NO LONGER SELLING DUE TO SIMPLE DELIVERY

[rugbyguy1960]

AS OF 15TH APRIL MY DAYS AS A PRIVATE EBAY SELLER WILL STOP AFTER 19 YEARS.

I AM FED UP OF THE GREED OF EBAY AND I HOPE OTHER EBAY SELLERS DECIDE TO NO LONGER LET THE EBAY CONTROL FREAKS HAVE THIS MUCH CONTROL OVER PRIVATE SELLERS.

[crn303]

Well put … you hit the nail on the head.

[crn303]

Exactly. You are aware of what’s happening in your town of Wigan.

[vinylscot]

I find myself defending eBay more than I really want to. As I have mentioned, I am NOT in favour of SD being forced onto private sellers, and I'd rather they had applied a FVF instead of BPF. I also have a private account myself.

I am perfectly happy when somebody brings up a valid point, criticising eBay or some/one of their policies. eBay makes mistakes; they are notoriously bad at communication, implementation, and taking responsibilities for their own actions.

However, I do get frustrated when a small clique of individuals keep posting criticisms which are either unfair, or completely fabricated. (I'm not referring to this most recent case - I do think there was a genuine misunderstanding there, but it was a couple of weeks in the past, and it is unfair to assume that nothing has changed in the interim.)

When you've been reading the threads for some time, you come across the same names time and again, often claiming they have removed all their items (when they haven't), and that they'll never sell on eBay again, before re-appearing a week later with some nonsense story about a sale which they had previously claimed would never happen.

It's odd how these different convoluted scenarios seem to be experienced by the same few individuals. It's often simple to see that we are either not getting the whole story, or the poster has simply made it up.

Simple delivery has stirred up more criticism than anything, probably since commission was added to postage fees. However, it's still only a tiny number making all the noise, and very few of these are reporting genuine problems with it, as opposed to just having strong opinions on it. 

This particular thread has been great. of 5,000 posts, probably a third are acknowledgements by the OP. The others are split between interesting criticism/comment posts, and a much smaller number of posts by habitual disrupters, who simply want to have a pop at eBay, and think they can get their pals to pile on.

I'm all for the criticism, but please, keep it truthful

[rugbyguy1960]

Please correct me if I am wrong but I am under the impression that not all if hardly any post offices have actually signed up to any of this.

They have already had a hard time being falsely accused over things over the last few years which ended up being untrue.

People talk to each other outside of this platform so if post offices have been asked to do things a certain way surely they are able to disagree with something if it goes against all the experience they have gained and goes against their better judgement.

[wiganyankeeron]

SO WITH YOUR LAST STATEMENT 'I'm all for the criticism, but please, keep it
truthful'
ARE YOU ARE STILL INSINUATING THAT I'M LYING?????

RON,

[vinylscot]

Individual POs do not have the option to "sign up to any of this" or not.

They have all been "signed up for it" in the agreement between eBay, Royal Mail, and The Post Office. They have no discretion over whether or not to comply.

[vinylscot]

If you read my post and try to understand it, you will see that I have accepted there may have been a misunderstanding somewhere along the line in the rather unlikely scenario you present. I do think, however, that whatever the facts of the matter are/were, it is unfair, and foolish, to believe that nothing will have changed in the "two weeks or so" since the alleged incident did or did not take place.

[crn303]

Ron … I am sure you are aware that several of us understand were you are coming from.

Commentators should talk TOGETHER and not DOWN to others.

[rugbyguy1960]

I find it hard to believe that everything is all cut and dry.

I know Royal Mail have a agreement with ebay but I have been led to believe that regarding post offices, agreements are between them and Royal Mail.

That is where discrepancies could occur. Especially with privately run post offices, which then puts Royal Mail in a awkward situation.

It's something I will keep a eye on to see how things pan out.

[crn303]

Hello Mr Rugbyguy … I agree with your posting.

Whilst we can assume that eBay have some kind of agreement with Royal Mail, it appears that Royal Mail and Post Office Counters (especially the privately owned outlets) are not singing off the same hymn sheet.

Posters on these forums obviously know their local Post Offices which they support, better than anyone else so I believe them unless proven otherwise.

[rugbyguy1960]

Thank you.

I suppose that it helps that I used to be a full time postie for RM and I know one of the managers in one of my local PO's and know one of my posties and they both know I used to work for RM.

[wiganyankeeron]

I worked for both the Post Office /Royal Mail on the Telecoms' side and the
Delivery side. Then most Post Offices were STAND ALONE offices. Witch also
sold a few groceries etc. especially in rural communities. The Post
Master/Mistress had years of experience with all the procedures and
intricacies of running the Post Office. These days a lot of the Crown
Offices have closed and the small Post Offices are now seen as an "Extra"
source of income for the recognised small retail outlets. The people who
own one of my local Post Offices have only been there for just over 12
months and the other local Post Office is in a local shop which has changed
hands 2 or 3 times in as many years. The people running it aren't trained
to the standard they should be compared to 20 + years ago. It takes years of
experience.. I'm not blaming them It's down to the training, or lack of it,
by Royal Mail.. Is it any wonder they get things wrong..

RON,

[rugbyguy1960]

And maybe they use their initiative and own common sense.

[3942rick2005]

Oh dear, we are just the guinea pigs:

Liz Morton

Published: May 5 2025 Updated: May 6 2025

As revenue and GMV pressure mount and eBay looks for new opportunities to monetize the platform, could Canada be next market to see buyer fees and Simple Delivery managed shipping?

CEO Jamie Iannone's pivot back to a wider focus on consumer to consumer selling in the European market has seen the removal of private selling fees in Germany in 2023 and the UK in 2024, along with the introduction of buying fees and Simple Delivery managed shipping in the UK in early 2025.

Some of those initiatives have gotten off to a rough start in the UK, but as eBay dials in the program, many sellers have expected it will eventually be expanded to other countries, assuming Germany would likely be next since they have already gone fee-free for sellers in that market as well.

[gmij1961]

It interesting in the fact that Germany went free to sell in 2023 but nothing else and why was that ?  . What has happened in the UK is an end to end implementation of the overall experience and really that hasn't gone that well.  

A harsh fact is for Ebay and Iannone is Ebay just facilitate the market they cannot dictate how that market behaves and thrives . The model of BPF , delayed payments and SD is a fundamentally flawed as the combination of all 3 is a deterrent to any seller that it impacts. They should have paid more attention to the noise from E-T-S-Y as there is absolutely no way that business sellers will ever accept these constraints

Instead they focussed on Vtd   the boot fair market !. 

They was plenty of scope for Ebay to increase their own margins ( monetize , arggh !!) but they lack the basic ability to understand their own business .  Muppets !!!

[mermaidwiggle]

I'm agreeing with most people here and I only found this thread because I was so annoyed, having only found out about this mandatory Simple Delivery today. I've just removed all my listings (nothing major, slow burners, but they all went from £3.99 to £4.72 and that's a step too far). So whilst you are reading "the same voices" it might be that other voices didn't know about this forum. I'm another voice and I'm livid. As I've said elsewhere, I've been irritated a great deal as a buyer when I've been receiving "simple" deliveries. They're not simple, Evri is not an efficient courier, the buyer is given just two days to despatch (I would struggle with that because of the location of my nearest Evri store and Post Office), and it always takes longer than the advertised "two days" (even allowing for weekends and Bank Holidays). I'm done. I'll take my chances in the local flea market.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I removed all my items on the 7th April in anticipation that e bay would be transferring everyone over by the 15th (i know, pretty silly of me considering the mess they made of BPF dates).  However, when they started messing around and delaying things i put some items back on.  Then they transferred me over to SD but i discovered that i can still change it to custom - that is why i have put some more stuff back on (not that anything as sold yet but that is not unusual).  When i cannot do that i will then delist everything again.

[parsley2003]

V is having problems people waiting weeks sometimes months for payment because of their money controller Ma-n-go-p-ay it's all over Reddit, not a good place to run to

[mermaidwiggle]

That makes sense. I didn't see the original email about it, only today's saying EVERYTHING would be Simple Delivery. I have kind of rage quit but as I don't pay a lot of attention to my listings because they just sit there waiting for someone to wonder if such a thing exists (local history booklets on niche subjects), I don't need to check them because I'll get an email if they sell.

I can't be bothered with it now. I don't want to be messing about with labels (printer died a while back) when I can take them to a PO near where I work (though I can't redirect purchases to that one annoyingly).

[vinylscot]

That's fair comment. I have no issue with anything you've said. You're not exaggerating, and you're not making things up.

You make perfectly valid points, and I do sympathise. As I've always stated, I'm not in favour of SD being mandatory for private sellers. It is very obviously not the best solution for everyone.