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. 

[elizcraven-90]

Yes you’re right I’ve just checked I’m so pleased thank you for pointing this out. I haven’t listed anything for over 6 weeks now so didn’t realise & I was on phone to eBay couple weeks ago to try & get a refund & they said they were changing the postal system but they didn’t tell me they had (unless they’ve only just done it). Problem solved many thanks 👍

[sml192]

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@sewmanybuttons54 wrote:

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.

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The Buyer Protection Fee is basically just a straight replacement for the old Seller Fees.  It provides the buyer with exactly the same protections that used to be paid for by the Seller Fees (secure payment processing, fraud protection, and the provision of a help line) but generally costs the buyer less than the old Seller Fees.  Buyers also still have the eBay Money Back Guarantee which isn't specifically covered by the Buyer Protection Fee but still has to be paid for somehow.  So I am really not sure how you can make out that it is a con to make eBay more money?

The protection offered to sellers under the terms for Simple Delivery is nothing to do with the Buyer Protection Fee.

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@sewmanybuttons54 wrote:

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. 

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Simple Delivery currently only applies to Private Sellers.  Genuine Private Sellers who are just getting rid of unwanted personal possessions don't have to 'pay for the product'.