Simple Delivery - how safe is it to go with eBay's recommendation? Feeling rather nervous...

[irt303]

Despite my reservations, I am currently listing an item for sale with Simple Delivery. I'm very nervous about it, and I haven't even completed the listing yet! But if I wait for eBay to significantly improve Simple Delivery (or make it optional, or abolish it entirely), I could spend the rest of my days in an awful limbo. I'm desperate to have a clear-out, and, unless I switch to another platform (which I'm reluctant to do), the reality is that I will have to engage with Simple Delivery whether I like it or not.

Anyway...

My packed item measures 42cm x 37cm x 13cm, and weighs about 2.97kg.

eBay's recommended option is 'Small parcel 45cm x 35cm x 16cm, up to 1kg'.

So my item is a couple of cm over one of the dimensions, and almost 2kg over the weight of eBay's recommendation.

A more appropriate option that appears in the listing is 'Medium parcel 61cm x 46cm x 46cm, up to 10kg'.

Is it totally safe for me to go with eBay's recommendation, or - since I am aware that one of the dimensions for 'Small parcel' is over the maximum, and that the weight is almost three times greater - should I select the 'Medium parcel' option?

I'm currently inclined to change from eBay's recommendation to the 'Medium parcel' option. It costs a few pounds more, which is a small sum in view of the price I'll be listing at (£399.99 including BPF). I'd happily pay the extra if I knew that doing so would prevent the problems that might occur if I went along with eBay's suggestion - but I also understand that problems can occur if you deviate from the recommendation!

I know it sounds like I've more or less answered my own question, but I'd welcome advice from sellers who have used Simple Delivery to send items that exceed the dimensions and/or weight in eBay's recommendation. Did you send with the recommended option nevertheless (and, if so, did this come back to bite you?), or did you select an option more appropriate to your item (and did doing so result in issues you wouldn't have had if you'd followed eBay's recommendation)?

I know from reading the forums that, in some cases, sellers have sent items using an eBay-recommended label which would normally (were it not for Simple Delivery's 'special conditions') be refused as not sufficently covering the size and/or weight of the item, but actually was accepted, saving them or the buyer money. But when it comes to my own item - considering the item value and my trepidation regarding Simple Delivery - I find myself in a crisis of confidence!

I've recently made my first listing and sale in ages, a DVD for under a tenner, which I was able to send with custom postage (yes! One more stamp used...). This has given me the confidence and motivation (I won't go so far as to say "enthusiasm") to list more, but the prospect of using Simple Delivery is daunting. Perhaps I should be starting with a much lower-priced item, but I do have my reasons.

P.S. I had considered not using the Simple Delivery label, and instead sending with RM Special Delivery, but I'm not sure if it's worth doing that, considering Simple Delivery insures against loss or damage in transit for up to £750. Other than requiring a signature on delivery (which itself can be a problem for buyers who are out at work or whatever when delivery is attempted), I can't see that it has any benefit over Simple Delivery. Is my understanding of this matter correct?

[goodibags]

Yup, Ebay knows which sellers cancelled their listings when SD came in and which kept on selling, which ones opt out of SD given the slightest opportunity, which opt into promoted listings and at what rate, which ones revise their listings even when there's a charge to do so. And which ones claim a refund when one is due to them or think it's too much 'hassle' and just let it go. 

Ebay probably knows who was inconvenienced by the inability to send an item last weekend and who will have received a defect for late delivery or has had to deal with an 'item not received' (yet?) refund. Or paid out, even when it's Ebay that's supposed to be doing the refunding bit!

The 'dynamic' pricing may be further down the pipeline but it's fair to assume Ebay knows it all. Whether they can make any sense of it may be another matter. 😶

[thepillenwerfer]

The trouble is that we don't know the details of the deals that e-Bay have done with RM and Evri.  They may be paying them so little on correctly-sized parcels that the profits on those more than off-set the over-size ones.  They could even be paying by the tonne and it wouldn't matter if that was used for a thousand 1kg parcels or a hundred 10kg ones.  They could even be paying them a flat fee per parcel, though I doubt it.

As for the OP's question I can only repeat that at least half the things I've sold since Simple Delivery came in have been under-charged with no problems to anybody.  I sent two "Small Parcels" on Friday, both of which were really Medium-sized, one by a lot.

One reason e-Bay could be happy with under-payments is that they are now covering damage so wouldn't want Sellers skimping on packaging to keep the cost down.  One of the things I mentioned above was in it's original box and if I'd simply put in on a plastic bag it would have been Small Parcel-size.  However at no extra cost why risk it?  If I were the Buyer I wouldn't care of the box got damaged but the person who has bought it may.  I therefore put it in a larger box with padding.

[goodibags]

Yes, these costs and subsidies seem to be all over the place. It's weird enough that RM's tracked 48 is apparently subsidised by all their other services including postage stamps. If it costs 4 times as much to deliver a 2nd class small parcel as it does a letter then how comes there's only 75p difference between their tracked equivalents? And how can an untracked postal service cost more to provide than a tracked one?

SD suggestions are being heavily mandated too. On one hand, if you choose to send with an untracked service having been given an SD label you won't get a refund for the unused postage. But, equally, sellers who have voluntarily 'upgraded' their buyers to Tracked 24 or even Special Delivery (at their own cost) are reporting difficulties and delays in having the unused SD label refunded.

The message seems to be do it our way or else!