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.

[simocraddoc0]

That's all true and accurate, if you trust the government.   I for one do not and will err on the side of caution.   I do not want HMRC poking into anything that is even slightly grey.

[*maetrix*]

Completely with you.

Call me cynical but I do not trust anything that comes out of authorities mouths anymore - NOT A THING!

Just look how this lot in power are trying to shut down free speech at the moment & censoring stuff on t'internet - adults are being treated like little kids - the UK is being run by some very dangerous people.

Sorry for getting "off topic" but these people make my blood boil.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

One of my items has sold - it wasn’t with Simple Delivery. 

I received the email notification of the sale at 23.27 hrs on 30th July.  The email says “Dispatch by 31st July".  So instead of being delighted about making a sale, I’m actually not best pleased at having to unexpectedly jump through hoops today instead of within 2 working days, which is what my settings had previously said.  As it happens, I will be able to post it today, but suppose I’d been going off to work or elsewhere first thing in the morning without checking my emails, or even if I’d checked, I might not have had time to deal with packing and posting an ebay item.  It’s not on for ebay to give virtually no notice of having to pack up and deal with despatch.

The expected delivery date is Saturday 2nd August.  The buyer lives in a very remote part of Wales.  There’s no way that an item sent 2nd class on Thursday is going to get delivered to them on Saturday.

The buyer paid £5.58, of which I will get £5.14.  It’s free postage, and ebay thinks I ought to send it by tracked delivery at £2.70.  I won't be doing that, I'll be sending it untracked at £1.55 at the local Post Office. 

Selling on ebay isn't as much fun as it used to be.... 😢

[kath3735_wxmjn]

you do realise that the limit before HMRC is informed is a two parter, it is either 30 items sold OR  £1750 and i should imagine judging by your sales for this month alone you will be well over that since January.

[blacksea213]

Sorry just read your reply. In a way it is EBay in as much (as far as I can see) that you can only set your postage times to 2 or 3 days. It makes no allowances for bank holidays. It is possible to get around this by setting “time away”, but this is a bit of a hassle to do this every time the UK has a bank holiday. EBay should make this more obvious. I think Vinted is a week. So when a buyer clicks to buy they are given a delivery date which sometimes is very difficult as a seller to achieve. Then you end up getting negative feedback and complaints against you. Sadly common sense is lacking in the human race these days,

[me_how]

Sold something today and the buyer was enquiring about options for delivery as they are going on holiday in a couple of days.  I said I would happily change the postage to a tracked 24 but Ebay don't allow this after the listing is finalised.  So I was exploring options with the buyer over messages (eg waiting a week before posting or I was even willing to take the hit on postage cost and just buy it separately) but then I got the message "Your buyer has reached out about their order. Since you used Simple Delivery, we'll work with your buyer directly on any delivery related questions"  I'm not receiving any messages from them anymore and not even sure if the buyer is seeing the messages I send them.   This just makes me want to cancel the sale and remove my account forever.  If Ebay are not willing to trust me why should I trust them?

[moonlight-rhapsody]

It beggars belief, doesn't it.  Under the circumstances, I'd telephone the buyer to find out what ebay have said to them and to continue arranging when is best to post it.  The telephone number can be found after several clicks - if you don't know where to find it, post again for info.

[nuggett46]

I fully understand your frustration and like  yourself have always engaged with buyers on postal options and tried to help as best I can. However, I have realised that as eBay have introduced this Simple Delivery option, which basically means that eBay are taking full responsibility for all problems relating to post, we the seller are no longer involved, apart from supplying a free unpaid service to eBay, to pack and deliver the sold item to the postal/delivery handler. If the item is lost, eBay take the hit, if the buyer wants to return the item they have to deal with eBay. We are no longer responsible for the postal/delivery service. That is the way I read it, if I am mistaken and anyone who knows different, please let me know. I was having problems with buyers winning more than one item, but Simple Delivery did not have the option to combine the post cost. My work around was to contact the seller, suggest that we cancel and I relist all the won item into one listing as a 'Buy it Now' with one psot cost. This worked on several occasions. Now it seems thjat eBay have sorted this out because twice this week, buyers have been able to combine post without my intervention. That is a step in the right direction.

[*maetrix*]

Sooooo...if ebay are now taking the hit if items get lost etc etc ,is it ebay that will get the negative feedback if anything goes wrong?

....No,didn't think so.

[department28]

'...but then I got the message "Your buyer has reached out about their order. Since you used Simple Delivery, we'll work with your buyer directly on any delivery related questions"  I'm not receiving any messages from them anymore and not even sure if the buyer is seeing the messages I send them.' 

A few sellers have started reporting that they are getting these automated 'your buyer has reached out...' messages, then not being able to find any messages from the buyer...  

This really is the last straw... eBay/Simple Delivery now getting 'in between' buyer & seller. So, it looks like it is no longer possible to send messages directly about postage, without this automated SD nonsense getting involved!! 🤖

I don't recall hearing anything about this, when SD started, so can only assume it is some ghastly new scheme to supposedly 'streamline & simplify contact with your buyer'...  just when you think things can't get any worse...

Perhaps SD is worried we might be saying horrid things about it, behind its back... wonder where it got that idea?! 🤣

[fantailsforme]

Its all very well ebay combining the p&p but what if for example two things cannot be posted together.  i.e. an ornament in a 6" x 6" square box and an LP.

[rugbyguy1960]

It's a total mess. I've needed to buy a couple of things on ebay 😱 in the last couple of weeks. Both times the seller used RM 48hr Tracked. First time the photo regarding delivery wasn't even the house where I live.

Yesterday I got a notification saying there was no answer and a attempt to redeliver will be on the 1st.

Then 2 hours later I got another notification saying the package had been delivered and when I checked there was nothing.

It's finally all been sorted out after having to phone ebay twice.

What a nightmare.

[rugbyguy1960]

Selling and buying on here is now absolutely awful.

Apart from wanting to control as much as possible regarding postage they now want to be the middle people between seller and buyer too.

In a majority of instances sellers and buyers can sort things out and the platform should only get involved if they are asked to intervene.

Also, I want to be able to deal directly with the postal carrier I choose. Not deal with SD.

That's why there's no way I'll resume selling things here until some major changes are made.

[jonatjonatjonat]

They won’t but in theory you should be able to get feedback removed

they will remove neutral or negative feedback if…

• The item was posted using Simple Delivery and there was an issue caused by the eBay label provided, or the item arrived damaged

[wiganyankeeron]

Yes please How do I find the phone number of a Buyer?

RON,

[suelel1968]

At last some acknowledgement of the mess SD has caused in the q2 inc accounts. My rudimentary maths suggests this will effect uk accounts profit  by about 33m usd and takes no account of the reduced revenue from sales, which unless something improves soon will not be a one time headwind. In true ebay style i haven't checked my workings. 

"However, eBay acknowledged potential headwinds, including the impact of impending tariffs and the potential elimination of remaining De Minimis exemptions. The company also noted one-time headwinds to non-GAAP operating margin from depreciation (~50 bps), UK Managed Shipping (~30 bps), and M&A-related expenses (~30 bps), which are partly offset by a ~30 bps tailwind from FX.“

[closetothedee]

Haven’t posted for awhile but just so everyone knows where I’m coming from prior to the beginning of April I was a regular seller on eBay - items such as good quality children’s clothes, books et. Everything  I’ve ever sold has been despatched using Royal Mail and I’ve never had reason to go elsewhere as problems with them have been few and far between in the 20 odd years I’ve used the platform. Up until April like many of us I bought my postage on line via the Royal Mail app and took the item to my local Post Office where the label was printed off for me. It was simple and straightforward and worked for me. 
My eBay account was switched to simple delivery on 7 April and as it made the selling experience unbelievably complicated I removed all my listings in the hope that eventually common sense would prevail (which it hasn’t yet) and I haven’t listed anything since. 
Today I’ve received an email from Royal Mail headed Is it Something We’ve Done?  Don’t t Leave Us This Way’.   I won’t copy it all but the first paragraph states: 

…….. We hope this message finds you well and your parcels even better!  As a valued customer it’s our priority to ensure your parcel sending experience is as smooth as silk. We noticed a slight pause in your parcel sending journey but fret not we’re here to help you pick up where you left off” …….

I can’t be the only one who has received this email and it’s led me to think that if we haven’t already perhaps it’s a sign that the time is right for all the previously satisfied Royal Mail users to tell them why they are no longer using them.   I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks the deal they made with eBay has done them no favours.

Having said that there appears to be no obvious way of responding to their email as the linked address is not monitored. 

[theelench]

How about writing a letter and taking / sending it to your local Delivery Office ?  It might even be worth handing-in a copy of it to your local post office marked "To Post Office Counters Ltd".

Ebay might not care about helping destroy the UK's postal service, but some of us do.

[rugbyguy1960]

Such a good post.

When dealing with RM directly I've not had any problems.

I should have mentioned in my post earlier that both times I've had problems recently the seller used RM, BUT the postage was done through SD.

It's made me start to think that maybe RM are not being their normal faultless selves when labels aren't RM labels brought directly.

I will continue dealing with RM directly because they have been great when I post things.

[rugbyguy1960]

I had to phone RM customer services this morning because of a issue yesterday.

I told the agent that when dealing with RM directly I've had no issues but I said the 2 issues recently have both involved things brought here and SD was used.

Plus I said until things change here I am not selling for the foreseeable future.