Sellers Unite Against Simple Delivery

[mackingcrazy]

WE MUST FORCE THEM TO ABANDON THIS STUPID, DANGEROUS, RIDICULOUS SYSTEM! I REFUSE TO SELL UNTIL THEY REMOVE IT.  THEY ARE DOING IT TO FORCE US INTO MAKING A BUSINESS ACCOUNT! THEY ARE IN THE GOVERNMENTS POCKET! FROM THEIR OWN SUPPORT!

[thepillenwerfer]

You are correct that RM Tracked 48 and 24 will only pay compensation up to £150.  However with Simple Delivery e-Bay cover items against loss or damage up to £750.  If a Buyer claims non-receipt e-Bay refund them and the Seller keeps the money.  Sellers don't have to refund and hope they can get more than a few stamps off RM or be told by a courier that their item is on a list of things they won't pay out on.

[wgwillia]

Totally  agree with you if it an't broke don't fix it.

[pegr-834437]

How would they know the seller would refund and not just send them off as single packages? They'd probably send the seller a message saying excuse kind seller I see you have hundreds of items listed for sale we seem to share the same great taste in music, if I were to purchase multiple could you either refund the extra postage or create a bundle for me please. If they just went ahead purchased 5 CD's and expected a refund they'd be a bit foolish as many would just send them out as single orders, especially businesses who sometimes would have the items already packaged up.

[charlottlepegasus42]

I  agree with you. I too have stopped selling on Ebay. Until they come to their senses. This is a stupid thing they have done. Why aren't they listening to the sellers. As i have said before. If it's not broke don't fix it. Lets hope everyone follows suite.

[abrahamtoast]

I am reporting from experience.

Your scenario assumes a fully informed, sensible buyer. I'm sure we all wish buyers were fully informed and/or sensible, but sadly, the majority are not.

However, In my experience, in pre-SD days, very few private sellers would send out individual packages. Most of us are buyers too, and we do treat our own buyers fairly.

My old listings made clear that I would combine postage, but now with SD, I won't be able to do so - it will be up to eBay to do that, and, as many people have reported, they are not very consistent in how they do that.

I have taken that part out of those of my listings which are now on SD.

Buyers have not been educated in SD. I had one buyer who won a couple of separate lots, so was charged postage twice. Obviously, he expected me to refund, and did actually chase me up for one. I only used one of the labels, so eBay will refund him, but not for 30 days or so. He was not pleased. In the meantime, I need to hope that the label I used will cover both items.

Another buyer claimed he didn't realise he had chosen Evri, and wanted to change to RM. Pre-SD, that would have been no problem, but again, he thought I was being obstructive by not complying.

I'm hoping it settles down, because I think SD is basically a good idea, but there are far too many potential problems with it at the moment.

[gjalp]

SD is not going to go away. It’s a revenue stream and contracts will have been made. Combined purchases do need to be sorted out though. Its a bit like the return system I experienced this week. My eldest had bought a bunch of car bits from a business seller. Business seller sent all items in one parcel as it was a multiple order, however, all parts turned out not to be needed and returned and paying for the return under ‘no longer needed’ was the way forward. What threw us was the fact we were unable to return the entire order (how it was sent) in one box. Every single item had to have its own label through ebay’s return process which was silly (and costly, each label cost £3.35 and had up to 2kg on it) so the seller gets 6 packets back after sending one small parcel box of 6 items out. Ebay will be making a profit due to it costing them less for each label under contract. Even worse, the seller was local and the items could be returned in person but the system doesn’t allow for that either. Nothing about SD or the return process is streamlined. Automated, yes. Streamlined, no. Its all very messy and brought in by someone/s that have never bought or sold on ebay otherwise these issues would be catered for.

[crafty_cat_lover]

Why would I want to stop selling?  That is just cutting my nose off to spite my face.

I have sold several items under SD and have not had a problem. It has actually been made easier because I'm not having to worry about trying to cram something ito a smaller package than it should be because I've estimated postage too low as I've assumed it will be a small parcel and it isn't.

I've always only used Royal Mail or Evri for posting and very rarely use the Post Office as there is a parcel postbox near me. I also found out at the weekend that my local Evri shop also takes RM parcels so that makes things easier for me. Neither RM nor Evri have ever lost any of my parcels so I have no problems with those being the choice of carrier.

I am curious what problems you have had with SD that have influenced your decision to stop selling for however long Ebay's contracts with Evri and RM are. I also wonder how many sellers complaining about SD have actually used it and, more importantly, how many sellers are using SD and are quite happy.

[primeshooter3]

Yes, I won't be back while that is in operation. Also while it takes 4 days to get paid after buyer has my item!

[pegr-834437]

So basically the buyers need to read the email or the help pages to see what simple delivery is? As you say you think its a good idea, I'm not sure how else eBay could educate unless they put a banner on every listing advising people on what simple delivery is, they've already sent out emails, I've had at least 2. 

With regards to the buyer paying for Evri but wanting Royal Mail, thats on them, they didnt read your listing correctly, you cant blame eBay for somebody not reading the listing. It seems everyone wants to find the faults of everything and blame it on eBay. If customers dont read or send a quick message beforehand asking you to bundle then sorry but thats not really eBays fault.

[tressygirl]

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@primeshooter3 wrote:

Yes, I won't be back while that is in operation. Also while it takes 4 days to get paid after buyer has my item!

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Your wait for those ' 4 days' to lapse and to change,  is over.

From yesterday,  once the buyer receives their item,  the payout will be released within 24 hours.

@primeshooter3 

[hummingbird-curios]

Correction: Ebay says funds released 24 hours after buyer PAYING, not after delivery. I wonder if they told their payments department - I doubt it!

[primeshooter3]

They've just decided this yesterday have they?

[hummingbird-curios]

Transcript from eBay seller news released last week:

Private sellers can now get paid faster

You’ve told us that it's important to know you’ll get paid shortly after a buyer places an order, and we’ve listened.

From 6 August, if you’re a private seller who meets the required criteria, you’ll automatically start receiving your funds in your eBay balance within 24 hours of the buyer paying, giving you faster access to your earnings. For those who haven't met the criteria, you can track your progress towards getting your funds faster in the Payments tab. The tracker will be available on the eBay website and the latest version of the eBay app.

For private sellers, we’ve also reduced the fixed portion of the Buyer Protection fee from £0.75 to just £0.10, helping to make your lower-priced listings more attractive to buyers. You’ll notice the biggest impact if you sell items under £10.

As I said, it's all very well announcing these 'exciting' changes but will they let customer service agents  or the payments department know - they don't seem to have a clue about anything.

If nothing changes, it stays the same.

We’ve also launched a brand-new calculator to use when listing, designed to help you price your items in real-time. Plus, we’ve made it easier to view both the item price and Buyer Protection fee when creating or reviewing offers. 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

Quicker payout is only for tracked deliveries.  If it's not sent tracked delivery, you still have to wait 14 days.

[sdrummond-uk]

I sold an item yesterday not on SD as its exempt 2ND class letter and its in my balance this morning. I haven't even sent it out yet.   

[tressygirl]

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@primeshooter3 wrote:

They've just decided this yesterday have they?

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Nope it was announced a while ago.  eBay messages were sent out about this on the 17th July.

@primeshooter3 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

How odd!  Below is what it says in the link posted by ebay in the Update yesterday and this is the link:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/getting-paid/getting-paid-items-sold-?id=4814#section2

• Untracked, or tracked with missing delivery confirmation: Funds will be available 14 calendar days from the order date
• For untracked orders with a subtotal (excluding postage, fees, taxes) of £10 or less, funds will be available instantly if positive feedback is received from the buyer

[sdrummond-uk]

I'm assuming I meet the  eligibility criteria then that's why I've been paid quicker.

[moldosgifts]

Maybe they confused you with a business? 

It's a little win take it you don't get many on ebay.

[department28]

'Buyers have not been educated in SD. I had one buyer who won a couple of separate lots, so was charged postage twice. Obviously, he expected me to refund, and did actually chase me up for one. I only used one of the labels, so eBay will refund him, but not for 30 days or so. He was not pleased. In the meantime, I need to hope that the label I used will cover both items.'

Unfortunately, this sort of scenario will have been happening over & over since SD was introduced, causing all sorts of frustration, embarrassment & much wasting of time.

We can't expect buyers to know how SD works - why should they have to? They just want their combined postage discount sorted, either before or after payment - which was very easy to do before SD, because the seller was in charge.

Now they have started sending these ludicrous'your buyer has reached out..'  automated messages, when a buyer or seller wants to ask a question about postage - so if it was difficult to sort out postage queries before, it will be even worse now...