Simple delivery inconsistency

[geosacha007]

I am in the fortunate position of not having to use Simple Delivery at the moment.  But I thought I would do one as an experiment.

I have a 1.2kg small parcel size item. 

Ebay's recommendation in the listing was 1kg from £2.94.  Which would be inadequate. But I used it to schedule the listing, as it was recommended but the buyer was shown a price significantly lower than £2.74. So would the label even be adequate for a 1kg parcel?

So I choose the 2kg medium parcel size instead.  It came up as from £3.44 in the listing, which looked fine so I went with that and scheduled the listing.  But when I look at the listing the buyer sees the postage as £2.94 which is the 1kg price.

So I thought as its wrong, with my choice, and I would be responsible I need to go with ebay's recommendtion.  Edited the listing and now ebay's recommendation is the 2kg parcel not the 1kg parcel they recommended 5 minutes before.  Saved the listing again and now the buyer sees the correct £3.44 postage.

This is a total mess.  And I wonder if I had gone with ebay's 1kg recommendation originally, with the postage lower than the £2.94 quoted when I was listing. would I be covered for an inadequate label.  Or would ebay be saying, no we recommend 2kg. 

I really don't want to have to edit and check every listing about 4 times to try and get the simple delivery postage to make sense.

[lucy_farmer]

When you're using Simple Delivery , just do what ebay say!

Apparently their wonderful AI thingy chooses all the parcels weights and prices and it 'is always right' 😆

The label that will be produced for the parcel (regardless of whether *you* think it's right or not!) will have the words 'Marketplace Seller' on it and those are the magic words...

The post office/ evri drop-off has to accept the parcel, post it and deliver it.

Ebay and the chosen courier will 'settle up' any over or underpayments between themselves, later on 😀

(It's possible a few post office staff still haven't quite got to grips with it, but they should *all* know about it...)

[department28]

Yes, inconsistency & uncertainty just about sums up the awful new postage system... 😖

I just hate that it's all so vague. I don't want Simple Delivery 'approximating' the weight, & issuing postage labels that may not be accurate, for a price I have no control over, to an address I haven't been able to check. It seems like a recipe for disaster!

It's no longer possible to just 'quickly' list something - you have to keep double-checking every listing, in case something has been selected, or deselected, behind your back... and you could still end up being issued with a label for a courier you can't use. eBay really have gone too far this time!

[lucy_farmer]

'.....approximating' the weight, & issuing postage labels that may not be accurate, for a price I have no control over, to an address I haven't been able to check. ....'

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Damn right! I hate this feeling of 'out of control-ness' myself 😦

In my case I think it's a feeling from years of 'living' without  trusting to gadgets, computers, phones, sat-navs etc to do it all for us.

( for instance 30 years or so ago , you didn't just 'click' a button in your car, and drive off confident you knew you'd get there.... you had to read maps, check routes and work out where you were going and how long it would take..... or you wouldn't get there!

I still need that sort of control over as much of my own life as poss. Ceeding control of important stuff to un-knowable black-boxes makes me feel a bit queasy 🤢)

[ile136yz]

As my relative was visiting so we checked out on her eBay Private Account how she would list a small parcel weighing 2kg.

Checked the Couriers were selected on her Account:   Royal Mail & Evri, which was okay for dropping off if she wanted.

Simple Delivery gave parcel choices of  1kg,   2kg  & heavier. Selected 2kg.

Price came up.

Press list.

She found to be easy & quick if she decided to use SD. She still sells low value items where she sets up her own postage.

[department28]

Glad to hear from someone who has had a positive experience. Understandably, it will be mostly the anti-SD that will be piping up on here...

I suppose those who are ok with Simple Delivery will be those who can accept eBay more or less doing it all for you (and supposedly taking the responsibility if something goes wrong...) - and who do not have any of the requirements/special needs that SD does not cater for.

After about six months of SD, it would be really interesting to know how many would say they were happy with the new system, as opposed to those of us who would switch back to Custom within seconds of being given the opportunity... if there were more 'for' SD, than 'against', I guess that would settle it..!

eBay could give us a chance to vote... although of course, they would only do this if it would benefit eBay, not us pipsqueaks... 🐁