I always recommended eBay but not anymore. "Its your own fault eBay"

[baillin-0]

Been buying a selling on eBay for quite a while now and pleased to say never any problems using Royal Mail, so like everyone else do not know why they have introduced the new B/P and S/D changes! 

Since starting I have not been on, and did not like the look of it when it was introduced even cancelled a few lots I was trying to sell not knowing what it was all about. 

Keep asking and not getting any answers, why have they done it,? maybe to get rid of the small Private Sellers? wish someone would tell us what they are up to.

Just now I am dubious to list anything to sell because I don't know which hole I might drop into.

Wonder what else they have lined up??   

[department28]

If eBay wanted to introduce their own postage system, they should have been able to do a much better job of it than they have with Simple Delivery... no wonder they are having to make it mandatory - I doubt many would opt to use it, if they didn't have to...

If it really was easier - and cheaper - at least a lot more sellers would probably have been willing to give it a go. Unfortunately, eBay have made such a mess of it... problems galore from the get-go, including no-one knowing exactly when it is going to be applied to their listings, and many sellers not even knowing anything about it until it's too late - and a label has been generated that they can't use!

@baillin-0 

'Just now I am dubious to list anything to sell because I don't know which hole I might drop into.'

Many are feeling the same way. I also used to recommend eBay - selling used to be fun, but now it is just too complicated... ☹️

[baillin-0]

As i see it, its not just complicated its just ridiculous.

Not been on eBay myself since the changes, going back I would not be surprised me being out of pocket if I did manage to sell something its that daft.

Sorry to say this, but it looks like eBay must think we are not with it.

Could be I am for not seeing why they have done it.

But don't think so.    

[m25jet]

I think @department28 made a very good point when he/she said, "If eBay wanted to introduce their own postage system, they should have been able to do a much better job of it than they have with Simple Delivery... no wonder they are having to make it mandatory - I doubt many would opt to use it, if they didn't have to..."  I have to say that I think that statement is spot-on.  It seems to me as though eBay have made a rather lame attempt at trying to be more like Amazon, although unlike Amazon, eBay do not have their own extensive fleet of lorries with which to deliver goods to buyers right across the whole of the UK within one or two days of purchase, including weekends.  eBay will never be able to compete with Amazon on that score.

Personally I feel that eBay should get rid of Simple Delivery and reinstate the old system whereby sellers, both business and private, could choose which courier they wanted to despatch their items with, decide upon how much they wanted to charge for postage, set their own despatch times and offer buyers a combined postage discount, where applicable, as well as reversing the decision to make buyers pay for eBay Buyer Protection if purchasing from a private seller.  Unfortunately, as ever, eBay seem to want to control virtually every aspect of every transaction, and have only succeeded in making a complete and utter pig's ear of things, as well as aggravating a significant number of buyers and sellers alike with their badly thought out changes to the site...

Finally, if eBay really want to put the brakes on the rot and repair the damage that they have done to the site year after year after year (not that I think they wish to do so), then I think they should also re-introduce PayPal as a payment option for all sellers so as to give sellers the choice as to whether they wish to receive their payment via eBay Managed Payments or via PayPal.  Unfortunately eBay don't tend to take on board anything that their users say, instead choosing to just blunder ahead with introducing even more unpopular changes, so I doubt if we'll ever see eBay do an about-turn and revoke these badly thought out and highly unpopular changes...

[baillin-0]

Agree with everything you said.

Why isn't eBay not listening to experienced users like us, surely they can see if buyers and sellers do stay they will be using these changes under protest unless they are new to eBay.

Sorry to say as a small private seller it will not work for me anymore and if I stayed would be thinking why am I doing this, when it was so easy and safe to use before.   

[department28]

Of course, as we all know, the only reason eBay are making Simple Delivery mandatory is so they can make money from every single postage purchase...

Removing the option to sort out our own postage was never going to be popular, but at least if they had come up with a much better system, more & more sellers would begin to use it. It would probably have been 'softly, softly, catchee monkey', but surely that approach would have been better in the long run, than trying to hastily force this half-baked system onto everyone, all at once?

@m25jet 

'Unfortunately eBay don't tend to take on board anything that their users say, instead choosing to just blunder ahead with introducing even more unpopular changes, so I doubt if we'll ever see eBay do an about-turn and revoke these badly thought out and highly unpopular changes...'

 eBay must have some sort of 'vision for the future' in mind, or they wouldn't be making these changes - but it certainly feels like blundering ahead - and without much thought for those they are trampling on to get where they're going... wherever that may be...? 🤔

[andycandler]

I fell victim to these new Simple Delivery changes today.  Sold 6 items after offering combined postage, as I have done for 25 years.  Then found out that I have to charge the buyer for 6 labels, even when shipping in one box.  And I cannot purchase one label and mark the other five items as shipped.

Spoke to the Customer Service guy and he just stated that this is the way things are now.  "The customer agreed to pay postage on each item."  I pointed out that he purchased on the basis of cheaper postage.  So I was told I should have listed the 6 items together in one auction.

It made me so angry.  I am not going to sell on eBay with my fingers crossed that nobody buys multiple items.  I have sold over £30,000 of items on eBay in the last 5 years, decluttering my house and my life.  And now I have to move to Vinted or another selling platform.

[m25jet]

I suspect that you will be one of several to desert the platform if eBay insist on blundering ahead with these unpopular changes that only serve to benefit eBay, albeit at the expense of screwing over a significant number of people.  As any business ought to know, alienating your userbase is a surefire recipe for disaster...

[lucy_farmer]

'.....alienating your userbase is a surefire recipe for disaster...'

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Unless you are totally confident in attracting a new, younger and more accepting user base to replace them with.

Ebay don't want us old farts....they want the cohort of new, young, funky and hip kids who use V inted!

[andycandler]

When sales fees became "free" I knew that there was something much worse on the horizon.  But I didn't expect this disaster.
And as for Vinted, that's where I shall be going instead I think.

[m25jet]

Perhaps you're right in that eBay think of their existing users as old farts, and that they wish to attract younger users to the site in order to replace their older users, but alienating your existing userbase in the hope of attracting younger users to the site sounds like a bit of a risky strategy to me.  There are hundreds of thousands of existing users on the site - you would think that if eBay wanted to attract younger users to the site they would do so in such a way that their existing userbase recommended eBay to younger users so as to attract the next generation of eBay users to the site, rather than treating their existing userbase so badly that they are likely to say very bad things about eBay, which could end up damaging eBay's already battered reputation even further and also put younger users off of joining the site, as opposed to thinking that it's a great site to use and attracting them onto the site...

In summary if eBay continue to treat their existing userbase as badly as they are doing at present then it could actually backfire on eBay pretty spectacularly as they start to lose a large proportion of buyers and sellers to rival websites, and fail to attract the very people they were hoping to attract to the site - ie:  the younger users, who may well choose to use rival websites over eBay as eBay start to look seriously "uncool" to the younger generation with their oppressive and restrictive rules...

[baillin-0]

Hey Lucy, you're beginning to sound like my wife calling me an "old fart" 

Have finally decided to put my name down to jump ship, and will get in early looks like the amount of people going with me don't think there's many seats left on the life boats.

What a shame. Remember last one out switch the lights off. 

[theelench]

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@department28 wrote:

 eBay must have some sort of 'vision for the future' in mind, or they wouldn't be making these changes - but it certainly feels like blundering ahead - and without much thought for those they are trampling on to get where they're going... wherever that may be...? 🤔

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I sometimes wonder, the ethos of big, near monopoly corporations these days seems to be  more like milk the consumers for all your worth for as long as you can get away with it.  No need to bother with any "vision of the future" beyond paying the shareholders enough dividends to stay on the board and keep collecting million £/$ salaries and bonuses.  If things go wrong, hike the bills and prices, cut services and the value of those that are left.  Like utilities, supermarkets and insurance on-line selling sites have little competition while there are so few other giant corporations, all doing the same.

Southern Water hiked my bill by 52% this year, do I have a choice but to pay?

My electric and gas company actually wrote to me to announce that I would save £0.56p this year because of the tariff reduction (it cost them more to send the letter).  By switching to another (limited period deal) I could save a further £2.50 p.a.  A comparison site found some company that would save me £9 p.a.

Yet all of the above pay out billions in dividends every year and regularly announce another new record payout.  Where's the competition?

If all else fails and the mis-managed corporation gets itself into extreme debt, has robbed the pension fund, is fined enormous sums for irregular activities or failure to deliver their statutory obligations, then go bankrupt.  The board and shareholders walk away with their accumulated ill-gotten gains, leaving the tax payer to pay to clean up the mess.

Gone are the days when there was a vision of the future in ebay of a partnership of platform and sellers working together to deliver a safe marketplace full of private enterprise and cheaper goods for all.

Now its plain-as-your-face corporate greed, dictated by the shareholders for the sole benefit of the shareholders (who really need all those extra billions) and the message to the rest of us is Get on your knees, do as you're told or F-off.  

The tail is wagging the dog.