Simple delivery is awful

[jezzagold]

I list a few things on ebay occasionally, but this new simple delivery is just rubbish for sellers. It assumes that ebay actually know the size and weight of items And that everyone can easily get to Evri or other courier services easily. Why did they have to stop the seller from deciding how to post items? Put me right off bothering to use Ebay.

[saxon-filly]

I am selling some stamps at a price of £4.99. Usually I would use a second class stamp that I already have (so would in actual fact cost me nothing) and an envelope with a piece of cardboard in it to stiffen it. This would cost my buyer nothing. Now I am being forced to use a large envelope costing £2.70 which is over 50% of the purchase price - and the buyer has to pay VAT on the postage (on an item costing £4.99 i cannot absorb the postage). On top of that they have to pay a "Buyer Protection fee". Now in the real world there is no VAT on the postage, the postage is at an appropriate level and as long as you get proof of posting the contents are insured by RM for up to £20. I am a private seller. I read on here that if you don't like SD then I should become a business but that costs like £9.99 a month and you still get charged a percentage of your sales, how is that a good idea (and profitable) for someone who sell 5 - 10 items a month. Today I read that "Buyer protection fees" are dropping from 75p+4% of the purchase price to 10p +7% of the purchase price which is a saving of 50p for my buyer BUT even that is too much considering it is already insured and does not have VAT added. So my item has gone from £4.99 to an enormous £8.68. The other thing I was wondering is how can you combine postage if you buy from the same buyer over a few days. . I have just purchased 4 items from the same buyer over 5 days, according to ebay I have to pay £10.80 postage as I did not pay for them all in one transaction (all were under £10 but totalled £17). Ever since they went with no more selling fees they have gone absolutely stark raving mad, I was quite happy to pay a fee for selling as I was able to calculate it into my price and postage was my choice, I have lost a few items through Evri (Hermes) so used RM for small items and Yodel for larger items (and they were cheaper than Evri, especially to NI). Now it is all a complete mess, is very depressing and I don't feel like my customers are getting a good deal. The biggest down side for me is that a business selling the same items as me can undercut me massively so my items will not sell. Ebay have done all this to compete with Vinted but 95% of the stuff eBay sells CANNOT be sold by VINTED, it's like B&Q selling Bread and Milk. They could but no-one would go there to buy it because it is on sale in the correct place i.e a Supermarket. Nor would you buy a 2 x 4 piece of wood from Sainburys. Please please please can we go back to the old days where I could list what I like for whatever price I was happy with and use what ever shipping solution was best for me and my customers. I even looked forward to the offers eBay made, such as 3% selling fees occasionally, or one week reduced packlink postage and if I sold something more expensive I could just buy extra insurance from Yodel or (cough) Evri. I have just tried to list a set of stamps and it has taken me more that 2 hours just to sort through Simple Delivery and it still charged £2.70 postage so I cancelled everything and have placed them on Facebook marketplace. They will probably take longer to sell but at least I am not ripping anyone off and I am not getting ripped off myself. The CEO need to change some of his senior staff as far as I can see as they are doing eBay no favours at all. Next Rant due soon

[brunosbrantub]

I agree, it’s a total mess. I was quite happy before all these changes. I altered my prices so that with the BPF my prices were sensible amounts ie £10.50, etc as quite frankly something like £10.32 just looks weird and now I see that their recent change has knocked them all out again 😖

[xyz307xyz]

If the stamps are still valid for postage, they are prohibited from Simple Delivery.

And if they are not still valid for postage then you can opt out of SD, when the packed item is

£10 item price or under,
letter or large letter sized,
100g or under.

[irthompson]

Not true. My items are £8.50, fit in an envelope qualified as 2nd class large letter, and whilst what you claim is stated by eBay there is no way that I've found to change what is imposed on me. If you know how to do it let me know.

[vintagevilarosa]

Exactly their programmers must be the worst paid programmers in the business because why the heck they would release programs that are flawed and not user friendly is beyond me.  The trouble with ebay is they never actually as the people who will be using it what they want instead they just program *bleep* and then deal with the issues after when some pops up. Any business worth its wait would be asking the people that will be using it what they need and want and this aint it!

[vintagevilarosa]

well they have to make more money somehow!

[vintagevilarosa]

Oh you mean like normal then!

[electro-7599]

I think most programmers are highly paid but most of them do not understand what they are trying to acheive as they switch from one highly paid sub contract to another. I swear at my Humax Freeview video recorder most days due to the illogical  way in which it operates, then there's the washing machine,microwave, car, phone ...............

[jmb07fairy]

I sell craft items which weigh under 100g and cost, on average, £1. On some items I am being forced to use simple delivery (£2.70) and there is no opt out option. There is no £1.55 postage option through simple postage. I have complained and I am not relisting those items, or I change it to the wrong category. I worry that all items will be forced to use simple delivery eventually and then I will have to make a decision on whether to continue. Do eBay actually care? 

[xyz307xyz]

Maybe that reply is to my post rather than saxon's?

Click View listings next to my name - I've just listed a stamp without Simple Delivery.

[xyz307xyz]

My comment was about stamps.

I've no idea regarding your worry or the caring bit.

[treemas]

Fully agree. I ring them up frequently to ask questions which they cannot answer so even the staff are not sure how it works.

I think it is discrimination for those who do not have a printer or smart phone.

[tressygirl]

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@treemas wrote:

I think it is discrimination for those who do not have a printer or smart phone.

A Community manager has confirmed neither now is essential , you can take a picture of the label / code with a camera, iPad , other device and take this to your Post Office for them to be able to produce a label for your items.

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[department28]

'A Community manager has confirmed neither now is essential , you can take a picture of the label / code with a camera, iPad , other device and take this to your Post Office for them to be able to produce a label for your items.'

Can't help but think those that don't have printers or smart phones, would find this any easier to do... I certainly couldn't cope with it. Just the thought of the hash I would make of it, with a queue building up behind me at the PO, brings me out in a cold sweat... 😱 

[mssv-20]

It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’ve got three parcels to post (two of them over 4kg) eBay has forced me to use Evri, even though the Yodel shop is much closer. After going through all the hassle of finding parking and carrying the parcels to the shop, guess what? Evri’s printing system is down. Unbelievable!

[chutch1971]

EBay have really screwed sellers over a treat, and they couldn’t give a to$$.

I think it may be worth getting sellers to get together and put our names down to show how *bleep*ed we all are and threaten to go elsewhere

They have been total morons in the way they have enforced this.

I was on the eBay thing where they ask your opinion, what a bloody waste of time

[drew77drew-0]

I thought item under £9.99 could still be sent custom post if thats not the case then I am truly f***ed as I can't rpint labels and don't have a samrt phone - Just a Happy luddite.
I am also concerned that they have enrolled, I presume, all of us into global shiiping and the opt out link doesnt appear to work. Ebay have gone power mad!

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[http://gfx2.hotmail.com/mail/w3/ltr/emoticons/smile_shades.gif] Drew & Jane (Rom 10:17)

[anymarst]

Its not just simple delivery thats awful, its every change they keep making lately that makes the platform worse - I've used ebay for 20 yrs and I'm reaching the point I've had enough.  Both buying and selling

[tressygirl]

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@department28 wrote:

'A Community manager has confirmed neither now is essential , you can take a picture of the label / code with a camera, iPad , other device and take this to your Post Office for them to be able to produce a label for your items.'

Can't help but think those that don't have printers or smart phones, would find this any easier to do... I certainly couldn't cope with it. Just the thought of the hash I would make of it, with a queue building up behind me at the PO, brings me out in a cold sweat... 😱 

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Well I'm with you on that one!  I 'm the proud owner of a Nokia brick much to my family's and friends dismay, no way am I buying a smartphone to sell on eBay, so I stopped selling.

I have a temperamental printer probably because it's little used, this new (ish) news to use cameras etc. to take photos to take to PO I might be able to cope with,   but it's still too much faff for me  anyway, and I grudgingly,  sadly retired from selling here 😢

@department28 

[drew77drew-0]

If a 'community manager' says you can photograph your label screen on a camera then that seems like a lot of work when before you could just stick a stamp on a letter. I haven't got all day to photo graph each label and would probably never remember which photo goes with each letter/parcel - are these people insane!

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[http://gfx2.hotmail.com/mail/w3/ltr/emoticons/smile_shades.gif] Drew & Jane (Rom 10:17)