Simple Delivery - no small parcel options

[fraspr_0]

Just spent 30mins trying to explain to ebay that Simple Delivery - which all private sellers are going to be forced to use - isn't fit for purpose.

I regularly sell shoebox size parcels, via Royal Mail, i.e. Royal Mail Small Parcel (45 x 35 x 16cm)

Simple delivery options jumps from Royal Mail Large Letter  (35.3 x 25 x 2.5cm) to Royal Mail Medium Parcel (61 x 46 x 46cm) - with nothing in between.

I don't need to be told that Simple Delivery will ensure I am paid faster, and protected, etc. 

ALL MEANINGLESS IF CUSTOMERS THINK I AM RIPPING THEM OFF ON POSTAGE COSTS!!!!

[flowerpower37-uk]

no idea - possibly an ai bot but hopefully a real person

[flowerpower37-uk]

i nearly began this reply with rude words - fine but Royal Mail sell postage for 48 hr tracked small parcel sizes at £3.39 online and £3.99 in branch. why are we having to pay over the odds for something that we can get cheaper? my parcel is not a royal mail medium sized parcel - it's SMALL !!!!

[unctious]

Saw a film, many years ago “Adam and Yves”, quaint word play by the french. Yves is a boy's name of French origin. This unusual but charming name means “yew,” an evergreen tree with red berries and sharp needles, once used to make archery bows. Although known as a poisonous plant, yews were ubiquitous characters in old folklore, symbolizing death and resurrection.

In eBay parlance, Eve could mean many things.

[unctious]

Thanks for that!

The proof will be in the eating at the PO counter. My local PO is staffed by very nice people but they are not always kept in the loop.

From counter to delivery, who can tell?

[edwardian-dreams]

Only eBay knows

if there’s no differentiation between small and medium and eBay are only going on weight then small parcels are going at expensive price and medium at cheaper price

then there’s the difference between 1 k and 2kg prices on ebay

there is no such difference with royal mail

ebay are trying to merge two different business models, couriers and RM into one, they’re oil and water it won’t work and someone is going to lose …so no, SD is not FANTASTIC AT ALL

[edwardian-dreams]

I’m thinking cockney

would you Adam and Eve it to all the goings on

[flowerpower37-uk]

i just can't fathom how ebay think no-one would notice all the missing postage options. i know ebay are usa led and perhaps they never did their homework properly into what sizes and weights royal mail actually process on behalf of the british people. perhaps they think we will all just suck it up and to avoid thye issue move to business sellers so we don't have to use the oh so 'NOT' simple delivery. i do hope ebay read these discussion groups and realise what an error they have made, put there hands up, apologise and rest everything so it is simple - not holding my breath

[drag0n_fire]

I very much doubt that Ebay management read these posts otherwise it would have been fixed by now. Now we are at the twelth hour before SD is madatory across all listings. What is obvious to me is that ebay rarely test enhancements before releasing them into a live system. Like most IT specialists they don't always undestand the products and look at the bigger picture. The mentors on here who monitor posts should have raised the issue to ebay management weeks ago so they've let us down too. Cusomer services agents don't always understand issues probably because ebay have had to recruit many more agents due to to new 24/7 Customer Service hours

[notmickydolenz]

If you use Evri, the parcel won’t necessarily be lost, buyers may just need to hunt in their neighbourhood front gardens to find it.

[serendipity2468]

Well I really hope Evri are ready for the tsunami of parcels that’s going to hit them as every one of my listings says Evri when I select Simple Delivery. And conversely if Yodel don’t sign up soon then I can’t see them lasting long. Royal Mail do seem to lose out big time as there’s no 1-2kg small parcel option which is where they always came out on top. I wonder if this will start a price war as I assume eBay will always choose the lowest.

So I started to change a few listings to use SD - all 1-2kg small parcels which will now be £3.74 with Evri instead of my £3.45 with RM. But what’s weird is that although I have selected that the buyer pays, when I view all my listings in the app these are all now saying ‘free postage (free for buyer, you pay)’. Like many others I think I’ll be going into holiday mode for a few days from Tuesday just to check the SD changes that eBay has applied to all my current listings - I don’t want to be caught out having to fork out for the postage myself because eBay has guessed the parcel details incorrectly.

[flowerpower37-uk]

I have updated my account settings so that all of my items are shipped using Royal Mail. My Evri delivery guy is super but I'm aware that many people around the country have serious issues with Evri delivery drivers.

I buy my postage online with Royal Mail and my small parcels are £3.39. 90% of what I send are large letter and under 100gr so they should be £1.55 - I am waiting to see what happens on the 15th apr when this oh so 'NOT' simple delivery becomes mandatory for al of us private sellers. I have also bulk edited all of my items so that the weight and also dimensions are correct.

If you select your items which are the same weight and dimensions you can bulk edit them to make sure weight and dimensions are correct and also put in that the buyer pays if that is the option you want to use

hope this helps

[serendipity2468]

I have just noticed that when I revise nearly all of my listings and edit delivery (and I do all my stuff via the app so things may be different for you) two things have changed (and only very recently) which I fear may cause me problems on Tuesdayand have made going into holiday mode a definite now:

1) The parcel size now shows up as Other rather than the Large Letter/Small Parcel size I selected when I created the listing

2) The parcel dimensions show up as 20kg 64 x 46 x 46 (presumably as this is what ‘Other’ size parcels are deemed to be)

So come Tuesday what will the postage cost be set to - I assume as my original parcel size is gone it’ll just price them up at 20kg!! Anyone else seeing this?

[drag0n_fire]

I have deselected Evri as they are cowboys and thiefs. I will only use Royal Mail who although aren't perfect they are trustworthy. I have now raised the missing RM Small Parcel option in SD with ebay 3 times and they continue to tell me they will revert within 48 hours. I stressed the urgency of the issue as SD becomes mandatory on 15 April but they still haven't reverted. No surprise there! I suspect they do not intend to fix it and send all Small Parcels as Medium parcels. The difference in size is enormous.  I too tested a couple of live items in SD and what would normally be listed as Small Parcel had to be listed as Medium Parcel. On both items ebay charged the buyer £3.75.  Not sure where they got this figure from as ebay refuse to tell me how much they are paying for the postage label. I also noticed that the £3.75 includes VAT but according to HMRC there is no VAT payable on Royal Mail Postage stamps so I'd like to see ebay trying to explain that to the Inland Revenue as collecting VAT and not paying HMRC would be fraudulent!  I suspect they have done a discounted deal with Royal Mail to try and compete against Evri which I guess is no bad thing. The guy in the Post Office just laughed at my small parcel being sent as a Medium parcel and said Ebay have lost the plot and Royal Mail are the winners gaining more revenue. He said if the parcel is underpaid then the Post Office will refuse to accept the parcel. I also noticed that the Postage label does not state the parcel size as it used to before SD. It just states 'Standard Tracked Service' so not sure how Royal Mail know whether it's Tracked 24 or 48. Maybe it's hidden in the barcode? Either way the buyers have paid too much postage. Another fine mess and dishonest action by ebay. Still the only good thing about the buyer buying the postage label is that if the parcel goes missing before delivery the seller doesn't have to raise a query with Royal Mail as the postage contract is now between Evri/Buyer and Royal Mail. That will go down well with our buyers! I can see Ebay Customer Services being inundated next week with SD poatage errors. 

[flowerpower37-uk]

Try going into bulk edit and setting weights and dimensions and then postage service to large letter - i use ebay on a pc so not sure how easy it will be on a smart phone app. small parcel does seem to have vanished into the ether but large letter is still there and i can still set my own postage costs in the bulk edit. if i try editing just 1 item in ebay edit nearly all options have dissappeared

[flowerpower37-uk]

I totally agree with you - when we sellers had to pay fees I was always aghast that ebay charged tax on postage costs when actually as far as i am aware royal mail stamps are tax free or already included in the royal mail price.

I did notice that ebay do not actually specific what their standard tracked service is. it could be 24hr, 48 hr - does this include signature, age verification, is it just a signed for package ????????? Who knows as ebay have not been very transparent with what we or our customers are actually going to be paying for. Small parcel is a standard service that Royal Mail provide acrioss the UK and this is an option that ebay should be providing for shipping. something smells very fishy that we can send a small parcel through royal mail but we cannot actually pay for small parcel via ebay - we or our customers are being overcharged fopr a service and I question whether this is miss selling of a product / service??????

[drag0n_fire]

Very helpful. Thank you.  It does seem that ebay IT guys haven't got a 'scooby doo' what they are doing and nothing was tested before releasing into a live system. Still the CEO stated on her message last week that everyones life will be easier with SD. She obviously went to the same school as Trump

[flowerpower37-uk]

Scooby doo would have worked it out just perfect!!!!!!! Solved every puzzle there was !!!! - i am waiting with baited breath to see what chaos actually happens on 15th - i hope that ebay have a re-think on this and pause and re-wind - but i will not hold my breath

[drag0n_fire]

Good points and I think it is deffo a form of miss selling by not being transparent, which will come back to bite them in due course. On the CEO's message last week she said buyers would benefit from a discount of up to 20% on postage costs but on my 2 SD parcels they overcharged the buyer. It would appear that they have negotiated a discount with RM but ebay are keeping the difference. You would have thought that a multi million pound/dollar organisation would run system upgrades/changes through their lawyers.

[serendipity2468]

At the end of the day surely all eBay really care about is matching the young pretender, Vinted, who they seem to be running scared of. No seller fees & buyer pays the fees have already been copied which just leaves the postage. And Vinted don’t do small parcels. Interestingly my nieces - both in their 20s - will only buy from Vinted and don’t even consider eBay…

[unctious]

Good evening all.

Getting uneasy about this stuff; sales have suddenly ground to a halt and I am beginning to think that customers are as uncertain about the facts of the changes, as well as the sellers.

Uploaded some items yesterday (Wednesday) and tried to enter accurate P&P descriptions but could not get the SD to reflect accurate information for the package size, weight and actual/real cost for postage.

I have only purchased Royal Mail labels through eBay and the experience, until now, has been 99% good.

Now have to wait for the next sale to see what is actually happening but have strong missgivings that it will go smoothly. The bulk of my sales are either Large Letter or Small Parcel, none of which seems to be possible to define at the moment.

All the recent changes feel crazy to me, about as pellucid as the utterances of the Pythia, but what do I know?