Simple Delivery now optional for items under £20 including Large Letter

[moonlight-rhapsody]

New email just received says:

We’ve listened to your feedback and made Simple Delivery optional for more items priced £20 or less. This includes items in categories like Trading cards, Coins and Stamps, which are typically letter or large letter-sized and 100g or under. 

It’s an update that gives you more choice. You can choose a low-cost, untracked delivery option when protections aren’t essential, or stick with Simple Delivery to benefit from prepaid labels and automatic tracking, all at competitive prices. Learn more about this update. 

I note it specifically includes "Large Letter"

[travelin-lite]

But all the same problems are there, you can just charge a higher price for your problem!

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"The trouble is that some people are so suspicious about e-Bay that they instinctively interpret things in the most negative way possible."

Perhaps some people are just more attuned to the nuances of the English language than others. 

With the vast resources at ebay's disposal, you would expect them to be able to string a sentence together that stood no chance of misunderstanding or misinterpretation, if they wanted to.  This isn't the only thread where some people have thought that the items have to be under 100g to qualify.

ebay said:  "...made Simple Delivery optional for more items priced £20 or less.  This includes items in categories like Trading cards, Coins and Stamps, which are typically letter or large letter-sized and 100g or under.

Note that it says MORE items under £20, not all items.  So which categories are included?  It doesn't say, and they've removed the categories list.  It's naive to think that it's for any other reason than to keep their options open as to what to include or exclude in this semi-rollback.

[akemp1]

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@moonlight-rhapsody wrote:

With the vast resources at ebay's disposal, you would expect them to be able to string a sentence together

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The more I look at that email the more I feel it's like one of those school exam questions designed to trick you somehow. Maybe by removing the exempt categories list they really do intend to open up 2nd class Letter and Large Letter rates across the site for items under £20 at any weight and the implementation just hasn't happened yet?

If they are doing a big giveaway then they are doing a good job of looking shifty with it.

[thepillenwerfer]

The big complaint people have had is that on small items of low value Simple Delivery is needlessly expensive as Royal Mail standard post includes compensation up to £20 — in theory at least.

If you're selling something for more than £20 you'd be using a more expensive service anyway so you'd have a chance of compensation if it was lost or damaged.  For Royal Mail that would be Tracked 48, which is what Simple Delivery uses and offers it at a SLIGHTLY lower price with added benefits.

Of course there are people who are happy to send something worth over £20 with inadequate coverage to save a small sum and, as you say, they are still not being catered for.

[pixelmischief]

Has anyone worked out a way to edit existing listings to remove the simple delivery? 

[sizzenergy]

it should read : 

"Simple Delivery now optional for all items under £5- including Large Letter"

[esoterica_mail]

"vogon poetry word soup" - exactly LOL

If they take magazines (over 100g but large letter and under £20) out of SD I'll consider coming back.

Apparently there's no category list, so that's helpful.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"No doubt it will become clear in time. Sadly even if a Pink pops up to clarify things the clarification will be in corporate gobbledegook and only serve to darken the darkness."

This is what a "pink" (mentor) said in another thread earlier today:

"The opt-out is for letter or large letter items under £20/100g (excluding the buyer protection fee) in some categories."

Which is pretty clear that according to at least one mentor (and the experience of the OP in that thread), the 100g limit does apply.  So all the latest mini-rollback has done is increase the monetary limit from £10 to £20, and include Large Letters. 

I've got items which I could put on ebay that would be under £20/100g but are the shape of a small box, so the mini-rollback makes no difference to me.  I've also got LL size items under £20 but would weight more 100g, so again no use to me.  The only rollback which will be of any use is to make SD optional full stop.

[thepillenwerfer]

Could you provide a link to that thread please as I can't find any where an e-Bay staff member, ie a Pink, has said anything about Simple Delivery today.  "Mentors" are normal users who volunteer and according to this they don't appear to be given any training by e-Bay and, like the rest of us, offer advise based on their experience and knowledge gained by using e-Bay.

If you have things worth less than £20 and over 100g but Large Letter size that could be listed in the categories effected try listing one.  I have and works just like it did before the advent of Simple Delivery, see the screenshot in Post 50.  If it only applies to Large Letters up to 100g why would I be allowed to enter a postage charge of more than the cost of that?

If an item is bigger than a Large Letter it makes little odds either way.  It could be sent for £3.38 with Simple Delivery, £3.45 with Tracked 48, £3.35 Standard Post (saving a whole 3p) or £3.29 with Evri (saving 9p) if it's less than 1kg or £4.79 if it's between 1kg and 2kg.  Personally I'm happy to pay the extra 3p or 9p for the benefits of Simple Delivery.

I agree however that Letters and Large Letters are still a problem as even if my reading of things is correct it still only applies in certain categories.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"Could you provide a link to that thread please as I can't find any where an e-Bay staff member, ie a Pink, has said anything about Simple Delivery today.  "Mentors" are normal users who volunteer and according to this they don't appear to be given any training by e-Bay and, like the rest of us, offer advise based on their experience and knowledge gained by using e-Bay."

Ebay staff are not the people known as Pinks.  "Pinks" are mentors, so-called because of the colour of their name.  I know what mentors are and that they are not ebay staff - I've frequently posted the link to the mentor programme myself to clarify what mentors are.

I'm not normally around on a Wednesday afternoon to ask ebay staff in the Community Chat, but that's the only way to confirm what ebay mean.  And even then, more often than not the replies are non-committal, so we may end up being none the wiser anyway.

[thepillenwerfer]

Fair enough.  We always used to call e-Bay staff Pinks because their posts appeared in a pink box in the past.  At least as moonlight-rhapsody you only seem to have been around since 2018 so that could well have been before your time.  Still my fault for the confusion.

I quite agree that hoping for clarity from a staff member in the Community Chat is likely to end in disappointment; they were the people I was referring to as darkening the darkness, not Mentors who at least speak English rather than corporate gobbledegook.

[gjalp]

I am like you. I have known ‘pinks’ to be ebay staff who visited the community boards to answer queries. I would never have thought a mentor to be a ‘pink’.