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.

[millmeg286]

I had the same problem.  Royal Mail did turn up a day late but as a precaution I had paid the 30p to ensure it was collected so they thought they were picking up two parcels.

Just took my first Simple Delivery parcel to my local Parcel Shop and the barcode wouldn't scan so I've had to bring it back.   I'm totally despairing, it is an absolute shambles

[etimbo46bay]

Thanks to everyone who has posted - good to know there are thousands of other eBay users equally frustrated. I have just run up against compulsory Simple Delivery for the first time (having previously sold dozens of unwanted items over the years) trying to sell some old magazines at the going rate of £2 each and absurdly having to charge a minimum of £2.70 postage. I very much doubt I'll sell any at all! 

Can anyone advise the pros and cons of becoming a business seller (just to circumvent Simple Delivery)? I have no objection in principle but don't know if it would work for me, selling maybe a dozen items a year, mostly low value, mostly to keep them out of landfill!

[lucy_farmer]

'Can anyone advise the pros and cons of becoming a business seller (just to circumvent Simple Delivery)? I have no objection in principle but don't know if it would work for me, selling maybe a dozen items a year, mostly low value, mostly to keep them out of landfill!'

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Pros of Business selling : YOU are in charge of how you sell and post. (no BPF, payment holds or Simple Del for business accounts)

Cons : Businesses pay fees that are pretty high.

But the big problem is the legality of presenting youself as a business when you *aren't* one...... it's not quite as immoral as presenting youself as *private* when you actually are a business, but it's not a good idea when it comes to officialdom.

If you wanted to set up a small business selling your old stuff, you do have the 'Trading Allowance' of £1000.00 per year, under which HMRC don't make you pay tax.  But you would have to send in your self-assessment details as a small business ( or sole trader) in order to take advantage of that.

Personally speaking, S.D. has stopped my 21 year ebay selling. I can cope with BPF, payment holds etc, but S.D. can get knotted...... 

[baillin-0]

Maybe its time us private and even you business sellers form our own union we could call it the "eBay users union" or the "eBay none users anymore since the changes union" then when its up and running we can go on strike.

What do you think? everyone else is doing it! If you want to join, just send your funds by simple delivery to me on my little island in the Caribbean.

Please be careful you print off the right label if sending me coins.

Better to be stupid about it all than just keep forever moaning!!! 

[johnwash1]

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@etimbo46bay wrote:

Thanks to everyone who has posted - good to know there are thousands of other eBay users equally frustrated. I have just run up against compulsory Simple Delivery for the first time (having previously sold dozens of unwanted items over the years) trying to sell some old magazines at the going rate of £2 each and absurdly having to charge a minimum of £2.70 postage. I very much doubt I'll sell any at all! 

Can anyone advise the pros and cons of becoming a business seller (just to circumvent Simple Delivery)? I have no objection in principle but don't know if it would work for me, selling maybe a dozen items a year, mostly low value, mostly to keep them out of landfill!

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I can't tell you how it compares at present, but when I looked into it a few years ago I was astonished how much more a business was charged.  It certainly wouldn't work for me, and I'm clearing out a lot more than you.

Another indication that business seller fees are higher -- there are plenty of so-called private sellers selling thousands of items, all brand new, multiple quantities.  Absolutely no doubt they're buying in bulk to resell, and therefore by law should be on a business account so that ebay would permit them to show their contact details, as they must by law.

If ebay isn't working out for you, it's not the only game in town.  There are charity shops, car boot sales, other web sites, even sites to give stuff away such as freegle, freecycle, trashnothing, etc.  Anything is better than having things end in landfill and sometimes people are delighted with cast-offs, not for cheapness, but for all sorts of good reasons.  You want to relive your youth and play a retro game?  A 30 year old computer is perfect!  🙂

[gray-jay]

I am with you. Simple delivery is a joke, I have been selling on and off on here for o long I can't even remember when I started but I wont be selling anymore on e-bay until it's gone back to where we can set the postage we want for our buyers, not what is dictated to us. It's a pain as I still have 1000's of comics to sell, but II guess I will have to look at other sites to sell them. It's also sad that bayers are now going to be forced to pay more postage than they need to and will make things more expensive.

[dantwocats]

AHH right ! royal mail pickup i got it to work, after speaking to CS twice and community chat , and still not working & no pickup , i then worked it out, you book a collect it gives you the date ,so they are coming to pick your parcel up and bringing a label , so being practical person why would i then press  GET A PREPAID LABEL , as i do not need one ? and that's the trick you need to press GET A PREPAID LABEL  to order the pick up, # simple or this it (it then also shows on your postage label page ) thanks for all the non help ebay team !!

[24-bridgest]

when I try  to list/re list postcards they  default to Simple Delivery   No Custom Delivery option... which is not cost effective to the buyer....  .I was under the impression that o -100gm and letter size envelopes were supposed to exempt from this Simple Delivery debacle. 

So I won't be listing any until its sorted!

[3942rick2005]

Use my workaround, follow it exactly.  It works for small items also.   https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/how-do-you-list-anything-bigger-than-61cm/m-p/7882486...

[kevin*cedar]

With all due respect your solution to the simple delivery mess may trick the system for a few sales  but it will not solve the problem  and don't be fooled that there are not any spies on here that wont report your idea to upper management and you may find that your temporary solution will disappear  Simple delivery is a abomination and a disrespectful policy to all private sellers which has been implemented and a attempt to remove your freedom of choice on shipping your products as with myself I am a Carpenter and I have been in the trade for over 50 years all my items are handmade by myself one at a time The simple delivery that has been attached to all of my 26 ads  in the last few days has the wrong postage placed on it, The dispatch times have been changed  this has all been done by eBay In short the 100% feedback that I have received from my customers and the prompt delivery that I have made to my customers means nothing to eBay What was once a pleasurable selling platform at one time does not exist anymore I am awaiting payment for two orders from my ads that had Royal Mail 48 hr tracked delivery once I receive payment Any orders that I have with Simple delivery will be promptly be cancelled The only way that you will get change to this policy is to cancel orders  which may bring the possibility of   your account being cancelled by eBay  In short I will be 72 years old this year and i know longer give a toss 

[paulblueandwhite]

Regarding failed Royal Mail collection, nice to hear you managed to get it to work. I spoke also to CS but my complaint will be sorted out by another department team and did not receive any help. Well, I also pressed GET PREPAID LABEL and a red banner appeared with: "something went wrong and we were not able to generate the label." So, it's not working as promoted, nobody from RM collected my parcel. Very frustrating. Spoke to community chat team this afternoon and will be forwarded to shipment team. Still waiting for a solution. Don't know how to get it to work. 

[paulblueandwhite]

At least you had a collection, although late: I had no collection. Went this morning with my parcel to the Post Office and asked if they received something from eBay: NO, no collection was booked for my parcel. System from eBay is not working. Customer service and community chat team are investigating this error.  

[3942rick2005]

Errr... you will find that customer service are touting my workaround when people have been contacting them as to how to do it.

It has been solving the problem for the last 23 days for them.

[jonatjonatjonat]

"Simple delivery is a abomination and a disrespectful policy to all private sellers"

Yes...to private sellers. You have a solution to the issue well without your grasp.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

I did a search on ebay for something, but I’m not buying from ebay while so-called Simple Delivery is enforced, so I found the business contact details and did a Google search so that I could buy direct.  I would never have done that at one time, I would have just bought from ebay.  However, the Google search threw up that the business had been fined £40,000 for health and safety breaches, and the firm seemed to have a pretty cavalier attitude towards the safety of their workers, so of course I'm not buying from them after all.  So indirectly, ebay has saved me from supporting a disreputable company - so for once, thanks ebay!

[punzel9072]

Posting this separate to my other reply, but may I ask how you used to manage to send a DVD (when you were selling) at the LL up-to-100g rate of £1.55?

Thank you irt303 for this and your previous reply. In answer to your question above, I think I managed to post one of what I call the extra-slimline DVDs that are half the thickness of a standard DVD (officially called ThinPAK) which just came under the 100g large letter mark. Most if not all of mine are standard sized cases now.
I will at the weekend have a look at whether I ca start to relist my DVDs again, as will my partner, although they have so far been unable to even list a letter-sized item under 100g under £10 for custom postage, although I am able to. We shall see...

[dantwocats]

There is a theory about putting 1000 monkeys to work at eBay tec dept and they would come up solutions at some point in time but just a theory  but i did not know eBay where trying it out for real !

[sunflowers4me59]

Even a monkey will type out the bible given enough time! 

[irt303]

Ah, yes, I meant to mention slimline cases as well. Thanks for clarifying.

It's crazy (there are better, but unprintable, words) how much inconsistency there is, as you've witnessed first-hand with your partner.

Give it another bash, and hopefully you'll be able to list with custom postage. You certainly SHOULD be able to, so even if you still don't have the option at the moment, you should do soon. eBay are aware of the issue - you're not the only one saying you have no custom option on a listing where it ought to be present - so they should be working on this. That's the idea, anyway...

Post here again if/when you start putting your DVDs up, it might encourage me to get my posterior in gear. I haven't even bothered completing my £6.99 DVD listing yet.

[heglo_59]

Just sold my first item with SD. I messaged my buyer as I always do just saying thanks and I'll send tomorrow etc and on the message page just under my sent message, eBay have put 'Your buyer has reached out about their order. Since you used SD, we'll work with your buyer directly on any delivery related questi....' 

I mean, what's that's about?? Has my buyer asked something? Why can't I even see the end/rest of that sentence? Anyone else had that??