18-01-2026 11:59 AM
In the past couple of weeks I asked Support how to handle situations when a Buyer won and paid for 2 separate listings, which in turn generated 2 postage labels when the goods would fit into one parcel ok.
The reply was "use one label, and complete the unused label form and we will refund buyer inside 14 days"
Ok fair enough. Then yesterday for the first time I had a buyer again win 2 listings, but both were included on the same payment advice for one parcel hence only 1 label this time. Both listings had £3.55 each as posting price for a Tracked 48 hour parcel.
However in this instance putting both items in one parcel, saw the posting size go up one level, which would have cost more than the postage paid to Ebay under their Simple Posting Scheme.
Queried this to Support and was told "Royal Mail will accept parcels up to our maximum size parcel, but if the postage is insufficient on the label, Ebay will charge you the difference plus an Admin Charge in due course"
I asked how could this be avoided, as selling one low priced item and one heavier low priced item I could end up making a loss on the sale. The reply to my amazement "there is nothing that we can do".
Has anyone else encountered this and penalty charges ?
18-01-2026 12:12 PM
One way round it for your current predicament would be to explain the issue to the buyer and if they're amenable cancel the transactions with their agreement and relist. This time ask them to be sure to buy them separately, at slightly different times if necessary so they are not combined. Hardly ideal but it's an option.
18-01-2026 12:41 PM
Thanks certainly something to consider. As long as its not like a buyer who messaged me today.
Paid me lunchtime on Thursday for a listing which ended Tuesday. I even went to the Post Office to post just the one parcel on Thursday.
Tracked 48 with Royal Mail means earliest they might deliver would have been Saturday but not guaranteed. Very late last night they messaged me asking where the parcel was, didnt bother to look at tracking.
When I looked back at listing it stated target delivery would be next Wednesday / Thursday !!!! It was only a low value item too.
18-01-2026 1:06 PM
Yes, some buyers are certainly better than others! 🙄
18-01-2026 1:22 PM
for sure.
Ebays response to my message asking for clarification was not very good. Their perception of real world private sellers is wrong.
It was suggested I put parcel dimensions and weights in my listing - not viable as I am selling of all sorts of personal items whereby I can ascertain small parcel, medium etc etc for single l item listings it is not viable for multi auction wins
Otherwise they said they charge on category pricing - 10 years ago I had pointed out this was unfair. If as I was at the time selling a light weight book it would cost less than their £4 cap. However if it were a heavier book and would cost say £8 they would only let me list it as £4. The response at the time then was to increase my selling price. All well and good until you get a business who can offer it cheaper and even freepost because they can offset against their taxation.
What annoys me most is only a few days ago I was getting multi labels for multi wins, then yesterday without warning I get a combined postage - no warning at all.
18-01-2026 1:28 PM
One thing that just occurred to me and might account for wrong response possibly by Ebay is - do all Ebay locations in varying countries offer Simple Posting Scheme or is it just the UK
18-01-2026 1:41 PM
Ebay have shot themselves in the foot with what they charged my buyer £2.72 for.
Small parcel UK Simple Posting under 1kg - just created a listing as I did for the previous ones and this is what shows in the image if it uploads
18-01-2026 1:47 PM
Latest reply
At this time, there is no alternative system that allows our private sellers to manually invoice buyers after multiple purchases.