I started relisting an item this evening and discovered that eBay's Simple Delivery really is now mandatory - up to a week ago, I was able to relist using my own postage options.
I sell mainly CDs and 7" singles, and charge £2.20 per single item, which covers the packaging and Royal Mail standard 2nd class postage. For items under £20 in value, I've found there is no real need to use tracking or signed for services. And judging by my feedback, buyers seem quite happy with this.
Now, with eBay's Simple Delivery, I am being forced to charge £2.70 and fund the packaging myself, so overnight the whole process has become more expensive for me AND my buyers.
Can anyone at eBay justify this, especially when they trumpet that by using Simple Delivery, somehow, there is a saving of 20% on postage costs.
CDs and 7" singles are Large Letter size and generally weigh less than 250g.
Ebay charge one price for anything up to 1kg when Royal Mail have 4 price points before 1kg (I don't use Evri because of all the issues I had when I used them when they were Hermes).
I have read the eBay promotional stuff about Simple Delivery, and it puts me in mind of the endless letters I get from British Gas telling me how beneficial a Smart Meter would be.
The bottom line is that there's NO benefit for me, the advantages are all for them.
This could be the last straw for me...I'll give it a month to see how it pans out.
