NO SALES ! NO WONDER !

[punkwroc77]

I have just realised that Ebay have altered all my listings to show that the Buyer has to pay a minimum of £3.38 postage. I have tried changing to Seller pays but then the minimum cost for postage jumps to £4.48 when the actual cost would be as little as 87p .Even for £5 items that I'd list with free postage ,( which I would normally be able to send for £1.55 - £2.70), Ebay have changed the listings so it is no wonder my sales have dropped to zero.

Surely the inflated Postage costs are a Seller Fee in disguise ?.

Ebay have effectively closed my account for the purposes of selling.

Does anyone know what Ebay are aiming to achieve in preventing private Sellers from actually selling anything ?.

Apparently there are categories where the Sellers can still decide which company they want to use for shipping and also offer free postage but they do not disclose what these categories are ?. 

Are Ebay now cutting off their nose to spite their face by saying they would rather lose the income from private Sellers sales than allow Private Sellers to actually sell ?.

[gblcfc]

They are still showing as Free Delivery when I look

Did you search for your items through a general search by Category - is so then they will all be wrong as are mine

[xyz307xyz]

Read all about Simple Delivery here

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575

Opting out is based on size, weight and subcategory. There are some example subcategories in the Opting out section of that page, but people have reported "different results" so, it's pretty much try and see.

There's also a list of Restricted or prohibited items not to be sent SD.

[4_bathrooms]

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@punkwroc77 wrote:

I have just realised that Ebay have altered all my listings to show that the Buyer has to pay a minimum of £3.38 postage. I have tried changing to Seller pays but then the minimum cost for postage jumps to £4.48 when the actual cost would be as little as 87p .Even for £5 items that I'd list with free postage ,( which I would normally be able to send for £1.55 - £2.70), Ebay have changed the listings so it is no wonder my sales have dropped to zero.

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There is a convoluted way around this. First, you need to select "Seller pays" (as you have done) so the buyer sees "Free postage". Then, you purchase your own label direct from Royal Mail (or a courier) and enter the tracking number from that label into the sales record. You will obviously need to include the cost of postage/shipping in the item price as you will have no other way of charging the buyer for it. Finally - and within 14 days of purchasing the label - you need to request a refund for the unused "Simple" Delivery label here.

[clydeandrascal]

Dear gods, select Seller Pays & STILL have eBay charge you for a carriage label that you then have to reclaim?  This is insanity in its purest form.

[theelench]

It may be insanity compared with wrapping your parcel, writing the buyers address on it, taking it to the post office and paying for the stamp.

But look at it from ebay's point of view.  The more convoluted they can make doing anything other than buying their overpriced label will maximise the number of sellers who just give-in, say to themselves the buyer is being over-charged (not me) and follow ebay's recommendation.

Ker-ching for ebay every time they get away with it.

How many will forget to enter the Tracking Number and will have to wait 14 days for their money?  Ker-ching again as ebay earns a bit of interest.

How many will forget to claim the refund?  Ker-ching again for ebay every time.

[goodrockinred]

I feel the same. One contributor on here wrote 'Their house, their rules'. However if you have rules in your house which visitors don't like, they will stop coming.

[xyz307xyz]

Ebay says "From 15 April, we’ll gradually introduce Simple Delivery as the only delivery method available for private sellers who list eligible items on eBay.co.uk."
On some items you can opt out, and some items you barred from sending SD.

This reads to me that you are not supposed to "avoid using SD".

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"I feel the same. One contributor on here wrote 'Their house, their rules'. However if you have rules in your house which visitors don't like, they will stop coming."

Yes, if you want to have visitors to your house, you'd provide a welcoming environment for them and you wouldn't keep rearranging the furniture around them every 5 minutes!  And if you felt the need to charge them for a cup of tea and a cake, you wouldn't charge them more than the cafe down the road!!

[thetoyfan2020]

I sold 8 audio books yesterday, each containing roughly to 3 to 4 CDs each. All the same buyer but apparently according to eBay, the whole lot would of only cost £1.03 to post.

To say simple delivery is a broken mess is an understatement.

[youngnicol]

I sell mostly dvd's and cd's with simple delivery which costs £2.70 for tracking, i've just noticed that on relisting anything ebay are changing the postage to 87p without my knowledge, so if I sell anything i'm losing money, i've removed most of the cheap stuff as it's not worth the hassle anymore

Why can't ebay just leave things as they are and stop messing around?

[xyz307xyz]

I can only see one of your items at 87p. It shows

£0.87 delivery in 2–3 days

Royal Mail 2nd Class Letter

which looks to me like it isn't SD. Can you not just change the 87p on the relists to £1.55 or whatever figure you want?

You should be able to list some CDs and DVDs using custom postage if you want. See this (replace "Postcard" references with "CD" or "DVD": https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Ebay-simple-delivery-opt-out/m-p/7890684#M745612 

[edwardian-dreams]

I posted elsewhere that on the app it seems to be working ok

when listing on the website version though after you enter the price, click enter and it updates it to include custom postage , with letter and large letter options

[xyz307xyz]

I don't understand what the 2nd and 3rd line mean. I've reactivated a DVD listing with custom postage - see View Listings. Let's see if that lasts ...

[edwardian-dreams]

It should last as it’s an exempt category

what I was trying to say was the browser version defaults for this category to simple delivery

before you put your price in

when you do put the price in,  if you just use the down arrow to save the draft or list it, it remains as simple delivery when it shouldnt

but if you press enter , or toggle between seller pays buyer pays , the system gets prompted to update the postage ie to custom delivery