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.

[monster_hugs]

As mentioned, it's the so-called 'buyer protection fee', and as a sign of how much ebay is making things up as they go along, it's recently been cut from 75p to 10p per item.

[photochromic.kid]

It's 'GroupThink' in action. Highly dangerous for eBay. M&S tried to ban credit cards in the 1980s and it nearly destroyed them, eBay enforced Simple Delivery in the 2020s. ...it nearly destroyed them.. Will it? (let's see). Boots the chemist reckoned it was seven times harder to get a new customer than keep an existing customer happy. At the moment eBay is battering all their private sellers with unjustifiable fees.....Will these sellers stay with eBay? If they leave, will they come back...?

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[fulwick847]

After having a parcel ‘delivered’ aka shoved through my letterbox at 5.10am on Sunday morning  by Evri & a photo of a random carpark, not my home, posted as proof of attempt to deliver a previous parcel, I will no longer be buying any item that shows delivery by Evri ie Simple Delivery. 

[edwardian-dreams]

Only it doesn’t show who is doing the delivery 

you have to figure it out yourself by looking at the details in the postage section and cross referencing them with the simple delivery price list unless you know the prices off by heart 

ie it’s not transparent ergo poor

Vinted  tell you exactly who is on offer and you know exactly who  you c hose 

why eBay has done it this way is anyone’s guess 

[lucy_farmer]

'why eBay has done it this way is anyone’s guess'

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My personal opinion (not a very high one, I admit!) is that  it is to deliberately hide the courier.

Evri have a dreadful reputation, therefore they were probably the cheapest for ebay to get into a huge contract with.

Ebay don't want buyers to know, up-front, that their parcel will be delivered by an almost universally disliked company.... or buyers may be tempted to choose an alternative courier.

In which case the contract with Evri will not make money and will probably invalidate certain parts of the contract between the two.

As in; Evri *know* their reputation is in tatters  and consequently people wouldn't choose them. So it's quite likely that this 'non-disclosure' of delivery company is part of the contract ☹️

(People of a certain age will remember the nuclear power station at Windscale having an accident. Then changing it's name to Sellafield to try and hide the fact they were the same business.......  Hermes becoming Evri has always held a similar vibe to my mind!)

[monster_hugs]

But eBay will argue that they no longer charge private sellers fees... Which gives them licence to implement seller policies as they see fit. Anyone would think eBay is doing us a favour by letting us list anything privately at all. As long as they make a sale and earn those pesky buyer protection fees from someone, eh...

More than anything I resent being bossed around, given tasks to do, deadlines to meet, carriers (theirs) to sort out, it's totally dehumanised.

[monster_hugs]

Imho being forced to use Yodel would be worse. Seems they have lots of foreign drivers who don't know the area. Funny thing is that Evri handles all my Temu orders and I've never had a problem, and that's importing from China. Maybe the £4 late delivery fee incentivises them.

We're blessed with a lovely local courier who knows the area and people well. But I still haven't forgiven Evri for smashing up a coffee machine, I lost the machine and £50. Worse, the buyer was a police station...

[edwardian-dreams]

If it’s not transparent then there’s something to hide or control

[wingerlucky7]

I have now stopped my business on ebay due to 'not' simple delivery. There are so many negatives to list. The team responsible for deploying this forced system are going to lose a lot of money for ebay due to sellers leaving.

[its_a_cats_life]

I found the option to deselect Evri and keep only Royal Mail.

When I did this the cost went up from £2.70 to £2.72.

So I am being charged an extra 2p for not wanting to use Evri.

Really!!!

[tressygirl]

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@its_a_cats_life wrote:

I found the option to deselect Evri and keep only Royal Mail.

When I did this the cost went up from £2.70 to £2.72.

So I am being charged an extra 2p for not wanting to use Evri.

Really!!!

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Yep that is correct !

eBay state if you are only offering your customers one postal option you are not giving them any choice ( of the full 2 currently on offer!!🙄 ) so they charge a higher postage? !

[combato1]

Same im selling mini handheld fan which i only need 1.80 250g letter fpr but ebay is chargong me 2.70 for a 1kg large letter. Thanks to this they arent selling.

[combato1]

Same here. I genuinely hope an alternative to ebay cones out soon.

[its_a_cats_life]

I have been with eBay for 27 years. 

Back then you got 1 image free then paid 12p for additional ones . I suggested to them that uploading free images would help sell an item. They said no it was a stupid idea.

Many years later we got to upload free images.

Back then you paid for every item uploaded I think it was around 30p. I suggested it would be a good idea to let you list for free, as you would list more items. They said no it was a stupid idea.

Many years later we got list for free.

Now I am suggesting that you make the Simple Postage optional.

Let's hope it doesn't take many years again!

[edwardian-dreams]

If they say it’s simpler and cheaper then everyone would want to use it so eBay can have it’s way , makes it’s money, and sellers happy and for small medium parcels it’s working ok if you’re happy or able to use RM or evri (a lot of people can’t use them easily)

but it’s not simple or cheaper for a lot of stuff that doesn’t need to be tracked or seller doesn’t want tracked, and some stuff you can’t even sell with the correct postage, ie large parcels unless you spend time with workarounds ..definitely not simple either 

not to mention the problems for people without printers or smart phones 

and now that sellers get paid once buyer pays there’s no need I can see for tracked so that seller gets paid after delivery confirmation 
I expect it will all sort itself out eventually but I agree with you it should be optional 

[nostalgia_niche]

We should be able to set the weight and size/shipping box size of the items and then it should set the price of the shipping accordingly. At the moment it just sets the shipping to what it thinks something in a particular category should weigh. Which is dumb because for example a videogame console peripheral is set to be small parcel £2.70 in the UK on Royal mail whereas your peripheral could be a 20g game cartridge adapter that should cost £1.10 to send, or something giant that should cost £5.99 to send
Getting around it by setting your item in the wrong category makes your item a lot less findable.

[ktl_model_shop]

No, it's 10p per item plus 7% of the price. As a very, very small, toe in the water, hoping-to-become-a-business seller, these new rules are destroying me and if I can justify switching to elsewhere, I'll have to make that move. It's such a shame - ebay has had a great deal going for it but I would hesitate now to even use it to sell my my unwanted shed junk. What on earth are they thinking!

[goodibags]

So it IS a kind of selling fee? If you only post with RM then you may have to reduce your prices further (to accommodate Ebay having hiked the postage on them).

Likewise if you're given a SD postage label and don't use it. You're welcome to provide good customer service by sending your item with a postage stamp attached (saving your buyer unnecessary postage costs) but you will still be charged for the unused SD postage label, as Ebay won't refund you for that.

What's that if not another Selling Fee?

[jckl1957]

Several points here:

Only using RM is a seller's choice and the difference in cost is small.  You choose RM, you do not have to choose to increase your prices.  You cannot say that a seller choosing to only use Royal Mail to post equates to Ebay charging a selling fee.  (Not in my world anyway - as a long time seller who now only posts with RM)

How is using stamps to send providing 'good customer service'?  It may be cheaper but the buyer won't see a postage charge anyway if you offer free postage.  The service provided using Ebay Simple delivery is tracked and gives buyers a choice of basic, quick er or Click and Collect.  Also, on your listings, a cheaper car with ordinary Second Class parcel post would cost 3.75 to be sent, on a listing with SD, a more expensive car would be 3.38.

If you do provide free postage and don't use the SD label provided, as you, the seller, have paid for the label, you can claim the money back from Ebay but only if you use a tracked service and add the alternative tracking number to your claim.  As your items are listed with buyer pays for postage, the buyer would eventually be refunded for an unused SD label.  You can only claim if you use 'seller pays'.

And, again, how is this a selling fee?  If you choose to use your own postage method and can't claim the postage back, Ebay will make money from you but only because you are trying not to use their system.

[ktl_model_shop]

Both BPF and SD are fees one way or another. BFP is irritating and I wish Ebay would at least give sellers the option to pay this themselves and have it included in the sale price. Anything that looks like an add-on can be off-putting for some buyers. But I can live with it. Essentially, it's just a 7% + 10p selling fee, dressed up to maintain an illusion that we can sell for free. As if.

SD is different. Until last week I could send my small padded envelope of goods worth only £5 - £15 for £1.55 via RM. No hurry, no tracking, no insurance, because the replacement cost would be very small and my customers don't need the items so quickly. Now, I'm forced to pay £2.70 for 48hr tracked. Same package, same contents, same values. Neither me nor my customers get one iota of added value. I either pass on that additional cost to my customers or cut my profit margin. In practice I do a bit of both, but am watching sales with concern as I fear my prices are now uncompetitive. I don't know what cut of the £2.70 stays with Ebay but imagine they do keep a share, otherwise why would they enforce SD. In any case, the bottom line for me is that I now pay 32% in 'fees' to ebay for a £5 sale (£0.45 BPF + £1.15 excess postage cost), 20% for £10 and so on. The sale value has to get up to around £30 for the percentage to reach parity with the main alternative platforms. As my growth strategy hinges almost entirely on additional products in the £5 - £15 price range, I feel like I am most likely stuffed.

I really don't mind paying fees, that's part and parcel of business. I also don't mind paying a little bit more to use Ebay over other platforms, given it's marketing advantages. But not 32%, or even 20%. The frustration / dismay here is that Ebay is not only making itself financially unattractive but also making it harder for me to simply sell. I appreciate that I could open a business account and sidestep some of these issues, but for one thing, my turnover at the moment doesn't warrant that and, secondly, I'm increasingly nervous about tying my fortunes to a platform that, based on recent history, might sink my business overnight.

jckl1957, I like your footer. The first example very much applies in this case - Ebay are asking us to believe that all of this is wonderfully good and helpful to our businesses, which is patent nonsense.