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.

[jreg-fuchsias]

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@grapecr-30 wrote:

In addition, I think eBay should scrap BPF, and go back to charging a Final Valuation Fee, but at a reasonable percentage, 5 or 6 Percent, and try and get eBay back to where it was

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Its not 5 or 6 percent fees that ebay are chasing, thats certain.

eBay have got themselves in a complete mess over the last few years by charging business around 15% on average final value fees , and private account buyers nothing.  So naturally  a huge amount of businesses have switched to private accounts , often multiple private accounts to avoid the fees.

eBay have no ability whatsoever to police their site, when it comes to people operating on the wrong type of account, lining accounts, or scammers or anything really,  so the simple delivery and buyers fees are their way of trying to get private account buyers back up towards the 15% fees they want.

Thats most likely why the fixed element of the buyers fee is so high, and there is no ability to combine postage on items. 

[vinylscot]

Show me where I have called any individual a liar.

[dion5feb2016]

Don’t give them the satisfaction of wasting your time replying to them, I am sure you have better things I do 🙂

[grapecr-30]

Ok, but I don't think Business Sellers should be paying those high fees either, way too much, and I was not aware of that, but I think if eBay just brought the final valuation fees down for everyone,there might be a chance to bring eBay back to where it once was.... perhaps I am naive, but I do think it would generate more sales.... 

[gandalf_hawkshead]

The funny thing is that I found myself agreeing with you time and time again over some people’s stories, believing they must be manufactured or at the very least exaggerated, then exactly the same thing happened to me on my first visit to our post office. It even played out in a way which I would have found hard to believe beforehand. Still agree that some stories on here “feel” like they might not be kosher but having had that experience I’m now no longer as certain about those stories being untrue. 

I will add that I live in a small provincial market town that does its very best to resist modernity as much as it can. 🤣 

[dion5feb2016]

Absolutely it should be my responsibility to ensure my packages get to the recipient in 1 piece and I have done this for some time now and intend to continue in this vein. You forgot to mention (don’t know how much experience you have with evri) that these incompetent couriers  break things at a dreadful rate (that’s my experience), sometimes items don’t actually arrive and if you try and claim you are made to jump through so many hoops you could become an acrobat! I don’t believe that this BPF makes any difference to anything, evri, like a lot of other couriers have a list of prohibited items which they will NOT refund for in case of breakages or loss, so what happens then. I’m sticking to RM thanks, have done so for all the time on eBay and will continue to do so while I can, if I cannot then I will leave.

[jreg-fuchsias]

There's probably a fair amount of misunderstanding, rather than untruths.

Like politics its all down to the exact wording of the question.

If you walk into probably most post offices and ask what they would do with a pre-paid item which was over size/weight -  the staff member would no doubt think about what they have received over the counter for the last however many years. Non-account mail with a price, size, weight printed on it.  Then they check it and either reject it or if its was a 2nd/1st class or something with the wrong stamp on it they would sell a label/stamps to make up the difference.

Historically they just don't see 'account' mail over the counter one item at a time. Business account mail is pre-sorted ready in sacks on the occasions its presented at the post office.

Now simple delivery is a new thing - its business account mail that goes over the counter one at a time to the post office staff.  Something they're not familiar with and probably not the first thing that springs to mind when they're asked the hypothetical question. 

In reality when presented with an actual simple delivery item, they're not going to know its the wrong size as these details are not shown on the labels , nor is the price - so they're not going to be able to surcharge it they haven't got a clue what ebay paid royal mail.   And judging by the lack of complaints on this forum the post office accepting the mail,  does seem to be about the only thing that is working correctly on simple delivery.

[akemp1]

Please can I ask that we are nice to each other on this thread as it's too important to risk being removed? It's a credit to ebay that they have let it run for so many thousand messages. That's all the nice stuff I will say about them today 🙂

[jreg-fuchsias]

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@grapecr-30 wrote:

Ok, but I don't think Business Sellers should be paying those high fees either, way too much, and I was not aware of that, but I think if eBay just brought the final valuation fees down for everyone,there might be a chance to bring eBay back to where it once was.... perhaps I am naive, but I do think it would generate more sales.... 

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I suspect eBay are looking to raise their fees across the board not reduce them.  Judging on recent questionnaires they've sent round comparing themselves with auction houses and thesaleroom they're looking very jealously at the fees those get away with charging.

VAT inclusive fees for most auction houses are a 24-30% buyers fees, 18-24% sales fee, thesaleroom charge 5% for bidding and the auction houses usually have 100-200% profit margin on the postage.

Obviously auction houses do all the work rather than the ebay seller, so to some extent the fees are justified, but its clear that ebay are looking at this and thinking how they can get their fees up. 

[knightinarmour]

“ I am more than happy with RM and the post office and the service they provide me at present.”

if you don’t like Evri and prefer RM, then you can select RM only and deselect Evri. I’ve done the opposite for example. 

[grapecr-30]

Ok, but eBay are dealing in million's of transactions everyday,7 days a week, all year round, I don't know any auction place doing anything on the same scale....

[akemp1]

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@grapecr-30 wrote:

Ok, but eBay are dealing in million's of transactions everyday,7 days a week, all year round, I don't know any auction place doing anything on the same scale....

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Yes it's not realistic to charge top end fees while remaining massive scale. Ebay need to understand that there are other platforms doing a good job charging lower fees with happier buyers and sellers who are ready to eat their lunch. 

[enormouschicken]

SD hadn't been applied to my listings as of this evening, but I've just ended them as I don't want the roulette surprise and a bunch of things to deal with as a result. I've got enough on my plate.

If you don't want this change, end your listings. We need to make a difference to the data - number of items available, number of items sold and so on.

The only way to force ebay to reconsider is to hit them in the pocket.

[jonatjonatjonat]

It’s also not like eBay dont do anything for the fees. No matter what people think , there is an infrastructure and system that does do things

For one they provide the platform and its associated infrastructure. eBay have to spend money on advertising on Google and other platforms. Even if you don’t stump up for additional advertising, eBay will still promote listings on search engines. And of course they have to pay payment providers as well.

their fees are equivalent to Amazon and other platforms for business sellers. I’m only aware of TikTok being lower in terms of fees. So clearly they either believe they can charge more or they are charging a fee that covers their costs and makes a reasonable profit margin. Some may think that profit is too much, but that’s for the users to decide at the end of the day.

[1956glyn]

May i join in here.....this is why personally we dislike simple delivery

We set our shipping time at 5 days (usually post within a day or so) which suits our lifestyle and real life commitments.    We cannot guarantee to post within 2 or 3 days.

Custom delivery is still available to some members.......because its being rolled out in stages.  Soon Ebay say it will be compulsory for all private sellers.   A few items may be exempt but i think the majority will be included.

IF an item gets broken then its not 100% guaranteed that Ebay will pay both the seller and buyer out.     Ebay decide if the seller has packed it adequately or not and go to great lengths to tell sellers exactly how to pack their items.....eg use peanuts and double box etc etc etc  Nowadays as we cannot add packaging charges onto our shipping costs uder SD this means sellers may well have to raise their prices to include these.

I honestly do not think Ebay will change their minds about Simple Delivery as they are making a fortune out of it.     Most large companies will agree a contract with a carrier at a very very reduced rate.    

[grapecr-30]

Thank you for your reply.... I think it is important to understand everyone's concerns and why Simple Delivery is a problem for them, I guess I have been really confused by it, it just feels like a real hassle to me,for a few reasons, but I haven't understood the full implications, so it's good to hear why other people are finding it a problem 

Do you know why it doesn't seem to have changed yet when listing, as there is still the option to choose your own postage?

[1956glyn]

If your listings have not changed yet then you have not been enrolled into Simple Delivery yet but saying that you prob will be soon.       Be careful though because some have said on the boards they have listed without SD but Ebay have taken it upon themselves to suddenly change them to Simple Delivery without warning and whilst still live.

We use Royal Mail 99% of the time and it will be interesting in time to see if those using Evri under Simple Delivery will be paid for breakages in transit.    To me it appears that Ebay are including items that are prohibited and exempt from compensation for Evri.    Those who have never seen Evris exemption from compensation or send at your own risk  list will probably we quite shocked at its length.

[grapecr-30]

Yes, I have seen people saying that their Listed items have been switched over to Simple Delivery without them knowing...I removed all my items from sale a couple of weeks ago,to make sure I didn't end up with a sale that I had to send Simple Delivery....and there was me thinking eBay had come to their sense's.... Because it did say somewhere Simple Delivery was Compulsory from the 20th of this month 

[lamulady2]

This is really disgracefull isnt it & so so muddling.  I am a solo private seller.  I have vowed to reimburse customers with the TAX on them for all my new items or those which I refurbish & do a new listing as long as they pay full price!!  But postage is crazy.  1 item which was an art piece was larger than the small package but only 500 grams...& I had a label for 3,64 printed for me. Another smaller book at 2,015gms I got a label for £3.94 & I have just notice another item which is multiple pieces at !.60kg is at 2.44!!  do I use the 2,44 label & risk trouble at the other end? I see the labels now do not have a weight on them most of the time (or price paid of course) & have EBAY MARKETPLACE at the base. does that mean the R.Mail ignore weight/size?They have not charged me postage on my latest order...I must have put it post free although I cannot find the details any more...so if I ignore them & go direct to R.Mail will I be charged by EBay also?  It  seems I wont but......
BTW  having had over 1,00 mails with this heading I am having to ignore most, I chose this one at random!!

[1956glyn]

For those of you who do not know there is a weekly chat with a few Ebay Employees every Wednesday between 2 and 3.     He is a link to todays chat and there are questions about postage prices and simple delivery.  The Ebay employees have a big blue box around their replies.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Chat-with-the-eBay-Community/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Community-Tea...

My opinion is.....its total mess