How does combined postage work with Simple Delivery

[hummingbird-curios]

Some bright spark in CS told me that to combine postage, all you have to do is use one simple delivery label and the buyer will be credited for unused labels after 30 days or so.

I really cannot believe the stupidity of some of the answers CS give.

If you go to Tesco and buy something on a 2 for the price of one deal, would you wait 30 days for a credit!!!!!

Buyers want to buy items, pay for them and have them delivered - end of.

What utter rubbish have eBay come up with, it's so bad it's laughable. I see a mass exodus of sellers on the cards here and eventually it will affect other sellers as most will buy elsewhere in future.

Come on eBay, short term gain - long term pain

[marcusrowland0]

I think you misunderstood me, apologies if I didn't make it clear - you have to cancel ALL of the sales that the customer wants combined postage for , then re-list all of it as a single buy it now item at the combined price, and makes sure that the buyer knows that it's up to them to buy it quickly before anyone else does.

[mokguy]

I lost a sale today 16.03.26 because buyer could not get combined postate despite my having activated it in preferances, and also suggested that they put both items in their basket and then use the pay only this seller option, so I guess that its still not working. Really annoying

[theramblingambler]

I can elaborate further on this subject my friend, as a seller and a buyer on ebay I know all about their simple delivery postage costs, did you know that simple has done away with an entire weight category?, that being the small & medium parcel 2kg - 5kg range, so now if your small parcel is over 2kg it will go into the medium parcel 5kg-10kg category, not only that but if you are adding other items to it the first lot is calculated at the maximum allowance of 10kg so now you have a 20kg parcel, very convenient for them.

One other thing ebay claim is that even if an item is  over it's weight category the post office is obliged to accept it if it is simple delivery, have checked with the P.O and they say no, told ebay this and their answer was that a few of the smaller post offices had yet to realise this and  to report them to ebay if they refued to accept the overweight parcel, well the inconvenience involved to the seller is staggering not to mention the impossible task of convincing sellers to adopt this 'blind faith' method and start listing in this careless way.

 Only one conclusion to be drawn, the big picture is that they are trying to do away with the private seller.

[sml192]

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@theramblingambler wrote:

I can elaborate further on this subject my friend, as a seller and a buyer on ebay I know all about their simple delivery postage costs, did you know that simple has done away with an entire weight category?, that being the small & medium parcel 2kg - 5kg range, so now if your small parcel is over 2kg it will go into the medium parcel 5kg-10kg category

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There is no 2-5Kg weight band on Royal Mail now.  Evri does have 2-5Kg and 5-10Kg weight bands but the price is the same for both (except for delivery to a parcel shop).  So it isn't eBay that has done away with that weight band.

[st5309]

Royal Mail - 2KG Small parcel + 2/10/20 KG rates; but these tend to go with Parcelforce

[broggins]

As a buyer I have to say it doesn't. It used to be so simple - postage rates for multiple items clearly shown on the listing. Then ebay introduced 'simple delivery' and it no longer is.

Now - Place everything in a basket, ask seller for a quote / new invoice or wait for a refund. Way too much faffing around. It is 2026 and this is the best ebay can offer.

[smoothquark]

I have now run into this issue - I have listed multiple items (mostly First Day Covers) and as some are high value, I indicated Simple Delivery. I think the minimum weight limit that can be specified is 1kg. I've had a buyer who has bought 5 items and has been charged for 5kg although the combine packed weight is less than 200g! This is simply ridiculous - it is easy enough for eBay to request the seller to confirm the weight before generating the postage label. Customer support has been essentially useless. How do I go about lodging a formal complaint that eBay has to respond to?  

[wara_rat]

It's flawed and I feel ebay actually wants you sending multiple parcels to make more off SD postage. I just had a buyer buy a bunch off stuff via offers, so no basket combining available. If I stick them all in one parcel no single postage label will cover the items. I could cancel the lot and hope the buyer still wants everything as a relosting job lot,I guess but the last time I did that the buyer changed his mind.

[selective_distribution]

This topic comes up again and again! Clearly no one at eBay is listening to the chaos, or indeed even cares that it is causing so much confusion. Unless you have experienced the difficulties of trying to combine postage then you can have no concept of how ridiculously complicated it is. One thinks that if someone at eBay central were to actually experience the problem then it would soon be sorted. It used to be so easy too, until some idiot decided to `Improve` the system by removing the `Mark As Shipped` option. This topic is just going to keep on getting repeated over again, and sellers are going to continue going mad trying to work it out.

[department28]

Yes - combined postage with Simple Delivery has been an issue ever since SD took over.  IF the buyer puts all the items in their basket and pays in one go, SD will automatically combine the postage, but the reality is many buyers don't do this, for one reason or another - so the seller is put in this very awkward position of having to ask the buyer if they would mind the order being cancelled & relisted as a job lot - instead of just being able to pack everything together & refund some postage - with no need to involve the buyer... and risk them deciding not to bother repurchasing...

[smoothquark]

I contacted Customer Support who said that they would generate a new more appropriate label but it would take about 24 hours. 48 hours later, no new label and spoke to another person who said that the first person was wrong and a new label could not be generated. Also rather rude and condescending. A few days later, I then receive an email that they are delighted that my issue is resolved as I had used the original overpriced label!

I can see two easy ways to resolve this - allow the seller to declare the actual /estimated weight for each item and then use that that to set the correct amount when multiple items are combined, or alternatively, get the seller to confirm the actual postage bracket when generating the postage label. The former would mean that the correct amount is charged, whilst the second will require the excess to be refunded.