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.

[technthread]

That’s understandable, and maybe you’re right eBay buyers won’t pay it when it comes to stamps, I haven’t had recent stamp sales to trial it.

Gut feeling though - I am starting to come round to the idea that as sellers are adjusting, many buyers are as well and are accepting changes so our assumptions about what buyers in general will accept may become outdated.

For eg I did free postage for a long time thinking the TRS fee discount was worth suffering for as buyers wouldn’t pay postage costs or I’d lose too much search visibility. I’ve started charging postage at £3.99 for a small parcel, this is only recent as I’m building my listings back up again so I have only have a small sample size but I’m fairly sure it won’t mean zero sales if I carry on charging that as I build up to a decent number of listings. I know this is different to selling stamps but unless we list differently and see the outcome we can’t be sure what buyers in general will deem acceptable. 

[gjalp]

Stamps tend to be different. I list them far differently to my other items. Stamp buyers expect additional items to be free. Which I do BUT only if paid for at the same time. I prepare orders in chronological order over all my sale platforms and I can’t be sifting through trying to match up names/addresses. Ive set it up on ebay that stamp buyers can combine over 2 weeks if needed and I don’t expect or need payment immediately so immediate payment is turned off. Most of the time it works well but this week I had someone win an auction item (hadnt paid but thats ok) and then wanted a BIN plus made an offer. In the offer they said they had won one, wanted this other particular item at x price and had then made their best offer minus 2x postage as well. If Id accepted, I would have sold a £7 stamp for £1! They seemed to think that was perfectly reasonable.

Or I get someone buy something one day, I pack it so its ready to go but not yet dispatched, they then buy another, pay for it and add a message saying ‘send with other and refund postage’. No please or thank you or is it possible? 

Many are pretty good though, its just the others can be demanding and draining not to mention unreasonable at times.

[technthread]

I got into the same position with some coin buyers and it became a problem. It’s not worth it for me now, I’d rather set things up to suit me and lose a few repeat buyers than carry on as I was doing, it was driving me up the wall. 

[gjalp]

Yup, you need the patience of a saint sometimes or spend a lot of time swearing 😂

[punzel9072]

Or I get someone buy something one day, I pack it so its ready to go but not yet dispatched, they then buy another, pay for it and add a message saying ‘send with other and refund postage’. No please or thank you or is it possible? 

I think in that case I'd tell them I've already posted it! 😉

[gjalp]

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@punzel9072 wrote:

Or I get someone buy something one day, I pack it so its ready to go but not yet dispatched, they then buy another, pay for it and add a message saying ‘send with other and refund postage’. No please or thank you or is it possible? 

I think in that case I'd tell them I've already posted it! 😉

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Thats what I usually end up doing these days after one particular buyer a couple of years back became abusive

[sunflowers4me59]

What's happened, I went  to relist some knitting patterns and custom delivery is saying it's new and only gives simple delivery price, and simple delivery gives you your choice of postage. It's all back to front, I don't know what to choose!!

[sunflowers4me59]

Meant to show this screenshot but forgot, so annoyed I just pressed reply!!

[podlingsmum2007]

I noticed this too. Is it trickery to get items switched to their postage? 🤔. I clicked simple and got my own settings. How many sellers doing bulk edit would end up being tricked?

[sunflowers4me59]

I am not relisting until eBay sort it out and put it back to what is now what we laughingly call the new normal, custom and simple in the right places. You don't know what you are listing as, probably find out we owe them if we put custom amount and eBay then charge simple.

[sunflowers4me59]

Just had another thought, what will happen to automatic relists?

[suelel1968]

Hi, I don't think anything has changed accept that some Numpty has switched the names of the boxes over. They still operate as they used to, but with the wrong name. (right product, wrong name) I have listed and relisted and everything comes up as if nothing has changed. 

[sunflowers4me59]

So are you saying, if I relist custom postage which should be £1.55, but is showing buyer pays (which is simple delivery talk) £2.72, it will sell custom £1.55?

[sunflowers4me59]

Just tried as you said, did it as simple but comes up custom on listing, and it seems to work, thank you so much. Honestly, Ebay can't seem to get anything right at the moment!

[dougbat20]

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@sunflowers4me59 wrote:

Just had another thought, what will happen to automatic relists?

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I try and not do auctions very much nowadays. Simple reason: whenever an auction fails to sell and I manually relist it (don't like the auto relist feature) it converts itself to simple delivery and I have to go through hoops again to try and force custom delivery through.

[sunflowers4me59]

Mine has relisted as custom fine, usually, mind you they are LL and knitting patterns and fabric under £10, which seems to have stayed exempt! I've probably now put the mockers on it.

[knightman57]

Simple delivery , with Evri is a nightmare...Parcels being lost or arriving very late. Buyers are blaming Me.( even though I message  Them advising  that Ebay are now responsible for deliveries ).. .I did not have problems with Evri directly before.( are They being obstructive on purpose ?.)..Also Evri parcel shops are now useless,,label machines & scanners not working..& now complicated drop off procedure...

[department28]

'I try and not do auctions very much nowadays. Simple reason: whenever an auction fails to sell and I manually relist it (don't like the auto relist feature) it converts itself to simple delivery and I have to go through hoops again to try and force custom delivery through.'

It's ages since I did any auctions, but thank you for pointing out that if you manually relist, it defaults to Simple Delivery... I expect that has caught out a few people... 😧

With Simple Delivery auto-meddling at every opportunity, you feel you have to keep rechecking your postage settings, before, during, and after listing... 🤖

[dougbat20]

See, that's the difference, mine aren't usually large letters - or if they are, they're in a category that isn't exempt. Hence it always tries forcing the simple delivery onto me, which I don't like. 

The one time I used the simple delivery, it charged me more than what I would have otherwise paid via InPost...

[rugbyguy1960]

The whole Simple Delivery thing is a complete farce, and it has been since day 1.

So many changes that work for some, and for others it's a complete nightmare.

It just seems that one way or another, ebay wants to have control over whatever option a private seller is given, no matter what category the item is listed under, or what size the package and weight are.

Sellers should be able to totally opt out of Simple Delivery and just pay a sellers fee, and deal with the postal service they choose directly.