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.

[tressygirl · Accepted solution]

The answer to your title is Yes,  you are correct,  currently under SD,  you cannot combine postage.

eBay are saying they are working on the issue, but it has been many weeks, with no fix date announced.

eBay's workaround is for buyers to buy all items,  and the seller to make a partial refund for the excess postage paid.  Not ideal,  I agree!

Some sellers have suggested this,  to leave a  note on listings ,  something like......'   If you wish to buy multiple items from me,  please message me before buying, and I will relist them together so only one postage is charged. There is a technical glitch currently and sellers cannot combine postage. '

Of course messages to and fro must make it crystal clear the items Will be relisted to buy on eBay, and the delisting is not heading for an off eBay sale.

@gwilliamb 

[andha-21]

@gwilliamb 

Invoicing is broken, there are rumours of a fix being made for Simple Delivery. But there were also rumours of a fix for broken invoicing before Simple Delivery and those rumours went off for around/over 2 months and nothing happened.

So there probably won't be any real examples like you ask.

You can sell item by item or you could list all of them and include very specific instructions within "description" to message you directly before paying if they want more than 1 item and then you can relist everything they want together in a single listing. 

As long as you cover yourself with details/photos in the relisting, an exact item breakdown then you can send everything in the same box, without any serious worries.

Off site is another option too.

I'm not familiar with your market, never went down that road, but one of my hobbies is similar. Warhammer models. Since BPF started here eBay have effectively taken a sledgehammer to the Warhammer market and it's been stable for years. Really rare items are crashing out on auction far lower than they would have before January and even the normal model lines have taken hits.

It may be in your best interest to see what your items are selling here for now, what they were selling for here a few months ago and then comparing off site. 

You may find a better route for you.

[moldosgifts]

can buyers not click the add to basket button  then pay for everything at the same time?

[andha-21]

Isn't that the way they end up paying multiple BPF fees and every post charge?

That's what was happening before the invoicing system mysteriously broke.

[davrman]

I haven't sold any items with Simple Delivery, but I have bought several including some that were combined automatically by eBay. If the buyer adds all the items to the basket and pays for them together, then eBay combines them automatically. Here's an example I just tried with a couple of random items:

These lenses had the usual cost of £2.94 each for Standard Tracked Delivery, but the combined total was only £3.44 (saving £2.44). If you offer "free" postage, then you would pay instead of the buyer. Actual charges will vary depending on the size and weight that eBay expects the items to be. These savings may not be as generous as a seller would have offered manually, but the system is automatic and only generates one label with one tracking number.

I don't know if the seller has to have "allow multiple purchases to be combined" enabled in their preferences, but I suspect not as it has worked for every one I have tested.

[lucy_farmer]

'eBay's workaround is for buyers to buy all items,  and the seller to make a partial refund for the excess postage paid.  Not ideal,  I agree!'

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I'm sorry, I *still* don't understand how this works 😧  ( Imay need everything explained in words of one syllable 😆)

If you're using Silly Delivery, the buyer has paid for the postage to *ebay*, not you.

How can you give the buyer a refund of monies you have not recieved?

[gwilliamb]

Thanks to you and others who have replied. On reflection, as I can only sell 29 items in a calendar year before ebay tell HMRC to send me a request for a tax return, which I have not had to do since becoming a pensioner, and since there are 52 weeks in a year, I guess listing one item at a time, or bundling smaller items like wagons, is no hardship.

As ebay.com programmers gave up trying to solve the similar problems with ebay international shipping I agree it is not worth waiting for a fix.

I wonder if these issues have something to do with ebay using a QR code for each item to track delivery, and thereby release payment to the seller. If ebay need each item to have its own QR code and there can only be one QR code on each parcel for the courier to scan, register import duties as pre-paid at customs, etc., perhaps they have created a problem they can't solve.

Another reason I wish it was 1970 again!

[tressygirl]

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@lucy_farmer wrote:

'eBay's workaround is for buyers to buy all items,  and the seller to make a partial refund for the excess postage paid.  Not ideal,  I agree!'

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I'm sorry, I *still* don't understand how this works 😧  ( Imay need everything explained in words of one syllable 😆)

If you're using Silly Delivery, the buyer has paid for the postage to *ebay*, not you.

How can you give the buyer a refund of monies you have not recieved?

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My bad, and you are correct I have explained the above almost like an eBay's messages,  that is, not clear !!

Sorry, 😶

So, best then for sellers to add that note on listings,  as above..... '  anyone wishing to buy multiple items to inform seller,  before buying , then the items can be listed as one, and one postage cost is charged.  I would still stress the importance here to ensure the message makes it clear the items Will be relisted on eBay .

If a buyer does buy all items and pay then wish a combined postage, seller could cancel the sales this refunds,  and relist.  Or,  if one SD label is used, then eBay would refund the buyer for all the unused labels.  Of course,  then there's one tracking for all items!

The one thing I did get right is....  it's not ideal !  😐

@lucy_farmer 

[tressygirl]

Just to add , and to make matters a tad more difficult, even though I'm not selling anymore, because of SD,  I do a ' test' listing every day since the 15th, and I can see that I can STILL,  select Custom postage,  SD is not compulsory??

If this is the case,  then making a partial refund for excess postage as eBay 's solution suggests,  will work for anyone lucky enough to still have Custom Postage!

Where's my strong coffee?? 🙄

@lucy_farmer 

[lucy_farmer]

'The one thing I did get right is....  it's not ideal'

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Your right.... it's bonkers! 😂

So ebay, under certain circumstances, *do* refund the buyer for unused postage labels...... that makes a little more sense in my S.D. befuddled brain 😵

Problem with that though, is how long do ebay sit on that unused postage money, and how long would a buyer be prepared to wait for it back??

I 'spose those are both questions that will have to wait until some poor soul comes to the boards after it's happened, and is trying to 'clear up' afterwards...

[snowylilliput-2]

Also ebay fail to understand it leaves the seller to cuminicate this to the buyer not them . Plus in the mean time the seller has to cover two lots off packing material which we are unable to cover costs for because the we can now no longer add it to the postage price . Does anybody know what happens if a buyer decides to leave negative feedback because we are not able to combine postage . If the buyer requests to cancel because we are unable to combine postage costs , again the seller is the looser . Sales are hard enough after the moment after all these change off rules which is beyond the sellers control . Does anybody know if ebay will remove negative feedback left by the buyer in a case like this or not . My feeling is there so many question which we do not know the answers to and ebay are rubbish in answering them . Customer service also can not help as my feelings they are reading from the same piece off paper . 

[edwardian-dreams]

Someone posted today they got a refund for their label  for something bought over a month ago as seller had used their own postage 

slow

as for simple delivery not combining postage that’s just awful at best

[vinylscot]

I'm quite sure eBay will automatically refund the cost of any unused labels to whichever party actually paid for them.

It's understandable that they would need to wait until the labels can no longer be used before making such a refund, but a month does seem rather long.

So, if you can afford to have some money sitting with eBay, the way forward would be to offer free postage (in which case the cost of the label comes off the amount the item sells for), and then post as usual via Royal Mail. Eventually, you'll get the cost of the label back, which will leave you exactly where you wanted to be.

You won't get the protection offered by SD, but you will have RM's standard protection, which most people seem to think is perfectly adequate, and you will have the choice of tracking or not.

All in all, still a pretty unsatisfactory situation.

[superairdrie_7]

I’m not sure in those exact circumstances, but they are quick and thorough now if a seller asks for feedback review. I had a seller pay and leave instant neutral feedback with a note ‘message me when posted!’ 
EBay reviewed and removed it within 10 minutes. 

[wintersdawn1]

I'm still not sure if the seller puts 'free delivery' on the item and then does their own postage, whether they can put their tracking code against the item or if ebay's tracking code for the postage label is fixed and cannot be overwritten...

[a45heaven]

"Save with combined shipping"

This seller offers combined shipping. Once you have two or more items in your cart from this seller, you can ask them to ship items together to take advantage of any shipping discounts.

well well then.

[vinylscot]

It seems pretty unlikely that you will be able to do this. Why would they make it easy for you to avoid SD?

[xenavsbuffy1]

With Buyers Protection and SD Combined Postage is a casualty, it can barely operate with just one parcel much less a number of them as one....also obviously Ebay gets less money, Its been a few months since most have been able to use Combined Postage and I can't see that changing anytime soon, as for workarounds....they aren't great, Thankfully this is just one benefit of having very few buyers these days Combined Postage as basically ground to a shuddering halt....and I like to add that workarounds are not an answer to the Combined Postage problem and its not a solution......as for SD all I can say is if Ebay are so proud of this and back it 100% why aren't everyone on here being told to do it? just a minority that don't conform

[thething911]

Your wrong !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ebay is refunding the BUYER for any un-used labels  so again seller's are being ripped off by ebay yet again , the only solution is to contact your buyer &  cancel  & relist on one listing  ( if they are buying more than one item )