Simple Delivery Nightmare

[wildavdavi]

This is more of an experience piece rather than a question or something I need support with- I have a handful of listings on the site and one sold yesterday that I hadn't revised so on the listing it still displayed the standard price for a small RM parcel. When the order was completed I noticed it now states Standard Tracked Delivery instead of the Royal Mail Tracked 24 I previously had and checked only hours before without going anywhere near the Revise button.

I understand that if I revise a listing it will switch over and have done this for some already, my issue is largely that eBay automatically set the incorrect size for a listing that I thought I would be buying the postage for. I was surprised when I got to the post office and the lady said 'it won't fit large letter, you'll have to repackage it'- it didn't state Large Letter on the site and the first I saw of it was on the label she printed from the QR code - I know I can check the label but I didn't think it was relevant as I thought small parcel would be standard - so I had to go out, buy new packaging and tape a distance away from the small rural village I reside in.

When I got back to the Post Office I saw the RM Employee leaving (40 mins before the stated collection time) so knew I had no chance of sending it there so had to do a mad dash to Chester on Race Day that had me arrive 20 mins before closing due to the traffic. Luckily, the RM Employee was collecting at that moment and saw it handed to him. As joyous as that moment was, the reality is I've lost hours to this nonsense.

We didn't even need a solution to this before as you simply just paid for the correct postage at the Post Office, even if there was an issue where incorrect postage was purchased online- we could simply refund that one and buy the correct new one with no problems or delays. Now it's forcing you to downsize if the incorrect postage was purchased, it seems like a huge oversight not being able to edit the postage after a sale- I wouldn't mind it so much if there were at least an option to 'upgrade' the postage to 24 Tracked or set a different size at our own expense after the sale (if it's deemed to be our fault).

Usually what I did before was charge people for Tracked 48 but send things by Tracked 24 as a thank you and ensure they received it faster, eBay makes it worse for buyers in this case as we haven't got any say in being able to upgrade for them when we feel like it. There are so many nuances to shipping that sometimes we require some flexibility in determining the final size before sending.

Also, it seems we are no longer able to consolidate multiple purchases into one for reduced shipping costs- it's all great eBay praising themselves over their green ambitions but with us now having to separate all purchases someone would make is baffling as it'll add more strain to the environment, materials and network.

Only thing I'm thankful for here is that Evri was disabled as an option, I would be very anxious if I were forced to use them as most purchases I've made that went through their network arrived damage or were lost/damaged.

Sorry if you've read this far, it's largely an outburst of frustration I'm unable to direct anywhere- writing feedback through their survey on the order page didn't feel satisfying as I'm sure they'll just throw all of our answers through an AI tool to summarise the basics of what people are saying. It wouldn't surprise me as eBay's recent business plan seems like it was written by an AI tool trained on books such as The Fall of Rome &  The Art of the Deal

[lucy_farmer]

Good evening wildavdavi,

I'm slightly puzzled here; your listing has been 'rolled' into Simple Delivery whilst it was actively running, yes?

So the postage attached to your listing was Simple Delivery postage.....

I thought that S.D. postage labels have neither an exact weight nor a size printed on them? Just the price , various barcodes/QR codes, the delivery address (and perhaps the seller's address?) and the words 'Marketplace seller'.

These words 'Marketplace Seller', being the magic words that compel the post office/evri drop-off to accept the parcel regardless of 'over-size' or 'over-weight' ness.

(ebay and the carrier concerned will apparently be 'settling up' any over or under-payments between themselves later....)

So the fact that your parcel was 'too big' shouldn't have been a problem?

(there were been a few post offices that seemed to have been 'left off the memo' at the beginning of this mess, but they should all have been filled in on S.D. now!... surely...?)

[moonlight-rhapsody]

I feel your pain, I really do.  The one and only time I've printed out an ebay label was for a GSP order, and twice it was rejected by the Post Office.  The third label was finally accepted, and then I had to go through the palaver of reclaiming the postage for the two wasted labels.  I removed myself from the GSP program after that order, and swore never to print out an ebay label again.  Good on anybody who's never had a problem with ebay labels but my experience is different, and I'm not going to risk that hassle and stress again by using Simple Delivery labels.

"writing feedback through their survey on the order page didn't feel satisfying as I'm sure they'll just throw all of our answers through an AI tool to summarise the basics of what people are saying."

I'm sure you're right.  AI seems to have become the go-to solution for everything in the weird and wonderful world of ebay, and commonsense seems to have left the building.

[wildavdavi]

I was so exhausted at the second post office I didn't even think to check what that label said but at the first one I definitely saw the words Large Letter printed out which also prompted her to check the size then reject it though I can confirm that the label for this order on eBay itself (as found on Open Label) doesn't show any of this info.

It's a bit baffling, is it possible that either there is a note printed with the label that states what it should be (which would explain why I saw the reference to it) or the labels printed at an office from a QR code differ from the ones we can print ourselves? I usually had RM print the label at my door so have no experience with them beyond this, I can only assume the system that prints labels at an office generates them in a different format.

I was too focused on getting it downsized before the end of day than figuring out these details, I should have another parcel to send soon so can do some research for the next one.

[lucy_farmer]

'It's a bit baffling, is it possible that either there is a note printed with the label that states what it should be (which would explain why I saw the reference to it) or the labels printed at an office from a QR code differ from the ones we can print ourselves'

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Oo er, that could get a little confusing..... good luck with the next one!

[wellingnorth]

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@lucy_farmer wrote:

I thought that S.D. postage labels have neither an exact weight nor a size printed on them? Just the price , various barcodes/QR codes, the delivery address (and perhaps the seller's address?) and the words 'Marketplace seller'.

These words 'Marketplace Seller', being the magic words that compel the post office/evri drop-off to accept the parcel regardless of 'over-size' or 'over-weight' ness.

(ebay and the carrier concerned will apparently be 'settling up' any over or under-payments between themselves later....)

Talking to the clerk in my Post Office the other day he said that 'Marketplace Seller' labels were fine as they had no size or weight on them, but there was in issue with the QR codes - that they do show a size / weight on the system and he would reject them if they were wrong. From the account above it sounds like they may also print the size / weight on the label unlike the normal 'Marketplace Seller' ones.

[wellingnorth]

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@wildavdavi wrote:

I was too focused on getting it downsized before the end of day than figuring out these details, I should have another parcel to send soon so can do some research for the next one.

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If you do get another one and try using the QR code at the Post Office it would definitely be helpful if you could get a photo of the label so we can try and establish what's going on.

Good luck either way!

[wildavdavi]

Yeah, that sounds like it matches up- it's hard remembering all the exact details as I only saw the label for a few moments but I saw Large Letter written in the upper (right?) corner. It certainly didn't look like the label I had option to print and as I replied to someone else- I think the QR codes might be working from a different system that prints them out with the formatting of normal parcel labels so all the elements we would expect to see with non-SD postage are there.

As it's a new partnership I'm guessing there were elements they didn't integrate to match 1:1, it's not a huge issue if you know what the restrictions for the package are in advance. My case is slightly irregular as all I could see was Buyer selected postage service : Standard Tracked Delivery via Royal Mail and never selected what the size was via the Revise page, looking at it now I can't see reference to Large Letter anywhere on the order or label page.

It's somewhat fine if you know what you selected when creating a listing and can remember it but it seems to be an oversight not to have the size listed on the order page or invoice, some items can be borderline to Large Letter but would suit Small Package better- my memory is quite good but when I'm tired it can be choppy so remembering if I decided to chance it with Large Letter could be an issue when I'm overloaded.

[wellingnorth]

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@wildavdavi wrote:

It's somewhat fine if you know what you selected when creating a listing and can remember it but it seems to be an oversight not to have the size listed on the order page or invoice, some items can be borderline to Large Letter but would suit Small Package better- my memory is quite good but when I'm tired it can be choppy so remembering if I decided to chance it with Large Letter could be an issue when I'm overloaded.

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Clearly something's gone wrong, but I think the theory is that after the sale it doesn't matter what size was specified as the post office are supposed to accept it regardless. Then if there's any underpayment ebay will sort it out afterwards - if ebay themselves guessed the size they're supposed to cover the underpayment, if not the seller is billed plus some kind of admin fee.

I think as it stands even if you did realise that you'd specified the wrong size when listing there's no way to change the label and cover the cost like you might have done when buying your own postage, you'd have to cancel the sale and relist instead.

In this particular case it might be worth trying 'sell similar' from the sold item and see which simple delivery band is selected on the listing page.

[wildavdavi]

"I think as it stands even if you did realise that you'd specified the wrong size when listing there's no way to change the label and cover the cost like you might have done when buying your own postage, you'd have to cancel the sale and relist instead."

This is the downside of it, I've accidentally purchased the wrong postage a few times but never considered it an issue- all I had to do was cancel it via RM then purchase the correct one. It was seamless and doubt the buyer ever noticed the tracking was swapped out before the Collection was made, certainly wouldn't have considered that cancelling a sale would be necessary to do something like this now.

Another issue I have is that you can no longer adjust any of the postage options when an offer to a potential buyer is active, I noticed one was incorrect last night so had to end the listing to correct it but the problem there is I've lost potential sales as the item caught alot of watchers in the past few days and had one who made a reasonable counter offer I was considering.

Before I could change the postage to anything I wanted when offers were out, sometimes I even wanted to reduce postage to make it more attractive but this is no longer possible. I understand there's some logic to it that stops scammers taking advantage of the postage options but where it's improved that element it's made it much worse for all the honest sellers.

[wellingnorth]

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@wildavdavi wrote:

"I think as it stands even if you did realise that you'd specified the wrong size when listing there's no way to change the label and cover the cost like you might have done when buying your own postage, you'd have to cancel the sale and relist instead."

This is the downside of it, I've accidentally purchased the wrong postage a few times but never considered it an issue- all I had to do was cancel it via RM then purchase the correct one. It was seamless and doubt the buyer ever noticed the tracking was swapped out before the Collection was made, certainly wouldn't have considered that cancelling a sale would be necessary to do something like this now.

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Yes, I think it could definitely do with a post-order process where you could change size / weight bands as necessary (at your own cost) and combine multiple items into packages of whatever band is required.

[department28]

It is a real shame eBay have gone down this 'Simple Delivery' road...  as the OP rightly said 'There are so many nuances to shipping ...' and mentioned some of the problems/things we can no longer do.

Things like being able to upgrade the service if we felt like it, or if the buyer asked for a quicker service.

Easily able to offer combined shipping. Even if eBay manage to get Simple Delivery to do this, it ought to have been available straightaway. Combined shipping is a basic, widely-used postage option - so why didn't they get this sorted before launching SD?

Being able to tinker about with the postage while a listing is live.  Changing the service/price to suit a wide variety of items, & make allowances for extra packaging etc. 

The ability to refund quickly if something goes wrong.

No stressful, embarrassing situations at the post office! Again, even if this is eventually sorted out, it shouldn't have been allowed to happen in the first place.

I think private sellers are entitled to feel very badly let down by eBay over this.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

and it was just so much easier wrapping a parcel and popping into the post office and they did the rest!  I never bothered weighing or measuring the items as i usually can guess correctly what they will be and if i am wrong i refunded the buyer or sucked up the loss.

[tressygirl]

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@kath3735_wxmjn wrote:

and it was just so much easier wrapping a parcel and popping into the post office and they did the rest!  I never bothered weighing or measuring the items as i usually can guess correctly what they will be and if i am wrong i refunded the buyer or sucked up the loss.

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Couldn't have described the previous brilliant situation as it was,  better myself!  🙂

[theelench]

Exactly that, I've been selling similar items for 10 years plus and 99/100 I just know whether it's a small or medium parcel, I don't need A.I to hold my hand.

Going to the post office they weigh and measure the parcel, absolutely no chance of a problem for the buyer because I've paid too little postage.

I refuse to even think about using a system where even if I delete the evri option, ebay can still re-instate it and send a label for evri delivery.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

I really want to give a thumbs-up several times to the last few posts 🤗🤗🤗

[smartsgaming]

Im not sure what people are on about with the post office just having to accept it. Theyve never done that for me.  You are right, I had to cancel many orders when Simple Delivery came in because I was being given wrong labels like Large Letter and made posts about it on here too at the time. Lost me about 100 quid, and ebays response after contacting customer service twice was just to cancel and refund the sales. No way of editing the postage label. Complete joke. And it did say on the label "Ebay Seller", but it also then always has a size such as "large letter" or "small parcel" and they will of course not accept it if its wrong. Not sure what everyone here is on about.

[wildavdavi]

This could be something where experience varies depending on who is processing the package- I'm either using one of the local rural Post Offices that are integrated at the back of a small local business or one of the larger ones at a W H Smith. I've found the staff at the smaller rural ones can be quite relaxed and have built their own understanding of the system- this usually leads them to be giving incorrect information or advice.

The larger branches of the Post Office seem to have a well structured team in place and have a better understanding of everything, if they don't understand something there's usually another member of staff who does. I'm guessing a majority of people are in more rural locations so it could be that the staff at those places haven't grasped the quirks Simple Delivery has introduced.

Your experience sounds truly awful- it's very annoying for buyers when their transactions are cancelled and it's something you had in your hand ready to go but couldn't deliver due to eBay running with this idea before they could learn to walk (or even crawl) with it.

It's not the end of the world but most things I sell are usually for people buying in Film / TV props so usually they have a creative spark when they see something I have and decide it would be perfect for a specific scene- on top of that they also have deadlines so can't afford to waste their time by having issues. I used to work on quite a lot of Film/TV projects and purchased alot of random items in at my own expense in case they could be used in a project- it's got to a point now I need more space so am clearing out things I can't see myself using as I need that space for all the new research items / props I brought in for a new project (my work room was like a hoarders paradise last week).

I'm at a point now where I need to clear all this stuff but Simple Delivery doesn't feel like a natural solution to me, I have some items that are over 61cm and will require something like PF/FedEx/DHL but when I click freight on the listing page it defaults back to Simple Delivery that only has max 61cm options. There's even one antique item that shouldn't be in transit too long due to fragility, I would send this by Tracked 24 or Special Delivery but it's likely that the buyer would pay for Tracked 48.

I don't want to have to downsize each package to 61cm as it'll increase the likelihood of damage. I don't even care if eBay will handle all claims against damage, I personally don't want to get rid of anything but I just don't have the space so have had to resort to selling to make sure they end up somewhere they can be appreciated. Though what I'm selling doesn't belong to me after a sale- I still care about the item surviving beyond it's Simple Delivery journey as a majority of the people I sell to also value the historical aspects of things (even when they end up in prop departments). I've been clearing things out in short bursts over the years but some even update me with photos years later when they are used in films/tv shows, end up in an exhibition space or turn up as the pride of their personal collection. I usually get into small chats with the people buying and it's nice to know things I've had to sell are being appreciated elsewhere.

[department28]

 'I have some items that are over 61cm and will require something like PF/FedEx/DHL but when I click freight on the listing page it defaults back to Simple Delivery that only has max 61cm options.' 

Items over 61cm are ineligible for Simple Delivery, so you should be able to select your own, custom postage for those items - and for items weighing over 20kg.

You would certainly want to be on the safe side with packing your unusual items, many of which must be 'one-offs'.

[wildavdavi]

I'm guessing it's an error they haven't noticed yet or it's some AI determining that I'm trying to avoid Simple Delivery via Freight so it could be some security feature bouncing me away from it? I've tried to select Freight on the app, a desktop pc & laptop (also tried multiple browsers) but it deselects it then defaults back to Simple Delivery. I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing this too as the 61cm limit isn't fit for some of the items I wanted to list (especially with some of the easily damaged heavy items I have that'll require a good buffer for impact damage that can occur with RM/PF), I've temporarily had to remove some listings whilst I figure this out.