Simple Delivery...Low cost items exempt ..... this is what CS say

[caf_uk]

Thank you for contacting us here at eBay Customer Service regarding our Simple delivery. I understand that you have been notified about this service and you would like to know if low priced items are exempted and what can be considered as low-priced item. My name is John March, and as this is my expertise, I am very interested to resolve your concern and put your mind at ease.

I appreciate you in letting us know about your concern and we are here to make everything understandable. I have done an attentive review and to answer your question, Yes Simple Delivery is optional for items that has low price and lightweight (100g or under) that can fit in an envelope. A low item priced is considered equal or below £10. I just want to put your mind at ease as well that you can choose the Custom postage option instead of the Simple delivery.

I am confident I have answered and RESOLVED your query. Thank you again for contacting eBay. We appreciate your business! Cheers to more lovely years and future transactions with eBay. Have a nice day ahead!

Kind Regards,
John March
eBay Customer Service

[mod81]

It seems crazy that something could sell for £9.99 and you can post it for £1.55 (2nd class large letter) but if its goes for £10.02 and then you have to fork out for a more expensive simple delivery shipping label even though the size and weight of the item hasn't changed, as how are you to know when you list an item for sale as an auction what price to charge for postage without knowing how much the final sale price will be?

Plus is that £10 including the recently added 'buyer protection fee' or without it?

[*knight-rider*]

I've just been reading up on simple delivery and there's one aspect I don't like at all and that's eBay 'recommending' what type and size my packaging should be, based on what I've sold or others have. I decide how and what packaging I use, based on what protection the item needs to stop it getting damaged. We can already see the crazyness in this by the response above, with eBay assuming an item under 100g can go in an envelope. If I sell something for say £20, it goes properly packed and protected, whether it could have gone in an envelope or a box, my job is to get that item to the buyer in one piece and good condition and not taking risks because eBay say I could have posted it a different way.

Rules are one thing and making us wait for our money now, but telling us how to now package and post our stuff is crossing a line, it's getting ridiculous now 🤔🙄

[edwardian-dreams]

I reckon (could be wrong) that once  you get into custom postage and chose what you want, when you go to amend it and put the right details in, it will still save as custom postage ….

I’ve  tried getting special delivery with rm which isn’t a SD option

i amended the details and it remained as special delivery when it shouldn’t have technically

same should happen with the light under 10£ items 

so all hope is not lost …yet

[*knight-rider*]

It's the recommended packaging to use based on my measurements of the item that bothers me. Two different items but a similar size might require completely different packaging to each other, depending on what and how much protection is required.

[mabel.meadows]

Any idea what size envelope John March is referring to?

Thanks for the post - I was unaware of this low value option.

[crn303]

John March post = 1st April

[crn303]

Reference John Post notice …. Remember what todays date is !!

[buffster1963]

But that post was yesterday, and is in fact correct advice. 

[hail.caesar]

I wonder if "envelope" includes items that fit the RM large letter rate, which included envelopes and slim boxes? It would be good to know if the BPF is included in the £10.00.

[abrahamtoast]

This is interesting. I'm selling my collection of 7" singles on this private account.

The average weight is around 100g; most are priced under £10.00, and they are sent in bespoke envelopes.

If I amend my item weight in all my listings to 90g, I should be able to continue charging postage as I have been (for those items priced at lower than £10.00), which is how the buyers and I would prefer it. Even for those items which weigh a couple of grams over the 100g, the amount I would charge buyers, and the amount I would pay Royal Mail, would both be lower than eBay's SD charges.

Any flaws in my logic?

[mabel.meadows]

OK, something I was not aware of as I had not seen this opt-out before as regards low value items. So I have just used the web chat facility and got this from ebay CS.

Me: Re. Simple Delivery. You say "The option to opt out will only be available for items under £10 and weighing 100g or under" Is there a size limit for this?

Reply: "I understand the concern in regards with the simple delivery, as of now just this has been mentioned - We recognize that some items will be cheaper to post in an envelope, so if the item is under 100g and less than £10, it does not need to go through Simple Delivery "

Me: What size envelope?

Reply: "Envelope has been mentioned, the exact size limit has not been mentioned yet.
The back end team is generating another email wherein the sizes and the costs will be mentioned as well.
These details will be provided to you soon within few days. You will have a detailed information in regards with this on the email that will be rolled out "

Me: Ok, Thanks. Perhaps ebay could post this on the community pages.

Reply: "Yes, we agents have highlighted that as well, so eBay is currently working on this, as we agents completely understand the trouble it causes and how difficult it is. So, we have highlighted this, eBay is indeed working on it, so it might as well be posted soon on the community pages"

[abbotstamps]

Thank you for managing to actually get some kind of definitive answer out of Ebay. For me in my category this will be useful. However I still take issue with items over £10 if they are lightweight and will fit in an envelope. Why should the buyer effectively be forced to pay inflated delivery costs just so Ebay can line their coffers with kickbacks from the delivery partners. It should be up to the seller to determine the most cost effective delivery method NOT Ebay. 2nd class letter post of a basic item now costs 87p and can be put in any Royal Mail post box. They are now expecting the buyer to have to pay £2.73 for delivery which can only be recovered by the seller by inflating their prices. So Ebay is trying to abuse its market position in its largest market per Capita. Yes per population the UK is bigger than the USA for Ebay. The only other similar site in the UK is E.b.i.d  - no stops with a turnover of about one three hundreth of that of Ebay. Yes finally Ebay has got competition from the likes of Vinted who have managed to reduce Ebays revenue. The current situation is Ebays ill thought out knee jerk reaction without considering individually each and every category that items can be sold under. There are many issues than Ebay need to tackle, delivery being one of them.  but also their approach to business accounts - where to be anything like cost effective with the current system the seller needs to be turning over at least £12,000 per year. This in turn creates the conundrum concerning hobby businesses, who really have no alternative but to be private sellers unless they want Ebay to take most of their profit in inflated fees. These are issues that needs to be dealt with in the UK at Government and Competition and Markets Authority level. To that end I have reported Ebay to the CMA over the delivery issue. Probably nothing will come of it, but if everyone makes a report to the CMA they might act.

[britanniabug_stamp_store]

Let's hope there will be an official announcement before the 15th as I have very little confidence in CS, they  often sympathies with us, but have absolutely NO influence on eBay policy.

It would be tragic if they announce this after the 15th after many thousands of sellers have thrown in the towel and moved on...but wait isn't that what eBay are out to do!

[vaudeville-poodle]

This is super useful to know, I should be ok with most of my items as I sell low price vintage photographs, though sometimes they end up going for much more than £10 at auction, there just isn't any way to tell, but it's annoying and confusing that the postage cost will (I assume) change as the bids bet higher.