Simple Delivery

[jane3398]

I don't sell a lot, just a few things that I don't want if I buy a set of things from QVC.  What is bothering me is this simple delivery.  I have always just taken my parcels downtown to the Post Office, which is a 10 minute walk away. 

We have no Evri or Yodel or any carrier drop off points in our town or anywhere near, nearest thing would be the Leeds Depot (don't know if you can drop things off there, mute point anyway as I don't drive) which is 9 miles away.  What would happen when it becomes compulsory to use simple delivery, if ebay decides I should sent something by Evri?  Thanks for anyone's help. 

[sottycat]

I sympathise, this is SO annoying.  I sell a lot of items from friends donated for charities - I always use Tracked48 and have it collected from my porch by the postman who is friendly and considerate and leaves the door shut.  I don't want to have to take parcels to the post office myself - I can't find a collection screen available - I don't want EVRI calling at my house all the time  - and I definitely don't want to have to take some parcels to the post office and other parcels to EVRI.....  Ebay need to consider their own customers more, which is us - the sellers!

[61stephenuk]

Remove Evri from your postage options

Then once you have the printed Royal Mail label go to https://send.royalmail.com/collect/youritems

tick the selectors as shown then continue

[*vyolla*]

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@sottycat wrote:

I sympathise, this is SO annoying.  I sell a lot of items from friends donated for charities 

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I'm not sure what this means exactly, but I'd advise selling on behalf of others (if that's what you're doing). Get them to list and sell their own items, only because HMRC are now sending out letters and chasing sellers for accounts going back to 2017, and it looks like a whole can of worms to me.

There are currently a couple of threads running about this in Seller Central. 

[sottycat]

Thankyou, the Royal Mail link didn't work but once you I found out what I was looking for I was able to sort it.   I've also disabled EVRI (which I didn't know was possible before!)  What a complete nuisance to have to go through this procedure though.

[sottycat]

I know, I'm now aware, and that's what I was doing until ebay asked for my NI number a couple of weeks ago!  This financial year I'm setting up to sell directly for the charity as an employee rather than doing it on my own account and donating 100%  ...  of course setting this up brings up a whole new set of problems with ebay as you can imagine.  I will try and locate the other threads on HMRC topic though. Thanks for the tip vyolla.

[trishthedish.0199]

Yes, I couldn't see any option for collection either? This is a n great service when you are in a rural area (the Scottish Highlands) as the post office is in Inverness, 14 miles away. We have a half hearted Evri delivery here, as a sub contractor brings out stuff for them and other couriers about once a fortnight, usually thrown over the fence in the rain) and certainly no collection. John Lewis now only use Evri for delivery and returns are supposed to be picked up by Evri- but obviously they can't be from here?! Customer services told me to take to my nearest John Lewis store - 5 hrs away in Glasgow or Edinburgh, a whole day trip by bus and train each way, or even by car. More and more retailers are using only Evri, which is a real problem for those in rural areas, it means you just can't buy from them any longer.

[twin--turbo]

Parcel2Go have issued an e-mail warning private sellers that eBay may not accept parcels sent with them usign their SmartSend ( which is smarter than Ebay) option. I think it's just to cover their back though. unless ebay disable the intergration only for private sellers.

[ruby*ryan]

As it won't be possible for private sellers to send parcels that way once SD is mandatory, I'm not really sure what the point of the P2G email was, I did notice that they advised private sellers to register as a business:

To avoid any issues, we recommend checking your eBay seller type and switching to a business account if needed. It’s quick to update and ensures your orders continue to flow through Smart Send as normal.

A bit misleading, as they don't mention the fees/extra responsibilities. Looks like they are just trying to get people to change to make sure they keep the business. I wonder how many they trapped?

[ceres_plantery]

You're pathetic. I am not a registered seller nor will I ever be. I have a new garden and need to populate it with tons of plants. I need the money to buy new plants. And I don't have to explain to you that this is NOT my business. Who is going to buy a packet of 20 seeds for £6.85? Ebay has already slapped buyer with extra 80p in my case. I haven't sold 5k+ items .. 

Ebay wants to lose sales, fine by me. I can sell via other platforms. Nobody wants these hassles and I don't want to mug people or be mugged and abused as a side hustler. 

[ceres_plantery]

Wait till nobody buys from ebay .. mandatory or not! 

[ceres_plantery]

Exactly! Who's going to buy a packet of seeds for £6.85? ebay helps inflation, just as trump is making life hard for lower middle class. I have no sale this week. 

[emporium1-1]

Also this is not very eco friendly, eBay is encouraging (micro- managing and mandating) that sellers each make individual trips to drop- off locations instead of having ONE courier vehicle collecting from all sellers, as offered by Royal Mail.

Amazon showed us how to do it 25 years ago, eBay can’t even copy them, instead they offer a plethora of mediocre couriers who can’t even deliver in the same week.

[trishthedish.0199]

Likewise, there is no Evri delivery on the Isle of Skye, since the local man retired. It means someone driving to the Inverness depot, picking up, driving back, a journey of several hours, and then around the island. There is a land bridge now, so not isolated, and the postie always delivers daily from Inverness, but just not financially viable for Evri. Unfortunately, many online retailers send by Evri only nowadays, including John Lewis, Hobbs, etc, etc and then parcels often just end up getting returned to sender, as people without transport cannot get to collect them. We have a friend who lives on Skye, we meet up with every few weeks in Inverness, he comes on the coach, needs to book it in summer, due to number of tourists and does a round trip, but takes 2 and half hours each way. The post office is only reliable way in remote rural areas, but retailers and Ebay seem to not know this. 

[trishthedish.0199]

Yes, they deem Evri to be near enough for me to take to, but it is two bus rides away, one to Inverness, half hour on bus, but bus only every 3 hours, bus from Inverness to Beauly, three quarters of hours, and would I get back home by daylight, the last bus to village leaves Inverness at 5.45 pm anyway! Yet of course, as the crow flies, on the may, it does not look very far away. By car, if you have one, about just over half hour. Got a lift by neighbour once, to find it shut for the day anyway. Couriers tend to work in towns only, for all rural areas, Royal mail is the only way to go. A few very expensive couriers, Fedx and the like are excellant for deliveries here, but expensive and not used to smaller, less expensive items. 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"and I definitely don't want to have to take some parcels to the post office and other parcels to EVRI"

The choice of courier isn't item-specific.  Whichever service sellers choose to offer to buyers, it applies to all listings.

However, ebay can - and do - override the seller's preferences when it suits them, so it could indeed mean that some parcels go via RM and some via Evri.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

according to a little searching, there are around 133 million buyers on ebay, worldwide. So there must be at least millions on ebay uk.

I've never seen any definition of "buyer".  Does it include, for instance, somebody that bought a single item from ebay 10 years ago and hasn't been seen since?  Or does it include only those buyers who have bought something in the last 12 months, for example?  Does anyone know?

And now estimate how many visit these boards. I've no idea how to do that, but my gut feel would be hundreds, at most. Would you disagree?

Without doubt it's now thousands.  I'm basing that on a count I did of the first 20 pages of the "monster” (No Longer Selling) thread.  There were 97 new posters just in the first 20 pages.  There are now 410 pages in that thread, and whilst many of the posts are from repeat posters, particularly as the thread has grown, there have also been a great many new people posting during the course of the thread.  Even more new names crop up on the Kudos lists, which include people who haven't posted but just click the Kudos button.  And then there are all the new names cropping up on the zillion other threads, not only about Simple Delivery but also about the many other ways in which ebay is frustrating their customers, either through policy changes or through failures of the system to work correctly. 

However, because the link to the Community is at the bottom of the page, infinite scrolling on the Home page makes it difficult for newbies to find these forums.  I’ve noticed that there is now virtually-infinite scrolling on the item pages sometimes as well. 

[trishthedish.0199]

The Isle of Skye has no Evri service as present either, although there is now a road bridge to the island. The local man who used to pick up Evri parcels from Inverness and deliver around the island, lived on the island and has recently retired. No other person has come forward to do the job, so no pick ups, no deliveries. You could deem to have delivered to a shop or pick up point in Inverness, about a 3 and quarter hour drive away. If you are older or do not have a car, then its only the coach, which is free over 60 years of age, but you have to book it and it would take a round 6 and half hr trip. If you are not over 60, it is about £55 for the round trip. However, the coach only goes as far as Portree, so if you live anywhere apart from two main towns on the island, you would need to get a lift to and from the coach stops or find some other way of connecting to other parts. Royal mail, however, delivers all over the island daily and there are post offices, often in local small shops, in lots of places, even quite rural, to take return parcels. The postie will usually collect as well, even if not arranged as such, this is more of a local curtesy service they undertake as part of their responsibilities; most are very helpful and kind individuals out here.