Expanded Simple Delivery to be optional

[papso22]

Please read the updated User Agreement effective 17th March.

Also see that Packlink will still be involved in clothing categories and some others.

[papso22]

I have tried to change the title to Simple Delivery.  But it won't take the edit!

[jckl1957]

Fingers crossed that it will remain optional.

[ruby*ryan]

It doesn't say in the new User Agreement it will be optional. Under the SD paragraph in the Agreement there is a link for Simple Delivery - that just takes you to the current help page - which can be changed at any time.

There is a very confusing bit in the new agreement about SD:

We may add certain delivery options to your listings in order to help improve both seller and buyer experience for selecting a delivery label. For listings that are eligible, you may see a simplified listing flow where you are not required to select a delivery option. In such instances, your buyer may be able to choose whether to have a standard or express delivery service or whether to collect in store and will pay the delivery costs to the delivery service provider on your behalf. Once your item has sold and the buyer has paid, a delivery label will be provided to you.

By using the label provided to you or not opting out, you and your buyer agree that you purchase the label from the delivery service provider, and you agree that no further delivery costs are owed to you by your buyer. Any delivery costs you owe to the delivery service provider to send your item are paid by the buyer to the delivery service provider on your behalf. For this purpose, any applicable delivery costs are not credited to your account but deducted from the buyer's order total and directly transferred to the delivery service provider. You also acknowledge and agree that should the buyer request a return, you may be responsible for refunding the buyer any outbound delivery costs (including for express delivery) for the label provided to you, and that the outbound delivery costs will be deducted from your account to execute the refund.

(My colouring)

The red section suggests that the seller ('you') purchases the label, but the blue section states that the buyer pays.
Another update that is as clear as mud!

[wintersdawn1]

I have looked and cannot see where it says that SD will remain optional, please post the relevant part that you read that said that.  Thank you.

@papso22 

[papso22]

It's a link in the UA to the main Simple Delivery page.

While I agree that this is also the old page, and that there is a possibility that ebay will remove the opt out bit from that before the 17th, I think that is unlikely. 

I hope they don't anyway.

I guess the 17th March is the new 4th February!

[wintersdawn1]

Not sure what UA means, can you not just either post a link or copy and paste the relevant part?

Thank you

@papso22 

[papso22]

It's User Agreement and I can't do that from my phone.

[wintersdawn1]

All smart phones have the copy and paste facility.

If in a browser you click the website address and then tap the copy icon.  Go to the Ebay forum and press until the options come up and tap 'paste'.

If you want to copy a piece of text, you press and hold on the phone screen until the options come up and then move your finger until all the text is highlighted, then you tap copy.  Back on the Ebay forum, you press and hold until the options come up and then press 'paste'.

Please let me know if you have any problems. 

@papso22 

[ruby*ryan]

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@papso22 wrote:

It's a link in the UA to the main Simple Delivery page.

While I agree that this is also the old page, and that there is a possibility that ebay will remove the opt out bit from that before the 17th, I think that is unlikely. 

I hope they don't anyway.

I guess the 17th March is the new 4th February!

---

No really, because forced SD could still be announced after that date.

[wintersdawn1]

Agreed, I think some may have jumped the gun on this. 

The end of Q1 is the end of March and we already knew SD may be optional until then as per the CEO.

[jckl1957]

You can follow these links.  The first one is from today's email:

We’re updating our User Agreement on 17 March, 2025. No action is needed from you, but if you would like to learn more, you can find details here.

Then, from that link:

See Simple Delivery - opens in new window or tab for more details.

Then, from the FAQs, this remails unchanged:

Opt in/opt out and eligibility

Can I opt out of Simple Delivery?

Yes, you can opt out of Simple Delivery when you’re creating the listing. 

[porte2425]

Unfortunately, I think I agree that it doesn’t sound like they have actually changed anything. And if they have, it could well just be a delay in it becoming compulsory – like they’ve done with buyer fees.

[porte2425]

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@ruby*ryan wrote:

By using the label provided to you or not opting out, you and your buyer agree that you purchase the label from the delivery service provider, and you agree that no further delivery costs are owed to you by your buyer. Any delivery costs you owe to the delivery service provider to send your item are paid by the buyer to the delivery service provider on your behalf. For this purpose, any applicable delivery costs are not credited to your account but deducted from the buyer's order total and directly transferred to the delivery service provider. You also acknowledge and agree that should the buyer request a return, you may be responsible for refunding the buyer any outbound delivery costs (including for express delivery) for the label provided to you, and that the outbound delivery costs will be deducted from your account to execute the refund.

(My colouring)

The red section suggests that the seller ('you') purchases the label, but the blue section states that the buyer pays.
Another update that is as clear as mud!

---

That sounds a bit naughty to me.

I’ll admit I still don’t really know how SD really works (I’ve just witnessed it’s broken and overcharges), but as I see it, with SD the buyer chooses the delivery service, which eBay provides the choices for, and the buyer pays. So the couriers should be providing a service to eBay.

But according to that text, it seems as though eBay are saying the couriers are providing a service to seller (even though they never choose the couriers, or handle that money!). So if the postage comes back underpaid, the seller is responsible for the costs – not the buyer, nor eBay.

So am I just clueless about SD? I thought the whole point of it was that the sellers just told eBay what the item is, then eBay figured out the postage. And the extra costs of SD were “insurance” against times when the postage was wrong, and eBay had to cover the difference.

Because now it seems like SD is far worse than I believed.

It seems as though with SD the seller will have more risks of things going wrong with postage, and less control. And the buyer is paying higher prices than they should; and where is that extra money going? 

[wintersdawn1]

I hope that the Ebay Simple Delivery postage prices are not much different than I usually pay, as along with the BPF, that will put my prices up again.

[jckl1957]

Ebay issued a list of prices that apply from 10th February:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Announcements/Simple-Delivery-pricing-changes-from-10-February/ba-p/...

[wintersdawn1]

Thank you.  As I thought, they are more expensive than I currently pay at the moment, so this will increase my prices again, and I'll have to take an even smaller cut once SD postage and BPT are taken into account.

Really makes me seriously consider that ebay are trying to drive private sellers off their platform with 3 new changes which are all bad news for private sellers and all 3 benefit only ebay, giving them 3 new income streams at the expense of private sellers.

[ruby*ryan]

---

@jckl1957 wrote:

You can follow these links.  The first one is from today's email:

We’re updating our User Agreement on 17 March, 2025. No action is needed from you, but if you would like to learn more, you can find details here.

Then, from that link:

See Simple Delivery - opens in new window or tab for more details.

Then, from the FAQs, this remails unchanged:

Opt in/opt out and eligibility

Can I opt out of Simple Delivery?

Yes, you can opt out of Simple Delivery when you’re creating the listing. 

---

That link is just a link to the SD page that was already there. There is actually nothing new about SD in the new UA - compare it to the current one - it's exactly the same.

SD is currently optional. That is all the link tells us - which we already know.

[andha-21]

The red/blue bits in your post look like eBay are trying to wriggle out of SD. That the only parties involved are buyer/seller and courier.

So they create the platform, provide terms and conditions for it but can't be held accountable. At least I think that is their intention.

[wintersdawn1]

Yes, people, including a mentor have really got carried away with this, mistakenly posting incorrect information and giving private sellers false hope.

The situation is indeed the same as it is now, nothing new.