'Simple' Delivery... Does it really take 40 days for a buyer to get a postage refund?

[sheeramazement]

So I dealt with my first 'simple' delivery today...

Sometimes people buy several of our items and pay for them quickly, so they end up as multiple orders.

(Or - as has been the case recently - when 'Orders eligible for combined purchase' doesn't work you end up in a similar situation....).

In this situation, I would bundle everything together, charge the postage against a larger parcel and then refund to the correct level against all the other items, updating their tracking details so they all read the same. It worked fine. Customers saved a bit of money, and although it was a bit of admin for us, it was  a straightforward, transparent process.

TIL: *This method does not work* when you have a mixture of 'old school' orders (ones where you have the degree of control listed above) and 'simple delivery' ones. There is no option to update tracking details on the 'simple' delivery - nor to mark it as despatched.

I contacted eBay support and was told that you *have* to use the simple delivery option to mark an item as despatched. They said that if the option was not physically used, then the buyer would be refunded - but this could be up to 30-40 days. In a frustrating session - my first ever with eBay that wasn't 100% positive - they said:

'Please know that you can check in sold section, it will show Prepaid label, so prepaid label uses Simple Delivery option where buyer pays for the label and sellers will get free postage label. Incase its not used, buyers will get refund.

If the buyer doesn’t receive their item through the label they paid for, they will be entitled to a refund. It will take around 30 - 40 days from label generation.'

A month? Really not looking forward to explaining that one to our 'regulars' and multiple buyers. (It's going to be even less fun that having to wait for an email containing a link to a label that I used to be able to print directly from eBay).

Can anyone enlighten me on how 'Simple' (hehehehehehehe) delivery copes with multiple purchases?

Is being able to offer cheaper postage if people buy more than one item a thing of the past?

[seejaybitsnbobs]

I think the problem is that eBay have painted themselves into a corner with 'Simple Delivery', and they have gone for the absolute simplest option from their perspective - 2 carriers, with a few choices on each.

Once you have a sale that is outside of those choices, their simple system collapses. I have just relisted some of my items just to see how it will work, and found that in the listing tool it said that postage costs would be XXXX, only for them to be either higher or lower in the actual listing.

[moldosgifts]

14 days taken from another post on here

Possible way around Simple Delivery....