I Received £2.94 for a Simple Delivery Postage Label - But It Cost Me £3.01 To Buy!

[fallen121]

Why am I subsidising this buyer?

I selected Simple Delivery. The buyer paid eBay £2.94 for postage which is what I received. But when I went to purchase the label through eBay via Simple Delivery  it cost me £3.01 and there didn't seem to be any way to change this.

Why am I subsidising my buyer's postage costs? What am I doing wrong in my listings?

7p doesn't seem much but I made next to nothing on this sale anyway because the buyer made an low ball offer which I accepted because I needed the space!

[**peaseblossom**]

With SD the seller does not buy postage (unless you have free postage - seller pays on your listings).  The buyer pre-pays for a label and you just print it out.

[fallen121]

I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong because I am a private seller and have Simple Delivery enabled for EVERYTHING.

So I went back into the original listing and did "sell a similar item" and under postage it came up with, "Simple Delivery is not available for this item" and eBay pre-selected Evri and pre-populated it with a cost of £2.94. Clearly this didn't register with me that it wasn't Simple Delivery. Obviously I was free to change that price if I wanted to, but I ASSUMED (wrongly, it appears) that would be the accurate postage cost at point of sale. I defintely didn't enter the cost of £2.94 in myself because how would I know what the Evri charge would be without going through the Evri site? In which case I might as well just purchase the label myself direct from them and plug the tracking number in. Thinking about it, Evri have hiked their prices since this auction was listed. Is it possible eBay quoted a correct price at time of listing and I have been the victim of inflation?

Lesson learned, I guess.

Things are SO MUCH SIMPLER over on Vinted where you just get, "The buyer has bought you a postage label". 

[gengarama]

I read that Evri recently increased their prices but ebay hasn't bothered to change it on their end

[jckl1957]

If it is Simple Delivery, you don't receive the buyer's payment for postage and you don't buy a label.

Simple Delivery is between the buyer and Ebay. Ebay collect the payment for the postage and it doesn't go through your account.

You then download a label or QR code without making any payment.

[1carol2 · Accepted solution]

Agree. I’ve noticed this too, for all my listings in categories like beauty products where Simple Delivery is not offered and you have to charge the buyer and then buy your own label - eBay prepopulates the Evri cost as £2.94, the buyer pays £2.94, then eBay charge you £3.01 to purchase the Evri label through them. Annoying and they need to update their form. Yet another reason to use a different platform to sell…