Let’s hear from eBay senior management

[crn303]

What an absolute ridiculous amount of nonsense, eBay have created on the saga of printed labels for despatching of sold parcels and packages.  Don’t get me started by mentioning Large Letters please.

Post Office outlets refusing to accept underweight labelled items and they have not been informed anything about what eBay has told us, that they have to take all labelled items.

If the Postal Office staff were to take these parcels etc  the outlet would be handed a fine at the end of each day as their balancing up would not be correct.

As mentioned before in these community postings, eBay leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to communication …

a) their staff at the customer service offices give you conflicting answers or state they will forward details to tech support.

b) no definitive information regarding despatching of Royal Mail Letter and Large Letter being excluded from Special Delivery.
Why can’t a 250g Large Letter be excluded from Special Delivery ?

c) eBay say they have an agreement in place with Royal Mail / Post Office.  It would appear they probably assume that but Post Office Counters beggar different.

The eBay fiasco experienced of BPF, SD etc by sellers and buyers over the past 9/12 months should never of been allowed to happened.  
What does senior eBay personnel have to say about this.

Any other large organisation would have a shake of mid-management by now

[ett1954]

"So that's potentially the best part of 30 minutes of my time (£5-6 after tax) on £12 sale." - But you are a private seller!

[happyshopper1982]

I am a private seller but my time away from work is still money. I earn minimum wage during my working week, so I think it's fair to value my time outside of work the same (if not higher). I'm not a charity

[ett1954]

Fair enough - but then you are not paying tax on the £12 sale so you still earnt £12 from the sale.

[happyshopper1982]

I can work 7 days a week if I want (via my employer). So when I'm off work. Anything that cuts into that beyond what's acceptable I'm theoretically on the clock. For example I helped my elderly neighbour remove some ivy last year. A 30 minute nice neighbourly gesture I thought, 2hrs later I was thinking *bleep* isn't her useless f*** son (who was working/and earning at the time) doing this. You get the idea. Every chore has a cost/benefit. Up to 30 minutes I was fine with it, neighbourly duties etc.

So in conclusion, any trip I make to despatch an item has a cost/benefit from listing to shipping Vs charity Vs tip and so on

[kl2468]

Can you please find out from the manager you say has received information about SD the date(s) this has been communicated via the bulletin system, and any relevant reference numbers so we can ask our post offices which say they haven't received anything to specifically look for them?

[happyshopper1982]

I imagine Eve Williams would have access to this chat. I know if I had any sort of a business with a forum that actively critiques the business I'd watch it like a hawk for flare ups. Admittedly the discussions are new to me, but having discovered them I don't know why eBay wouldn't actively respond to them. Unless it's part of the culture, users solve users issues etc.

[edwardian-dreams]

Users can’t help users fix a faulty and inadequate system 

that’s up to eBay 

but maybe users can help other users find their way around where eBay offer zero LARISA and or info in their help pages

speaking of which 

Dozens need amending before tuesday, chop chop 

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[britanniabug_stamp_store]

Just to remind you...this is eBay we are talking about. Ebay listening..."pigs will fly" come's to mind. No, eBay follow the market with "knee-jerk" reactions, as in the vinted saga.

[vinylscot]

I know this topic has been done to death (and I said I was out), and many of you are determined to blame eBay for ALL SD confusion, but this quote in an article in The Sun of 4th April makes it quite clear that problems at post office branches are down to post office staff failing to follow instructions.

The full article is here - https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/34280293/ebay-seller-fury-post-office-package-chaos/ 

So can we stop all the childish eBay-blaming. Yes, the changes are almost universally unpopular, but this particular problem is NOT down to eBay.

[ja142868]

The sun, the bastion of journalistic integrity 🤣🤣🤣

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"this particular problem is NOT down to eBay."

I disagree.  Ebay obviously cannot communicate with Post Offices directly, but presumably Royal Mail has some way of communicating with Post Offices.   Ebay should have ensured that Royal Mail had got written confirmation from each and every Post Office that they had received the instruction, had understood it, and would accept it.  Ebay should not have launched SD until Royal Mail had confirmed to ebay that they had those confirmations from Post Offices.

[vinylscot]

That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read on these forums.

Written confirmation from EVERY post office branch that they were going to do their job properly?

On what planet would that happen?

[jonatjonatjonat]

"Ebay should have ensured that Royal Mail had got written confirmation from each and every Post Office that they had received the instruction, had understood it, and would accept it."

From all 11,000 plus branches? You'd be still waiting in 5 years time I imagine if that was the requirement to launch something.

Sorry but practically, that's just a logistical nightmare. And even if they did respond, how do you guarantee each and every staff member is briefed on every single permutation of what can happen in a post office?

Someone new starts - I would say they aren't likely to be told 'oh these that say marketplace seller on them, you've got to accept those no questions asked'

[tommystrezures]

On what planet would that happen?

---

@vinylscot @I think I have answer to that….

Some say she's from Mars
Or one of the seven stars that shine after three-thirty in the morning
Well, she isn't!

she came from planet Claire…. 🎶

[moonlight-rhapsody]

It's a well-known fact that people respond with personal insults if they have not got a good argument.  It's even got its own term - ad hominem. 

Perhaps you have not been involved in big business,  but whilst *you* may not be able to imagine how Post Office management - on behalf of Royal Mail - could survey all its members and report back, I doubt very much if it could not be done, and should have been done.

[fantailsforme]

Vinylscot said "The changes are almost universally unpopular"

How can it be universally when it is only the UK that SD is being tested on.

[papso22]

---

@fantailsforme wrote:

Vinylscot said "The changes are almost universally unpopular"

How can it be universally when it is only the UK that SD is being tested on.

---

'Universal' is a perfectly acceptable way to refer to the impacted members, i.e members of ebay UK.

It does not mean global, it clearly does mean the Universe.

[vinylscot]

Ad hominem would be when you attack the person personally.

I didn't attack you. I attacked your ludicrous suggestion.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"Ludicrous" - "ridiculous" - and calling other people's posts "childish"? 

If you want to believe that you are not making personal attacks, that's up to you. 

I've been struck when reading these boards how, on the whole, people are polite and respectful of other people's opinions, unlike many other areas of the internet.   As far as I am concerned, you are entitled to your opinion, as other people are to theirs, and IMO it's unfortunate that you have had to resort to such derogatory terms when referring to other people's opinions.  My opinion with regard to ebay/RM/PO stands.

[*devils.advocate*]

Ebay obviously cannot communicate with Post Offices directly, but presumably Royal Mail has some way of communicating with Post Offices.

eBay and Royal Mail will have the same way of communicating with the Post Office (as a Company).

Neither will have any line of communication with the individual Post Offices.

Since they are all separate companies, any direct communication with individual Post Offices is solely down to Post Office management.

If individual Post Offices are refusing eBay SD mail, then the fault must lie somewhere in the Post Office system.