Postage rates on Simple Delivery

[zil456]

I've been listing items using Simple delivery, but the rate for a Royal Mail parcel up to 2 kg has suddenly gone up from £3.84 to £5.15, which is ridiculous.  If I chose the old method, I can send it for £3.35 with RM collecting it from my house.

[tressygirl]

There was a new list of sizes and prices for parcels issued on the 20th from eBay for Simple Delivery.

For items sold between £0-100

Item weight & size	Both couriers selected	EVRi only	Royal Mail only
1kg large letter	£2.70	£2.94	£2.72
0-1kg small and medium parcel	£2.94	£2.96	£3.38
1-2kg small parcel	£3.38	£4.06	£3.38
1-2kg medium parcel	£3.71	£4.06	£5.15
2-10kg parcel	£5.21	£5.64	£6.65
10-20kg parcel	£7.19		£10.80

@zil456 

[zil456]

Thank you for this.  But when I am listing now, it is showing as £5.15 for a RM small parcel under 2 kg, and it should be £3.38.  So it is registering it as a medium parcel, not small.  I see they have now removed the words small and medium from the option list, which is confusing. 

[mygaras]

Sorry to hear that you're experiencing these issues @zil456 . This is affecting many private sellers, myself included. I highlighted it (along with a number of other issues with Simple Delivery) on this week's Community Chat. It really does need fixing ASAP! I'm currently marked as 'Away' on eBay as the postal charges are unaffordable and unreasonable for both buyers and sellers, and for those of us on mandatory Simple Delivery, they're just not competitive.

Let's say there's a buyer looking to purchase a widget that costs £5 (inc. Buyer Protection Fee). The widget weighs 1.5kg and fits in RM's Small Parcel dimensions. Let us also suppose that there are two private sellers with the exact same widget, one on mandatory Simple Delivery with an eBay-imposed postage charge of £5.15, and one who still has access to Custom Postage and can charge whatever they like, but let's assume that it's RM's fixed 48hr Tracked Click and Drop fee of £3.45, I wonder which seller would secure the sale? 🤔

And, even worse, if those sellers both offer free post, the one on mandatory SD will end up owing eBay money as the postage will cost more than they have received for the sale of the item!

[realspark]

Well, something has changed this morning, I now seem to have a small parcel rate available on Simple Delivery.

Still no 10Kg available rate though, although I know others have. Nothing for me between 2Kg and 15Kg.

No sure how to combine shipping, or if  it's even possible.

[mygaras]

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@realspark wrote:

Well, something has changed this morning, I now seem to have a small parcel rate available on Simple Delivery.

Still no 10Kg available rate though, although I know others have. Nothing for me between 2Kg and 15Kg.

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I too now have the Small Parcel rates. Woo hoo! Just going through my listings and individually editing the package size for each one. Blimey what a laborious task that is! I've lost count of how many times I've had to do this with all the recent changes. But, at least I can now list again. Fingers crossed that if we sell something, the new rates will be honoured 😳 (With a big emphasis on the 'if'). Bizarrely @realspark I do have the 10kg rate, but still cannot select custom postage for oversized items or items under £10. Weird!

[realspark]

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@mygaras wrote:

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Bizarrely @realspark I do have the 10kg rate, but still cannot select custom postage for oversized items or items under £10. Weird!

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I've still got custom postage, we might make one good account between us 😁

I find it poor that there's been no official word from eBay about all this mess.

[mygaras]

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I've still got custom postage, we might make one good account between us 😁

I find it poor that there's been no official word from eBay about all this mess.

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I like your thinking! And yes, they've been very quiet, but I guess that's nothing new!

[zil456]

I've still got custom postage as well, but it's a pain having to switch every time.  I'm sure Ebay is just getting greedy to make more money. The fact the buyer has to pay for protection seems excessive, cos in the past Royal Mail would pay up if things went wrong.

[zil456]

I've now got  small parcel rate, but it isn't called small, it just shows the sizes. So have to be careful each time to make sure I select the right category to avoid overcharging on postage.

AI is good when it works, and a pain when it doesn't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zil456]

I thought Ebay was supposed to be splitting the large letter rates, so that you could have a lighter option, e.g. 100g, 250g.  Maybe they feel they won't make enough money doing this!!!!!!! 

[realspark]

Latest problem, the delivery estimates are even more way out.

I had to change my dispatch time to 2 days to make the delivery times realistic. Now, they seem to be ignoring that too - my items are now showing 1-2 day delivery for Standard Tracked - that's a 2-3 day service, and on top of a 2 day dispatch time.

I'm putting a disclaimer on my listings.

[realspark]

Aaargh!

If I revise listing, change to collection only, then back to Simple Delivery, it changes the delivery estimate back to 2-3 days.

What is going on? 😖

[zil456]

Basically, it is anything but Simple !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is AI at its worse!!!!!!!

[mygaras]

Hhhm. I've noticed the same @realspark . Sold an item on Saturday evening, SD 48hr tracked. Because of the bank holiday, the earliest I could post the item was today (Tuesday), but according to eBay's EDD, it'll be arriving tomorrow, Wednesday (or Thursday, at the latest). Hey ho!

[realspark]

Before I changed my dispatch time, I had some listings telling Sunday evening buyers that their Tracked 48 item could be delivered on Monday!

I've had one buyer cancel this week because the delivery estimate they were given after purchase didn't match the one on the listing. I'm sure they think you're trying to pull a fast one, and I can see how it gives that impression.

[zil456]

I haven't really been keeping an eye on my dispatch times. Maybe I should.  My complaint is there is still no division between 100g and 1 kg for a large letter, with the 100g rate being really expensive. Also when I list an item, it seems to set by default a 2 kg large parcel, so I have to manually change it each time. 

[realspark]

I still have no 10Kg parcel option 😕

£3.38 for a 1-2Kg small parcel, only option for a 2+Kg parcel is 15Kg med parcel at £10.80

Nothing inbetween

[zil456]

The whole system is flawed. There is also no division for large letters below 1 kg. Have to switch to the old custom rates every time.