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]

"If a private seller has 1000s of listings doesn't ebay make them become a busness seller/"

No not at all, at present I have over 150 items listed, including 70 DVDs, over 35 timetables, plus around 200 Ordnance Survery maps yet to be listed, and around 400 items listed elsewhere which I removed from eBay when SD kicked in owing to prohibitive buyer premium and unnecessary tracked postage fees. This is only a small fraction of all the collectible and other items I have around the house and yet to list anywhere. If I had the time and inclination, and wasn't put off by eBay's restrictive postage costs, I could easily have a couple of thousand items listed, and no way would that make me a business seller - they're all items I no longer want, or my late parents' items, or surplus items from my collections. 

[ceres_plantery]

I have a little bit more than you, but not by much. Ebay emailed and asked me to do a survey. Of course, sales had been down, so I put it down. The following day, ebay sent me a threatening message; now it's the sales amount below standard. I was furious. Because they quietly changed the postage to £2.76, I had to cancel TWO orders as it's highly offensive to the buyers and I don't want buyers to think I was robbing them. One never came back again with the order although I pointed out that the postage was only £1.10. Ebay had the audacity to harass sellers. Do they not know THAT THEIR SIMPLY DELIVERY HAD FRIGHTENED AWAY A LOT OF CUSTOMER? Yet, ebay blames sellers for low sales. If you see a survey, IGNORE! It's ebay's fault that the sales dropped. Also, I sell seeds and now is NOT the time to buy.  Too early to buy seeds.  

Remember if your item is below £20, you must ignore the bigger letter box and click Custom postage, and you choose the courier you want. If Royal Mail postage box doesn't come up, use an old listing to get the box. 

[gmij1961]

That adds up  correctly  🙂

What is  interesting is when I was selling and  bought postage via the Ebay website which would have been subject to VAT that does not show up on my Ebay invoice as I was still actually paying RM or Evri . A small point but underlines that with SD Ebay are actually acting as virtual courier( merchant)  and any compensation for lose etc has to be underwritten by Ebay and not the actual courier. Its Ebay problem to claim compensation from the actual courier .  Also backed up is Ebay not specify the actual courier just a level of service and I suspect at some time Ebay will just direct the seller to universal drop off point 

The service I have bought from Ebay  as a buyer includes compensation so why are Ebay then making  me pay for a compulsory  BPF  and why aren't Ebay making it clear that as the merchant they are responsible for covering postal lose etc regardless of BPF . It really isn't that honest and that is not a good way to deal with paying customers!

Ebay and other sites will probably get away with this as its such a small amount that is spread across so many buyers . 

I have probably said this before but who cares 🙂

P.S If Ebay are now acting as the merchant for postage then the same is also probably true of for the purchased item and they are no longer acting as facilitator for the deal and are actually reselling and as they are a business then BPF is  totally unnecessary , as if you buy from a business you are covered anyway. 

[jonatjonatjonat]

This isn’t the thread for businesses affected by simple delivery really.

[jonatjonatjonat]

I’m not going to go over again what eBay state the buyer protection fee includes, needless to say, it’s not stated as being compensation.

with regards eBay making cLear they cover potstal losses. A Google search of eBay simple delivery takes you to a page that states…

• You'll be protected if the item is lost or damaged from the point the item is scanned into the carrier's delivery network and until it's marked as delivered
• We'll work directly with your buyer if they experience any delivery-related issues or if they don't receive their item

and finally eBay are not the seller of record for items sold on eBay.

[dunstun365]

in last 30 days I had only one sale & that had to be cancelled because my chosen courier no-longer took parcels longer than 60cm (I only found this out at the shop) the other couriers on SD didn't show the max sizes clearly. It was much easier when I bought my own postage but couldn't do that because the buyer had paid.

Worse was when I tried to relist the long item it set the postage at  £12.97 up to 30kg & couldn't change it on SD at all as my parcel weighed less than 1kg & the item was only £3. I didn't bother listing thanks to that. I mainly switched to FB marketplace for selling bulky items a few years ago due many items costing more to ship than their worth. 

[dougbat20]

The last time I had to deal with any long items, it went through FedEx - granted I did have to very slightly under-declare the size but it got through perfectly fine without any surcharge etc!

When I did have to actually send a reasonably long item (more than 61cm), it went via Evri (or Hermes as it was called then) - they allowed up to 1.2m in length, so long as the overall size (shortest sides x2 + length) didn't exceed 245cm. These dimensions were fine for my item I was sending. Simple Delivery would be totally unsuitable nowadays, and DHL collection is too costly and too inconvenient. 

No wonder why lots of private sellers are just being totally put off by eBay's practices. The reduction of the Buyer Protection Fee is a start - now they need to make Simple Delivery optional for ALL items.

[infohelps]

I still have my 'time away from selling' banner up, which I have had since the 31st March.  Today I thought I would go and have a look at some of my items to see what was happening with Simple Delivery, and I am now extremely confused. 

My items are all buy it now, and the postage I originally input was mainly 2nd class Royal Mail with some that were down as tracked 48 with Royal Mail.  My items are mainly vintage knitting patterns, but I also have other items including clothing, books, CDs and Dvds, ornaments and some heavy costume items.  They all look exactly as I input them with nothing to suggest that they are on SD.  

I found one item - a magazine - that was showing £2.72 tracked which I certainly didn't input.   But when I went into it the custom delivery button was available and I was able to change this back to free postage, 2nd class Royal Mail. 

When I pick a listing at random to revise, custom postage shows as a box on the screen with a darker band around it.  But when I click on it nothing happens.  On the left is the simple Delivery box.  If I click on that it says Simple delivery is recommended.  It then gives me two options - keep simple delivery or go to advanced options.  If I click the latter, nothing happens.

So I am wondering - am I on Simple Delivery or not?  The custom delivery button is there but as nothing happens when I click it I'm thinking it is no longer available.   Do you think it possible that if I were to remove my banner, and someone did buy something, it would change to simple delivery at point of sale?

[kube1010]

So I've just been through an absolute nightmare with eBay - last five orders have had to be shipped and paid outside of eBay. The last one, I couldn't create a label becuase of an 'error' - I couldn't cancel the order or refund the order because I got caught in a permanent loop of asking me for a payment method, even though there was a card and bank account attached and linked to the account, it just kept me going round in circles forever. Eventually I just had to wait until the buyer complained enough that eBay would use my already verified card, to refund them and still I get mails saying I jneed to remember to put tracking info on the orders. Total shambles and complete incompetence. 21 years say bye bye.

[*maetrix*]

Shambolic isn't it?...I hope whoever came up with all this nonsense throughout the course of 2025 has been well and truly removed from their job(s).

Ebay have not only created one hell of a headache for us but i'm guessing for themselves too.

"IF" they had anything about them they'd apologise to all of their customers (buyers & sellers) and say they've made a right old mess of things & get back to basics.

#Embarrassing 

[insidethe93]

matrix wrote: "IF" they had anything about them they'd apologise to all of their customers (buyers & sellers) and say they've made a right old mess of things & get back to basics.

Hear hear! It sems saving face is more important to eBay, so they "fix" things by adding more mess rather than revert to what worked. Maybe they don't understand that an apology can be a positive thing.

If only eBay had consulted customers in advance on important things like Buyer Protection Racket Fee and Screwy Delivery. Prior research is what sensible businesses do. There are 'focus groups' or the equivalent, or questionnaires and I mean questionnaires whose answers are actually read.*

* here comes an anecdote that's very optional to read, skip if wished: do firms really take any notice of questionnaires or feedback forms? Once my then opticians, a large chain, introduced annual customer questionnaires. For years I answered the question on activities I needed specially accurate vision for e.g. "reading, sewing" but during appointments it was clear they never read the questionnaires. To prove it, one year I put "sniper".

[suelel1968]

@infohelps Hi, you will not see a postage rate on your liting if it is SD you will see Flat Rate postage paid by Buyer. If you try to edit an item it will tell you if it is going to change to SD. Change the small parcel to Large Letter, if appropriate and it will offer custom postage. If cutom postge box do not show, but you want large letter, change the category. 

[marla_3725]

I'm sorry to say that I have had to temporarily return to selling on eBay to clear a surplus of items. I sell model vehicles and tried to offload them to a dealer, but received a pitiful offer, so I've had to swallow my pride.

The simple delivery is awful. So far it has "selected" Evri for all items. I took a parcel to my nearest drop-off point to be told their label printer wasn't working, so I had to traipse across town to another shop to send it. I took another parcel to that shop today to be told they couldn't take it, as there were too many already. They did however print my label so I could traipse across town again (in the opposite direction!) to drop the parcel off at the first shop 🤦

I would de-select Evri, but the only Royal Mail drop-off showing locally is an automatic locker in the back end of a secluded car park.... for some reason you can't drop off at the local post office!!!!

I used to enjoy selling when I sorted my own postage at the aforementioned post office, but now it's a hassle and feels impersonal and chaotic.

Will eBay PLEASE give it up and allow us to sort our own postage again??!!

[sml192]

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@marla_3725 wrote:

I would de-select Evri, but the only Royal Mail drop-off showing locally is an automatic locker in the back end of a secluded car park.... for some reason you can't drop off at the local post office!!!!

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You can use any Post Office or Royal Mail drop off point. 

[infohelps]

Thanks, but I probably should have mentioned, I don't see anything related to flat rate postage paid by buyer as my items are postage free, i.e. paid by me.   The listing from the customer's point of view just says 2nd class Royal Mail postage which is how I set it up originally.  No mention of tracked. I don't know whether it is set up as a small parcel as I cannot get into postage options but the fact that it still says 2nd class Royal Mail suggests to me that it is still as I input it originally.  I knew when I set up the listing whether it was large letter or parcel and the item was priced accordingly.   It gives me the choice of clicking on advanced settings but nothing happens so I can't change it to large letter even if I wanted to.  I haven't clicked on the simple delivery button because I don't want to use simple delivery.     So I just don't know whether I am on simple delivery or not.  🙄

I guess that 'time away from selling' banner is going to be on for a lot longer...........................