So far I am very happy with the services I have received under Simple Delivery but I am worried that because I sell so little, and none of the deliveries had any problem, I may be getting a false impression of how Ebay have actually dealt with other genuine private sellers real , not hypothetical maybe, problem deliveries.
I have listed 30 items under SD, for all of which I wanted full tracking
28 I thought SD had got the right size and weight category but for 2 that they were on the light size, so I adjusted their estimate up to what I would have used without SD.
On all 30 SD seem to be predicting exactly the same courier, generally Evri but occasionally Royal Mail, as I would have been sending with, if I was choosing.
On all 30 SD were saying that the “price from” for buyers with standard postcodes was either exactly the same as or, more often, slightly cheaper than I would have been paying to the old broker Packlink.
Overall SD made the listing process a bit easier – I no longer had to worry about choosing which of the two couriers would give the best service for the best price, and what that price would actually be, across a wide range of differing delivery postcodes.
The physical process of listing the delivery details had always been pretty easy and was not made any worse.
I was concerned by the fact that all 30 were items under 2kg so I may not be getting true impression of the system, but then I checked and last year I only sold 1 item over 2kg so why worry about a possible problem in respect of items over 2kg, that barely exists for me.
I have sold 6 items.
I used to hate buying delivery labels, it was so complicated, with my bank insisting that I had to confirm each payment with a code they sent to my phone. Ebay had already made this much easier by allowing payment out of their Managed Funds.
Obtaining the delivery label was very easy, it was just sitting in an Ebay message, not out in an email as I had incorrectly expected, two or three clicks and it came out of my home printer.
No mucking about having to check if I had sufficient funds available, was buying the right thing, getting payment authorised etc, let alone the horror of having to record and type in long alpha numeric tracking numbers. It was lovely that somebody else had taken care of all of the work.
Evri have now added my local Post Office to the numerous places I can drop off their parcels so on the one occasion that I also needed to drop off a Royal Mail parcel I was still able to do so by making a single journey.
Royal Mail seem to be fast catching up with Evri, by adding more convenience stores etc. near to me as drop off points so hopefully soon any limited choice, limited opening hours with bureaucratic staff will not be a problem.
Regarding drop off overall I would say now, for me personally, it makes no difference whether it is me or SD that chooses the courier or which courier we choose, as the blanket coverage of both is so good.
All six parcels were delivered very quickly, with the tracking being excellent, with not a hint of damage. Whilst my experience may indicate both couriers are equally good, a sample size of only 6 is surely too small. Of course both Evri and Royal Mail will have entered into new contractual arrangements with Ebay for the standard of service they will provide under SD so it would be extremely unfair to judge them based on old events under other systems, particularly for Royal Mail who only four months ago changed ownership and management.
What I had hoped to find out from the hundreds of messages in this thread are actual facts about actual events that have taken place under the Simple Delivery system, in relation to the following questions but it seems that the messages do not address these.
Ebay say that if you use their SD estimate of size and weight you will never be charged any more money, by them, if the estimate is wrong. Is this true – have Ebay charged the seller if at any stage of the chain between printing the label and the final delivery, the size or weight is found to be wrong?
I have seen people have had problems, as predicted, where they tried to drop off wrongly labelled items at some Post Offices. Whilst the problem does not concern me as I have so much choice of alternative Royal Mail drop off points with better staff, I am interested in “Was it Ebay that charged you for any additional payments you made, or were asked for, or was it Post Office or Royal Mail”
Ebay say that they are assuming full responsibility for any loss or damage in transit up to the sum of £750 (the old limit provided by, and charged for, Royal Mail for items they were delivering under their Special Delivery system).
I realise there is massive lists of excluded items for both Royal Mail and Evri in their own Terms and Conditions but have already formed my own opinion that Ebay would not be able to legally enforce many of these on its own customers. Anyway, it is not relevant to my decision making process, as these massive lists exist and are unchanged whether I use the courier direct or via EBay, and Ebay are such a big company that I could never have the resources to fight them over disputes over contract terminology.
I know the Simple Delivery system has only existed for a month but again have any of the message writers got either personal experience of, or been told about, events that have actually taken place, and are not opinions or comments on possible scenarios, where there has been reported damage or loss.
Again what I am trying to find is somebody who made a sale under Ebays Simple Delivery, not previous systems where all the parties may have been under different contractual arrangements, and can tell me if Ebay then honoured their agreement or they did not honour it, not could or could not, may or may not, will or will not.
Thankyou for your help - I am so worried that even though everything has been fine for me other people may have had other experiences.
