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.

[dunstun365]

yes because it's even put me off buying on ebay if postage is inflated by SD & my own sales have tanked- 3 years ago had 20-30 orders per month now I'm lucky to get a tenth of that so it's not even worth becoming a business seller except to avoid SD

[dunstun365]

And business sellers will suffer because they need some private sellers to buy their stuff

[dunstun365]

You could got to medium parcel SD was only charging just over £5  

[dunstun365]

Postcards are under 100g so should be exempt from simple delivery

[dunstun365]

I have some pre WW2 postcards which I tried to sell on ebay years ago but to no avail. I could sell as a joblot  if people were interested. I don't like wasting time on ebay listing these days I've simply lost the motivation  

[moonlight-rhapsody]

I was just looking at another well known ecommerce site.  They have recently taken advantage of the dissatisfaction at ebay by opening more and more new categories.  I looked at the arts and crafts category and some of the big names in arts & crafts are selling on there - Hobbycraft, The Works, The Range, Winsor & Newton (brand leader in artists paints) etc.  I also noticed B&M, Dulux, Johnstone's Paint etc. 

It's unbelievably incompetent for a company like ebay to have engineered a situation where the backlash to SD and possibly other recent changes has given competitors the opportunity to develop from a single product range to a serious competitor for many (and probably ultimately all) ebay's categories.  Heads should roll.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

On the Business Sellers board, there are business sellers saying that sales on here are virtually non-existent, whilst their sales on other platforms are holding up, so they are winding down their shops on here and defecting to other sites.  No doubt the latest changes to the promotional fees have played a part in their decision, but I'm sure SD has played a part as well - the fact that many private sellers have stopped selling means that many have stopped buying as well.

It's insane that ebay is doing nothing to stop the rot.

[1956glyn]

Ebay have a cop out for paying compensation if they deem the item was inadequately packed.

I was seaching the terms under SD for packing items.   Wow the packaging would cost sellers a fortune and are very very specific. 

These tips are general guidelines. We can’t be held responsible if your item is damaged in transit.

[insidethe93]

moonlight-rhapsody wrote: I was just looking at another well known ecommerce site. They have recently taken advantage of the dissatisfaction at ebay by opening more and more new categories. I looked at the arts and crafts category and some of the big names in arts & crafts are selling on there...

Thanks for the info.

That's canny of that other platform as it's in time for the run up to Christmas, when a lot of crafters are buying materials to make cards and gifts. And the set-up work would've been mainly organisational.

I personally know eBay's lost buyers in the past 18 months. A social group (online & offline) that I'm part of (mentioned elsewhere here) has 72, of whom 25-40 are active, depending. Among other things we share a lot of shopping tips, and recently I found out that no one visits eBay any more - it's like it's gone out of fashion since BPF. I'm the only person left who uses eBay, but not much nowadays. It's sad for eBay. It's sad for me as I've lost a (rare) topic of conversation.  Thanks for the info, moonlight-rhapsody, I'll be passing it on!

[c_of_e84]

Spose we have to take pictures of every side of the parcel, picture of the label attached, pictures with a ruler beside every side of the parcel and a picture on a set of weighing scales, and by ebay packaging as well. 

[lucy_farmer]

'Ebay have a cop out for paying compensation if they deem the item was inadequately packed.'

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That doesn't suprise me one little bit.

But, who gets to check?

Once the item is unpacked  (which it'd have to be to find out it was broken...) how on earth can a third party see how it was originally packaged?

Unless it was obviously a bone-china tea service posted in a plastic bag, it would all seem rather difficult to prove.

[dunstun365]

this is why I used a much larger box to pack an item & will photo it before sending. I virtually stopped sending large items on ebay a while ago as it was much easier to try to sell on FB marketplace first & people mainly picked items up. They still wanted some things sending & would pay by bank transfer but sadly FB has got unreliable - my music K/board hadn't sold for near 4 months despite many msgs of interest so I listed it on here & it sold within hours. I even worked out the correct SD postage size (after a lot of digging on ebay)

I don't send much so have time to photo the box but imagine doing that for many orders in which case people would have to go to business seller where you order your own postage 

[dougbat20]

---

@dunstun365 wrote:

You could got to medium parcel SD was only charging just over £5  

---

Yesterday, I was charged medium parcel rates (£5.15) for something that could have gone £3.99 via InPost (Yodel), and how it was packaged, would have been fine as a small parcel in width! Didn't check the length but if that was in too, then I've been well and truly stitched up!

[enduringclothingstudio]

And I keep getting messages from ebay to say I ought to promote my listings with their help , I am trying to make money not throw it under a bus ,it just says to me that ebay are holding items back from buyers . Trying to find the right category to put items in is a minefield ,I have some items for sale that are christmas related but most of the christmas categories promote Disney stuff . 

[enduringclothingstudio]

I have just been reading about the event that is at the bottom right hand side of this page ...

Relive the highlights from eBay Open UK 2025! . Ebay giving people grants to help their business too it is quite a read 

[c_of_e84]

I have thought there has been throttling of sales for an extended period of time, in categories with a large volume of listings if only the top most applicable listings show up in a search sales would be bias to the top listings and items on page 27 wouldnt get looked at and sellers would lose interest and give up, that would be a major problem because they wouldnt be able to demonstate to shareholders an inflated value of items listed to show return yield and possible fee income.

[*maetrix*]

Totally agree...it should be a fair playing field for all instead of trying to con more money out of sellers...ebay has become the pits.

[ell567]

Just to notify everyone of a bit of a catch I just got caught by.... I sold an item which had been originally listed as Royal Mail 'free' postage and which eBay converted to Evri 'free' postage for me at some point. The buyer selected click & collect from a parcel shop (I know this only on seeing the label). The SD rates buyers pay for a 1kg parcel when there is an explicit postage charge are £2.94 for home and £2.26 to a collection point, but eBay has taken the full £2.94 from my sale proceeds. I can see when feigning to relist the listing form does say 'you'll pay £2.94', but is that not a bit unreasonable? It feels like I was robbed of 68p. You can avoid this by having a separate postage charge (when the buyer rather than eBay gains 68p advantage), and that (good or bad) gives the buyer a financial incentive to choose click & collect; with 'free' postage eBay is just pocketing the saving.
(And contrarians, yes, I do know the buyer could have had it delivered to home and I would have thought nothing of it, and that the postage is cheaper than as originally listed.)

[jonatjonatjonat]

I would say that most definitely sounds like a programming snafu. The postage to collection point was added AFTER Simple Delivery went live - so I would guess that they implemented the program to charge a lower postage cost - but didn't think to implement this into the Free Delivery portion.

I'd certainly report it as the terms state this...

a) Fees.

You can choose whether to offer free delivery to your buyer and pay the cost associated with the Simple Delivery label, or for the cost of the label to be paid by your buyer. If buyer paid, the delivery costs paid by your buyer at checkout will be paid to eBay for the label provided to you. If you have chosen to offer free delivery and pay for the label, the costs will be deducted from your account and paid to eBay. Where you have offered free delivery and your buyer has selected an express delivery option, the cost of the label shall be paid by your buyer.

Given the cost associated with a buyer choosing Evri to a Click and Collect point is clearly identified by ebay as £2.26 - they are wrong.

look at me - being negative about ebay!

[ell567]

I'm not sure. My assumption was that this is entirely deliberate by eBay, but it could be an oversight as you say (in which case it should be urgently fixed).  The relevant words
"If buyer paid, the delivery costs paid by your buyer at checkout will be paid to eBay for the label provided to you. If you have chosen to offer free delivery and pay for the label, the costs will be deducted from your account and paid to eBay."
don't seem precise enough to be a slam dunk (though I think a lawyer would find in our favour) and they do have that "You'll pay £2.94" statement in the listing form.
How and where would I "report it" with any prospect of being understood anyway?