Possible way around Simple Delivery....

[meditative-moods]

This is posted from my Business eBay account, but relates to my Personal Account.

So, this morning I spoke with Customer Services about the fact that eBay had changed my listings to allow Evri delivery to be chosen by the buyer, despite it being a 15 mile round trip to my nearest drop off point....thanks eBay 🤦🏻

The lady I spoke with was insistent that the new system is fabulous, right up until the point I said I would close my account then, as it's pointless if it just causes me inconvenience. It was at this point that she offered up 2 pieces of information, one of which may be a work around.

The first piece of info is that under your account settings in Selling" and then "Postage Preferences" you can toggle off either Evri or Royal Mail if either of them are unsuitable for you.

The second thing is the intersting one, as apparently, if I choose to buy a label offsite and not use the supplied Evri label, then the unused Evri label will be refunded within 14 days. Now, it remains to be seen how eBay will react to sellers not iusing their labels and instead making their own arrangements, as it will lead to lots of postage refunds for me as I have my own postage account with Royal mail and therefore, do not want to using Stupid Delivery...sorry, Simple Delivery on any of my listings.

I'm going to try it and use my own label, after which my eBay supplied label should be refunded in 14 days, so whilst it's still a pain, for those of us that don't want to use Stupid Delivery, it might just work...

[**peaseblossom**]

Yes, a lot of us have already removed Evri from our postage prefs.   The difficulty is adding the second tracking number to ebay.   In theory at the moment that can be done at Order Details > Postage > dropdown menu (beside track package) > Add Tracking > + Additional Tracking Number.

If that doesn't work we're told to contact ebay Customer Services and they will add it.   But I can't see them facilitating the non-use of SD after the 15th.  

[felix_1970]

Simple Delivery will be mandatory from 12th April, so there is no 'work around' unfortunately.

[thesmi42]

"the unused Evri label will be refunded within 14 days"

How would that work?

Under SD the buyer effectively pays eBay for the postage so any refund would be owed to them, leaving the seller out of pocket for any separate postage they may have bought.

[ruby*ryan]

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@meditative-moods wrote:

This is posted from my Business eBay account, but relates to my Personal Account.

So, this morning I spoke with Customer Services about the fact that eBay had changed my listings to allow Evri delivery to be chosen by the buyer, despite it being a 15 mile round trip to my nearest drop off point....thanks eBay 🤦🏻

The lady I spoke with was insistent that the new system is fabulous, right up until the point I said I would close my account then, as it's pointless if it just causes me inconvenience. It was at this point that she offered up 2 pieces of information, one of which may be a work around.

The first piece of info is that under your account settings in Selling" and then "Postage Preferences" you can toggle off either Evri or Royal Mail if either of them are unsuitable for you.

The second thing is the intersting one, as apparently, if I choose to buy a label offsite and not use the supplied Evri label, then the unused Evri label will be refunded within 14 days. Now, it remains to be seen how eBay will react to sellers not iusing their labels and instead making their own arrangements, as it will lead to lots of postage refunds for me as I have my own postage account with Royal mail and therefore, do not want to using Stupid Delivery...sorry, Simple Delivery on any of my listings.

I'm going to try it and use my own label, after which my eBay supplied label should be refunded in 14 days, so whilst it's still a pain, for those of us that don't want to use Stupid Delivery, it might just work...

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If the label is refunded, then the refund will presumably go to the buyer, who will have paid for it.  So you will then have to pay for a label of your choice out of your own pocket. 

[*vyolla*]

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@meditative-moods wrote:

This is posted from my Business eBay account, but relates to my Personal Account.

So, this morning I spoke with Customer Services about the fact that eBay had changed my listings to allow Evri delivery to be chosen by the buyer, despite it being a 15 mile round trip to my nearest drop off point....thanks eBay 🤦🏻

The lady I spoke with was insistent that the new system is fabulous, right up until the point I said I would close my account then, as it's pointless if it just causes me inconvenience. It was at this point that she offered up 2 pieces of information, one of which may be a work around.

The first piece of info is that under your account settings in Selling" and then "Postage Preferences" you can toggle off either Evri or Royal Mail if either of them are unsuitable for you.

The second thing is the intersting one, as apparently, if I choose to buy a label offsite and not use the supplied Evri label, then the unused Evri label will be refunded within 14 days. Now, it remains to be seen how eBay will react to sellers not iusing their labels and instead making their own arrangements, as it will lead to lots of postage refunds for me as I have my own postage account with Royal mail and therefore, do not want to using Stupid Delivery...sorry, Simple Delivery on any of my listings.

I'm going to try it and use my own label, after which my eBay supplied label should be refunded in 14 days, so whilst it's still a pain, for those of us that don't want to use Stupid Delivery, it might just work...

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That would be an obvious flaw in the system if that were the case. The buyer pays for the label, not the seller.

I believe that if you don't use the label then it won't be refunded. 

Do you have a link to the bit about an unused label being refunded in 14 days? If not, and this is just something eBay have told you, I think they're getting confused.

Unless you've offered free postage, your buyer is charged for the delivery cost at checkout and the amount is then paid to eBay for the label. If you decide not to use the prepaid label, you'll need to purchase your own label instead at your own cost.

[department28]

What happens when the seller offers free postage? If the postage cost is then taken from the item price, but the seller doesn't use the label for whatever reason, would the postage money be refunded to the seller, or is it assumed to be non-refundable?

[felix_1970]

I'm guessing the label is generated from your account, and the cost comes off the amount sold.  ie - ebay still control the postage.

[davrman]

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@department28 wrote:

What happens when the seller offers free postage? If the postage cost is then taken from the item price, but the seller doesn't use the label for whatever reason, would the postage money be refunded to the seller, or is it assumed to be non-refundable?

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That might work, but are you still able to add your own tracking number?

[department28]

'That might work, but are you still able to add your own tracking number?'

This is still unclear/unknown. Same goes for the refund situation if a seller doesn't use the label.

Have to wait for someone to discover the answers to these things, no doubt by bitter experience...

[the-nutwood-collection]

If the label is refunded, then the refund will presumably go to the buyer

IMO, the refund will go to eBay, because eBay purchased the label on behalf of the buyer.  The contract for carriage is between eBay and EVRi, not the buyer and Evri.  The buyer has a contract with eBay to supply a label - which they did.

[cbclassicbuyer]

I can't see how a seller could be refunded for a label they didn't purchase in the first place. The buyer pays eBay for the postage, Ebay supply the label to the seller. If anyone were to be refunded, it would be the buyer and I can't see ebay doing that under the SD terms and conditions. 

[department28]

Oh, so if a seller offers free postage, it all more or less comes to the same thing - the money is swiped by eBay from the buyer's payment, so even if the label did not get used, the seller would not be entitled to a refund?

What a fiendishly confusing, horrible, disempowering system..!

[papso22]

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@cbclassicbuyer wrote:

I can't see how a seller could be refunded for a label they didn't purchase in the first place. The buyer pays eBay for the postage, Ebay supply the label to the seller. If anyone were to be refunded, it would be the buyer and I can't see ebay doing that under the SD terms and conditions. 

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There have been a number of posts from perplexed buyers who received postage refunds from ebay out of the blue.  This can really only be unused labels where the seller did their own thing.  SD has been around for about 6 months in some categories.

[thesmi42]

Do you have a link to one of those posts?

[billowness_books]

Tracking:

If you as a seller buy a label directly from RoyalMail (for 48 hr tracked) you get your tracking number. You can then simply message the buyer giving them the number.

Offering free postage:

I wondered about doing this, but if I sell a Penguin paperback for, say, £2.20 and I pay £2.80 for the postage, I make a loss.

If I up my price to offset the postage cost, then the buyer is going to see an upfront price (say £5.00) that is higher than other businesses’ prices and won’t bother buying mine. (Whereas, at the moment, they see £2.80, have a look at the photos and find it’s in good nick, see that the postage is reasonable, and - hopefully - buy it.)

[twin--turbo]

There is a simple workaround for all private sellers. 

[barry.110]

Would you care to share what that work around is?

[tressygirl]

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@barry.110 wrote:

Would you care to share what that work around is?

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Possibly they are thinking for Private sellers to switch to being a Business seller?

However,  can anyone guarantee this will not then be bestowed on B. Sellers as  mandatory,  and once you've switched to Business , you cannot change that account back to Private.

Of course,  you can open another account, a Private one, but you're starting then from a new account 0 feedback,   and back to SD that you tried to escape from!  😐

[kath3735_wxmjn]

so you are happy to pay for your own postage??