Simple Delivery

[gatefittingsdirect]

Hi all, 

I've not been on here for months, possibly a year, but whilst reading a few pages this morning the forum seems to be full of "Simple Delivery" posts?

This is the first I've ever heard of the scheme, eBay have never asked me to join and I've never seen any messages relating to it. 

By the sounds of it, many of you have been forced into using it and are not happy with the process, can anyone tell me how it works and why you've been forced onto it please. 

Thanks

[jonatjonatjonat]

As a business seller, you aren’t impacted.

Simple Delivery applies (in the majority of cases) to Private Sellers.

essentially, when listing with Simple Delivery eBay will work out the postage label requires. You can set it as buyer pays or you can pay. But the price of the labels are fixed. On payment eBay will provide a Royal Mail or Evri label.

[department28]

Most of the upset about Simple Delivery is because Private Sellers are no longer allowed to choose their own postage methods, or prices. Postage now has to be purchased through eBay, who are only offering a limited range of options, using either Royal Mail, or Evri.

At the moment, only letter-sized items priced up to £10, and oversized items are exempt from Simple Delivery. If you take a look at some of the many, many posts about this, you will soon understand why it is causing such uproar.

[gatefittingsdirect]

Sounds like a crazy idea, it's very important the seller has control over the postage, we certainly wouldn't want to be limited on options for delivery. 

[tressygirl]

Yep,  many unhappy peeps, but as said , it only affects Private sellers......   so far ! 🙄

If you have a spare 5 mins here's how SD works, link below.  It was announced last October that it was  coming and to be mandatory for Private sellers,  and the rollout started from April 15th.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/postage/simple-delivery?mkevt=1&mkpid=2&emsid=0&mkcid=8&bu=43952...

@gatefittingsdirect 

[genuinegameguru]

Yes, it is TOTALLY CRAZY. One of ebays stupidest ever ideas. For Private Sellers it takes the control out of your hands, and there are sooooo many flaws with it. Different Sellers will have different complaints but here are a few that I’ve found that potentially* (see below) affect me.

1. Cost: it forces you to use a Tracked Service at extra expense.  For low value items (below £20) this is totally unnecessary as Royal Mail standard services automatically give cover for loss up to £20 if you ask for Proof of Posting (which is Free).

2. Practicality: it forces you to A) print out an address label at home or B) get it printed at the Post Office. A) I use Hewlett Packards FREE INK Service which gives me FREE Ink Cartridges if I print out no more than 10 sheets per month. Simple Delivery would force me over that limit so I’d have to pay for those extra pages. B) Queueing in the Post Office is bad enough as it is; scanning several QR codes, printing out the labels and applying would be time consuming (and potentially confusing to make sure the right label goes on the right package). I’ve been stuck in the queue behind other people doing this, it’s a nightmare!

3. Size/Weight Options ebay gives you are very limited and often not practical or cost effective.

4. EBay withholds your payments for two weeks or until delivery is confirmed. How much money are they making by holding onto peoples money for that long? 🤔

* Up until now I’ve managed to avoid using Simple Delivery as there was an option to overide it (though it was well hidden and often used to default to Simple Delivery if you made an amendment). However when trying to list today Simple Delivery removed this option from my template! With much trial and error I have managed a workaround but it is time consuming, and no doubt ebay will in time close this loophole.

Of course ebay  have a contract with Royal Mail,so by forcing you to buy through them, THEY make money on the postage, which THEY get at discounted rates. 🤬

[edwardian-dreams]

Every system can be worked around 

nobody can have that much control 

And if they could they shouldn’t because they’re not supplying the service they advertise 

[johnwash1]

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@jonatjonatjonat wrote:

As a business seller, you aren’t impacted.

Simple Delivery applies (in the majority of cases) to Private Sellers.

essentially, when listing with Simple Delivery eBay will work out the postage label requires. You can set it as buyer pays or you can pay. But the price of the labels are fixed. On payment eBay will provide a Royal Mail or Evri label.

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Aren't impacted YET!  🙂

FTFY.

You don't seriously imagine that Ebay, having spotted yet another way to squeeze the pips dry, won't roll this out to small and medium business sellers, initially as an option, then mandatory.

[jonatjonatjonat]

I don’t seriously imagine that no.

[johnwash1]

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@jonatjonatjonat wrote:

I don’t seriously imagine that no.

---

You don't imagine that business sellers, at least at some level, will be roped in eventually?

Why not, why so confident?

The likes of MusicMagpie, WorldOfBooks etc, they have their own megadiscount deals, they won't be touched.  But the business seller turning over 50, 100, 200k per year, why don't you forsee them being squeezed eventually?

[jonatjonatjonat]

Because businesses, even of a small size use things like 3PL, use Amazon  MCF.

medium sized firms (like the one I work for) have integrators and systems that they have to build to pull orders in.

they will also have contracts with the couriers for collections due to the volume of orders

it would be impossible for these firms to simple print off the volume of orders they get and nip down to the local post office or corner shop with an Evri drop off.

you can’t really have this arguement for private sellers because the majority don’t have the volume of orders business sellers do. I get some do, but that isn’t the question at hand here.

what eBay MIGHT do is enforce end to end tracking as Amazon have pretty much done, but I genuinely don’t believe that eBay would ever enforce simple delivery on businesses.

and how would eBay even differentiate business sellers. Perhaps eBay should only force Simple Delivery on Private Sellers who sell under a certain amount. Would that be fair?

[honeymonster007]

Not even for a basic shop

[jonatjonatjonat]

If that’s a question, they could I suppose do that, but I’ve no idea what level of order volume a business with a basic shop would be doing. They may well still have their own postage infrastructure, courier collection agreements etc though.

[edwardian-dreams]

I’m still wondering why sd was introduced for private sellers only in the first place or introduced at all

🤷🏼‍♀️

rhetorical question I suppose 

And why eBay felt the need to keep peoples money for two weeks if they didn’t post as they are told they  should 

They had zero problem paying out immediately before 

ergo where’s the evidence that they aren’t making interest off other peoples money

are they are a financial institution now? instead of a “platform” for selling 

I suppose they can do what they like but surely not at the detriment of their customers 

still stinks doesn’t it 

[honeymonster007]

Was just mischievous speculation but would maybe persuade some to move to a featured shop and ebay could do another deal with the couriers to include the business sellers post, would kinnda make sense . 

Only random speculation though