Simple Delivery nightmare! Until yesterday I could choose custom and choose my carrier etc

[disneymania56]

How do eBay know the carrier, price, weight, size of box used to pack etc ?  Large letter is charged at 1kg even if it’s 250grams.  RM the box has to be 16cms max.  It jumps from 2kg to 10kg with no 5kg offered. 

I always added a tiny amount towards the postage charge to help cover the jiffy envelope, packaging and mile drive to drop off.  Sometimes I was short and had to pay more than I guessed when listing but I was sure the parcel was the correct weight and size.  

Now they not charging customers £2.70 for an item that cost £1.55 to post surely this affects our rating on postage charge?  One item sold was 20 cms longer than the max size for the option they charged my buyer and there is no way to purchase the correct label 🤷‍♀️😩

This is madness!  

[xyz307xyz]

Is the £1.55 a tracked service? (I know that's the price with stamps but I genuinely don't know if you can get tracked online for £1.55).

Because they (apparently) can.

[akemp1]

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@vinylscot wrote:

Large letters are not exempt from simple delivery, unless the item contained is on the excluded list.

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I didn't think any large letters were excluded and it had to be a standard letter of the right category/ weight /  price?

[tommystrezures]

@belle_visage  Unfortunately royal mails tracked services only offer one size fits all type of service, thats not the fault of ebay per se.

The key in all of this is the tracked aspect, ebay never see an item they do need to know though its been delivered etc to ensure funds released etc etc. So any large letter is the price ebay state it is, the same if i visit the post office etc (outside of Simple Deliver). Technically ebay are not overcharging as this is the only price available for a tracked 48 service,

However i do understand everyones frustration that if it its a large letter and the cost of the item within is under £20 why the need. 

[vinylscot]

There are some items which are totally excluded from SD, no matter what the packaging, large letter, small package, etc..

Royal Mail's £1.55 second class LL postage gives a delivery code, which should be scanned on delivery. Prior to SD, eBay accepted this as tracking. Now, I don't think they do.

eBay's contracts with Royal Mail/Evri will be based on an average weight of parcel. That's why they can't offer lower prices for lighter packages - it would risk their average parcel weight being too high. So they rely on lighter packages, such as larger letters, to keep their average down to the contracted level. Obviously, there will be losers, and the OP is unfortunately in that situation.

[belle_visage]

Exactly, why do you need a tracked delivery for such a low priced item. Large letters are scanned when delivered and ebay item updated as delivered.  Proof of postage is got so the item is well covered with £20 from RM.  This one size fits all is not fit for purpose.

[belle_visage]

Sellers are losers already, the buyer ebay fees have almost wiped out the orders already and now imposing overpriced postal charges will kill it off completely.  After 20 years selling on ebay it looks like goodbye!

[belle_visage]

£1.55 gets you a label with a barcode, this is scanned at the post office and when the item is delivered it is scanned by the postman and the item is updated on eBay as delivered. 

The RM compensation of £20 more than covers the item, in over 20 years I have only ever had one envelope go missing.  Why would you need anything more of a £6 item. 

Buyers are already paying the excessive buyers fees for which they get nothing extra to what they had before they were introduced and why should they be forced to pay for a postal service that doesn't give them anything they didn't have before. 

It all getting very Big Brother with sellers/buyers all the losers.  

[nettyt91]

Can I asked where else you have signed up to sell your items please?!

[nettyt91]

I am having the issue of no postage options available for an item exceeding the 61*46*46 dimensions. The "oversized" option which I read about in other forum answers is not available. I have tried via the desktop site and put the dimensions from the drop down list in the product specifications. No luck.

[edwardian-dreams]

List it under an oversized category like dining table or something 

chose your postage then change the category

it should retain your postage selections 

not 100 guaranteed but worth a try 

i hazard a rough estimate of the date eBay will either sort out this stupid system or ditch it

xmas I reckon

[nettyt91]

I have discovered a solution I believe for an oversized item.... complete the listing but do not submit, go back to starting price and change to £500, go back to the postage which will enable custom postage, there select what service you want, go back to the listing price and change to original (£5), go back to postage and oversized option suddenly becomes available!!!! 

Absolute fluke I discovered this. Let me know if this works for anyone else.

[edwardian-dreams]

Yes, it definitely pays to play around  with it

after all ebay are playing around with us for there !!!

🙄🤣🤣🤣

[akemp1]

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@nettyt91 wrote:

Can I asked where else you have signed up to sell your items please?!

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I've been mostly using the platform famous for clothes that has recently expanded into some other categories. I have also been using the social network for collection items.

I still have stuff listed here but my active listings are reducing in volume now.  I've found stuff tends to sell faster at those other places so the room I keep unwanted items is starting to look less full.

[namelesspromotions]

I'm in exactly the same boat. Many of my listings are £3.95 + £1.95 for P&P (large letters). The "Buyer Protection Scheme" meant that I had to reduce the listings to £3.11 to return the actual sale price to £3.95. Now ebay are arbitrarily forcing us to charge £2.70 for postage, meaning I now have to again revise the prices to be even MORE EXPENSIVE than they were before any of the changes.

Between Oct 1st and Dec 31st '24 I made 39 sales. Since Jan 1st '25 I've made 10 sales. 

 The cherry on the cake is their repetitive DEI adverts telling us how we can now sell for 'free' and 'keep all the cash' and 'do the things we love'.

It is Orwellian, dystopian, and complete madness indeed.  

[disneymania56]

It says that it’s optional for items under £10 or large letter and letters but it isn’t 🤷‍♀️😩

£2.70 for 1kg is all they offer for large letters and 2.2kg charges as 10 kg as 5kg isn’t listed. 

I have a few £1.55 large letter items under 250 grams 

[xyz307xyz]

My understanding is that SD should be optional "for items under £10 or large letter and letters", which are in specific subcategories (I'm not aware of any list) and less than or equal to 100g.

Note - 

-different users* have reported experiencing different postage options when listing similar items (and apparently identical in terms of the above criteria), even when both users are on "mandatory SD".

-one user has reported experiencing different postage options when listing similar items (and apparently identical in terms of the above criteria), when using the app to using a web browser.

-ebay's pages on SD state the opt out is for letter size

--this hints that for a letter weighing exactly 100g, SD is optional.

--(some but many) users have reported they can opt out of SD for large letter sized items (which also meet the other criteria in the first paragraph.)

(*) e.g. there's a thread on here with someone being forced apparently to use SD for a postcard costing a pound or two. However another user, who is also on mandatory SD, can list the same without SD ...

[akemp1]

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@belle_visage wrote:

It all getting very Big Brother with sellers/buyers all the losers.  

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Ebay are more like Creepy Uncle trying to get us to do things that do not make us happy and are well outside our normal expectations and comfort zone.