Lets Talk About Simple Delivery - (Suggestions for Improvements)

[mackingcrazy]

Ok so this is a less ranty post 

Since eBay is going to be making us use this, what is peoples experience like of it?  Do they take full control of it if there is any issues with shipping, in transit or lost or stolen?  How much is Simple Delivery insured for? Have people shipped expensive tech, like laptops, phones, graphics cards etc and they have been fine? The reason i ask this is becasue i sold my gfx card last night but because the buyer selected basic post I was uncomfortable using it, i messaged the buyer and he was absolutely fine with cancelling it and i will be relisting it for him when he gets his refund and he will select special delivery This seems to be the only way around it, my thought is that eBay has got into contracts with RM and EVRI and cant get out of them even if they wanted to. 

I think its a good system but its flawed, the size problem for instance, but i do also think that people who sold on ebay for years and have decent seller rating or no postage defects or postage problems should be able to use custom delivery. Or they need to add more couriers to SD, things like ups, dpd maybe, and add an express option, and they absolutely have to do something about items over 61cm because at this moment in time you cant ship them as they are too big and there is no custom option, Just my 2 cents. 

[suelel1968]

Hi @thepillenwerfer @azathothdreaming . You both make good points. RM will collect your items under SD, but the actual cost of SD will be greater for the buyer as only RM will be selected by the seller as an option.

Also Ebay can still overrule your courier choice, which would lead to @azathothdreaming having to cancel the sale and getting a defect against them.

Both things that need sorting out Ebay. (if only we could give eBay defects)

[annemann-2009]

Hello. From personal experience, RM do NOT bring the label. I'm following the eBay instructions and using the eBay app (android). 

If you've a method where the postie brings the printed label, would you please share it. Thanks.

[thepillenwerfer]

e-Bay certainly CAN over-rule a Seller choice of carrier but it's yet to happen to me.  It would help if they said the circumstances under which they'd exercise that right.  I can see them doing it if they think something is too big for Royal Mail but OK for Evri, too heavy for Evri but OK for RM or if one or other of the companies was suffering strike action or otherwise not useable or not up to its usual standard.

The difference in price with just Royal Mail enabled only really matters on Medium Parcels.  A Large Letter is 2p more, a 0-1kg Small Parcel is 44p more and a 1-2kg one is the same.  A 1-2kg Medium is £5.15 with just RM against £3.71 with both enabled, which is a significant difference, but would be £5.78 if booked direct with Evri and collected.  The heavier ones are also cheaper than the standard Evri prices with collection.

Azathothdreaming said "I've been sorting my own postage out" but didn't say with whom.  As shown above, with just Royal Mail Simple Delivery is cheaper than booking direct with Evri and there's no 30p to pay for an RM collection if that's who they are using.  Of course they may be using a different company entirely that is cheaper, though I'm not aware of one who also collects.

[goodibags]

They could certainly avoid sellers picking up a defect against them for cancelling a sale for no other reason than Ebay meddling with their listing - see the guy being asked to send a car bonnet in the post!

@thepillenwerfer 

They certainly didn't switch courier last weekend after being notified there was a problem with RM tracked 48 prefixes being 'not usable'. Likewise, you'd kind of hope they'd only switch based on a possible too high weight or a too large parcel IF they were confident the seller had got this wrong. Otherwise they might be switching away from the right courier to use to the wrong one.

[goodibags]

I'll admit that car bonnet postage case sounds a bit far-fetched. I'd speculate that the seller may have had 'Collection ONLY' in the item title but let a postage option slip in further down?

Goodness knows why a buyer thought it would arrive in the post, for just £4.90? Overdosing on Bargain Hunt?

Feels like a perfect storm requiring a Sloppy Seller, an Optimistic Buyer and extra Simple Delivery on top.

Proper chaos needs all 3 working in perfect harmony? 😁

[thepillenwerfer]

I don't use the app as I don't own a device new enough to be able to run it.  I've never seen the point either when I can go to the e-Bay web-site using my 'phone/tablet's browser.

On the web-site after clicking to get the label and then book collection there doesn't seem to be a way to NOT have the postman bring a label.  The confirmation e-mail from Royal Mail also states that they'll be bringing one.

I've had no problems with it; the last time I used it was on Thursday and the parcels were collected on Friday.  It's possible that it wasn't working properly when you last tried it and has since been fixed.

[annemann-2009]

Ok thanks. So the problem(s) may be when using the app rather than in browser. Interesting...

[edwardian-dreams]

My suggestion to eBay

 Is make simple delivery for items under £20 optional and ALL items with a large letter too

anyway im of on holiday 

I won’t miss nothing 

might relist stuff  on returning boring company  whatever 

[retroman303]

"e-Bay certainly CAN over-rule a Seller choice of carrier but it's yet to happen to me. It would help if they said the circumstances under which they'd exercise that right."

It would, but they won't. I asked one of the Community managers if they could provide a list of circumstances in which eBay would override the seller's (or, indeed, buyer's) choice, bur drew a blank, unsurprisingly.

I'd like to try the option for home collection by RM, especially if it's at no extra cost (although some members are saying it costs 30p, so I don't know what the score is there), but posts like #22 by annemann-2009 concern me. I don't have a printer, so would need the postie to bring the label unless they had a portable label printer with them and could print it there and then from my QR code. I wouldn't want to wait in for a collection only for the postie to turn up (if they do - some sellers have reported non-shows) with no label or the means to produce one. It would be inconvenient and frustrating for me as well as causing a delay for the buyer in receiving their item. I'm probably better off taking the item to the Post Office myself for the time being, as RM collection still looks hit and miss.

[retroman303]

Like many others, my 'prehistoric' Android 9 phone doesn't support the new version of the app, but according to some members (tressygirl for example), the app lacks several features available on the mobile/desktop site.

Sorry to read you've had problems with RM (not) bringing your labels.

[retroman303]

All of our sensible suggestions like yours are falling on deaf ears (or ears with eBay's fingers planted firmly inside).

Enjoy your break from the asylum!

[thepillenwerfer]

When Simple Delivery started you couldn't organise a collection through e-Bay and had to do so through the Royal Mail web-site and pay the 30p fee.  Now you can book it through e-Bay for free.  As I said above there doesn't seem to be a way to have an item collected and the postman NOT bring a label.  The only exception is if you leave parcels in a Safe Place for collection in which case they can only bring one label — not surprising really as if there were several parcels to go they wouldn't know which label to stick on which.

I've had no problems with this, or any part of Simple Delivery, thus far.

Collections not taking place could be down to a strange quirk of the system — this is e-Bay after all.  After booking the collection, and it apparently being confirmed, you still have to open the Simple Delivery label by clicking the big blue button even though you aren't going to do anything with it.  At that point an e-mail will arrive from RM confirming both the collection and that the postman will be bring the label.  If people aren't clicking the blue button, as there's no obvious reason to, that may be why their expected collections aren't taking place.

[thepillenwerfer]

Android 9?  How very flash.  I'm on 6 on my mobile and 5 on my tablet.

[retroman303]

What? You dinosaur! How can you even live with an Android 6 phone? You have my fullest sympathy!

Thanks for your other helpful post - I'm going to have to start keeping things like that in a separate document to refer to. I'm sure I'd forget otherwise to open the SD label after, as you say, apparently completing the collection booking. That is indeed a quirk. I'd be less gracious to eBay, and call it a bug. I wonder how many people have had non-shows because they didn't know they had to perform that additional action? It's far from intuitive.

Also, I know I'm being very thick here and missing something obvious, but how can you book a collection when you're only listing the item and don't know when, or even if, the item will sell? It must be that the option to book collection appears when the item has sold. As you can tell, this is all new to me. It doesn't help that I'm away from my laptop until later today, and trying to do, or even view, things on my phone screen is more difficult.

I've put my listing live without selecting the option for RM collection, but may change it later to try and suss it all out. I assume that this is not a revision that eBay would for.

I know that you're pretty keen on SD. I'll no doubt grow to like some aspects of it the more I use it and get accustomed to it, but I'm not where you're at yet, and I still firmly believe it should be optional, not that my opinion will change anything.

Btw, after much um-ing and ah-ing, I decided to ignore eBay's recommendation, and selected Medium parcel up to 20kg (so annoying that the weight bands are up to 1kg, up to 2kg, then jump to up to 20kg - my item is only about 3kg). I really don't want to take any risks with this item (I know you'd counter with "There is no risk"), and because this is only my second listing since SD and other changes were brought in - and because I've had quite a long selling hiatus - I feel like I'm having to learn the ropes all over again. The medium label only costs a couple of quid more, and I've at least got the peace of mind that it covers all the dimensions and weight. I'll use the recommended option for a cheaper item when I'm more confident in my listing practices. Nevertheless, I genuinely appreciate your input.

Just looked up your username, as I was curious. I knew that "Werfer" from "werfen" is German for "thrower", but wasn't sure about "Pillen", although I suspected it meant "pills". Whenever I saw your username, I somehow had conflicting mental images of a Highlander tossing the caber and somebody throwing pills around! At least I know now!

[lucy_farmer]

'Just looked up your username, as I was curious.'

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Ha! I had to look it up as well 😂

Interesting stuff about the subs....

[thepillenwerfer]

You do indeed book the collection after an item has sold, and you've been paid.  When you click the thing to get the label or QR code you'll see this:—

If you wish to only use Royal Mail make sure you've switched Evri off here:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/ship/prf.  Click Edit to the right of the first line.

I was as un-keen on Simple Delivery as anybody when it was announced but after reading the available information and using it as intended rather than trying to bend it to my will I think it's great.  I'll admit it would be different if I sold a lot of very small low-value things but I rarely do.  My attitude has long been that if something is worth so little that it isn't worth sending tracked it isn't worth messing about selling and the risk of ending-up out-of-pocket on the outward postage in the event of having to give a refund isn't justified by the small reward.

If you want to up the postage band for peace-of-mind that's your choice and fair enough — and is similar to my attitude with small, low value things as mentioned above.  The only problem with that is if you get it wrong, which is unlikely given the upper weight limit of 20kg, you'd be charged any difference in cost plus a pound.  This is still far less than the under-payment penalties levied by either Royal Mail or Evri and another advantage of Simple Delivery.

[vinylscot]

Thank you for that second paragraph.

I have been absolutely slaughtered on here for suggesting that SD isn't all that bad if you work with it, instead of dedicating your life to trying to find ways around it, and condemning it, in many cases having had no experience of it at all. I think it's been very badly implemented, but I do think, if we're looking or a stick to beat eBay with, we'll need to look for something else.

[sml192]

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@retroman303 wrote:

Btw, after much um-ing and ah-ing, I decided to ignore eBay's recommendation, and selected Medium parcel up to 20kg (so annoying that the weight bands are up to 1kg, up to 2kg, then jump to up to 20kg - my item is only about 3kg). 

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There should have been an 'Up to 10kg' option aswell?  That option was missing in the early stages of Simple Delivery but I thought that had been resolved now. 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"My attitude has long been that if something is worth so little that it isn't worth sending tracked it isn't worth messing about selling"

I do understand that sentiment, but very often the alternative would be to send it to landfill if it's not something that a charity shop would find easy to sell, and I know I'm not the only one who finds that unpalatable.  Particularly with vintage items, many people are loath to throw away something that might be just the thing that another person wants.  I agree though that it does sometimes seem like a lot of work for very little reward.  The reward only comes when (if!) the item sells and you know you're passing it on to a good home.

[thepillenwerfer]

I absolutely agree with that, which is why I've still got so much junk.😆  Making money is quite often low on my on my list of reasons for selling something on e-Bay — I'm more interested in making cubic feet than pounds, shillings and pence and, as you say, it's better for somebody else to have something I don't want and any price achieved is more than the 'bin-men would give me.  The removal of Seller Fees makes me more inclined to list cheap things; in the past if something sold for 99p and cost £5.50 to send the fees would have been £1.10 so I'd be paying e-Bay 11p to get rid.

What I'd do though if I can across something like album of old postcards or a box of coins is list them like that rather than each individual card or coin.  I may make less money but also have a lot less work and potential humbug and not be saddled with some at the end that there was no demand for.  Besides that being charged £3.38 to receive such a lot is more palatable than over a pound, even with custom postage, for a single item.  I certainly did that with my late Mother's knitting patterns and the Buyer seemed quite happy with the excitement of not knowing exactly what they'd get, the listing photos having only showed a sample.