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.

[closetothedee]

I’m sort of with you on this, although I would probably opt  to go back to the old system where I bought my own postage, simply because having sold for years I was confident that I knew how everything worked.  That said I think there are a lot of posters who have conveniently forgotten that before simple delivery plenty of things went wrong - you only have to look at old posts on here to see that.

My recent sales using Simple Delivery (feel free anyone who wants to,  to have a look and see how many) have all been trouble free, even the Evri delivery that was very slow to arrive. Under the old system eBay would have had no interest in dealing with the issue but under Simple Delivery they stepped in as soon as the buyer told them about the problem.   In the end they didn’t need to do anything as the item arrived albeit a little delayed and all was well.

I’m not saying that  Simple Delivery is problem free as it obviously isn’t for many,  but for straightforward single sales of a regular size it works well. Or a least it has done for me so far.

As to my use of Evri I’m lucky because my local Post Office is a drop off point that prints the label  for me and although I’ve always been a Royal Mail user nothing will persuade me now to remove Evri from courier list. Buyers are happy to use them and taking into account all my sales on the other site they are showing themselves to be just as reliable and quick as Royal Mail

[department28]

'I’m not saying that  Simple Delivery is problem free as it obviously isn’t for many,  but for straightforward single sales of a regular size it works well. Or a least it has done for me so far.'

Yes - this is precisely why SD ought to be optional. It can work well for single sales of a regular size - and providing the courier & service happens to be the one you would normally use, or are able to use.

But those wanting to combine postage & pack items together are being inconvenienced.

And those who can't sell due to having to use a tracked service.

And those who can't get to a drop off point, or would prefer to use a different courier.

And those who would like to choose different couriers for different items.

And those who used to be able vary postage prices to include packaging costs.

And those who want to offer a signed-for service.

And those who would prefer to use stamps.

Plus, many of us have had the inconvenience of existing listings being randomly altered to SD, which has meant having to spend time checking & amending listings, to make sure an item doesn't sell with the wrong postage/wrong courier etc.

The cheerleaders for Simple Delivery can wave their pom-poms as much as they like, but those who have had nothing but trouble with it won't be joining in any time soon.

[1956glyn]

And those who work or have other commitments that are unable to post immediately/or within a couple of days.

It does frustrate me that when listing under Simple Delivery it automatically gives the buyer the option of also express delivery......putting more pressure on private sellers. 

[rugbyguy1960]

@department28 

I agree with all those valid points.

I know it depends on the item or items being sold and the category they are in, that is the crux of the problem.

For me personally when I deal with RM directly (as I always do) all I do is go online and pay my postage at the proper RM price.

I always use LL 48hr tracked.

I can go up to 1kg in weight and use doorstep collection.

At present it costs me £3.

I arrange collection for next day. Postie turns up with a label and it's all done.

That is totally simple.

Not the supposedly Simple Delivery we're offered here that is far from simple and still on a ongoing rollout.

That alone is enough to stop me from selling without any of the other fees and costs attached to selling on here.

[rugbyguy1960]

You are right.

Since when has ebay decided it knows better than the actual seller, regarding the lead time to post a item and what postal option is the best one for a seller.

We are all capable of making the best option choice for ourselves and not a selling and buying platform making the choice.

[lucy_farmer]

Yes I did that (frogone83? I think)  but I didn't know I could look that  name up as well... how do you do that?

😊

[blacksea213]

Agreed

[pegr-834437]

We all know why its here, to make eBay a little extra money so if it became optional but instead you were charged a fee for selling would you rather pay that? Not that it would ever happen just genuinely curious.

Also regarding some of your points, eBay will state that they don't like combined shipping as it is open for abuse, people can just say they received half the order and as eBay never see it they cant judge it, signed for isn't needed either as eBay don't require a signature for delivery, unless its over that threshold anyone paying for a signature is just wasting money. The tracked service again will be to try and protect sellers from fraudulent buyers, something eBay should be doing by closing down accounts that are scummy but obviously that doesnt make them money.

BTW I was at the open event and combined postage is in the plans no idea how it'll work as it really is open to mass abuse.

[gmij1961]

This is quite interesting as the https://community.ebay.co.uk/   forum servers are picking up and old value for the user ID  rather than using the current USERID and it is easy to overcome  just by cutting and pasting in the current USERID in to the query string , in the URL  in the right place .

Technically it could mean a whole host of things and could simply be bug when users change their USERID for whatever reason but then  a "pointer" etc would have to have been created on the forum server .  I suspect when you connect to forum server it is using a  stored cookie to identify the user and that may leaving something behind that overrides any changes 

It is odd though and I have now seen this a couple of times , what interesting it does not seem to rectify itself over a period of time 

I  do have some thoughts on why but I would not want to speculate as per why 

[gjalp]

This buyer isn’t happy to have evri as the courier. Nothing ever arrives on time and thats if it arrives at all. Ive had 4 purchases go missing recently and a 5th was left on top of my recycling bin in full view and reach of anyone walking past my house! One of my local groups is full of people showing someone else’s door/gate/bin with a parcel saying ‘this is my parcel but it is not my address, does anyone recognise this location and found my parcel?’

[gmij1961]

My son had the same problem with Hermes in his area a  few years ago, he stopped buying anything that had a hermes delivery as a result.

The very real problem this causes for buyers is Ebay process revolves around delivery status and in these circumstances the item will probably show as delivered .

It would interesting to know how Ebay resolve this especially as they responsible for the courier as Ebay sold the buyer the postage . 

The problem is while the majority of Evri drivers will be fine , there will always be a higher proportion of Evri drivers that behave like this than RM due how they are employed . With Ebays preference for Evri this will be an issue that will increase 

[dunstun365]

Whoever brought in SD should get the sack because sales have declined since but even before that. My sales were 20-30 per month less than 3 yrs ago. Last month I had three but one order had to be cancelled due to not being able to charge correct postage due to SD

[dunstun365]

Why should sellers go to that kind of trouble postage should be combined?  

[dunstun365]

If you don't use an SD postage label the buyer or seller gets refunded I think but it takes too long.

[gjalp]

Mine did also, however, SD can and does work for some items which is why I think it should be optional. If you have something of uniform shape/weight then SD should work for the most part. Trouble comes in when the item is light, fragile, misshapen or a buyer purchases more than one item.

I personally don’t like immediate payment as it misses the opportunity of a multiple purchase order (not every buyer adds to basket and then goes to checkout). It makes things messy. I cannot combine once items are paid for, its a rule I have in. the reason I can’t is that I pack orders on 3 ebay accounts and a website. I print out all packing slips and labels in chronological order which leaves me a neat stack on my desk which I then work through from top to bottom. I can’t go rummaging through that pile as an error factor is increased (I tried it a few times and I ended up sending the wrong item to the wrong person with one time having the wrong paperwork as well (a huge error on GDPR!) so now its a straight no when Im asked. It does make things a little difficult when I say I can’t do it after payment because I get ‘well other sellers do it’. Other sellers are not me and don’t work how I do plus I also have an issue with my hands and can’t actually sift through papers that well. If SD is applied once a combined invoice has been sent it would be better (provided the postage cost is not charged significantly higher than that displayed of one item - ebay will have a contract with the carrier so an average should be applied).

Other issues with SD are along the lines of technology, not everyone has a smart phone (I have one but its old and I don’t use tech on it. My phone is a phone), limited choice of carrier, charging more if a seller removes Evri in favour of RM, not knowing pre-sale what courier will be chosen, not being able to change courier post sale if an issue arises with ebay’s chosen courier. A slight change would be, once a sale is made, seller could then select courier, then click ‘get postage label’ to have a label issued.

[department28]

'We all know why its here, to make eBay a little extra money so if it became optional but instead you were charged a fee for selling would you rather pay that? Not that it would ever happen just genuinely curious.'

I would have thought that the combination of the BPF and optional Simple Delivery would make eBay more than enough 'extra' money - but I appreciate that eBay, like any other business, will always be trying to make as much as they possibly can. A pity they decided making SD mandatory was the best way to do this...

Personally, I preferred paying a straightforward selling & listing fee, to having the BPF added on to prices. 'Free to sell' always felt like a temporary gimmick that would have to be paid for sooner or later. I now think of the BPF as a selling fee... I'm sure many sellers feel they have had to reduce their prices to allow for the fee, otherwise their items are unlikely to sell at all. 

'eBay will state that they don't like combined shipping as it is open for abuse, people can just say they received half the order and as eBay never see it they cant judge it, signed for isn't needed either as eBay don't require a signature for delivery, unless its over that threshold anyone paying for a signature is just wasting money.'

Yes - it is a depressing state of affairs, that honest buyers are missing out on a combined shipping discount - and sellers missing out on combined sales - to pay for the criminal behaviour of dishonest buyers.

Some sellers prefer the extra security of a signed-for service, because a RM Tracked 24 or 48 can be left in a safe place - and a buyer can claim they didn't receive it.

It will be interesting to see how Simple Delivery evolves over time, and if enough changes can be made to make it more acceptable. Rolling it out half-baked was asking for trouble. Maybe eBay believed calling it 'Simple' would make it so? 😄

[wiganyankeeron]

I wonder how long it's going to be before the rest of the world will have
this SD farce forced on them???

RON,

[gmij1961]

Given the rate of progress so far and the ingrained resistance , I would say the SD project is in increasing danger of grinding to a halt.  There are so many things not right with deployment and at the end of the day "SD" ( lets copy VTD) model really does not suit Ebay as market place 

My feeling as a long term seller have not changed and I would only willingly returned to selling if I had adequate control over postage and and any potential returns which this nonsensical project has forced on us.

I don't think this has made any easier for new sellers and despite of the so called BPF , the way SD favours EVRI are are getting a worse service as a result .

If I were to sell under this circumstance it would only to clear out space on stuff that has no significant value , so only a fraction of what I have sold over the last 22 years .  Not selling means I will buy less , which isn't a bad thing 🙂 

I am pleased that this thread is still as strong as ever which underlines the true strength of feeling about SD  and whilst there are few detractors  regularly posting ,  they are actually making this thread more resolute , which is quite funny really !  🙂

To me SD is not just about Simple Delivery , it actually includes although the other "wonderful" changes but its the only way Ebay and their project team could brand it .  Simple Delivery SD  is such a naff brand name 🙂

[pegr-834437]

The signature makes no difference though to the seller, they are covered by eBays seller protection as long as Royal Mail or whomever says they have delivered it. I'd imagine for most a signature is actually an annoyance as it means they cant leave it when nobody is home but there's a lot of safe places.

Genuinely cant see how they get around the combined postage tbh, I always say eBay just use blanket rules when they should target specific accounts breaking the rules but for this if they self insure it'll be a nightmare. Unless they really stop the linked account and do a 3 strikes and you're gone policy but even by then the 3 strikes could have defrauded them of hundreds. 

Fully agree Free to sell is a joke, it was a silly move to chase Vinted who only got so popular because eBay took their eye off the ball, they went down the SCS/Dominos route of having a promo way too often, the 70% off seller fees should have been a 2 or at max 3 times a year but instead it was every 2 weeks so private sellers (and many businesses on private) got used to paying very little. Would have been much better to just do 8% across the board for all accounts, give the first 30 in a year for free (can still claim its free to sell) and then slowly blend in SD.

I know plenty of business sellers who will jump at the SD if they brought it over, after fuel surcharges and constant Royal Mail price increases unless you have a big account it doesn't cost much more for a parcel. Theres many great parts to it, its just been very badly released. Again though they should have done it category by category and that way they'd have picked up any bugs before the whole site faced them, its like those who run the site don't use the site and certainly don't know or ever get told how many bugs are on the site.