Yet Another Simple Delivery Complaint. Sorry.

[fuddyfudpucker]

Had a bit of a holiday from  eBay and have just jumped back in. I probably sell mostly Blu Rays and CD's from my own extensive collection. I only ever used Royal Mail for postage, choosing to drop off at my local Post Office. Padded envelopes are my preferred postal option and, depending on weight or value ( Usually always below £20 ), postage costs would be either be £1.55 ( Below 100g ) or £1.90 ( Over 100g ).  I used to be able to purchase postage at the Post Office and then I did start using the online option with a downloadable QR Code. Either option always gave me a proof of postage, not that I ever had cause to claim when using Royal Mail. All good.

So, apologies if already discussed, why is there an overcharging on Simple Delivery for what is exactly the same option that I was using before? A £12 sale will cost the buyer, or me, £2.72 now, whether under or over 100g in weight, yet compensation is still the same £20. If I just took a sale to the P.O.  and bought postage there, it would only be the true cost of sending it. What are eBay offering for an extra £1.17 that is so very special and are Royal Mail in on it?

I feel like I'm in one of my movies, where a hood walks into my shop and tells me I must pay him money or he'll ruin my business. It just doesn't seem very ethical to me.  Does anybody know if The Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has had a sniff of this? If it is simply a case of eBay wanting to make more money, then at least be honest about it. I would prefer that they said, "We are going to reintroduce a selling fee" rather than the garbled non-sensical Simple Delivery that they have introduced, and seemingly they did so with a straight face.  

[xyz307xyz]

Click View listings next to my name - there should be one listing of a doll dress with custom postage.

What have you entered in these boxes? In addition to what I mentioned in message #10 the weight needs to be no more than 100g, I think.

[xyz307xyz]

And I'm using a web browser, not the app. If you can try in a web browser.

[edwardian-dreams]

I've tried stamps, coins, doll clothing, events tickets and more.  
——-

I get a default custom postage for all these and more 

They are all on ebays exempt from SD list

Maybe contact customer services and get them to find out why custom does not come up for you

because frankly it’s not on ! 
🙄🙄🙄🙄

[worribeads]

Thank you but I just don't get that default option. Only Simple Delivery comes up. 

As for contacting customer services, I've tried every way: live chat, email and phone.  A friendly agent in Ireland said she was unaware of the problem but would get the shipping team to phone me.  Still waiting. The most hopeful response was this email on 26 June:  Here's the copy and paste: 

"Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service regarding shipping issues.  Yes we have received a response from the team. Please let me address this from my end. This has been identified as an ongoing bug on the eBay UK site. I would like to share that I’m extremely sorry for the inconvenience it has caused to you. The issue you are facing is due to a known issue and confirmed technical issue on eBay and we have coordinated with our Technical Team, they have informed us that they are currently resolving this in high priority and it will be resolved soon. In the meantime, I would request you to please select the label which is ""recommended" while listing the item so that in case of any problems on your end with the post office, we can take care of it for you.  I would request you to please bear with us as many users have reached us regarding this issue and we have taken this at top priority so that this can be resolved as soon as possible. We appreciate your understanding and patience in this matter.  Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service and have a brilliant day ahead!!" 

Well, obviously you and others ARE getting the custom postage option with no problems, but this response (plus many complaints on this site and elsewhere) is proof that I'm not alone. And how many of you believe that  ebay "can take care of it" for me if I select the recommended label i.e. Simple Delivery £2.70 and then try to persuade my friendly post office gentleman to let me somehow post my little, light, 'eligible for Custom postage' item as Large Letter up to 100g for £1.55? And it does reduce the chance of selling when the postage is over £1 more on top of the Buyer Protection fee.

So I'm grateful for all the responses so far, and I'll try any suggestions, but currently the only option that comes up (on either desktop or laptop)  is Simple Delivery.  There must be a solution, mustn't there?  Have a great day!

[edwardian-dreams]

I would request you to please select the label which is ""recommended" while listing the item so that in case of any problems on your end with the post office, we can take care of it for you.

—- that doesn’t make any sense to me in the context of your situation 

anyway 

only other possibility that might work is find another listing with custom postage with an item same as yours and click sell one like this it may copy their postage 

possible/maybe/wishing …..that’s what eBay s about every day now with its shipping fiasco 

[worribeads]

Thank you but those boxes don't come up.  I see only :

Package size

Large letter

Up to 1 kg large letter, 35 x 25 x 2.5 cm (plus Small Parcel and Medium Parcel)

Domestic postage

Simple delivery

[xyz307xyz]

What item price have you entered at this stage?

[worribeads]

Thank you but no. Simple Delivery is the only option and that offers Large letter up to 1kg £2.70 /Small parcel up to 1kg £2.94 / Small parcel up to 2kg £3.38, and 4 prices for MediumParcel depending on weight.

[worribeads]

£2.80.  Sorry, no more replies tonight as worn out  both from writing and from watching England ladies lose their Women's Euro match!

[xyz307xyz]

So what happened to the £1000 CS told you or over £750 I told you in messages 9 and 10?

[3942rick2005]

At the risk of repeating myself - use my workaround ( it is so good that customer service are now spouting it as their own solution!) it applies to all items that only let you use simple delivery. It is easy enough to follow then you get the choices that I posted at message 20.

Follow the steps exactly as I posted ( after dropping the price back down to your listing price the oversize is retained ( just leave it as overweight/oversized, it doesn't matter as you are selecting your own postage) along with custom postage as at message 20 above) I presume that there is a postage option amongst the full list that suits you.

Workaround again:

[worribeads]

Sorry you had to repeat your message.  I just found it hard to believe that pricing my under £10 items at £750 or £1000 could unlock the door to Custom Postage. How? But lo and behold and Open Sesame:  the door swung open and at last I could see what others had described i.e. the boxes for entering dimensions and the option to select other postage methods. Thank you so much.  How did you work it out - just by experimenting? Anyway your ingenuity is awesome.  I see what you mean about ebay latching on to your solution. They owe you.  I hope it continues to work until ebay fixes this shambles as they have claimed they will.  They had clearly introduced Simple Delivery in a rush and without testing it.  I do hope other people see your workaround. So many have reported that they’ve given up listing because the compulsory high postage charge on top of Buyer Protection fee had made their inexpensive items unsellable.  After many years with ebay, they had found themselves excluded from selling almost at a stroke.  I wonder whether millionaire ebay CEO Jamie Iannone (jamie@ebay.com) (apparently) or ebay uk CEO Eve Williams (can’t find an email address) even knew or cared, or whether the extra profit made by Simple Delivery was all they cared about. Can they, honestly, justify that additional money-making change after generating all that extra profit from the spurious “Buyer Protection” fee? As someone else has commented, ebay has become greedbay. "Have a great day".

[worribeads]

Please see message 32.  Sorry, it was taking time to get my head round it.  It's still a mystery but so what if it works?.  Many thanks for your help.

[xyz307xyz]

Simple Delivery isn't available for items above £750. It's then a case of making sure the item meets all the other opt out conditions and then changing the price back.

[worribeads]

Many thanks for your help.