'Simple Delivery' failed, now a test case - worried

[richardb196]

Private Seller here, I sold a gold sovereign for £590 on ebay and was forced to use "Simple Delivery" as you all know. Both ebay and RM tracking show it as delivered, RM say they left it in a safe place and uploaded a photo. Seller says package has gone "missing" and he will raise a case with ebay!

I see some help pages on ebay saying I am covered for the loss but another page says gold is in the excluded list for 'Simple Delivery' even though they do not offer any other postal service.

Who is going to end up eating the loss I wonder?

Cheers

Rich

[department28]

'Both of the gold sovereigns that you sold in May were listed with Simple Delivery.  The fact that it only states 'Standard Delivery' and 'Express Delivery' on the listing and doesn't specify the actual carrier is proof of that.  So, unless you bought your own postage separately, they must have been sent using Simple Delivery.' 

Yes, the postage info on your completed listings means you must have used Simple Delivery. If you ignored the SD label and bought your own postage, you would have had to add the tracking details yourself.

You will need to get back to eBay about this asap.

[honeymonster007]

If you can find the email that was sent when using the simple delivery label it will show the original tracking number. If the number matches with the posted label that maybe the proof for an appeal.

[4_bathrooms]

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@richardb196 wrote:

Seems I *bleep*ed up,  they say I did not use simple delivery but standard tracked 48 delivery they say I have to file a claim with Royal Mail.

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As pointed out by @sml192 unless you purchased a Tracked 48 label yourself - which you would have received an email receipt for - it was a "Simple" Delivery label. What does the sales record show as the postage method?

At the bottom of the (now closed) case there should be a link to appeal eBay's decision; you need to click on that link pointing out the facts (i.e. it was a Simple Delivery label) and point out eBay's own written policy. At the end of your appeal I would add the following sentence:

"I therefore request your final decision on this matter."

[4_bathrooms]

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@pauuk.35za36 wrote:

I thought that you were still covered by ebays money back guarantee if the buyer has specified a safe place to royal mail prior to the delivery and royal mail leave it in that location? 

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Outside of "Simple" Delivery a signature is required for items that sell for £450 or more. Items sent via Special Delivery Guaranteed are never left in a safe place even if the recipient has nominated one.

[notstopbuying]

IMHO Richard, call eBay tomorrow morning before midday to get through to someone in the UK ebay team, they are generally very good and extremely helpful, if you call later in the day, you tend to get through to the foreign support team.... IMHO generally they work from a script / not helpful. 

Use the contact us page on ebay, when the bot asks what you want, just repeatedly, type, customer services, you should then be offered a call back. 

Take it further 100 percent. 

[papso22]

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@richardb196 wrote:

ebay ruled against me, they have refunded the buyer from my 'pending' balance and will not compensate me for the loss.

Seems I *bleep*ed up,  they say I did not use simple delivery but standard tracked 48 delivery they say I have to file a claim with Royal Mail.

I swear I used 'simple delivery' all my other sales around the same time used it but it seems not this one.

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marco@ebay 

Can you help with this one please?

[marco@ebay]

Hi papso22, thanks for tagging me here.

richardb196 I was taking a look for you there, and indeed, this transaction was not part of Simple Delivery, it was sent with Royal Mail directly. Under different circumstances you might've been protected, but because the transaction was more than £450, signature on delivery was required in order to protect the transaction, because this criteria wasn't met we were not able to cover the transaction (You can see more about this policy here, if you wish).

You can try contacting Royal Mail to see if there is anything at all they can do for you. However, in order to set the right expectations, because they have tracking confirming delivery, I'm not sure if they will be able to take further actions. I'm really sorry I have no better news to share with you.

Thank you,

Marco

[sml192]

This is rather puzzling as the completed listing is definitely showing Simple Delivery as the as the postage method (£3.94 is a Simple Delivery price not a Royal Mail direct one) so either a Simple Delivery label was purchased but not used, for some reason, or the system is showing incorrect information? 

[*vyolla*]

Something amiss there, but impossible to pinpoint without access to eBay's systems.

[dls-online]

Agreed, and is it just me or is Marco's vagueness and choice of wording for the explanation unclear.

Hopefully Richard looks into this and posts up here with his findings. If it transpires that ebay was being purposefully evasive with their explanations, then that should be enough to take the wider matters further.

[the_book_seekers]

It doesn't inspire confidence in simple delivery. Time will tell if its a glitch.

[ruby*ryan]

It's a shame the delivery photo isn't clear enough to show whether it was SD or not.

I am taking a picture of every SD parcel I send that clearly shows the label with either 'simple delivery' or 'marketplace seller' so there can be no weaselling out of their terms by eBay trying to claim it wasn't SD.

[*vyolla*]

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@dls-online wrote:

Agreed, and is it just me or is Marco's vagueness and choice of wording for the explanation unclear.

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I think that Marco's explanation is fine, it was good of him to look into this, but I feel that something is being lost somewhere when sellers get their label.

Here's my theory: When I set up half a dozen listings on my private account to mess around with Simple Delivery and familiarise myself with it, I had this on my listings (and still do when I go to revise the remaining ones):

I screenshot that when I set the listings up. So, certainly opted in to Simple Delivery there.

The rate is correct for Simple Delivery (I selected Royal Mail only so it was the higher price of £3.64. This screenshot from the SD rate table:

I sold two items (one being the listing that the screenshot is from). When I took the QR code to the Post Office I asked to look at the labels and commented that it was surprising that they didn't have 'eBay marketplace' printed on them, but assumed that they must be SD labels. Now, in hindsight, I don't think they were. I think that my labels were just bog standard RM labels, same as sellers used to buy via Packlink. I think that there's a bug somewhere that turns what should be a SD label purchase into the old buy direct from RM label purchase.

So, if an eBay employee was to look at the labels I used they would also see them as being non SD ones, because they're not (but should have been).

[lucy_farmer]

Bit of a far out punt here, but:

We know ebay don't tell you, when listing, that your item is on the exclusion-from-compo list.

And they just push it into Simple Delivery anyway.

Perhaps the *computer system* has flagged the item as excluded and therefore pushes the label buying process away from S.D. without any input from the seller, or indeed knowledge of it happening?

Yes , I know that's a bit 'conspiracy theory' about big bad nasty ebay purposely pulling the wool over seller's eyes,  but something here has gone horribly wrong.

I simply cannot imagine a competant human being deciding to ignore S.D, if they weren't going to use special delivery for an item like this. Nobody would send a sovereign uninsured!

The OP sold 2 of these coins the same way. I'm assuming the other sale went well. I wonder if there's any point in OP asking the other buyer if they (for some odd reason) have still got the packaging so can see if the other one actually had 'marketplace seller' written on the label or not ...

[lucy_farmer]

'So, if an eBay employee was to look at the labels I used they would also see them as being non SD ones, because they're not (but should have been).'

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Ah yes.

 I came up with my slightly outlandish theory before reading about your experiment!

Your's sounds rather more probable 😁

[*vyolla*]

@lucy_farmer  Ah, your theory is also sound, I feel we're kind of on the same page there.

Whatever it is, the seller would be unaware that they don't have enough insurance cover.

[3942rick2005]

This would explain the reports of packages being refused due to incorrect weight. What a mess! ( with apologies to the writer of the "what a mess" books, Frank Muir.)

[honeymonster007]

Wouldn't the tracking number still be the same as the one produced by the SD label?

[4_bathrooms]

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@*vyolla* wrote:

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I sold two items (one being the listing that the screenshot is from). When I took the QR code to the Post Office I asked to look at the labels and commented that it was surprising that they didn't have 'eBay marketplace' printed on them, but assumed that they must be SD labels. Now, in hindsight, I don't think they were. I think that my labels were just bog standard RM labels, same as sellers used to buy via Packlink. I think that there's a bug somewhere that turns what should be a SD label purchase into the old buy direct from RM label purchase.

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That would explain a lot.

If you purchased the postage labels via eBay the purchases should show up in your transaction list; you will need to change the "All types" option to "Postage label".

Out of curiosity were either of the items in a category that isn't required to use Simple Delivery?

If what I think has happened is indeed what has happened I still can't see how eBay can wash their hands of the matter where the OP is concerned.

[*vyolla*]

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@honeymonster007 wrote:

Wouldn't the tracking number still be the same as the one produced by the SD label?

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No idea. 

Is there any clue in the number that would indicate whether it was bought direct or is an SD label?