Private sellers are forced to use Simple Delivery even the items are less than £10

[ang-7348]

Starting this week, my private account can no longer choose Royal Mail or any custom delivery option when listing or revising items — only Simple Delivery is forced, even though all of my items are under 100 grams and worth less than £10. Anyone else having the same issue? Any solution?

[**peaseblossom**]

The opt-out is for letter items only, not large letter or small parcel.  

It also only relates to certain sub-categories.  In FAQs on here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/postage/simple-delivery?targetgroup=C2C
click on "Which listings aren't required to use Simple Delivery?"

[ruby*ryan]

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@ang-7348 wrote:

Starting this week, my private account can no longer choose Royal Mail or any custom delivery option when listing or revising items — only Simple Delivery is forced, even though all of my items are under 100 grams and worth less than £10. Anyone else having the same issue? Any solution?

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If you register as a business seller (if you are buying/making/growing to sell) then you can still select your own postage.

[phwh_51]

Same here. Private seller getting rid of some extras from old wargaming sprues, made around 50p-£1 on each lot. Now that postage has nearly doubled, the already-slow trickle of sales means it’s not even worth listing.

As if the buyer protection fee wasn’t enough revenue for eBay, it’s now necessary to milk (an already struggling) RM for funds too.

[andymank1964]

Yes I am having the same problem, I'm selling music cassette tapes which are a sub category of 'Music'.

Despite Music being in the 'eligible' for custom delivery list. Every other format in the music sub-category can be sent using Large Letter via custom postage but not cassette tapes! 

It seems Ebay can arbitrarily pick & choose what can't be sent via the custom option.

As usual trying to contact anyone at Ebay is a complete waste of time,customer service is an absolute joke as are their pointless  bots.

Sympathies to everyone else caught up in this Simple delivery debacle!

[andymank1964]

Large letter items can be sent via custom delivery in the eligible categories.

[phillsvinyl]

I just did a test listing to see whats happened.

And yes as of today all my items are simple delivery  - choice of evri or RM only for the buyer to decide and the cost is 2.94

I also only put down postage only!

On the listing it says click and collect  - I do not want people coming to my home - so why has this been placed there? And its cheaper if you collect from my address 2.26 ????

I now no longer have special delivery as an option - i have some expensive items for sale and need to be covered by this option - but NO its gone.

Reading a couple of posts regards this - i have also seen that simple delivery will be pushed out to business also ( at a later date)

It really does seem that Ebay are in this for greed and nothing else.

postage and packing actually costs me more than £2.94 to send as i use very good packaging.

I used to give all my items free postage  - but as thier is no longer an option to choose the correct size / for the package consumers will loose out.

7inch singles could be sent via RM @ 2.70 48 tracked up to £150 compenstion ( no option )

12inch  / albums you had a choice evri @ 2.94 tracked compensation up to £25.00 or RM @ £3.35 and compensation up to£750.00 ( no option the 2nd one)

of course you could still do free - but not knowing the correct options anymore and knowing that ebay will choose the cheaper version even though it will not be fit for purpose!

As many people have tried to get the answers from the community team / cs / and mesage boards - no one knows what is going on!

Ebay are just doing what they want and it is wrong - of course we can all leave and go elsewhere -nothing stopping us in that.

But when a system was working perfectly before and everyone was happy and everyone and I mean everyone was selling / buying from business / private  - ebay thought I know lets mess the sytem up and say its free for people and mess with thier heads and charge for buyer protection ( even though in thier terms - everything was covered).

Once we have done that - lets mess up the postage system  - we can make a few pennis from that and change the system so its harder for buyers and sellers to understand that they are being ripped off, give them less options - lets change everything.

Go to the community chat - lets ask whats going on?

Only answers you get is - we will get back to you - we dont know the answer - is being made so you have to suck it up - or your posts get deleted for asking questions that are need to be answered or get banned.

I dont understand how eBay have got this so wrong in so many ways.

who is accountable for this mess - who is accountable for these problems - whay have they not been sacked?

I understand business have to evolve and try new incentives e.t.c. e.t.c - but rapeing a sytem that was doing ok and everyone was happish to use this platform  - to suddenly go bang lets shoot ourselves in the foot  - is mind boggling.

We all know we will have the normal - you should be this you should be that.

I pride myself in doing the right thing for my customers who have brought part of my collection - correct postage - correct packing - what pride do Ebay have?

[xyz307xyz]

Click and collect £2.26 is from an Evri pick up point not your house.

[ruby*ryan]

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@phillsvinyl wrote:

7inch singles could be sent via RM @ 2.70 48 tracked up to £150 compenstion ( no option )

12inch  / albums you had a choice evri @ 2.94 tracked compensation up to £25.00 or RM @ £3.35 and compensation up to£750.00 ( no option the 2nd one)

of course you could still do free - but not knowing the correct options anymore and knowing that ebay will choose the cheaper version even though it will not be fit for purpose!

 Just to address the points made in this paragraph.

If single fit a Large Letter size and you select that weight when listing, your buyer will be charged £2.70  via RM, and you will be covered up to £750. (You will need to add packaging costs to item price).

12" vinyl up to 1kg £2.94 via Evri/£3.38 RM both compensation up to £750.

If you use 'free' postage, you need to add the cost to the item price, send by another tracked method, somehow add the tracking number to your listing, then claim back the cost of the labels from ebay.
Prices will still be as above, as will compensation. (These are the prices if you have RM & Evri selected, if you deselect one or the other prices are a little more).

As xyz mentioned, £2.26  (or a little more for heavier items) is if the buyer decides to collect from an Evri drop off shop - which not only saves them money, but means it's not a problem if no one is at home when the item is delivered).

[phillsvinyl]

i stand corrected

[phwh_51]

That was the case, but not any more. They’ve been slowly removing that option over the last few weeks.

[ang-7348]

I got a reply from eBay as follows:

I can completely understand that you'd like to opt-out with Simple Delivery. However, please be informed that from 15 April 2025, Simple Delivery is the only delivery option for some UK private sellers. Over the coming months, Simple Delivery will become the only delivery method available for private sellers when posting eligible items. After that is completed, the option to opt out and select Custom Postage will only be available for letter-sized items in specific categories priced £10 and under.

The £10 limit applies to item price only and doesn't include the buyer protection fee. Bulky items and Authenticity Guarantee listings are currently excluded from the programme.

Please know that to provide the best experience to our sellers, we’re gradually introducing Simple Delivery as the only delivery option on eligible listings.

If the listing is eligible for Simple Delivery, then the listing will automatically gets the Simple delivery option. I would like to share that, this option is enabled to secure your listing in our Seller Protection policy.  There are no changes you need to make. To make this process easy on our sellers, your existing eligible listings will automatically be moved to ship via Simple Delivery.  You'll be protected if the item is lost or damaged during transit. Items are covered for any loss or damage caused from the point the item is scanned into the carrier’s delivery network and until it's marked as delivered.

You’ll have the option to opt out by selecting the custom delivery option if any of the following apply:

o Items in categories that are comprised exclusively of prohibited items

o Bulky inventory (> 61 x 46 x 46 cm, >20kg)

o Postables inventory (<100g AND <£10)

o When using Authenticity Guarantee

As of now we are taking feedbacks for the future improvement so that it will ease your work in shipping the items.

With that being said, I have documented all of your feedback and will ensure to highlight this for the future improvement. Thank you for taking the time to contact eBay customer service, have a wonderful day.

[ang-7348]

I think the only solution is to look for another selling platform where we can choose postage options, or continuously use eBay, which eats up all of our profits with the Buyer's protection fee and high-priced Simple Delivery options. 

[kcha5592]

Having same issues. Some times the switch button comes up. The listing pages are unreliable.

The 100g £1.55 postage stamp now costs £2.72 with simple delivery Thats 2pence more than 1KG tracked large letter on Royal Mail pre paid at £2.70.

Ebay now becoming the scammers. reselling Royal Mail postage at higher price than buying direct

Starting to look at other seller platforms

[ruby*ryan]

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@kcha5592 wrote:

Having same issues. Some times the switch button comes up. The listing pages are unreliable.

The 100g £1.55 postage stamp now costs £2.72 with simple delivery Thats 2pence more than 1KG tracked large letter on Royal Mail pre paid at £2.70.

Ebay now becoming the scammers. reselling Royal Mail postage at higher price than buying direct

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It's £2.70 if you have both RM & Evri selected, but if you deselect either one, it becomes a bit more expensive for the service you have selected.

[ett1954]

“which eats up all of our profits with the Buyer's protection fee and high-priced Simple Delivery options.” - but as a private seller selling off your collection or second-hand cast-offs surely you don’t have to be concerned about profits - as you are only recouping some of your costs.