Simple Delivery and letters - clarification needed please

[porte2425]

Is an £4.85 item today going to cost £7.61 soon?

An item that is for sale today at £4 + 85p P&P, next week will cost me an additional 91p (or is the % charged on P&P as well?) for buyer fees from the 4th.

I’ve heard that Simple Delivery is going to become compulsory, and that only tracked services will be used. Can someone confirm?

If so, then the £4.85 item now, will cost £4 + £2.70 P&P + 91p (or even £1.19) fees. So at least £7.61! Surely that can’t be right?

P.s. I know this relates to Private sellers only.

[porte2425]

Yes, a complete mess all-round then!

[aquitania015]

Why are business sellers exempt from this 'new' idea? Doesnt SD apply to businesses?

thanks in advance

[lucy_farmer]

'Doesnt SD apply to businesses?'

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No it doesn't.

'Why are business sellers exempt from this 'new' idea?'

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Because business sellers pay fees. 

Therefore ebay don't have the need to squeeze money out of them in every respect of the sale.

i.e. BPF = money in from the buyer. Payment holds= money in from making interest on sellers' money. And Simple Delivery makes ebay money on the contracts they've made with the delivery companies......

(it's *only* about money, aquitania. Don't fall for the complete guff and spin about it making things 'safer' or 'simpler' or 'more protected' or 'easier' ... that's all a load of carp. It's about nothing more than income)

[aquitania015]

thanks very much - i didnt realise that.  It looks as if duty of care towards private sellers is lacking and unprofessional on ebays part. I sell small items sometimes many sell for 1.99  .  Who would bid and then pay 2.70 for post?  I usually sell more than one and make post 85p.  does this mean that every 1.99 sale has a 2.70 label?  what about the wasted packing material? it doesnt make sense. I feel very let down by it all.

[lucy_farmer]

'It looks as if duty of care towards private sellers is lacking and unprofessional on ebays part. '

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Yes, it is rather looking as though ebay want low-priced items off their site 🙁

This isn't just bad for the sellers of such things (some stamps, postcards, player cards, etc)  it's a big step away from what made ebay in the first place.

Ebay seem to want to leave their roots behind and it's all rather sad😢

Had they wanted to keep small sellers of small items, surely it wouldn't have been too difficult to make the BPF graduated  for sales up to maybe a fiver or so....

[jckl1957]

I agree.

Back in the day (was it only October?) when private sellers paid fees, there was a 30p transaction fee which was just about affordable.

And, it was per transaction, rather than per item.  So, sellers of low cost items only paid one 30p transaction fee per sale even if the buyer bought several items.

That seemed fair.

I doubt Ebay will change their minds but the 75p across the board is making low cost items appear overpriced.

[lionrock_technik]

I've just received an email from ebay stating that simple delivery is mandatory from 15th April

[drainie]

I hope I’ve misunderstood what’s going to happen when I’m forced to use Simple Delivery.
Many of the items I sell are small and light, so can be sent by Royal Mail 2nd Class post – as of 1st April, that’ll be £0.87.
Having read the terms and conditions, I’ve come to the conclusion I will have no choice but to use Simple Delivery AND the minimum cost will be £2.70 – even for small and light items!
I hope I’m wrong otherwise I’ll never be able to sell another small and light item on eBay if buyers are forced to pay £1.87 extra!

[toffeecat]

yes thats what they are doing. Yet another change that benefits them. Reduce 1000-300 free listings. Claim thats helpful by saying theres no 30p listing fee thereafter (even though we've lost 700 free listings) - they hold onto OUR money in their banks getting interest, must be millions a day, until items are delivered.   

Had the email today it will be compulsary, so no we cannt charge for any packaging. Ive been selling my photograph autograph collection, I buy still plastic wallets and hard backed envelopes now I cant charge for those.   MORE MONEY in ebays pockets.    We as sellers cant leave bad feedback for non payers, scammers etc etc - but they can leave it for us when we've done nothing wrong but challenge them.  This also means we will have to put the EXACT weight and dimensions for every item so we get enough to post them.   Im not sure how that works if we want to combine postage........ or maybe we wont be able to so Ebay can take a bigger cut.

I wish there was an alternative Ebay is now awful

[toffeecat]

So it means that if you sell a lot of items of various types, for EVERY listing youll have to put the weight and size of the package so that you get the right amount.  If youre selling a microwave and dont put anything re that and end up with £2.70!!  Yet another change maybe ebay ridiculous

[toffeecat]

seems Simple is compulsary from next month, so likely we will HAVE to put weights and dimesions for everything or risk not getting enough to post. Cant charge for packaging either now unless added onto the item price.     Im not sure how you can make sure they opt for Evri for eg and not Royal Mail.  Ebay is becoming a joke.

[lucy_farmer]

'I’ve come to the conclusion I will have no choice but to use Simple Delivery'

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Yes, it looks like you will be 🙁

The reason (*one of them!) that the postage is so much more expensive with SD is that is *has* to be tracked.

This is because ebay say *they* will be responsible for refunds if anything goes **missing in the post, not the seller.

(Therefore untracked postage leaves ebay open to possible scams of 'partnered' seller and buyer : seller sends nothing, buyers claims non-delivery. Seller keeps item, buyer keeps refund ..)

Unfortunately it does look like ebay really don't want private sellers of small, cheap stuff anymore. (the CEO has said he wants ebay to be associaited with high-end and luxury goods! 😂... good luck with that one mate...)

*The other reason ifor the expense is that ebay are making a little biut of profit on each postage label sold.

** Things that go missing or damaged in the post have to adhere to the carriers terms and conditions i.e. things on the carriers 'exclusion from compensations list'  will not be covered by ebay. (i.e. anything breakable!)

[lionrock_technik]

basically yes, you're correct and yes it's farcical

[miadon9000]

I hate it but essentially they want -everything- tracked.

Even if  the item is worth less than £2

[lionrock_technik]

they're effectively creating hyper-inflation on the site

[simoes-little-corner]

 is game over for pokemon card sellers then.

selling a card for £0.99+£0.74(fees)+£0.85(delivery)  ) Most times i put £0.30 just for be competitive 

Cards same times are less £0.99p

If post go to over £2 is no chance , Make no sense 

[david2052]

I agree it is going to kill small business. 

All my items i send in letter which costs 85p or 1.55

My buyers already have  a price hike with the protection racket.

Now i am going to have to pay 74% more postage to pay for that protection!!

Laughable.

Already ebay make more profit from my sales than i do.

[jckl1957]

Picking out a couple of points from this thread:

You do not have to send everything tracked.  You may have to wait 14 days for payment if you don't use tracking but, if the item is priced under £25 and the buyer leaves positive feedback, payment will be released faster.

Low cost items under £10 and weighing under 100g will not have to be sent using Simple Delivery.

So sellers of Pokemon cards and little, low cost items (like a lot of my items) will still be able to send using stamps.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Sending tracked isnt a bad idea.

I find sending 2nd class some get lost and then there is chance buyer says item never arrived and gets a refund.

Obviously doesnt work well for cheap items due to inflated price.

[jer19671]

That's a stupid and irresponsible thing to say and is likely to cause panic and despondency amongst sellers. Ebay do NOT want to remove low priced items from their site. Why would they? Look at the number of sub-£10 items on Ebay. Consider the profits Ebay make from all these items, in terms of sheer volume...it must be huge! It's simply not in their interest to scrap such a lucrative part of their business, so it makes no sense to suggest that Ebay have any reason to remove low priced items. Sellers are facing enough problems on Ebay these days, without ridiculous scaremongering nonsense like this!