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. 

[ferretio]

A victory for the small people (and items)!

Vive la révolution!

[jonjonjonnie]

And, lower buyers fees too.. So it seems they are encouraging sales of small items after all??

[akemp1]

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@ferretio wrote:

A victory for the small people (and items)!

Vive la révolution!

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It's not a victory just the trench lines have advanced a few meters.

Ebay's position on postage is still not reasonable forcing people into unsuitable products.

[akemp1]

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@jonjonjonnie wrote:

And, lower buyers fees too.. So it seems they are encouraging sales of small items after all??

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I guess they saw the volumes drop off due to the double-whammy of the high fixed fee element of the buyer tax and the expensive SD on large letter items. 

Maybe they also accepted the forum argument that if it was cost prohibitive to buy and sell small low value items here then people like me signed up to the clothing platform where things can be done at more reasonable costs especially with bundles.

They probably don't want lifelong loyal ebayers like me signing up there. I noticed that I then started then buying more expensive items there. Now I will never go back to only using ebay as my goto, Big mistake if there are others like me.

[kazziesattic]

I had another issue arise this week where an item of mine listed before SD, then it didn’t matter if I had the size of parcel wrong as it could easily be adjusted before purchasing the label. Well this item sold but it was a medium parcel needed, not a small parcel and it could not be altered as eBay had already generated the label before I had even purchased it, it was tracked 48 so is taken to delivery office and they don’t deal with extra postage costs, so I had to cancel the purchase and refund the buyer and tell them to re purchase as there was an issue with the parcel size, this is supposed to be simple delivery, so far it’s been a nightmare.

Sent from Outlook for iOS<>

[seedbankers]

Make sure item is UNDER £20.

Ignore the box LARGER LETTER please. RUN. IGNORE!

Click Custom Postage. Click until you see

Add additional services CLICK THIS LINK as this OPENS your choices 

Click whatever you want I click Royal Mail and chose the service for the large letter which is £1.55 and get a proof of postage. In case item lost or deliberately stolen, get a claim form and fill everything. NOTE the claim form reference.  

See graphics

BUY me an organic coffee if you get there. Joking! Hope all goes well

[jonjonjonnie]

As a final update.. As a workaround to the Simple Delivery fiasco, eBay told me to pay for Simple Shipping, get the refund.. Use my own shipping and request a refund.

This is exactly what I did over a 6 week period and ended up paying £12.40 for my own shipping, and £23.59 to eBay for simple shipping.

I filed refunds for each of these lables on the same day, and as of now, I still havn't had a refund... I contact ebay every few days and am told variations of the same story "its a glitch", "its been fixed", "we are aware", "your refunds have been processed", "wait 14 days" etc etc.. But nothing came through. My oldest refund was from the 24/7 which is 50 days longer than the 14 days they promise.

Anyway.. Yesterday I fired off another mail, this time giving numbers and to my surprise today they have credited me the £23.59 that they "owe" me.. I wouldn't call it a refund as such, as the labels still havn't been cancelled.. But I got the money back.

So if you are in the same boat, keep pushing them... Give them some actual number showing how much you paid... Thats what worked for me.

I know such noise over £23.59 seems petty.. But I provide "free" shipping on some low value items.. And for these 8 orders I made a relatively big loss, so it was important to me to fight this out of principal.

With the new Custom Postage tweeks, I am quite happy with how it works now, so hope this is behind us.

Good luck all!

[jonatjonatjonat]

The alternative for some sellers is they can upgrade to a business seller account of course, if what they are selling requires one.

[books1ecb]

It's getting worse. Today I was charged I was charged at £3.94 instead of £3.45 for small parcel, and a Large Letter was charged at 2.72 instead of £2.70 (OK it's just 2p). So now we know the truth, EBAY intends to resell Royal Mail lables and take an additional fee.

[kazziesattic]

Yes, I was thinking the same, it won’t be long before eBay are making money out of the labels, when you think about it, there is no other reason for them to take complete control over postage other than profit, I had something that was listed before the simple delivery came into affect, it was a small item that fitted into a large letter, but when I produced the label it had been changed to small parcel and charged me as such, the only way to overcome this is to put the prices up, but with eBay protection people just don’t buy, it’s making it almost not worth it.

Sent from Outlook for iOS<>

[books1ecb]

Royal Mail Tracked 24 & 48 include insurance cover of up to £150. If
that is enough to cover the value of the listing then there is no need
for any further 'protection'

I have twice claimed for a lost EBAY packet over recent years, and Royal
Mail have a streamlined process for EBAY items - they paid up after 30
days on both occasions

[kazziesattic]

Your absolutely right, I remember when eBay was great for getting rid of my unwanted stuff, next they will be telling me what I will sell it for, we are living in horrible times where everything is about control, I spoke to an agent about the inconsistency with the postage they charged the buyer and the amount they charged me and they said it was to do with rounding up, I know it’s a small amount but if that is on every item it soon adds up, they just didn’t get what I was trying to say, or didn’t want to, I had to leave the chat at they were winding me up.

Sent from Outlook for iOS<>

[elizcraven-90]

Yes it’s not good. I’ve removed all my large letter size books. I rang eBay & they said they’d refund my money for two items & gave me a link for refunds … the link doesn’t work & I can’t google the ‘www address’ it doesn’t recognise it. Hopeless! I’ve given up. So one book I’ve actually paid to post myself I was out of pkt by over £3 I made nothing out of that sale I actually lost money & the other I managed to make something but overpaid by over  £2. Im not going to contact them again for my refund link it took ages sorting it the first time. EBay must be making loads out of this! Absolutely can’t believe they’d set up a postage system so flawed & that’s after adding ‘buyer protection’ too when buyers were already protecting by law & eBay rules too … just another excuse to make more money. I’ve used eBay for over 16 yrs I used to have a shop too but I’m getting to the point where I just can’t be bothered anymore since they’ve changed it. 

[elizcraven-90]

Yes totally agree. I lost money on one book totally in the end I posted it myself the other was a booklet under 100gm when packaged I paid £2.74 for that one! This after they added a buyer protection fee which is a joke as buyers were always protected by law & eBay. I tried to get a refund took ages & the refund link they gave me didn’t work either. I’ve removed all my large letter size books now & I haven’t listed anything now for a mth I just can’t be bothered it’s getting so hard to make anything now with this protection fee & now these hugely expensive eBay labels. They  must be making a fortune ! Such a shame 

[jonjonjonnie]

Why not just use "Custom Postage"? eBay have added a lot more catagories which have Custom Postage.. So just search around a bit and as long as the item is less than £20 you will find a catagory where you can list it with Custom Postage.

If you have be forced to use Simple Shipping to get your customers address, you can claim a refund here

https://www.ebay.co.uk/claims/simple-delivery/refund/seller

But I did this 9 times and never got a single refund.

[kazziesattic]

It’s like they don’t want private sellers anymore as business sellers still have all the courier choices like we originally had. If I sell something large letter size they still charge for small parcel, also take not of the postage they charge the seller and the postage they deduct from you in your order details. For me this week postage for my buyer was £3.38 in my order details eBay deducted £2.82 + £0.57 VAT that makes £3.39, I contacted eBay and they said it was rounding up. WT* eBay have taken 1p from me for postage, if they are doing this with every sale that makes a good amount, anyway RM tracked 48 give the seller up to £150 compensation so why do we need all this buyer protection, they are getting very greedy.

Sent from Outlook for iOS<>

[elizcraven-90]

I used Royal Mail tracked online purchase for every eBay sale too until eBay  changed the postage system & RM collected it & brought the label for no extra cost at all never had a problem & like you also got a refund quickly on an eBay parcel. Yes you’re right we never needed any extra protection it was always there with RM. This new eBay label system is just making revenue for eBay & taking it out of our sales & for me I’m getting to the point where I’m going to stop selling on eBay until things change .. hopefully they will! 

[jonjonjonnie]

All.. I am a bit lost.. I sell small items which I design to be posted "2nd Class Large Letter"... And like you, I have had a horrible few months with them forcing Simple Shipping making it impossible to post anything without making a loss.

But its entirely fixed now.. YOu can list things with "Custom Postage" (aka, the same was as its always been).. So I am not sure what the problem is now

I am now listing all my items with "Custom Postage" and post them 2nd Class, so I am not clear why people are still struggling.

[sewmanybuttons54]

Having read both your response and several pages of other peoples responses it is clear that Simple Delivery is a step too far.  To begin with they introduced buyer protection, why, the buyer was already protected.  If an item went missing then Ebay never turned to the seller and said ' Don't worry about it' No ebay would decide it was for the seller to refund the buyer so protection was already there.  It was just a con to make more money.

Simple delivery for items up to 1kg is a good idea if you are selling items weighing that much or  a bit less.  If a customer were to order a number of items from me perhaps up to £20 then I would chose SD as I know its going to be delivered within 48 hours and there can be no comeback on me.  But when a customer buys just one item priced at lets say £2.95 then simple delivery will take away  £2.72 leaving me just 23p out of which I have to pay for the product, envelope, ink and my time.  I was not making a huge profit before but now stand to make a loss on every sale that has simple delivery.  When talking to Ebay they told me that perhaps my products were in the wrong category, but could not tell me which category they should be in.  Ebay keep mentioning the £20 figure for exclusion from SD but that does not seem to make any difference.    One of my items which was 2 metres of Christmas ribbon only had the option of simple delivery and the charge was £7.91 to post an item costing £3.49.  I tried to change it but it would not allow me to do so.  The only options to me were to remove the listing or change it to 'Buyer Pays'.

I have no idea how many small sellers there are on ebay but I am sure if they all decide to remove their listings it will have a huge impact on Ebay bottom line.  I just hope they see sense before it goes too far.

[elizcraven-90]

Hi - yes I haven’t listed anything for weeks since my message on eBay which
was well over a mth now & yes yippee you are right I’ve just checked.
That’s great thank you for pointing this out. My replies to the messages
today were from my old message & im so glad eBay have fixed it but I was
only on the phone to them 2 weeks ago trying to get a refund & they said
they were going to sort the ‘postage problems’ out they didn’t say they
had. Thank you 👍