eBay

kyanyama · ‎06-08-2025

Another poster mentioned a buyer can choose a faster delivery - which is apparently now offered on private sellers listings. I don't have anything listed at the mo so can't check (am waiting until the some of the Not-So-Simple-Delivery glitches are resolved). And as I use 'freepost' or Seller Pays I wasn't pleased to see that if I had to pay more.

But apparently the buyer pays for the postage if they choose a faster delivery:

Offering free postage

When you're creating your listing, you can choose to offer free postage. Under your Delivery options, go to the 'Who pays?' section and adjust the toggle to select:

Seller pays – you’ll pay for the label and offer free postage to your buyers
Buyer pays – your buyer will pay for the label at checkout

If you offer free postage, you'll be charged for a Simple Delivery postage label for a standard delivery service and the cost will be deducted from your account. You can find the cost of the label by going to the Postage labels - opens in new window or tab page in My eBay.

If your buyer selects an express delivery service instead, they'll pay the full delivery cost and you won't be charged.

And:

When your buyer pays for the item at checkout, they may be able to choose either a standard or express delivery option. If they choose express, your handling time will still be the same – this is the speed the item moves through the carrier network.

Whoopeedoo! Every day is a school day!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575&st...

realspark · ‎06-08-2025

Nobody chooses Express though.

Whereas you could offer it for £1 or so extra before, now the buyer has to stump up the full cost, which for parcels is £4 upwards.

Another deterrent to using Express is eBay thoughtfully displaying the same delivery estimates on listings for Standard & Express, so buyers expect Standard delivered in the same timeframe anyway.

Not to say that Simple Delivery doesn't have its good points, it does - but there sure are some faults.

kyanyama · ‎06-08-2025

At least the seller doesn't have to have buyers asking for faster postage and expecting the seller to pay for it.

I had that not so long ago. Item was listed for 3+ weeks (after previously being listed for a month). Buyer purchased it and paid for it then asked for me to send it using 1st class. No offer to pay for the difference. I was fully expecting a problem but luckily the item was sent and received timeously with the advertised RM Tracked 48.

And yes I expect it will be a rarity but now we don't have to waste time toing and froing with buyers who want something yesterday! They can choose that option at check out. Now that's Simples!

And now we await (on tenterhooks) all the other problems to be sorted.

realspark · ‎06-08-2025

If they could just fix the delivery estimates, I would be a lot happier. Putting an unreasonable (sometimes impossible) delivery estimate on the listing, then giving the buyer a later delivery estimate after they pay is not on - and has resulted in some problems for me, including a sale cancellation.

Simple Delivery itself is now working pretty well for me. The biggest plus by far is the way the insurance for loss or damage works, and so far, I can work around delivery for stuff I can't send by SD.