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.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

yes, i am not optimistic that it will continue but until it does i will continue trying to sell.  The minute i cannot do it custom then everything will be off again, hopefully i will have my other site up and running by then.  This is a pastime for me so am not in need of the money (although every little helps pay for the dogs vet bills!)

[catmando2222]

I just asked copilot AI if ebay would make SD option instead of mandatory.

Here’s the response. And is a good reason for keeping this thread going strong. Let all keep pushing back!

[ja142868]

Is ebay financial arrangements even legal now?

I have money in my seller account, I buy something  then ebay ignores my credit balance and takes instant payment from my registered card. 

I sell and have to wait for payment for my own property that somebody else now owns.

And now I've have a full refund for a defective purchase and will now have to wait for 3-5 working days for this refund.

All these days with them holding our money add up.

Are ebay now acting like a financial institution rather than an on line market place?

[goodibags]

As we suspected, someone does read the forum. Now may be a good time to list a couple of higher value items? But ONLY if custom postage is still an option, definitely NOT under SD.

And then anxiously police them (all sellers must be anxious) right up until the moment they sell.   😀

[fantailsforme]

I don't like the idea of an opt-out for high volume sellers as their items are usually brand new duplicates that come with their own packaging which already have their own weight printed on them, are already boxed and ready for their SD label.

Its the private seller that sells all sorts, in whatever box they can find that fits, that is durable and has a rough idea of what the postage will be before its taken to the post office.  If the p&p has been over-estimated a postal refund can be easily be sent to the buyer.

I once sent a bottle of perfume and the buyer contacted me saying 'you sent me an ornament'.  I told him to 'open the box' - I never heard back from him.

[sunflowers4me59]

I'm anxious that even when something sells, in case Ebay will change to stupid delivery if that's possible? Haven't sold anything for weeks so don't know yet!!

[theelench]

A very good reason for not being put-off making comments / complaints repeatedly by those claiming everything's been said already / the thread has no value because it's too long / it's only a minority stirring-up trouble / only posting to have a pop at ebay / etc, etc.

They can tell us as often as they like that selling on ebay is not a right, but a privilege or that it's ebay playground and they make the rules.  But by the same token ebay has no right to expect a guaranteed income no matter how much it down-grades its service or if it no longer fulfills its side of the bargain, that is to SELL stuff, not profit from spurious fees charged only because of its fading reputation as a decent marketplace.  

Literally, if ebay isn't delivering the goods, that is sales in a timely and convenient manner and at a reasonable cost in time and money, stop buying selling on here.

[infohelps]

I think that you have hit the nail on the head there.  They just don't want people using the platform to buy and sell 'second hand junk' anymore!!  There are all sorts of problems with eBay - Chinese sellers masquerading as UK based sellers with no workable returns policy, business sellers who open a new shop selling the same *bleep* when their feedback drops a bit too low etc etc.   (A problem for buyers but not eBay because of the money they make off them).  Another bugbear for eBay (and business sellers!) is private sellers who are actually businesses but don't pay business fees.  AI could be programmed to find the culprits in all these scenarios.  Even back in the 90s when I worked in banking, we received a monthly report of all private accounts that had the turnover and type of transactions that suggested they were in fact businesses.   If eBay's wonderful AI is trusted to write a listing for a product it can certainly find business sellers masquerading as private sellers.  But they are not interested in doing that.    Their policies make it obvious that they want to clear away all of us old time eBayers who buy and sell  'second hand junk'.   They want to take the platform in a different direction and, quite frankly, our vintage knitting patterns and postcards, and bits of 80s electronics are giving the wrong impression.   But "One man's junk is another man's treasure".  These types of sales are the 'soul' of eBay.  And perhaps they will find that things don't thrive without a soul.

[azathothdreaming]

Hi all, first time poster to the forum here, I delisted everything when I saw simple postage was coming and like a lot of you suspected I had no idea 1) these forums existed and 2) there was such an uproar over it! I delisted everything I had up when I heard about it and I've tentatively put one thing up that oughtn't sell so I can keep an eye on when it applies to my account, if I can find anywhere else to sell some upcoming PC parts I'll definitely do that rather than being forced through this simple delivery mess. 

I did reach out to eBay CS because at present I'm unable to get out to post things due to long term illness and it doesn't seem right that people like me are forced to buy a printer to keep selling on eBay because they've arbitrarily decided I'm not allowed to have my postie bring a label to my home; as you'd probably expect the response was noncommittal.

The statements from eBay about how simple postage protects the seller with their insurance ignores how we all understand insurance to work: in order for insurance to be profitable they need to take in as much money as possible and pay out as little as possible; so they are inherently incentivised not to pay out wherever possible. 

I can't see it having been mentioned previously but there's a trade practice known as "rent seeking" wherein a business will try to monetise something that they have not contributed to and without creating additional wealth or value. This seems like a textbook example of a company trying to extract more money while actively harming its own customer base rather than providing an additional service. 

Finally, there's something Orwellian about how these new eBay initiatives are all titled the opposite of what they actually do: simple delivery is complicated and the buyer protection fee (also a "protection fee" is a stereotypical organised crime term) seems to be a fee rather than providing any benefit.

[azathothdreaming]

As an addendum I'd suspect that the reason only two postal services are live at launch must surely be because eBay are demanding some form of concession or commission, otherwise the onboarding process for DPD etc would be less drawn out than it appears to have been. It may be telling that the only two companies currently signed up are probably the largest in the UK and thus best suited to absorb any reduced revenue from eBay taking a slice.

[infohelps]

I am glad that you have posted this, because there are some folks on here who say  'it's the same few people having a moan', and argue that the lack of 'new blood' demonstrates how the majority of private sellers are totally fine with all the changes.  Like you, I had no idea that this forum existed until out of sheer frustration I Googled "unhappy with eBay's mandatory Simple Delivery" and found  this thread.   However, I expect that most disgruntled sellers will vote with their feet and eBay will be none the wiser until their revenue begins to shrink. 

[vinylscot]

A few moments ago, I received an abusive, borderline threatening phone call, from a blocked number, making rather blunt comments about some of my recent posts in this thread.

That is going too far, and it must not happen again.

I don't know what they can do about it as the number was blocked, but if this happens again, it will be reported to eBay and to the police.

I am not accusing anyone in particular; it was probably not anyone who has posted here, and I don't believe for a moment that it was Ron from Wigan, but, as I stated, it must not happen again.

[infohelps]

People on here have said that eBay owns a sizeable proportion of Evri.  I have no idea if this is true.  However, many of us have reported eBay to the CMA back in April , and they are currently looking into our concerns.   Apparently eBay have been investigated by the CMA before, so I'm sure that they will be going through everything eBay are up to with a fine toothed comb.   It may not come to anything as we know eBay can afford the best legal teams to make sure everything is watertight, but it does at least show them that we Brits are not the compliant guinea pigs that they thought we were. 

[gmij1961]

There are so many reasons to keep posting .I have a have got a bit more spare time as I am not selling 🙂

So far Ebay only only really hit a fraction of their total customer base with Jamie Iannone's expensive masterplan . What happens next is a guessing game given  Ebay's approach  , but my guess is they need to prove how this masterplan will work with business sellers   and I would guess they will do more with UK platform  next and to do that they have a schedule to adhere to hence the apparent haste.

To me a massive flaw with the strategy is you simply cannot have Simple delivery and Delayed payment  as part of the same package and as much as I am dead against all these changes , that is the single biggest obstacle for me to resume selling . If you are going to expected to post items days  before you receive payment  that is risk that Ebay clearly need to underwrite , rather than spout on about phoney buyer protection.  That is also accentuating and issue with other trendy platforms .

An Ebay platform without sellers is a dead  platform and Ebay need to show more genuine respect to everyone that sells on their platform and not just treat them as cash cows !

[azathothdreaming]

I'd imagine the CMA works like other regulatory organisations where the more complaints they receive the higher up the list it gets bumped so thank you for letting me know about that, I'll file a complaint there too.

In some ways I see why they'd choose the UK for a pilot program because it's a smaller market but still an English speaking country, so it's easier for them to collate feedback. On the other hand we love a good grumble and have an inherent scepticism towards negative change so I'm not sure how representative our reaction will be.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

unfortunately one of the two also happens to be the worst.  RM at least have to deliver everywhere and cannot pick and choose.

[lucy_farmer]

bleedin' 'ell vinyl!!

That's outrageous 😲😲. 

(I've been lurking or posting here for 15 years and never heard of this happening before...)

[kath3735_wxmjn]

that is totally uncalled for.  I may disagree with you on this subject, have agreed on others, but that is what the forum is for, different opinions.  To take it off e bay definitely shows how pathetic someone truly is.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

I'd report it to ebay now anyway.   I would think that they could narrow it down fairly easily and although they're unlikely to give you the information at this point, if it does happen again and you (rightly) get the police involved, at least they'd be able to give the police the information.  I don't know how long they keep data for, which is why I'd do it now before it's wiped.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"I don't know what they can do about it as the number was blocked,"

I've sent you a message suggesting what they can do about it, hope that's OK.