Am I right that Simple Delivery cannot combine postage for multiple purchases?

[gwilliamb]

Hi, I have not sold anything since last summer, but I want to re-home a few model railway engines. It is quite likely that the same buyer might want more than one. I have just found out about this Simple Delivery system and have been reading all the threads.

Previously I would have listed with free postage, packed all that a buyer bought into one parcel, taken it to my village Post Office, which is 5 minutes walk away, and let them weigh and measure it. And I would have chosen a Royal Mail service which offered insurance cover related to the value of the item(s), as determined by the combined "final value" of the parcel.

I'm not sure I can do any of that now, and I am wondering if I am now at the seller end of the situation I found a couple of years ago when buying from the US, i.e. if I bought 2 engines from the same seller I had to pay 2 sets of postage and I received 2 parcels, because the new version of "ebay international shipping" could not combine postage. Ebay claimed that was because of post-Brexit complexity of UK import taxes and eventually solved the problem by deleting the UK from the ebay.com country list for "Worldwide", so now you can't buy any model railway stuff from US ebay sellers who use the US ebay postage system, only from the few who still specify USPS.

Can a private seller who has sold more than one DIFFERENT items to the same buyer at the same time using "Simple Delivery" tell me what happened, please? (I am not talking about single listings that have the option to buy more than one item, i.e. where a buyer can choose 2 or more - I assume ebay can still cope with that).

I am wondering if I need to forget about selling on ebay and take a box of stuff to a model railway shop that buys and sells second hand, and take the hit in final value. Or alternately, sell on ebay but only list one item at a time (i.e. only have one current live listing) so no-one can buy more than one item at the same time.

[thething911]

Hello , contact your buyer ask to cancel the multiple sales & put everything on the one NEW listing with the right p&p costs & list without any ebay promotional fees & send them the item number 

[kay1426]

To add to the complications, sometimes it does combine and sometimes it doesn’t. The randomness makes me think EBay have a team doing it manually. Ie sold 4 items, next I knew the buyer had paid because it had been combined. Same day I  sold two items to the same buyer who won’t pay because it hasn’t been combined and EBay say it’s not possible. All the items were originally set up with normal delivery and I switched them to Simple. So I know they were all set up in exactly the same way.

[drag0n_fire]

SD also appears to double the weight but not the size of the parcel when combining postage, hence two items that are individually RM Large letters should often be upsized to one RM Small Parcel. SD doesn't appear to recognise that. The 'Simple' solution would be to reinstate the seller having the ability of sending the buyer an amended invoice with the combined postage but ebay won't do that because they are ripping buyers off with inflated postage costs on combined postage. Only the seller can know the correct postage label not an incompetant Ebay AI system that isn't fit for purpose. I was always led to believe that AI would learn from it's mistakes? How wrong was I.

[xyz307xyz]

It's not done manually - you can add items to your basket and it will combine postage* in real time - i.e. it's following some programmed algorithm. The algorithm does give results that no-one can understand why, certainly.

(*) or decide there's no reduction.

[kay1426]

 Manual or algorithm it’s completely random - sold six items to two buyers, all set up at the same time. The buyer who bought 4 had them combined without doing anything. The order for two, nothing happened and the advice from eBay was to cancel and relist as one lot for the buyer to re buy. And the opposite has happened to me - two orders combined after a delay and neither the seller nor I were able to request it. Which is why I tend to think it’s not working and rather than admit it they are merging them manually. Unless their algorithm is as cr*p as their AI

[hilltop_garden_stone_art]

I have just sold 2 large items to one buyer. Each weighs just under 10kg. SD has combined them into one 20kg parcel even though each parcel reaches maximum dimensions on their own for Royal Mail. I now have only one label generated and 2 parcels to send. I have tried to resolve this with Ebay as I need a second label. Otherwise I will have to buy another label direct from Royal Mail at my own expense. I do not have combined postage enabled on my listings.  I have already ended most of my listings as it has become too complicated.

[thething911]

Hello hilltop , contact your buyer , ask if you can cancel & relist on one advert & put in over 20kg so you can then set your own p&p costs , then send them the item number

[hilltop_garden_stone_art]

Thanks, but buyer not responding when I asked what had happened at checkout.  He has paid for two items to be sent in theory.  One item going tomorrow with the overpriced combined postage label, and I'll hold the other for a bit and see if there's a response from Ebay Customer service.  Doubtful.  A learning curve.  Then goodbye Ebay!

[nuggett46]

This Simple Delivery problem with not being able to Combine Post is just plain stupid. eBay have made the biggest *bleep*-up ever. how damn stupid of them to come up with a title ''Simple Delivery'' which turns out to be the most difficult thing ever. I have a buyer now who has won 4 items at auction, it is just as well we are intelligent people who understand the problem eBay have created. Our workaround which we have agreed between us, is that we cancel the transactions mutually agreed, I then recreate a NEW LISTING as a Buy It Now,  with all 4 items as a job lot at the prices she won them at, with ONE charge for postage and I send her the item number. There is a very tiny chance that someone else may jump in and grab it, but we have done this before and it worked very well, The buyer is happy, she got her coins at the price she one them at but instead of paying £8.40 that eBay wanted, she paid £2.72. It is me the seller you are pi^^ing off because I am bloody fed up wasting my time sorting out eBays amateur and totally unprofessional attitude. Come on eBay, get you finger out and sort out this mess.

[gjalp]

Putting all 4 into 1 listing will also save the buyer on BPF too.

[al158]

I spoke to eBay customer support about combining postage on multiple items and put to them that the only way seemed to be to get the buyer to use a shopping cart and NOT to click on BUY NOW for any purchases - single items included. The lady I spoke to concurred this was the best way - but did not sound convincing.

I have put a message on all my ads to ONLY use the shopping cart when purchasing from me - is that wise?

I am about to put up a fair few items and expect buyers to purchase more than one item, but from all I have read so far, no-one seems to have the definitive answer, only problems.

Is there anyone out there who has had buyers use the shopping cart, and if so then how successful was it in combining postage  and weight of items?

Please let me know as I have spent weeks preparing  my ads, putting in sizes and weights, ready for a big launch.

Thanks in advance for any replies

[xyz307xyz]

This is quite an old thread, and I've not read the earlier posts.

As far as I know i.e. unless anything has changed very recently

- if a buyer adds multiple items to their basket and pays in one go; ebay may (or may not) combine the postage amount - reports have varied over what happens - with different sellers different items.

- if a buyer pays for multiple items in multiple transactions, then you will get multiple labels and are expected to use them accordingly.

Other sellers have also suggested putting a message asking potential buyers to send them a list of what they would like to buy, and then the seller putting all of those things into a single ebay item.

[thething911]

If you are lucky enough to get  a multiple sale on ebay  & ebay's " simple delivery " cannot provide you with a combined postage label , then you are within your rights to contact your buyer  FIRST &  then cancel & relist the multiple items at an agreed price & postage costs with your buyer

[a45heaven]

@thething911 

then you are within your rights to contact your buyer  FIRST &  then cancel & relist the multiple items at an agreed price & postage costs with your buyer

Although that faffing around process works, assuming the buyer can wait until its coordinated twixt the pair of you. 

How impressed do you feel a buyer will be ? Its showing how inefficient ebay selling process is.

ebay dont want it solved, they want separate packages for each item or else they could have found a resolution many months ago.

[thething911]

Agree that MULTIPLE POSTAGE should have been sorted out (prior) to launching Simple delivery BUT if everyone contacts the buyer & relists on a new advert meaning ebay gets ZERO FEES ( free to sell) then I bet ebay will get it sorted , Remember ebay is providing this service & if the cannot provide a label for multiple sales then EBAY IS AT FAULT  & not the  hard pressed sellers

[al158]

Thanks for all your replies, I had feared that it would be as you say, with a random element as to whether postage was combined in the shopping cart

This whole "Simple Delivery" thing is a complete oxymoron. There is nothing “Simple” about it - nowhere to say how much an item weighs any more, so now I have do double check the package is correct according to my reckoning, rather than eBays guesswork. Had a small book that was assigned to Parcel Face large delivery and apparently it weighedt 20Kg the other day. Big book huh!

I also now find myself getting shunted off to the Royal Mail site if I want a pick up, and then being charged for collection, which didn’t happen pre SD.
Worst hing is that the RM site is not compatible with my version of Safari, so I have to switch to Chrome half way through the process in order to pay an extra 30p for collection - absolutely ridiculous.

I have worked in IT since the early 1990’s and in all that time our best advice was - “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
But some people are stone deaf to sage advise, the “I know best” brigade, or as we know them - “Move fast and break things” idiots, and they do - break things.

Thanks again for your reply

[hilltop_garden_stone_art]

My original prob was that Ebay DID combine postage. 2 x 10kg parcels and one label for a 20kg parcel at double the price. Parcel would have measured 60cm x 80cm x 80cm.  I sent 2 parcels at my own expense and then persisted with Ebay until they refunded the original label.  Also you can book a collection free on Ebay with Royal Mail now and put in the correct weight.