'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

[sdrummond-uk]

If I go to orders drop down menu I have a sub menu for Postage Labels.

When there it shows me all the labels I have printed via SD (wont let me go into the label again now) but it says 

Standard tracked delivery via Royal Mail | Drop-off
Prepaid by buyer

If I bought a postage label just through Ebay then I have to go to a different page to see all them ones.

If the Label is in this list it would confirm it was via SD.

All my tracking number codes begin with TQ but I don't know if that would help with working out if it was SD or not.

[lucy_farmer]

I'd be interested , like bathrooms, in what *were* the items you had listed that came up as having NO 'marketplace seller' on the label ?

Though I felt a bit of a silly 'conspiracist', with my idea about deliberate avoidance of producing a  marketplace label for an excluded item, I've thought a bit more and think it could well be a real reason.

Afterall, ebay have told us (somewhere or other in the T's and C's?) that gold coins etc are NOT compatible with S.D. 

Therefore, as everybody has read and understood every word of the turgid pile of terms and conds. (🙄) , we know it. So why are we suprised when they are NOT covered?

Ebay's not telling us at the listing stage is unpleasant of them, but it's not illegal.  If we've read the T's and C's, *we* are the ones doing something wrong (listing an excluded item on S.D.) not them.........

I have to go back to something I wrote about 3 months ago on this issue : the exclusion list problem will end up with ebay saying  "Tough. You didn't read 'the small print'....."

[honeymonster007]

From what I can figure when a SD label is produced it has its own unique tracking number that ebays system can follow. If its scanned via the QR code the number should stay the same.

If that number changes at any point then its not going to show in ebays system.

Unless I'm getting mixed up.

[vinylscot]

That makes sense. There must be something in the system which recognises when certain items are at least unlikely to be appropriated for SD.

If eBay is trying to tell us that their AI is bright enough to estimate the size and weight of packages, I'm quite sure it can also discern whether an item should be sent by SD or not. (This should really be done at the listing stage, not post-sale.)

eBay's preferred method, if SD is not used, would probably be for the seller to select a postage option from the list they provide via Packlink.

It could be that they have over-automated this, and missed out the critical step where they explain to the seller what is happening. Particularly when SD is new, a seller may not question being directed to select from eBay's postage options.

I'm sure, while marco@eBay's response may be factually accurate, he hasn't really investigated the reasoning behind it, and how the seller got to where he is now.

[*vyolla*]

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@lucy_farmer wrote:

I'd be interested , like bathrooms, in what *were* the items you had listed that came up as having NO 'marketplace seller' on the label ?

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Just a t-shirt. 

[*vyolla*]

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@sdrummond-uk wrote:

If I go to orders drop down menu I have a sub menu for Postage Labels.

When there it shows me all the labels I have printed via SD (wont let me go into the label again now) but it says 

Standard tracked delivery via Royal Mail | Drop-off
Prepaid by buyer

If I bought a postage label just through Ebay then I have to go to a different page to see all them ones.

If the Label is in this list it would confirm it was via SD.

All my tracking number codes begin with TQ but I don't know if that would help with working out if it was SD or not.

---

My labels are showing there, tracking numbers also beginning with TQ, strange then how they looked exactly like the old labels we used to buy via Packlink and had no indication at all on them that they were SD labels.

There was definitely no  'Marketplace Seller' or mention of Simple Delivery on either label (bought a few days apart), I'm 100% sure of that because I was looking specifically for this:

[sdrummond-uk]

The only other difference between the two type of Labels that I can think of is the old ones had size and weight on them but SD didn't.

But all my SD ones do have MARKETPLACE seller on so that could be why no weight size on.

[4_bathrooms]

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@sdrummond-uk wrote:

All my tracking number codes begin with TQ but I don't know if that would help with working out if it was SD or not.

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I have recently purchased postage labels direct from Royal Mail that have a "TQ" prefix so this isn't something specific to eBay.

[4_bathrooms]

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@*vyolla* wrote:

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My labels are showing there, tracking numbers also beginning with TQ, strange then how they looked exactly like the old labels we used to buy via Packlink and had no indication at all on them that they were SD labels.

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Just to clarify Royal Mail and Parcelforce labels were/are not purchased via Packlink; eBay act as an agent for Royal Mail when such labels are purchased via eBay.

Only @richardb196 can clear up whether their label was a "Simple" Delivery label or not now. I actually suspect it was.

[4_bathrooms]

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@lucy_farmer wrote:

Ebay's not telling us at the listing stage is unpleasant of them, but it's not illegal.  If we've read the T's and C's, *we* are the ones doing something wrong (listing an excluded item on S.D.) not them.........

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Actually; it could be illegal. Section 227 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act states:

"(1) For the purposes of this Chapter, a commercial practice involves a misleading omission if, considering the matters mentioned in subsection (3), the practice—

(a) omits material information"

"In subsection (1)(a), “material information” means information that the average consumer needs to take an informed transactional decision."

"In this section, references to omitting information include providing information—

(a) in a way that is unclear or untimely, or

(b) in such a way that the consumer is unlikely to see it."

Private sellers have a consumer contract with eBay. If eBay are quietly and automatically opting private sellers out of SD then suggesting an alternative, unsuitable service that leaves an unsuspecting seller with no protection against an INR claim I fail to see how that doesn't fall under the remit of the above.   

[*vyolla*]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

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Only @richardb196 can clear up whether their label was a "Simple" Delivery label or not now. I actually suspect it was.

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I also suspect it was. 

[*vyolla*]

Okay, I've just checked the email account linked to my private account and there's an email there for just one of the labels I bought. No idea why there's just one when two items were sold a couple of days apart and labels purchased. 

It starts off with:

Thank you for using eBay delivery.
Below you can find your QR code. Be ready to show it at the drop-off location.

And ends with:

So, bearing in mind that there was no 'Marketplace Seller' on the label, was that a SD label or not?

[1956glyn]

Looks like SD to me 

[j.p.greenwood]

I think you're probably correct, but in honesty we're both still guessing as it's as clear as mud.

[lucy_farmer]

'I also suspect it was. '

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I'm hoping it was and this is all just a horrible mis-understanding, but;

Why did Marco say it wasn't? He said he'd 'taken a look and indeed it wasn't S.D.'

Marco has the ability to look at people's cases and see what happened ..

[edwardian-dreams]

Sd covers you from the moment you post your item so I don’t understand why this is the sellers problem 

hope it was sd 

[honeymonster007]

Those are the emails Iv been receiving and have only used SD so far. 

Does SD still produce a label if the item is on the prohibited list? The title must have mentioned gold.

[*vyolla*]

I'm sitting on the confused step here as regards what label gets generated, I still don't know why I only received one email when I had 2 labels and why neither had 'Marketplace Seller' on them .

I suppose it's looking likely that for the OP it was SD, but then when it came to getting the label it suddenly wasn't due to the item not being covered by RM, but that also makes no sense because it was a fixed price Buy It Now listing so it was apparent what the item was and what the price was before the OP submitted the listing. 

[xyz307xyz]

Did you print the label yourself or get a label using QR at Post Office?

[honeymonster007]

Wonder if SD still produces a label with a prohibited item but marks it down as a STD RM tracked 48 label instead of posting under the SD banner.