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.

[rugbyguy1960]

What you said earlier got me thinking lol.

Maybe ebay can't get rid of Simple Delivery but your idea of a category for users to apply to opt out of SD could work alongside SD.

Simple Delivery and "free to sell" might attract new users, but for active users who have used the site for say 10 or 15 years, they could apply to opt out and pay seller fees on what they sold.

That way the "free to sell" could still be used.

[jonatjonatjonat]

Perhaps they asked an audience of buyers only.  Who knows.

second bit seems a sound assumption though.

[rugbyguy1960]

Hearing that there is a opt out of Simple Delivery available would be the best change that has been introduced since 1st Jan 2025.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"I think EBay made that bit up about buyer feedback. No one who is complaining mentions having responded to a survey."

In my experience of corporate surveys, they are carried out *after* a course of action has been mooted, and they serve merely to justify the action that the board wants to take.  It doesn't matter what the results of the survey are, they can be twisted to support whatever the board wants.  I've seen it in action, regularly.

[sml192]

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@rugbyguy1960 wrote:

When I use RM for their LL 48hr Tracked doorstep service it costs me £3 for up to 2kg in weight. They bring the label and I like the knowledge that they charge me the same price that they charge everyone.

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I presume that is a typo as Tracked 48 Large Letter is only up to 1Kg?

Royal Mail bring the label with Simple Delivery aswell and you don't need to pay 30p for collection plus Simple Delivery is cheaper so I don't really understand why you don't wish to at least try it.  If you wanted to use Royal Mail Standard Tariff instead of Tracked then what you are saying here would make more sense.

[technthread]

I don’t disagree with some of the complaints about SD but there remain a lot of positives to it. 

There will be fewer instances of private sellers marking items as dispatched and not sending them out. There should be fewer buyers ringing customer services for advice now about these type of disputes. eBay are taking hits on lost and damaged items but they will be saving on the CS and must figure this is an overall plus for buyers.  I know there is a lot more to it but am trying to keep this brief, there has always been a problem with some sellers acting in bad faith and SD mitigates some of that risk for eBay. 

I have been reading the posts over the past few weeks on email notification and for the most part I think there is lot of unnecessary stubbornness. I’m not trying to bait those who have issues with SD where it is completely impractical as I sympathise there but aside from that, people are missing out on a lot of sales to other sellers who have accepted it is what it is and are now getting on with it. 

[rugbyguy1960]

Sorry it was meant to say 1kg.

I won't send signed cd's from my collection by standard post because some of them are no longer available for a sensible price.

As I have signed cd's by people like Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and some well known UK artists i want to make sure I do what I can to make sure they arrive safely.

Plus I trust Royal Mail and have literally no trust here or in Simple Delivery. Also I don't have multiple copies of my cd's  as I'm not a business or reseller.  I sell from my collection to make room for newer releases.

[rugbyguy1960]

Maybe a lot of sellers are getting on with it regarding Simple Delivery because they have jumped through hoops or eventually found a way to make it work for now.

For me personally, I will not jump through hoops, or waste time looking for a possible loophole.

The fact is that Simple Delivery works for some and not for others.

Like I've said, I trust RM and have little trust here.

I like proper transparency too.

When a platform can say the changes being made will benefit everyone, and in a very short space of time that is found out to be not true, then no wonder a lot of private sellers have either stopped selling, or have started selling on this platforms rivals.

[blacksea213]

Agreed.

[technthread]

I am just looking at this differently. My concern is I want to sell things.

I have just been out to an InPost Locker to drop some parcels off and on the way I stopped at a Royal Mail / Evri locker on the way and found none of the lockers would open. I have to jump through hoops now and find an alternative in the morning, it is pain but I’d do that 7 days out of 7 if it meant it was listing and getting orders. Honestly if the site I was selling on wanted me to attach parcels to a carrier pigeon I would do it if it helps me keep the bills paid. 

[rugbyguy1960]

I do agree.

If I needed to sell then I would also look at things differently.

I only sell things from my collection to make room to buy new releases. 

If I had a spare room, or a large free space then I doubt I'd bother selling from my collection.

You are right by saying different private sellers have different reasons for selling.

[blacksea213]

The big problem with using a pick up from a locker system is that if the
buyer chooses not to collect a locker had been occupied unnecessarily and
you get the item back and have to resell it. Perhaps losing money on the
way. Where we live there are 3 InPost locker sites, and quite often there
are no available lockers, sometimes for several days. Yes I have personally
reported to customer service. Fortunately we gave a drop off in a shop
which has very good opening hours, but it is 3 miles away. That costs money
to get there. Also never a month goes by without one site being offline for
a couple of days. And InPost do not seem to take this into account for your
pickup allowance. I know it happened to me!

[technthread]

That’s true, I’ve had that happen a few times but it doesn’t really bother me too much. I’ve found giving buyers a polite nudge as day 3 approaches works without any aggro they didn’t realise how tight the collection window was. 

I have been surprised recently at the type of orders people will choose Evri or InPost for just to save a quid. Tying this back to eBay SD, the same thing applies really, there is scope to overpackage with no penalty so that all that is needed. 

[blacksea213]

I’m not a business seller. Just a private seller getting rid of stuff. I
have a full time job, family commitments. I haven’t got time to chase up
people. They clicked to buy. The are bound by eBay rules. Problem is with
EBay it’s just about impossible to leave negative or even neutral feedback
anymore.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"If I needed to sell then I would also look at things differently."

I dare say I would too.  But selling for me used to be for fun, and from what I've read, there are too many issues with it to qualify for fun any more.  

[rugbyguy1960]

I always chose a higher weight than I needed to when using RM.

I also sent a buyer a message and a photo of my RM confirmation that a collection had been booked.

You are right about buyers not minding to much if they are kept updated and informed.

I also don't like having to deal with ebay regarding SD because I brought a label from ebay.

I know I'm old school but I know what postal choices work for me better than ebay and Simple Delivery.

[blacksea213]

Totally agree

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"There will be fewer instances of private sellers marking items as dispatched and not sending them out."

Does ebay still mark SD items as despatched as soon as the label is downloaded, irrespective of when the item is actually posted or collected, leading to unrealistic expectations on the part of the buyer and potentially raising an INR claim when the item doesn't arrive within ebay's unrealistic timescale?

[rugbyguy1960]

You are right. Selling on here and the communication i had with buyers was fun. Buying was fun too.

All these changes and the introduction of Simple Delivery has done, is to change my views of selling and buying on ebay.

[technthread]

This is where I struggle with the subject. The process of listing, packaging and posting is more time consuming than the occasional buyer issue. Let’s say that adds 10% to the time it takes to complete an order every now and again, that wouldn’t be enough for me to ditch the whole process. 

I was thinking about CD’s earlier @rugbyguy1960 when you mentioned it. The are one of the worst things to package in a large letter for me as the cases are so brittle. I’d be happy to use SD on those and send them as a small parcel.

With a lot of these things where I’d prefer to do xyz, I have to force myself to go with the next best solution because I easily get into a rut and stop listing. That’s where I’m coming from here, for me that’s much worse than a lost parcel or a difficult buyer so I don’t let those things stop me anymore. I do appreciate that I’m not a private seller but mostly the same principles apply in my mind.