I expect genuine private sellers see eBay as a means to declutter/some item swapping for a hobby, so don't read eBay notices etc. like a business seller does (who needs to understand platform changes for the purpose of managing their business).
I'm not yet really clear what Simple Delivery will be. I will assume it is like Vinted - buyer chooses from the Vinten-enabled couriers with no choice for seller. As a business seller, my view would be that if Simple Delivery is forced on business sellers like that i.e. I have no choice over available couriers for my listings, then I'd be very likely to give up selling on eBay. I would NOT be willing to be forced to deal with unreliable cheapo couriers.
These are my views on the changes for private sellers:
overall: I wonder whether eBay (US) have looked at private sellers on eBay UK and done a first level simplistic analysis of "they just sell clothes, DVDs and books", so then come up with a delivery process for those (low value, non-fragile, non-electronics) items.
payment holds: in my view it is reasonable to place funds on hold pending delivery/up to 2 weeks. When I get paid my salary (normal full time job) near the end of the month I have worked nearly all of the month in advance of that, I then get paid in arrears. I don't see it as unreasonable that eBay enforces a short hold on payments.
simple delivery: having read through the Simple Delivery page (https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575) it sounds exactly like how Vinted do their postage: after seller sets size/weight the buyer chooses from the available carriers - normally Royal Mail, Evri, Yodel given Vinted is focused on lighter/lower value items.
In the linked eBay CEO announcement it says clearly that eBay expect to make revenue on the postage labels (charge the buyer more than eBay paid for the label), so I think it's appropriate to review the change in that light: its objective is to increase eBay revenues. The Simple Delivery says the seller doesn't pay a fee for the postage label, but sounds like effectively the buyer does.
I see 4 potential problematic areas: loss/damage claim handling for cheap couriers, access to drop off locations, items not covered for compensation, returns.
loss/damage claim handling: the simple delivery page says "You'll be protected if the item is lost or damaged from the point the item is scanned into the carrier's delivery network and until it's marked as delivered" but what does that really mean? The couriers all already in theory provide loss cover. However in practice the cheapo ones can make it very hard to claim and may refuse claims where there is tracking for "delivery" but location is slightly wrong/no photo or GPS location etc. Are eBay saying that eBay will provide materially better protection here? It might be the case because if eBay issue the label then the label purchaser is eBay so eBay may be the only one allowed to claim.
access to drop off locations: if Simple Delivery means buyer could have the choice of e.g. Yodel, Evri, Royal Mail for standard and say Royal Mail, DPD for express option, then what is to say that the seller has convenient access to drop off locations for all of those? If collection isn't available for the one used, what about sellers (with a disability perhaps) who rely on collection? Or simply that they don't want to have to be able to go to one of 5 different drop off locations. There seems to be an assumption that these cheap couriers always work correctly, but that's simply no the case: when I used to use Evri a local drop off shop sometimes they said "we're full, **** off" (or words to that effect). Lockers are sometimes full or out of service. DPD were too incompetent to collect my item from drop off shop after a week. I am in the fortunate position that I live close to several drop off / locker locations but that isn't necessarily the case for all sellers. For this service to make sense, sellers would need to be able to choose which of the Simple Delivery couriers they want to offer - no mention whether that level of seller control will be offered.
items not covered for compensation: if eBay is going to allow the buyer to choose the courier, are eBay going to have comprehensive validation of whether the item is allowed by that courier and covered for compensation? Laptops aren't covered by Evri, a laptop bag should be, I don't think eBay's categories perfectly map to those of the courier. In my view eBay already contribute to items not being insured by pointing sellers at Packlink through to Evri regardless of item category/value. When the service becomes more explicitly managed by eBay I don't think they can just waive it away (in financial services recommending a service that the provider would have known was not suitable for the customer is a compliance breach).
returns: there is no mention of the returns process following Simple Delivery. If a private seller receives an INAD return case then they would currently lose out the original postage cost they paid themselves. I assume it will be the same following Simple Delivery, but how does that work: the buyer chose the label of varying cost but the seller bears the cost? Doesn't seem reasonable. The buyer chose an express delivery option, sellers don't have to refund extra optional postage costs, how can the seller determine what the extra cost was when they never set the postage rates? Vinted seem to manage this by basically not allowing returns, clearly eBay won't get away with that.
