Postage Preferences Courier EVRI ONLY SELECTED - but item has sold with Royal Mail?

[manyanslot]

Hi everyone.

I am new to selling on EBAY and have just sold my first item. I'm aware of all the "Simple Delivery" nonsense EBAY have introduced lately... Since I don't have a Phone for the QR code (at least not personally - my brother has, but I don't want to and can't ask for his help every time something sells) and I would prefer not print out the postage labels myself (I do have access to a printer, but I don't want to waste my own ink and paper if I can avoid it) so I decided to select EVRI as my only Courier option in Postage Preferences - which should make all my future individual listings EVRI only default. (I know many people dislike EVRI and will probably think it's a bad idea, but it's my choice so whatever).

I sold an item (within about 2 hours of activating it?!?!?!?! Excellent!!!!). The item is just a VHS (yes I sell these old out of date things - I don't care!) and the postage size is: Up to 1KG large letter (35cm x 25cm x 2.5cm), The thing is it's sold to send through as Royal Mail Tracking.

Erm, since I selected EVRI only on all my listings, can someone please explain why it has come through to send through Royal Mail.

I did notice on the Postage Preferences >>> Available Couriers settings page the note: There may be exceptions where preferred couriers are unavailable due to your location or package size. Having seen this I now kind of assume this means having Royal Mail Courier disabled is totally pointless if the Buyer can only use Royal Mail - lack of EVRI at their location or something? (The note above does say "unavailable due to your location" which to me is badly worded - does that mean Buyers location or Sellers location? Surely can't be lack of EVRI at "my" location - I think there is one just up the road from me!) Anyway apart from postage location limitations, surely buyers can not overide Sellers default saved Courier system? (Unless it's a bug in EBAY system or something).

Can anyone explain what is going on? (Or at least confirm what I suspected and frankly dreaded - sigh).

[thepillenwerfer]

I sounds like the Buyer is somewhere that Evri charge extra to deliver to — Northern Ireland, Scottish Highlands and Islands, Scilly Isles &c.

[manyanslot]

Nope - their address is Cambridge.

[xyz307xyz]

I suggest you contact customer services because looking at Vengeance on Varos that looks to be going RM also.

STNG 5.7 which is the latest I can see does too.

[sml192]

No idea why you have been provided with a Royal Mail label instead of Evri. 

There doesn't seem to be a logical reason for overriding your postage preferences which is rather concerning. 

In case you aren't aware it is now possible to book a collection with Royal Mail and get them to bring the label thus eliminating the need for either a smart phone or printer:

Booking a collection

If you have a Royal Mail label, you can book a collection on eBay. Royal Mail can then collect your item and also bring the label for you if you don't have a printer. You'll need to book the collection before you create your prepaid label. Here's how:

1. Go to Orders in My eBay.
2. Select the order you'd like to book a collection for.
3. Select Get prepaid label.
4. Choose the date for the collection.
5. Select Book collection.

Once you've booked your collection, you won't be able to change the date. If you miss your collection, you can book it again for another date on the Royal Mail website.

[manyanslot]

I have now temporarily selected both EVRI and Royal Mail as my Couriers. I've already had one item sold to Royal Mail + printed out the label for it, so I guess I might as well have both activated for the time being (even though I still don't like printing out the labels myself - but never mind that for the time being).

Oh and now I've had another sale with Royal Mail = "Star Trek The Next Generation - Volume 5.7" [VHS]. Was that you xyz307xyz who bought that? If not it's just a very weird coincidence you happened to mention it before and now it's sold!

Anyway, you said my latest listed items are going Royal Mail (this is before I changed my postage settings to allow both EVRI and Royal Mail). Well... this is probably a really stupid question but just where did (do) you see that items are going to so-and-so Postage Service (from a Buyers point of view I mean)? I have looked at my listing pages (as if I was a Buyer) and as far as I can see the listing pages don't show that information - the most I can see is:

Postage: Standard Tracked Delivery - Estimated between... (so-and-so)

Postage: Free postage

Express Tracked Delivery  - Estimated between... (so-and-so)

Postage: £3.30

Incidentially, is Express delivery supposed to show up on all Sellers listing pages? I have not selected Express as an option anywhere in my Seller Settings (as far as I know). 

Or do you find out a listings Postage Preferences when you click on the "Buy It Now" button (or somewhere else like that)?

Ach, I am soooooo noob to everything Ebay - I only started selling a couple of days ago!

[manyanslot]

Yes I know I can book collections. I might consider that as an option, but I will look into that later.