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.

[punzel9072]

I've also been generally impressed with Royal Mail, and I find that most of the items that I post second class seem to get there the next day. Whether it's because I use commemorative stamps I don't know but certainly most ares seem efficient, although I do know of some areas where the post is appalling. It's all down to the area really.
Having said that I recently had to put in a claim for a lost DVD, send by Royal Mail large letter, not SD, so not tracked, and the buyer claimed they hadn't received it, so I refunded them within a week as per eBay's requirement. I put in the claim with the proof of posting, after waiting the 13 working days, on Saturday and received a reply on Sunday saying "We’ll be issuing a payment shortly in recognition of this service failure" so I can't complain at that. Of course, I'll never know if the buyer was truthful. Also, I wonder what the point of the eBay buyer protection that they paid was, as eBay didn't protect the transaction as it wasn't sent tracked.

[lucy_farmer]

'...When using RM personally and directly they have been on point....'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You may be right there: this was *not* an S.D. or 'marketplace' label..

[akemp1]

---

@rugbyguy1960 wrote:

Ebay wouldn't be losing out to much by having a opt out for items that are 250g and under, LL, and under £20 in value, across all categories.

On parcels and heavy LL items then they just need to precisely match RM online pricing and terms even if that means sadly tracking the reduction in Tracked 48 compensation to £75. It's mad they are giving us an unnecessary reduction of a few pennies on RM small parcels while also forcing us to use SD in some categories when 250g LL might be more appropriate.

Limiting postage options by category idea should be dropped as flawed as it doesn't align to reality.

SD might be fixable if they applied themselves and used reasonable logic.

If not then SD should be abandoned as it's clearly not currently acceptable.

[nursediesel]

Maybe ebay should publish a weekly shipping booklet for all the sellers so you can look up what the rules are and what items are effected by them on that particular day. Simple Delivery is the exact opposite of what it should have been named. I guess the execs were to busy planning for their well deserved bonuses.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

Making SD optional full stop is the only way to get me listing again.  No restriction on size, shape, weight or value.  If ebay think SD is so good, let them put their money where their mouth is and make it optional.  But they won't do that because they know that for a great many people, SD is too complicated, too restrictive and a complete pain in the proverbial. 

[theelench]

That's a good idea. 

I admit I only dip into this (and other) threads at intervals these days but reading snatches here and there with gaps in between, it sometimes seems that it would be better to call it Surreal Delivery.

Reduction of a few pennies when SD is already the better buy ?

Several items all charged at Small Parcel rate when they fit into an envelope and then upped to Medium parcel when combined postage applied, even though they still fit into the same envelope ?

Who can possibly think this is rational ?

[department28]

'Making SD optional full stop is the only way to get me listing again.  No restriction on size, shape, weight or value.  If ebay think SD is so good, let them put their money where their mouth is and make it optional.  But they won't do that because they know that for a great many people, SD is too complicated, too restrictive and a complete pain in the proverbial.' 

Yes - if they had made it optional, too many people would have immediately encountered one of the many pitfalls & inadequacies with Simple Delivery, and quickly switched back to Custom Postage.

eBay would have to have made Simple Delivery much better from the the start, including clearly explaining the benefits/how it works, and maybe offering some sort of incentive to try it - especially during the first few months.

Even then, for many, it would not be preferable to being able to choose your own courier and postage prices - so, making SD mandatory was the only way they could ensure it would be used...

It would be interesting to know if nearly everyone had got on board with refusing to use SD, how long would it have taken for eBay to admit defeat?!  🏳️ 🤖

[gmij1961]

Its now a year since Ebay started "free to sell "   and its now quite obvious to most of us what the catch was . 

I really can't see how Ebay UK can class the last year as nothing but an unmitigated failure .  I doubt they have attracted any significant new business while haemorrhaging traditional business and revenue . They have now changed their year old tired advert so its more aimed at niche collectables ( motorcycle girl) rather than boot fair tat  ( dodgy table lamps etc) 

Simple delivery has become more and more complex and confused .  There is  growing chasm between how business  and private sellers  go about selling on Ebay and what  and how the buyer gets charged as a result

Its a a mess , Ebay have devalued  a major part of their own marketplace and USP and this  is still just the start of so called simple delivery global rollout and has yet  to tap into the business seller market  it really is light years away from being the money spinner Jamie Iannone has promised his investors

RIP SD , lets hope 🙂

[butterfly_bell]

Here is a warning to check what AI has  done to your listings if you still have any!  I've just noticed that a majority of my listings of single DVDs have been quietly converted to SD as 1kg small parcels (so Evri £2.94 irrespective of the item price). I hadn't previously thought to check as, well, how could AI possibly get this wrong? When I revise them to large letter, custom postage is automatically selected and the postage rates I chose when listing reappear!

[department28]

It is only quite recently that eBay has allowed Simple Delivery to be optional for some large letter items, so I think your DVDs would have been converted to small parcels when that was the only available option. As you have found, you can now switch them back to custom postage. 

What's new

'Simple Delivery is now optional for more items priced £20 or under in categories like Trading cards, Coins and Stamps, Mobile Phone Cases, CDs, and DVDs, which are typically letter or large letter-sized and 100g or under. Now you can choose to select a low-cost, untracked delivery option when protections aren’t essential, or stick with Simple Delivery to benefit from prepaid labels, automatic tracking, and full protection if the item is lost or damaged in transit, all at competitive prices.'

[suelel1968]

Hi @gmij1961 They have to get the UK Accounts out by the 30th Sept (A week tomorrow) Although the accounts are only up to Dec 24, they will have made life harder for themselves by having the "Free to sell"  start in 2024 as it has probably made the drop in sellers and sales even greater in 2025. The UK results were included in the US results so no surprises on that front, but they will have to talk about the risks they face in the UK in 2025. Previously they had a line in the accounts, and I'm paraphrasing, which said one of the biggest risks to the UK business was "that they scr*wed up a change to the platform". 

I think SD and BPF meet that criteria very well.

Dear Shareholders,

Last year, we flagged a risk to our business that a major platform change might be a potential disaster for our platform if we scr*wed it up. This year, we’d like to confirm our forecasting accuracy."

[closetothedee]

I absolutely agree with you - when Simple Delivery was first introduced there were lots of posts on here from those who were using a whole variety of tricks to beat the system.
Like a good many private sellers I had taken all my listings off at the beginning of April, and felt that if everyone had done the same and not tried to be clever ‘simple delivery’ would have been very quickly abandoned.
Nearly 6 months on I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not going to be, and that I may have cut my nose off to spite my face.
Being faced with an ever increasing pile of items in my spare room that I really needed to move on I decided at the weekend to bite the bullet and dip my toe in the water again. I listed 2 books (small parcel size) with me paying the postage - exactly as I would have done previously. Both sold and I paid for the Royal Mail postage via simple delivery (which cost me less than had I bought it myself online). I received the QR codes and took the parcels to the Post Office as I’ve always done in the past. It pains me to say it but it was Simple.
I also listed my first item of clothing on that other site and at the same time duplicated it on here.
The listing here showed it had received no views at all but on the other site it sold quickly having been viewed 28 times. Make of that what you will !
I’ll wait to see how all 3 sales pan out but I think clothes will be listed on the other site rather than here from now on. I sell all my items pretty cheaply anyway, don’t add anything on for packing and am certainly not prepared to pay to increase visibility.
My buyer on the other site opted to pay for the slightly cheaper Evri delivery, I received the QR code, and took the parcel to the Post Office where the label was printed for me. I had expected that I would have to print the label off myself, but no it was all done for me, so that was simple too.
All I can say is that for small parcel size items simple delivery seems just that, simple.

Sent from my iPhone

[tressygirl]

@closetothedee  wrote:  I also listed my first item of clothing on that other site and at the same time duplicated it on here.

Be careful doing this, not wise,  as you may receive 2 buyers, for one item, resulting in one disappointed buyer, which can lead to defects, negative feedbacks,  and causing one big headache!

[gmij1961]

Ebay are obviously in a very "confused" state with SD themselves when Eve Williams makes statements like this 

"Simple Delivery: Now optional on more lower-priced items  "

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Announcements/This-month-s-updates-Changes-to-minimum-order-amounts-...

A burning question has to be why can't  Simple Delivery cover lower priced items efficiently . A reality was before Ebay insisted on using unnecessary postage options and start guessing the mass of items , things like RM 2nd class were actually trackable if the label was purchased through Ebay and would flag a delivery status on Ebay's system .    For me as a seller this reflects a time when posting had been the most simple and straightforward , those days are now gone aren't likely to come back as recent RM changes underline.  SD has created no end of damage ! 

The more items that opt out of SD the less valid BPF becomes as the seller is now responsible for sorting out lost or damaged items .  

It has become a total mess  and that is underlined by actions like this no matter how Eve Williams try to dress it up .

[lucy_farmer]

'It pains me to say it but it was Simple.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, I agree with you. S.D. can be simple and easy.... when it works. And therefore should be an *option* for those who wish to use it.

When it *doesn't* work it is a complete p.i.t.a. and it doesn't work for a rather large amount of sales.

S.D. would work perfectly if everybody was selling the same sort of thing; regularly sized, shaped, easy for the A.I. to guess weight, pack  and post etc... A bit like books really!   Or blister-packed tat from China.

But ebay is *supposed* to be the place where you can find almost anything you may be looking for (providing it's legal!).  And lots of 'almost anythings' are much more complex affairs. Simple they are not going to be, and these round-pegs should not be forced into square holes.

And there is STILL the combined-postage debacle 😞

[wiganyankeeron]

What about the people, who prior to the anticipated postage increase. Bought
a couple of hundred pounds worth of postage stamps??

RON,

[closetothedee]

It would be very rare though wouldn’t it for items to sell at the very same time - I’m not daft and removed my eBay listing as soon as it sold on the other site.
I hate being critical of a site that has served me very well for over 15 years, and it’s probably unfair to judge on the basis of one listing in the clothing category but when I searched as a guest for the item I’d listed it was nowhere to be found amongst all the listings from those who were obviously business sellers - I take from this that this is where eBay’s priorities lie, and that private sellers like me are of no great consequence. As to receiving a strike against my account - does anyone really care about this nowadays?
Sent from my iPhone

[sunflowers4me59]

Help, quick answer please, I have someone collecting this afternoon, I told them to bring collection code number, where do I put it? I've looked and can't see how! Easy instru actions please as I'm not too clever on technical things. Thank you in advance.

[department28]

This is from the eBay article 'Offering local collection':-

For proof of collection you can choose one of these options:

• On desktop, manually enter the buyer's 6 digit code in View order details
• Use the eBay app to scan the QR code the buyer received through email
• Use the eBay app to manually enter the 6-digit code the buyer received through email
• Ask the buyer to confirm they’ve collected in person through the item’s order details

To scan the QR code or enter the 6-digit code:

1. Go to Selling on the eBay App.
2. Go to the Orders tab.
3. Select the sold item being collected.
4. Click the drop down button on the blue Send Payment Reminder banner at bottom of the page.
5. Select Scan collection code from the list of options.
6. You can either scan the QR code or manually enter the 6-digit code the buyer received through email.

[sunflowers4me59]

I haven't got the app, was hoping to do it with browser, but nothing looks appropriate there. Oddly it is saying collected, does that mean customer has put code in? Although he says he will bring code.