Simple Delivery more expensive for letters & large letters

[williaugus]

With custom postage being rolled out and eventually the only option, I am a little confused and trying to clarify something please.

If I am posting something of large letter size, less than 100 grams and low value - a DVD in it's case for example, I can post this 2nd class large letter with Royal Mail. With the current Royal Mail prices, this'll cost me £1.55. When I'm listing an item and look at simple delivery prices, the same classification of large letter shows a minimum cost of £2.74.

What if I happen to posting something that may fit in a standard letter size? This currently costs just under £0.90, but when settings this up on the item listing page it still comes up as £2.74? Why is that?

I can either take up this difference in cost myself or pass it onto the buyer. It feels like that I'm likely to lose money either way as the latter might discourage buyers from buying - due to a higher price point?

I just wanted to make sure that I am understanding this correctly and not missing any steps in the simple delivery set up. Is it really the case that it'll now cost more money to send smaller items? Thanks. 

[leighbayuk]

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@ferretio wrote:

So you can list CDs with Custom Postage and only charge £1.55.

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You only get the custom postage option for low value CDs. Anything over £10 only has the Simple Delivery option at £2.72 for a large letter. The item value is still within the cover provided by the standard Royal Mail service, so the unwarranted surcharge goes into eBay's pockets.

[61stephenuk]

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@jonjonjonnie wrote:

I should point out.. You havn't been charged £2.74 for under 100gm.. You have been charged this because they only give the option for 1kg..

They havn't thought about adding the 0-100g, 101-250g, 251-500g, etc options.. You just get the option for 1kg, so have to pay £2.70ish even if your item is 1g.

There is no option for letters under 1kg with Simple Delivery as they use a tracked postage system and Royal Mail only offer an upto 1kg price,so there are no other weight bands to add.

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[goodibags]

There's no reason why Ebay can't add its own postage bands, as it already does for parcels over 1kg or pretty much any item worth more than £100.

If Ebay can do whatever it wants at the 'higher' end you'd think it can probably do something similar at the lower one. After all, Ebay knows plenty about the items it's 'upgrading' completely unnecessarily on RM's behalf. 

A more plausible explanation may be that Ebay simply no longer wants these to appear on the platform?

[61stephenuk]

It's known that eBay doesn't want low value items on it's sites,this is one way of achieving that without directly saying you can't list items under £x

[goodibags]

But it's not at all clear what Ebay wants. Apparently CDs are somehow fine for custom postage but vinyl records are not? What is all this fiddling about meant to achieve? Apart from persuading sellers to deliberately choose the wrong category to list their items in? 

To be fair, a 'lower than courier cost' tracked service probably wouldn't work because it might be abused by users (by under-estimating their items' weights)? But there's no reason why SD couldn't be at least optional based on the item value itself. Anything under £20 (sent with RM) simply doesn't need a tracked service.

Large letters under £10 definitely do not!

[akemp1]

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@jonjonjonnie wrote:

I should point out.. You havn't been charged £2.74 for under 100gm.. You have been charged this because they only give the option for 1kg..

They havn't thought about adding the 0-100g, 101-250g, 251-500g, etc options.. You just get the option for 1kg, so have to pay £2.70ish even if your item is 1g.

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It's not that simple as Tracked 48 Large Letter is only available at 1kg on the RM online pricelist.

The lower weight options are 2nd Class so different VAT treatment and Ebay would need to accept that the old fashioned proof of postage, £20 cover limit and delivery confirmation with no tracking but that would still be acceptable to most people on small low value items.

As part of their  RM Marketplace Seller terms & conditions for Tracked 48 they seem to be relying on averaging out any overweight items so it likely helps to have small items underweight in the mix. But then small item customers are paying more than necessary to subsidise the running of this messy, complicated , unpopular delivery system that they have the cheek to call simple.

[seedbankers]

Please IGNORE THE BOX LARGER LETTER. Instead go underneath to click something. Contact me if you want more help. 

[jonjonjonnie]

Most catagories don't have the CUSTOM SHIPPING option.. Thats the problem I (and most people) have.

I had a long "chat" with them on Friday and was told my refund for my simple shipping orders would be here in 24 hours... 4 days later NOTHING.. Why I am not surprised

Had a chat again today and got to speak to a manager.. And she was helpful, but I don't believe a word of it...

Its getting to a point where i might have to close my store, atleast for my 'small' items.. I just can't do it using Simple Shipping and if I increase my prices, no-one will pay.

I no longer even believe that Custom Shipping is coming, or other postal services (i.e RM Large Letter) will be added... So I am on the verge of giving up.

[seedbankers]

Don’t click the larger letter as this is where all goes wrong.

[jonjonjonnie]

This option doesn’t exist... Thats the point...

I have around 20 listings.. Around 3 of them have the "Custom Postage" button. The rest don't...

See attached photo for an example...  THis items lists for £3.79 yet I have no Custom Postage option.

[ferretio]

Same as jonjonjonnie, I don't get that option.

I also had the similiar promises and nothing. It's almost like they're not telling the truth...

[jonjonjonnie]

You don't think they are lying do you? They wouldn't do that surely 🙂

I accused them of this today, but then retracted and suggested they were making "fake promises".. But essentially thats lying.

[jonjonjonnie]

I just made an observation.. I started with an item (Coin) which still has Custom Shipping.. I used the "Sell Similar Item" function to list a new item.

I then changed the category from a "coin" to a "tool" and this immediately refreshes the screen and removes the custom shipping option.. Then I change the category back to "coin" and the custom shipping comes back

I believe we already knew this..  But it proves that this a per category thing. Whether an error or intentional it seems that some (most? (certainly most of the categories that I sell in)) do not have the custom postage.

[akemp1]

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@jonjonjonnie wrote:

I believe we already knew this..  But it proves that this a per category thing. Whether an error or intentional it seems that some (most? (certainly most of the categories that I sell in)) do not have the custom postage.

 Yes it's a category thing and completely intentional sadly. A crude way to limit the SD opt-out.

Ebay are not reflecting the full diversity of everyday object sizes that might happen.

They should win an award for un-inclusivity.

Inclusion awards shouldn't just be about people - unusually small and large objects should be heard.

[ferretio]

I think the best thing to do would be to go to consumer watchdogs and see what they say.
The more exposure of this the better. It's pretty obvious that there's something dodgy going on.

[ferretio]

I've just fired off an e-mail to BBC's Watchdog. That's just a start.

[ferretio]

Just tried to list a cassette tape and the cheapest postal option it's recommending is now £2.94.

I also just filled in eBay's 'How Did We Do?' feedback survey after they replied "I understand you are asking about postage for DVD/CD" to my contact stating, in the first line, that it was about Cassette Tapes.
I didn't hold back.

[sarahgr1]

I too am only a small infrequent seller, just selling off spare stationary at the moment (over bought years ago). I have some file dividers listed currently that would go Large letter £1.55 by Royal Mail but I am being charged £2.70 and have no option to opt of of Simple Delivery. After seeing that some people suggested that some new listings are being exempt from SD, I even just tried creating a new listing for them but still I am forced to use the £2.70 Simple Delivery only. My only solution is to offer 3 sets in 1 auction item instead of 1 set as I would lose money otherwise.

[xyz307xyz]

See https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267382134947

If one packet of your dividers are max 100g, you should be able to list them with custom postage in

Business, Office & Industrial - Office Equipment & Supplies - Office Supplies & Stationery - Other Supplies & Stationery

[sarahgr1]

But I can't choose! There is no option to opt out of Simple Delivery,
either when I "Revise" the listing or creating a brand new listing.