm,  but I don't want to be forced to send items on Friday, or any day. 

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The "Dynamic system" mean that if you post anything on Friday and Saturday one week, eBay will calculate your "estimates" on the assumption that you ALWAYS post of Fridays and Saturdays.  Options to avoid this happening include:

- Dispatch on any convenient day but don't mark as dispatched or enter tracking number until the due date.  This obviously won't work if you buy postage through eBay, or if (like me) you are disorganised and forget to mark stuff as dispatched until it's overdue - I did this over Christmas, and ended up with some items "dispatched late".

- Don't dispatch on Fridays too often.

- Keep an eye on your statistics and as long as you're not in a danger zone, post anyway and ignore the ETAs.

- Manage buyers' expectations over deliveries by sending a dispatch note saying "should be delivered next week".   Hopefully they will take more notice of you than eBay, and get a pleasant surprise if their stuff arrives Saturday or Monday - rather than opening up an INR case if it doesn't.

[magpiecorner1]

Heck you spotted it, it did and I  only realised just after the window to change it closed.

[magpiecorner1]

I already work on the system of uploading the numbers after midnight, and anything sent untracked is marked as despatched on the last day eBay states, after one of the business accounts defects rose a little to uncomfortably.  We use the post office, so it's doable.  I'll post same day or next day to meet the 10% discount criteria but I'll follow your advice and hold uploading those on Fridays.  Might even go the whole hog and let other half take Friday off, he's the packer,  be interesting to know if it affects sales. 

I always send buyers a message so keep them up to date with despatch info.

Thanks!

[ojewellery]

Have you ever thought about using a fulfilment solution and not having to do any of the daily posting out?

I moved to using fulfilment (going back a few years now, prior to Covid) and it was great for a couple of years - being able to take breaks and so long as I had wifi keeping the business open.  It took a while to move across, there were some costs involved, occasionally they made mistakes but the day to day freedom was great.  Customers liked 7 day dispatch and operations were at that time around 360 days a year.

I could do big packing sessions - which is quite efficient and send off a big parcel to the fulfilment centre. 

[magpiecorner1]

I sell used and vintage jewellery , some silver and glass and othere half sells collectibles - so we clean everything before photographing and clean everything again prior to posting, some items tarnish and all benefit from a final clean and check.  And I disinfect earrings.  We also send a handwritten note with every single purchase, and a lot are quite personal either to regulars or reflecting conversations.  And every listing is unique, so I'm not sending a dozen or a hundred of any items. 

Though I can see how useful it must be for your business.

I rarely do posting and packing , I've a quid pro quo arrangement with other half, he posts for both businesses and I list for both as well as virtually all buying.  Son is now getting sorted to start an eBay business, or take over ours, he now does my cleaning and I'll do his listing and his yearly accounts .  They both do far better jobs than I do. 

[ojewellery]

Reading back what I've written I can see it looks as though I still use fulfilment - I self dispatch most stuff now as I moved into customisation and do a lot of gift messages.  I'm just feeling nostalgic for the freedom of not having a fixed clock on dispatch each day.  Sounds like you've got an amazing family set up of task sharing.

[magpiecorner1]

They really are amazing, so much so that I actually managed to stop planning his murder after only a few months, after he insisted on mansplaining - every day - how to pack and post (he is a mechanical engineer and they are wired a certain way) something I had been doing perfectly well for the previous 10 years.  Murder for mansplaining should be a legitimate defence in matricide murder trials!