Simple delivery glitch

[caruk_iderdxs]

Went to print off a label for a small parcel. It is not a small parcel label but standard delivery which is not the same. It cost large letter tracked amount and not small parcel tracked. I have been on the phone for thirty minutes trying to convince a call handler with an impenetrable accent that it is wrong, she is insistent that it is okay to just go post. After putting me on hold she has now put the phone down.

This is disgraceful customer service utterly disgraceful. I am so sick of ebay - not as if I'm getting many sales.

[moldosgifts]

If you read the boards you will find out the advice is correct, but only as long it is the recommended label.

So if you pack it and its a parcel you just use the label provided. If ebay recommended a large letter then that is at eBay's expense not yours, you only get a surcharge if example it's over weight.

[podlingsmum2007]

If at the time of listing your item you accepted the package size automatically added by ebay then you can send it without worry. 

[podlingsmum2007]

Just to add, if you took it to your local delivery office, rather than the post office, they don't check the weight anyway.

[moldosgifts]

To be more specific, on this page

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/postage/simple-delivery

It states “If you use the recommended parcel size and your item exceeds the maximum size and weight of the label, you won’t be charged any additional costs.”

[caruk_iderdxs]

I live very remote and am a 60 mile round trip to PO so don't wish to undertake that with wrong postage. It is becoming so stressful is ebay. I am still in chat now with a person who keeps going off to research. I am losing the will to live.

[podlingsmum2007]

Would you normally book the free collection and bring the label service? I would go ahead and use the provided label.

[thepillenwerfer]

You are being given correct advice.  Simple Delivery labels do not say the weight or size on them.  Providing you accepted e-Bay's recommended size/weight when you listed it they'll honour that price even if it's wrong.

As for the distance to the Post Office, if you arrange it via e-Bay, Royal Mail will collect it for free and bring the label.

[department28]

The problem seems to be that many sellers are still not aware that it is ok to use an 'underweight label', if that is what Simple Delivery has estimated for your item. 

Until people are more familiar with how Simple Delivery works, this information should 'pop-up' when the label has been purchased, so that sellers are reassured that they can use the label, even if it doesn't seem 'right'.  This is a very new - and rather strange - way of buying postage, so it can be quite confusing to be given a label that seems incorrect for the weight/size of the item.

Some CS agents don't seem to be helping matters, by not being able to explain things very well - there have been several posts recently, about CS being rude & impatient when asked questions about Simple Delivery... 

[thepillenwerfer]

On the Get Label page are some FAQs which answer this point as does clicking "See package size limit" in the middle box on the screen.

e-Bay can provide information but they can't make people read it, or read and understand it.  Then there are those who are sure that they know better and won't believe it anyway.

Being able to over-rule the recommendation is a needless complication.  It isn't in a Seller's interest to correct a low one and make their item more expensive and nor is it in e-Bay's for them to lower a needlessly high one and reduce their profits.

[wellingnorth]

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@thepillenwerfer wrote:

On the Get Label page are some FAQs which answer this point as does clicking "See package size limit" in the middle box on the screen.

e-Bay can provide information but they can't make people read it, or read and understand it.  Then there are those who are sure that they know better and won't believe it anyway.

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I don't have a live order now so I can't check the specifics, but as far as I recall on the get label page it tells you (on an extra click) what the size should be and does say that you may be charged if your parcel is over the specified size - but it does not repeat the bit from the terms & conditions that says you will not be charged if it was ebay's recommended size and it doesn't tell you if the label was ebay's recommendation or not anyway!

To my mind the post order page would be improved if it stated either

* You used ebay's recommended parcel size - there will be no surcharge and the parcel should be accepted below as long as it is below 61x46x46cm

OR

* You chose x size, pack to this size or you may be surcharged. OR click here to upgrade the label at your own cost

Even with that you still have some Post Office staff rejecting oversized / overweight parcels (we know they are not supposed to) and no clear instructions on what to do if that happens. If I understand it correctly if you went on to buy your own label instead the buyer would be refunded for the unused label rather than the seller? 

[jckl1957]

Is it the teapot?

The buyer has paid for Standard Delivery (this does not indicate size or weight, rather it is the speed of delivery, so 48 hours, rather than 24 hour Express Delivery which is the other option on your listing).  The label cost the buyer £3.38 which is what Ebay charge for a small parcel up to 1kg where the seller has opted to use RM only.

As advised, when you go to print the label, you can check the size of the parcel covered by the label.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/postage/simple-delivery

Price list available here in the FAQs

[podlingsmum2007]

£3.38 is for up to 2kg

[goodibags]

"as far as I recall on the get label page it tells you (on an extra click) what the size should be and does say that you may be charged if your parcel is over the specified size - but it does not repeat the bit from the terms & conditions that says you will not be charged if it was ebay's recommended size and it doesn't tell you if the label was ebay's recommendation or not anyway!"

Thanks for checking this out. As usual, Ebay could be helping their sellers (and roll out of their own new-fangled system) by providing the basic information and reassurances that they clearly need.

There is no need for SD to be complete hell. Sellers often get stick for complaining but you end up wondering what it would take for Ebay to get behind it?

[jckl1957]

You are right - I didn't look down far enough.  Thank you.

[jckl1957]

All the information is there though.

Most of the complaints/queries/worries about SD are posted by people who have never bothered to read the Ebay pages.

There is, admittedly a lot to read and you do need to follow all of the links and read the FAQs.

However, if you want to sell on Ebay, and you accept that SD is here to stay, then it is worth setting aside 30 minutes or so to read all the details so you understand the system you are using.

[wellingnorth]

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@jckl1957 wrote:

All the information is there though.

Most of the complaints/queries/worries about SD are posted by people who have never bothered to read the Ebay pages.

There is, admittedly a lot to read and you do need to follow all of the links and read the FAQs.

However, if you want to sell on Ebay, and you accept that SD is here to stay, then it is worth setting aside 30 minutes or so to read all the details so you understand the system you are using.

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You are right that if you spend time reading the forums and the ebay help pages it may become clearer how to handle Simple Delivery. Really in cases like this though it should not be necessary at all if ebay just tailored the information better on the order page to give more clarity regarding label sizes, potential surcharges, etc. 

This is called *Simple* Delivery after all and must be at least partly aimed at users more used to simpler selling platforms like V*nted so fairly basic things like this causing friction in the order process should really be addressed. (The issue of the Post Office sometimes quibbling about parcel sizes is probably harder to sort out!)

[goodibags]

But does Ebay want sellers to use the platform? Ebay's approach appears to be that the more sellers find out about SD the less likely they would be inclined to use it? Therefore it is better to keep them in the dark as much as possible.

You'd have to admit, it would have been far more transparent if so-called simple delivery was called Simple Rip Off. Since that is mostly what it is. 

[jckl1957]

I don't agree with any of your points but, as a grown-up. I am happy to simply (no pun intended) agree to differ.

You know what you think and I know what I think.

[goodibags]

I'm sorry, I don't understand how we're differing. Do you think Ebay IS being helpful and reassuring towards its sellers attempting to use SD?

Or do you think that the apparent unhelpfulness we're witnessing is part of Ebay's master plan to lose those sellers?