New issue with Simple Delivery 24/07/25

[greenwallpaper]

So, I have been using Simple Delivery - and honestly, I quite liked it. It was less bother for me, no booking couriers (I used to import to Evri) and I just print a label as each item sells.

As I understood it, even if the parcel is overweight, the seller is not charged a fee as long as they used the size recommended by ebay when listing the item.

Today, I have encountered a problem...

So, items I previously listed - such as a thin t-shirt or a pair of socks, at the time of listing or when adding Simple Delivery, ebay suggested large letter - so thats the size I went with, because eBay has this amazing algorithm to work out sizing, right? Plus, if its wrong but listed as per ebay's size recommendation, theres no additional charge. 

Well today, if I press edit / revise the listing - it no longer thinks that the t-shirt and the pair of socks are large letter, it thinks they're a small parcel and its recommending that size. But I have large letter selected - which is what ebay previously recommended. 

So do I now have to go through my listings and change the large letter items to small parcel? If I don't, then I would likely be responsible for any charge if the item was too big for large letter - despite ebay saying that as long as we use their recommended sizes, that won't happen.

The problem I have encountered, is that today those listings now have a different recommended size than when I first listed them 

So if I sent off the socks or the tshirt with the generated large letter label for Simple Delivery and the Post Office charges ebay for additional sizing - that fee is going to get passed on to me, even though I selected the ebay recommended size at time of listing. 

So, I guess my question is - how has this happened? Do I have to press edit on every listing and check that the recommended size hasn't changed (and do this regularly to keep an eye on it for changes to the recommendations)

Worth checking your own listings too, if you have gone with ebays Simple Delivery recommended sizes, it would appear that they can spontaneously change their recommended size!

[jollyseamus]

I'd also be interested in how you are supposed to bulk change this option as having had issues with simple delivery postage allowance sizing this morning, I started looking at my other listings to find that quite a few are incorrectly guessed by ebay, a car part they say should be 1kg is closer to 5kg, another which requires more packaging for safe and protective sending will be over the 45cm limit. My concern is whether once sent, if you know it would be over their size you do get hammered for the extra cost in postage. This is a whole can of worms that clearly has not been rolled out properly and is using the community as the guinea pig. Whether they're relying on AI for estimates or not, it is clearly lacking the I part.

[thepillenwerfer]

I can say from experience that e-Bay honour the recommended price.  I sold something which e-Bay estimated as a 2kg Small parcel even though the item weighted 2.5kg un-packed.  When packed it was also over-size for a Small Parcel but the Buyer got it fine with no extra charges levied on either of us.

As for bulk changing existing listings I doubt e-Bay have allowed for that as they wouldn't expect Private Sellers to have a large enough number of things listed at one time to need it.

[xyz307xyz]

I would think, in theory/per policy, if you revise an item, and ebay now thinks it is a small packet. then if it is a small packet, you leave it as small packet. If it is actually large letter, you change it back to large letter. But, if you have other similar size/weight items, that you don't need to revise anyway, then there is no obligation to go through and change the size/weight band.

[edwardian-dreams]

I agree

if you know your item will fit into a large letter then don’t follow their recommendation for a small parcel 

checked my relisted items , thanks by the way, and eBay have made my 5kg medium parcels on a couple listings  of a heavy box into a small parcel

do I go with recommended? Hell yes 

not my problem 

what i do have a  problem with is when relisting items  via sell similar(because people say using sell similar instead of relist bumps your item in views more)  it gets eBay to default to collection plus postage when original item was postage only 

I don’t want  collection  thanks so I have to change it

[greenwallpaper]

The issue that I have is that yesterday, eBay recommended a pair of socks or a bra as a large letter but today it thinks they’re a parcel

Today it even recommended the size small parcel up to 2kg for one small bra that yesterday was considered a large letter

I spent a good few hours after posting, revising my listings - and there were so many that needed changing 

Previously, I think just about all of my T-shirts (adult and kids) had the recommendation of large letter size. From today, it put them in the up to 1kg small parcel bracket 

Something has changed - I rather think eBay are having a little tweak of the Simple Delivery sizes. Perhaps too many orders were going through as large letter when they were oversized so they’re being stricter now 

I think all clothing, seems to be up to 1kg small parcel now. Even if I know it will go as a large letter, I’m selecting the new recommendation because I don’t fancy getting a fee / fine through if it doesn’t quite fit 

Tape cassettes were another I had to change, they’re no longer recommend at a large letter size - they’re now small parcel up to 1kg, as were some books. 

DVDs still seem to have large letter recommended (except larger box set versions) but on many of my comics (which are certainly no bigger than a large letter) the recommendation is small parcel up to 1kg

The whole simple delivery system seems to have gone a bit muddled today. It could be a glitch or teething problems, but if you’ve selected it in the past, it might be worth checking on your listings 

[xyz307xyz]

My earlier comment still stands, did you have some specific other reason to revise them?

Or do you mean this is happening when relisting?

In either case, if they are too big/heavy for LL then IMO it's reasonable for ebay to put the postage as a parcel.

It maybe a glitch and will go away, it may be that ebay's AI is "learning" you imply (or I infer anyway).

Are you posting this just for others info - or do you think it is a "problem" or "issue"?

[xyz307xyz]

Or do you mean you listing some things as large letter but ebay changed the postage without you touching the listing in any way? If so, was the original listing Simple Delivery large letter or custom postage large letter?

[greenwallpaper]

I had already been converted to simple delivery for the most part, so my listings had updated in the roll out. 

Others I had added SD myself, after discovering that I quite liked it  

I was having a tidy of listings yesterday, I like to freshen them  (to try some different keywords / add a little extra info / reduce the price)  and the simple delivery recommendation was showing as a red tick in a different box 

At first I thought I’d triggered something by adding a keyword so I tried going into listings and changing nothing at all - just opening it on a revision page - but recommended sizes were still different to what they had originally been 

My fear is that eBay will expect us to know they’ve altered sizing or changed their algorithm and there will be many thousands of people with say, a T-shirt or a tape cassette listed as large letter (from the original roll out) and may incur a fine 

EBay had probably put well over a hundred of my items into the large letter sizing when it rolled out the update 

I had ticked it in agreement with their recommended sizes when I listed other items since then 

Thanks xyz for the helpful and civil replies - I appreciate you taking the time 😊 

[xyz307xyz]

RE: "My fear is that eBay will expect us to know they’ve altered sizing or changed their algorithm and there will be many thousands of people with say, a T-shirt or a tape cassette listed as large letter (from the original roll out) and may incur a fine "

I don't think you're under any obligation to update those listings for that.

If you update them for any reason, or manually relist, you should check the postage band is correct.

Anything is possible of course, e.g. buy it now items can be automatically relisted for seemingly years. You could take a screenshot of the below linked page.

If you use the recommended parcel size and your item exceeds the maximum size and weight of the label, you won’t be charged any additional costs. Just go ahead and use the Simple Delivery postage label. The courier will accept your package providing it remains within the maximum weight and dimensions for the service. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/postage/simple-delivery

[greenwallpaper]

This is the section that worried me: 

“If you don't use the recommended parcel size, and your item ends up exceeding the maximum size and weight of the label, you may be responsible for covering the additional costs of sending your item.“

It sadly doesn’t say what to do if the recommend size changes! I think they need a FAQ section for that. It’s very strange!

I suppose it’s just a case of keeping an eye on the listings.

Well perhaps someone from eBay will see this post and investigate to see if it’s a glitch - or maybe another seller will notice a change on their listings. Either way, it might help others be aware.

Thanks for your time and advice 😊 

 

 

[wellingnorth]

From ebay's policy it sounds like there should be some kind of flag set for each listing where they can see whether the user has accepted their shipping category recommendation or has changed it. And so if at a later date they change the recommendation for that listing that you should still be covered by the fact that you have not changed the category from their original recommendation.

As it stands at the moment there is no way for a seller to tell whether ebay thinks you have accepted their recommendation or not so if it came to a dispute I'm not sure how you'd be able to prove it. Hopefully they would have a record of whether you had actively changed the shipping category and look at that. But as you imagine it's possible that instead they might just compare the shipping category selected versus the recommended category for the particular cagtegory / title / description at the time of the sale.

Frankly I think the only we will find out how this has been implented is by people complaing on here if it goes wrong. In an ideal world each listing would clearly show to the seller whether they had accepted the ebay recommendation or not. And then when an item sells ebay would clearly state what shipping category was selected, whether that was your own selection or ebay's recommendation, and then what the implications are if that is wrong in each case.

[wellingnorth]

I'm curious actually has anyone seen any reports of sellers actually receiving surcharges from ebay for underpaid simple delivery parcels? I'm wondering whether ebay may just be covering this for now.