Simple Delivery will be rolled out to Business Sellers

[greenlakelandlad]

My wife has just got off the phone with ebay Customer Support.

She was informed that they don't know when, but Simple Delivery will be rolled out to Business Sellers. 

They first intend to smooth out any issues with Private Sellers over a non defined period of time then hit Business Sellers with it very quickly. 

My wife was enquiring about an outsized item not being shipped with Simple Delivery as it does not fall within the Royal Mail collection (the only service available to her) specifications. Asking about where weights and dimensions could be input to opt out of Simple Delivery but knowing any postage customised will be overidden by SD tariffs mid April, she enquired how this was to work:

Buyer will buy SD. 

SD will not be suitable / acceptable. 

Seller will have to buy own label privately out of own funds. 

Buyer will be refunded SD cost. 

So Seller needs to build in cost of postage in item while listing it with SD postage on top. Then buyer unknowingly will not buy more expensive item as not know will be getting refund on SD postage. 

How is that good customer service for either the buyer or the seller?

Ebay isn't just introducing Simple Delivery. They are changing the whole platform:

Combined parcels will no longer be ok unless the seller buys their own private label as the seller will be buying individual postage labels per order. The only way round this I can figure is for sellers to actively tell buyers if they want to buy more than one order that they have to contact the seller to make a new listing with the appropriate items and a new SD postage rate. This is not simple.....

Remember I was told this will be rolled out to Business Sellers. The juggernaut of change is moving and it will not stop. You will be told how to run your businesses and what services you can use, or not....

[**peaseblossom**]

Interesting but I wonder why that  hasn't been mentioned at all elsewhere.    Also in the weekly chat with ebay staff today Kat confirmed that combined postage with Simple Delivery is currently being worked on.  

[61stephenuk]

In todays weekly chat Dave says 'I'm not aware of any plans to roll SD out to Business Sellers.'

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Chat-with-the-eBay-Community/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Community-Tea...

[greenlakelandlad]

As I'm working through all the issues not so 'Simple Delivery' is raising for me I am finding that I am getting contradictory information from Customer Services though the last contradiction had 2 weeks inbetween and it is an evolving situation as ebay tend to implement stuff without actually trying to sort out obvious issues before implementation. 

Regarding roll out to Business Sellers: 2 days prior I had a CS reply with 'I don't know'. Then yesterday I had 'yes but don't know when'. I would suggest that not everyone is on the same page and consistency in information giving and dissemination seems a hit and miss at times...at the best of times and this is not the best of times. 

Also why go to all this trouble with these implementations if not eventually rolling out to business sellers?

This is a huge money maker for ebay: The only place a 20% saving on postage is possible is on the lowest weights. All other tariffs are more expensive and miss out 5kg and 10kg. For instance I can ship a 5kg parcel for £6.25 with Evri collection and now I can't have it collected but have to use the 15kg category which starts at a around £10 something will Royal Mail collection. 

Note an outsized parcel that cannot be shipped by Evri or Royal Mail: I was advised to build in my postage costs on to the item price. Buyer will still buy a label but this will be refunded when the seller buys their own label. So higher label price and inflated item price and refund to buyer after? Great buyer experience and great seller experience. But of course its simple!!!!!

Ebay state your item will be covered for loss and damage but its not the case if it falls under Royal Mail and Evri's transit under non compensation basis (because loss is dependent on whats in a parcel - thats for another thread). 

Ebay are only providing a more expensive service for buyers (on top of buyer protection fee - like they weren't protected already?) and restrictive service for sellers. Ebay wouldn't be prepared to deal with all the issues that arise through courier deliveries if they weren't in it for the money. It would not be worth their while. My opinion is they will roll this out to Business Sellers.....but time will tell. 

[greenlakelandlad]

OK great. Don't work on an obvious potential issue before rolling it out....Let all the sellers try and find ways to accomodate multiple orders in a professional way without sounding like idiots and spending time amending listings only to have ebay change the goal posts and have to go through all the editing again. 

[*vyolla*]

eBay CS make stuff up all the time.