Ebay simple delivery opt out

[cartermk]

So ebay have decided to force private sellers to use simple delivery for all listings.

Previously you could select advanced options in postage and select your preferred postage method  as before.

Did ebay announce this to private sellers - did they ....

I searched around a while and eventually got this from the chat bot:

"Eligible listings will show Simple Delivery as an option when you're creating a listing. Starting 15 April, 2025, Simple Delivery will be the only delivery method available for private sellers when listing eligible items."

The recent changes like BPF and simple delivery have been extremely irritating but not terminal. I think this is terminal for me.

I cannot express on this forum without getting deleted my extreme annoyance with ebay.

[xyz307xyz]

Did you enter the dimensions? What [sub]category are you listing in?

See this which refers to postcards, for example.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Ebay-simple-delivery-opt-out/m-p/7890684#M745612

[xyz307xyz]

Please disregard most of my previous response to you. I now see you were talking about

Topographical Postcards

not Non-Topographical Postcards

It seems you can opt out on both. If you click View listings next to my username, you can see I've listed a Topographical Postcard as a test, with custom postage. Ebay's subcategory opt out list is "described" here https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575#se... - mainly with "examples", many of which are not the lowest level actual subcategory needed to be selected when listing an item.

[seke2009]

That's perfect BUT only if your item that you are selling is the within the right weight bracket, between 1-2kgs for e.g is fine, but anything from say between 2-10kgs you are forced to pay that one fee regardless, something may just be 2.1kgs will be affected as an example which is very unfair, with previous options you can accurately gauge what it should really cost for shipping depending on the actual weight, all you have to do is go directly to the couriers site and sort out your own label and can immediately see the vast differences with the price. 

The previous process was also as you have just said simple, pick your delivery option print the label, attach to the package and take to the courier \ drop off point ect...thats not changed.

The SD isn't cheaper, its daylight robbery, and seems Ebay is only limited to 2 x courier services at the minute, clearly other courier services are not going to join in on Ebays twist their arm tactics and join their SD setup.  

The service is quite frankly very poor.

[edwardian-dreams]

SD is only more expensive if your item is over £100 I think

LL small and medium parcel rates are the same or cheaper than buying direct 

(talking about tracked items that is)

[seke2009]

You might have a special thing going on with Ebay 🙂 , because I can tell you I sold something  recently that weight just over 2 kgs, the SD charged £5.45 for something that would easily be the same price I would have paid for a item I sold before the SD changes that weight between 5-10kgs.

If I go directly to a courier's website I would have only paid £3.45 for a item that weight's just over 2kgs, Ebay knows this as well otherwise why is there such a big jump of the weight options from 1-2 to 2-10, hardly fair right, if someone was selling something thats closer to 10kgs then yes fair, but things much lighter than that is just down right wrong.

[sml192]

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@seke2009 wrote:

You might have a special thing going on with Ebay 🙂 , because I can tell you I sold something  recently that weight just over 2 kgs, the SD charged £5.45 for something that would easily be the same price I would have paid for a item I sold before the SD changes that weight between 5-10kgs.

If I go directly to a courier's website I would have only paid £3.45 for a item that weight's just over 2kgs, Ebay knows this as well otherwise why is there such a big jump of the weight options from 1-2 to 2-10, hardly fair right, if someone was selling something thats closer to 10kgs then yes fair, but things much lighter than that is just down right wrong.

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They are the same weight bands that Royal Mail uses.  Royal Mail Tracked 48 2-10Kg is £6.80.  £3.45 is only for Tracked 48 Small Parcel Up to 2Kg.  Evri does have a 2-5Kg weight band but it is the same price as their 5-10Kg weight band.

[seke2009]

Well you've just contradicted that, Ebay's SD is limited to 1-2kgs, then it jumps from 2-10kgs with a courier price of £5.45 or more, before the SD took effect there were options for a lesser shipping cost for an item that would have weight say between 2-3kgs. I never use Royail Mail (when you turn up to post something in a Royal Mail shop they purposely not give you options rather give you the standard when there would have been a cheaper option that they don't tell you about at the shop, if I go online now and looked up costs for a consignment that's 2.1kgs, there would be loads of option with just a cost of approx 3-4 pounds, however with the ebay SD you are stung with a £5.45+ courier fee, how is that fair?

[daisy-bailey]

i am so frustrated! i was a business seller on ebay for over 15 years and saw my profits go from an all time high and a huge tax bill to profits so low i had to pay the shop fee out of pocket as i just wasn't making the sales.  i am now just getting rid of stock so have items advertised as a private seller (but i still pay tax).  i noticed that on over 208 items only 9 had "simple delivery".  this costs £2.72 yet a bar coded royal mail large letter 2nd class scanned at drop off is only £1.55 - that and from 75p to 48p my buyers have to pay a protection fee.  i am so frustrated that i might just bin the lot.  i have to wait 2 weeks for my £2.72 label to be refunded AND now have had to take free postage off to buyer pays or i'll be paying my buyers to purchase from me! long gone are the days of when ebay was there for private sellers to offload.  it has been a money making machine for years now with no help to the sellers and no real "conversation" with customer help as they do anything but help! great enough if you get a person from ebay ireland then you can understand them but ebay india i can't hear or understand so frustration rises up in me again! i started working in a shop when i was 14 so i know all about good customer service and wanting returning customers BUT ebay are just playing around with a formula that was so good and easy to start with their improvements do anything but!  simple delivery is anything BUT! what is the buyer protection fee for if not to cover an item not delivered? scrounging money from buyers and making it almost impossible for sellers is just plain crazy! if i was a chinese seller drop shipping to uk and using fake vat invoices then i probably could sell my items at 10p and incur the loss but i am not! the chinese sellers used to be the absolute best and i would buy constantly but now it just ain't so.  ebay are so far down the rankings that maybe they should poll some of us sellers that have been using ebay for 30 years what we think.  going back to basics isn't a show of weakness but very soon i fear there will be no more ebay as they are playing around with peoples money instead of being the platform to purchase from.  a very sad day for me.  simple delivery is not wanted! holding sellers to ransom with overpriced postage? anyone can check the price of a stamp online or do ebay think we are all cavemen?

[manm_me_ascf8z2]

HI. No they don't - had specifically not used Simple delivery so that I could amend postage if buyer wanted more than one item.  Just went in to revise prices & found all had been reverted to Simple Delivery. Really irritating if I want to save the buyer postage costs.

[barneymerton]

Which courier would have charged you £3-£4 for (say) 2.5 kg?

I use parcel2go.com and as soon as you go over 2kg you are talking £5.21 with Evri (similar with Yodel)

[johnwash1]

I swear some posters on here are reincarnations of Charles Dickens.  Paragraph breaks like they cost money.

[3942rick2005]

I must admit that I lose the will to live trying to read some of these posts.🤣

[johnwash1]

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@3942rick2005 wrote:

I must admit that I lose the will to live trying to read some of these posts.🤣

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I thought I was the only grumpy git around here!  Welcome to my club, sit down and have a beer!  🙂

I'm finding AI helps, though I couldn't be bothered this time.  See https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/NO-LONGER-SELLING-DUE-TO-SIMPLE-DELIVERY/m-p/7892432#...

[sml192]

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@seke2009 wrote:

Well you've just contradicted that, Ebay's SD is limited to 1-2kgs, then it jumps from 2-10kgs with a courier price of £5.45 or more, before the SD took effect there were options for a lesser shipping cost for an item that would have weight say between 2-3kgs. I never use Royail Mail (when you turn up to post something in a Royal Mail shop they purposely not give you options rather give you the standard when there would have been a cheaper option that they don't tell you about at the shop, if I go online now and looked up costs for a consignment that's 2.1kgs, there would be loads of option with just a cost of approx 3-4 pounds, however with the ebay SD you are stung with a £5.45+ courier fee, how is that fair?

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Maybe you could provide some actual examples of these cheaper rates?  There is certainly nothing available with Royal Mail; Standard Tariff, Tracked, and Special Delivery are all 'Up to 2Kg' and then 'Up to 10Kg' which I agree is a big leap but it's not something that is specific to Simple Delivery.

[edwardian-dreams]

EBay only have Royal Mail and evri 

there might be other couriers that offer cheaper prices

your 50 gold *bleep* using ebays simple delivery system defaults   to medium parcel 5.15 with Royal Mail or 5.21 with evri because of the weight ie over 2kg

ive done a dummy listing 

if eBay recommended up to 2kg small parcel when you’re listing you could send them even if overweight they would pick up the tab, but they don’t in this case 

I hope  that makes some sense 

eta I didn’t realise g o L f ba L L s were a swear word see it’s been beeped lol 

[daisy-bailey]

thanks. trouble is that once the "sale" has gone through they take the full postage amount straight out of that sale so all i can see is the amount i'm left with.  i wanted to get rid of my items so at £4.99 with free p&p i thought i could do that but until yesterday there was a 75p buyers protection fee and now postage which costs me £1.55 with full tracking ebay want £2.72 so i've updated all my listings with buyer pays postage so i expect to sell nothing.  if i go back to taking a shop out again i'm down £30 minimum with fees as well (hence why i closed my shop last jan).  i'll give it til xmas and then i'll just dump all my stock as i wouldn't purchase an item where the postage costs more than the item.  also there is no upgrades allowed so i can't even put down other postage options.  ebay just want as much money as they can because their clicks and buyers are so down that i'm thinking this is probably the end of ebay.  for years i've so wished some genius could come up with an alternative. on etsy it's for hand made items yet there are chinese sellers selling mass produced items. amazon has watches that i know only cost about £1.50 yet they are up for £20.00 because amazon charge such high seller fees.  ebuy is a waste of time, my own website was a waste of time.  the bin is looking so appealing to me at the mo........

[johnwash1]

Removed, I've had a cup of tea and am feeling less grumpy.

[seke2009]

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@barneymerton wrote:

Which courier would have charged you £3-£4 for (say) 2.5 kg?

I use parcel2go.com and as soon as you go over 2kg you are talking £5.21 with Evri (similar with Yodel)

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Go do a goggle search of a cheap courier, there are sites like compare the market that gives you cheaper options, I have done this many a times before selling items that were 2.1kgs and paid at worst 4.10 the higher end before SD, the point is people should be given the option who they want to use, I know that I can make the buyer pay for that cost but for the sake of selling things at a cheaper rate you can still at least save a little on the postage cost if you were to offer buyers free shipping because that gives you a chance to find the cheapest option available, all you have now are 2 options

[seke2009]

you can do that yourself you know, do a goggle search that’s like compare the market for the cheapest  courier option  and you are given the option to add the actual weight and dimensions (something eBay had before the SD changes with now only 2 options)  and will give you various courier costs so often you get much cheaper rates.

[sunshinerose1973]

The forcing of Simple Delivery means my selling days on eBay are probably over. There’s no longer a way out of using it, apparently. Yesterday was the first time I sold something and had to use Simple Delivery. Despite being charged for postage, the option for getting a label or QR code was greyed out. I could despatch the item independently, but there’s no option now to mark items as despatched or to add a tracking number. So, in effect, to eBay the item will remain un-despatched! In the end, I cancelled the order and refunded the customer.

What an absolute waste of time this is. And to call the option Simple Delivery is the biggest joke of all! It’s like eBay are going out of their way to lose customers.