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. 

[suelel1968]

Hi, @jonjonjonnie  I just tried listing your toolmaker scribing thing and I had to select LL under simple delivery and put in a price under £10 and Custom comes up.

Hi @goodibags  You might be right, but if it's not going to sell with SD price postage on it, it has to be worth a try. I did actually sell one of my drill bit on that category the other day and it is one of very few sold in recent months. they are still on Custom postage, but so far down the search order that no one gets that far. I need to sell similar on the above category, but can't be bothered ATM

[jonjonjonnie]

You beauty... I didn't set Large letter as there was someone a few posts back explicitly stating NOT to touch the Large Letter option.

I just took one of my listings, edited the category to cDIY Other' and changed it to 'Large Letter' and now have custom options. So I don't need to relist them after all.

I am going to have a good look tomorrow to see if I can find good categories for all my listings which have the Custom Shipping option.

[suelel1968]

@jonjonjonnie    Glad to help.  If you need the opt out list, put Simple delivery in the help screen search bar and it is towards the end, but you have to open it via a "+" as I recall.

[jonjonjonnie]

Not sure what you mean by 'opt out list'.

[suelel1968]

This will keep you busy @jonjonjonnie 

[xyz307xyz]

Is your £1.55 Royal Mail (2nd Class Large Letter)  method tracked? And the tracking number entered somewhere?

That's one of the conditions for a refund of the SD label price. (Although several people have also said they it is taking longer than ebay suggest, and are wondering if the refund has actually been rejected - as they are not told.)

[jonjonjonnie]

Been looking around and it seems the "Other" catagories are the way to go..

Many seem to have custom shipping.. So I have changed most of my listings to vaguely relevant catagories.. Priced them under £10, set them to "Large Letter" and CUSTOM SHIPPING appears.

I also learned that the the price cap for this is £10 BEFORE the Buyers Protection fee.. So you can actually list something for £9.99.. This is something that eBay didnt' know as in one of my chats with them, they blamed the issue on the fact that WITH fees, it was more than £10.

Good luck all.. I hope this helps some of you.

[xyz307xyz]

You can list at £10.00 excluding BPF, not just £9.99.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575#se...

[suelel1968]

@jonjonjonnie  its a terrific system! Choose your carrier, you can use £1.80 LL as well. You can cancel labels , refund postage on multiple orders. Use stamps, print labels, whatever you want really. Insured at least up to £20 and things might just sell!

Shall we call it Really, Really Simple Delivery! 

[jonjonjonnie]

Yep.. Custom Shipping aka, "the way it always was" is perfect.. Absolutely fit for purpose.. So why they considered "Simple Shipping" to be any more simple and better is beyond me.

I just hope they don't close this loophole.. I have now listed all my items against catagories that whilst arn't a million miles away from what they should be, they are not the correct category...

All I need now is a refund for the 9 items where I used Simple Shipping just to get the address (based on eBays instructions) and then posted my way... Once this is done, I will be 90% happy with this setup.

[guymafo]

@jonjonjonnie 

With all due respect,  register as a business seller. Having sold 2,000 plus items of one product isn’t what private sellers accounts are for. It’s clearly a popular product. 

You could manage your own postage, in your desired category. 

GM

[jonjonjonnie]

Where did you get the idea I sell 2000+ items? I sell about 1-2 items a week if I am lucky. Hence the fact that I only have 8 sales since I started this chat... 6 weeks ago!

I assume you are looking at my listings and jumping to conclusions? Whilst I have made a very popular item and sold lots over a 10 year period and that listing is still active.. But in the last few years my sales has almost entirely dried up and I only sell a handful of items per year.. Its just a hobby for me these days.. So I am far from being a "business seller".

[guymafo]

@jonjonjonnie you say in the listing you designed and created these yourself.
You’ve sold over 2,221 of them. 
You’ve clearly got a good product, so what not trade legally?

From gov.uk :

Selling goods

You’re probably trading if you sell goods that you have:

• bought intending to sell for a profit
• made, including items you make for a hobby

You’ll need to add together this income with your income from other trading activities, such as providing services or creating online content. If your total income is more than the £1,000 trading allowance for the tax year (6 April to 5 April), you’ll need to tell us about it.

GM

[jonjonjonnie]

When did htis turn into a legal discussion. Talk about making assumptions!!!!

Do you think I was born yesterday? Due to the nature of my work I do a tax return every year and all of my profits have been declared.. I do know how this works.. You don't have to be a business seller to do a tax return you know?

I feel obligued to clear my name and tell you my story now. In a nutshell, I came up with an design in 2016 and figured I would sell a few.. I turned out to be a huge success and for 3 years I worked 8 hours a day making them.. In truth, the margins were tiny but I enjoyed it as a hobby and due to my circumstances at the time, I was happy to have something to keep me busy.

What I made and sold I did to help people and because I enjoyed it.. not for profit, so just because I sold lots, doesn't mean I made a ton of profit... But what I did make, I declared.

The hayday of this item was 2016-2020 and in the last 6 years my sales have dropped year on year to the point where I sell a few a year.. If you want to know, the last one was 19th June.. That puts me on target to sell FOUR this year... Hardly a business.

My margins are still tiny and this isn't for profit.. BUT.. I have declared my taxes every year. 

Whats your point? Why are you implying that I am not 'legal' just because I have a private account. 

I have a private account because when eBay started pushing people down the Business Account route, my sales had almost entirly dried up.

So we are going way off on a tangent here.. and am not sure why you feel you need to question what I am doing. I am at a loss how we went from Simple Shipping, to implications that I am defrauding HMRC! Thanks for that.

[guymafo]

@jonjonjonnie 

Wasn’t my intention to hijack the thread. A way to avoid SD is to register as a business seller, given you make products to sell. 

It wasn’t intended as a personal attack, I was applauding your product and suggesting a solution. 

I’ll leave you to it. 
GM

[leighbayuk]

In a new twist. I have now found that items which were successfully listed and sold with Large Letter (Custom) postage, default to Small Parcel (at twice the cost) when you go to purchase a postage label.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Postage/BEWARE-eBay-Postage-Label-defaults-to-Small-Parcel-for-Large...

[jonjonjonnie]

It seems they listened.. Just got a mail saying that they have opened SD to more categories and increased the limits £20.

Learn more about this update

Havn't looked to see if they have opened up the catagories that I use, but its a step in the right direction.

Just need my 9 refunds back now which they promised to give for the SD that I was forced to use!

Edit: Its good.. I have an item which sells for £15 in a catagory which did not have Custom Shipping.. Now it has the CS option.. I am very happy with this update!

Edit2: Actually not perfect. One of my litems lists in METALWORKING LATHES and that now has Custom Shipping.. Odd because a lathe is a massive and heavy thing...

But another item I list in something like OTHER PRINTING AND GRAPHICS ART and that does not have Custom Shipping... 

Makes no sense.. But atleast there are more catagories, so we have a better chance of finding something that applies.

[akemp1]

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@jonjonjonnie wrote:

It seems they listened.. Just got a mail saying that they have opened SD to more categories and increased the limits £20.

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Yes they are slowly getting there but they are still applying a 100g weight limit so a SD is still a huge % uplift for those items upto 250g.  There are several LL items in that weight range on my wishlist that I would purchase if the postage was more reasonable. When the postage on a listing is much too high it puts me right off wanting to buy an item as it feels like I would be wasting money and getting taken for a fool.

[jonjonjonnie]

Agreed.. Rather than Custom Shipping, I am happy to embrace Simple Shipping, but they need to give us 1st/2nd Class letter and 1st/2nd Class Large letter and include the weight catagories that are available.

But atleast we can now opt out and use Custom Shipping for items less than £20.

[akemp1]

It's not that ebay are scamming us just forcing an inappropriate RM product.

There is no need for Tracked 48 on a 250g LL item under £20 that should be £1.80 not £2.70.