A Heads-Up for Private Sellers using Royal Mail Click and Drop

[ett1954]

I have just received the following notification from Royal Mail:

Important Update: Changes to eBay Shipping Rules

New shipping rules from eBay are now in place. If your account on eBay is currently set up as a Personal Account, please be aware that:

• You may no longer be able to use Click & Drop to ship your eBay orders.

Your orders may be rejected under eBay’s new Simple Delivery policy.

If you are actually a small business rather than a private seller but have set yourself up with an ebay Personal Account you can continue to use Click & Drop by switching your account to a Business Account.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

I wonder what "may" actually means.

[cobwebcottage]

Sounds like someone from ivory towers didn't communicate with RM before launching SD.

Another issue for private sellers in the long list of how to alienate 1000's of sellers in the past 5 months.

[vinylscot]

I think that may be RM covering themselves to make sure you realise any problems are down to eBay, and not to them.

Someone posted, maybe on the "megathread" that RM's C&D was being populated normally with all their eBay sales, INCLUDING those which were being sent by SD. They were having to deal with their SD items though eBay, and delete all these from C&D. Just yet another process to make it less "simple", and to guarantee more errors and hassle.

I can see there being a lot of problems if this is the case, especially for the "small businesses" pretending to be private sellers, so at least some good will come of it.

[the_book_seekers]

If you are actually a small business rather than a private seller but have set yourself up with an ebay Personal Account you can continue to use Click & Drop by switching your account to a Business Account.

I wonder how RM will make the differentiation. 

[ruby*ryan]

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@the_book_seekers wrote:

If you are actually a small business rather than a private seller but have set yourself up with an ebay Personal Account you can continue to use Click & Drop by switching your account to a Business Account.

I wonder how RM will make the differentiation. 

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I was wondering the same. Do C&D accounts actually show the eBay ID?
I used to have a RM OBA account some years back when I was a business seller, and all they had was my business name (I just used my name), name and address. At the time on eBay I had 2 business accounts and a personal account and all sales were posted through the account with no bother.

[ett1954]

If your C&D account is integrated with eBay then the blocking can be done by eBay.  As a business my C&D account is integrated with eBay therefore all orders are directed via eBay.

A way round this, explaining the word 'may', could be to un-integrate the account with eBay and manually enter the details in C&D.  This should work for UK and Northern Island sales however international sales would be problematic as the IOSS and tax collection detail (US, Australia, NZ, etc) would be missing from eBay and therefore an IOSS label could not be generated automatically.

[jjambadger27]

Does this affect the standard purchasing Royal Mail postage through eBay, using a QR code and local post office to post the item? 

[ett1954]

I wouldn't think so, if buying through eBay as a private seller it would almost certainly be through a corporate account eBay has with Royal Mail.  The aim of this appears to be to placing another obstacle to private sellers bypassing simple delivery or avoiding purchasing postage via eBay.

[jckl1957]

I don't understand why you have received that message - especially as you are a business seller.

Did you get an email from Royal Mail C&D?  If not, how did they communicate with you?
I have just logged onto C&D, which I sometimes use, and all of my Ebay orders are showing.

I did have one message when I logged on but it was regarding the 30p collection charge that now applies.

Edit

Well, I logged back in and the message was there.

The link at the bottom directs me back to Ebay to change my account type.

I generally only use C&D for overseas sales (which are pretty rare for me) as I can sort postage, customs label and IOSS all together.  As overseas postage is not eligible for SD anyway, hopefully I will still be able to use it.

[ett1954]

@jckl1957   I have had more time to investigate this today on the basis no-one else has come forward on receiving this message.  On checking my C&D account there are no such messages.  The actual email contains only one link which only a business masquerading as a private seller  or a business with a private C&D account (unlikely) would likely click.  Obviously I have not clicked the link.

If it is a phishing mail, which seems increasingly likely, I am surprised it passed all my blocks, which are very rigorous, to avoid my junk folder and which generally over-react to mails'

I suspect it is a very clever phishing mail and have forwarded it to Royal Mail for verification.  In the meantime I would strongly warn that anyone else receiving this does not click the link attached in the message.

[jckl1957]

I might have thought that but the message was actually only accessible when I logged into my Click and Drop account.

I use a gmail account to log into C&D and the message has not been sent there.

The wording seemed a bit odd though so who knows?

[vinylscot]

It is a genuine Royal Mail message. I can see it in my C&D account, which IS for an eBay business account.

If you accept that SD is to be mandatory for private sellers in future, I think this is a sensible move for all involved, apart from....

Most importantly, it is going to really annoy the bogus "private" sellers, if they can no longer use C&D, and will need to either accept Simple Delivery, or re-think their account status. The workaround of selecting "free postage" (or "seller pays"), using your own preferred postage method, and getting a refund for unused labels, will become much more cumbersome and time-consuming.

[wyntersemporium]

No they don’t I get click and drop most days there’s nothing on the label at all

[soundsreasonableuk]

This seems very churlish from Royal Mail/Ebay, however note you can just go into C & D and not log in to use it - very easy.  As for forcing people to use Simple Delivery which is *bleep* as it starts at £2.70 and smaller cheap  Items such as stamps. cards can be sent for 87p or £1.55.

Own goal Royal Mail/Ebay  if this comes to pass.

[vinylscot]

I think the idea is that in future any items sold with Simple Delivery on eBay will not have their details exported to RM's C&D account. To ordinary private sellers, that will be OK, as they will be getting their postage labels through eBay anyway.

I'm sure many sellers were intending to sell all their items with "free postage" or "seller pays" (and request refunds for each transaction though eBay). They could then use their own chosen shipping method, and make a little extra on each transaction.

However,  now you will need to manually input all the details into C&D, and you won't be able to add your tracking details into eBay. It seems a lot of hassle to go through just to avoid SD, and make a few pennies, so I presume that's why eBay/RM have brought it in.

[jckl1957]

I understand that @vinylscot 

Many of my items (under £10 and under 100g) are exempt from SD, I only sell 3 or 4 items a week and can live with printing the odd label when I have to use Simple Delivery,

Generally, I am supportive of Ebay and have chosen to keep selling on the site because I am used to it but, what will annoy me, is if I can't buy labels for overseas sales easily from Click and Drop.

At the moment, as anybody who uses C&D knows, orders are automatically transferred from Ebay to the Royal Mail website.  It's easy, even for an older person like myself, to complete the necessary details and buy a label using C&D.  Prices are lower than paying at the Post Office as well.

I can print the customs label and electronically add IOSS at the same time.

I just don't think that Ebay has the right to come between me and my use of a completely separate company.

Now, that may not be what happens.  I will find out next time I make an international sale I suppose.

[vinylscot]

I'm pretty sure Simple Delivery will be the trigger which will stop your transactions appearing in C&D.

As overseas transactions don't fall under SD's remit, they should not be affected, and should still be exported to C&D.

I agree it should be made clearer, and it won't be 100% clear until it happens.

[ett1954]

"I can print the customs label and electronically add IOSS at the same time." - As I believe international sales are exempt from Simple Delivery I would imagine it will only be domestic postage that will be blocked from being sent through to your C&D account.  That would be relatively easy to do and would avoid any hassle with the IOSS and other tax collected codes.

I must admit I am still suspicious about the email as I haven't received it in my C&D account.  The auto-reply from Royal Mail states they don't respond with the outcome of suspicious emails forwarded to them so no help there at the moment.

[vinylscot]

Does it not appear here in C&D - at the top