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.

[vintage_shoes]

Large letter up to 250g in the UK costs £1.80. Ebay charges £2.73 for simple delivery. Over 50% more and no better service. Makes a £2 item look really expensive

[pegr-834437]

Is the compensation on both of those services the same? 

Really though eBay don't want to be a marketplace for selling items at £2, they will never come out and say it but small value items will be a casualty of simple delivery but for eBay they wont mind, especially from private sellers where they don't actually get seller fee's. 

[clydeandrascal]

I couldn't agree more.  Simple delivery is simply inadequate.  It does not allow for customer variants, it does not facilitate combined postage, it does not allow signature on arrival, it does not allow for 2kg-5kg parcels; it does not permit medium parcels of over 61cm & it does not offer compensation for delivery to the wrong address.  It was (ill) conceived & just an additional way for eBay to make money from the carriers concerned, with whom it has contracts.

[jonboselr]

Quite so. 

I preferred Royal Mail Click and Collect. 

Simple Delivery might be simple for ebay but I have had to drive to the evri shop 3 times already this week. 

I don't think I can be bothered to sell much more. 

That and the NI threshold has put me right off. 

[linkin666park]

This is happening to me! I’ve been selling old military photographs I’ve selected Royal Mail for 87p but the buyers seem to be selecting yodel at £2.70 and I’m having to pay the difference, one photo went for 99p which meant I made a loss! How can yodel be an option when I’ve only selected Royal Mail and Evri? Who do I complain to? 

[department28]

It sounds like some of your items have been switched to Simple Delivery, which would explain the Standard Tracked Delivery price of £2.70 for a large letter, sent by Evri. Not sure how Yodel has got mixed up in this...?!

For postcards & photographs (price up to £20) you should be able to switch your listings back to Custom postage.

[legalbeaglejohn]

I’ll bet the buyer didn’t select yodel.  That’s what Ebay told me and it was completely untrue. They pick the higher priced service and bill me the difference.
It’s bordering on criminal.


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

[books1ecb]

Silly Delivery allows you to set a preferred courier option - we do not
have EVRI, DHL or YODEL where we live so I have set the default to be
Royal Mail. Not sure how I found that screen, but I think it was when I
created a new item.

I have found my older listings have been unmauled, and left with
Sensible Delivery - but if you try to amend anything it will switch to
Silly Delivery and there is no way back

Thank you to those who advised some categories allow Sensible Delivery
for items under £20 - I have been through all my listing and changed
them where I can to one of those categories.

[linkin666park]

Really? That’s awful, so the buyers probably think we are charging that amount! I’ve Emailed EBay but I’m not holding out much hope.

Sent using the mail.com mail app

[department28]

'Silly Delivery allows you to set a preferred courier option - we do not have EVRI, DHL or YODEL where we live so I have set the default to be Royal Mail. Not sure how I found that screen, but I think it was when I created a new item.'

Yes, DHL has recently been added, but Yodel is not on the available couriers list. Just RM, Evri & DHL.

Before all this, you could just list an item and forget about it. Now there is always some element of doubt, and the worry that something will have been enabled/unticked/defaulted etc, behind your back... 🙄

[retroman303]

"Before all this..."

Yes, that ever-present niggling doubt is horrible.

I read posts from people whose postage options had been changed without notice, and thought "There but for the grace of Providence go I". Then of course it happened to me. I noticed, purely by chance, that one of my listings had had a second postal option added (same courier), which I could swear blind I hadn't done - adding it would have involved extra scrolling and a few more mouse clicks. It was definitely eBay. I didn't want the second option (more expensive, and I'd listed with 'Seller pays'), so removed it. This was quite recently, too, not mid-year when the chaos was at its peak.

I always check and double-check listings before I make them go live, but now I feel like I have to periodically check them when they're 'out there' as well. That's not too hard for someone like me who only has a handful of listings (for now), but even then it's something that should not be necessary at all, so I can imagine the anxiety for a seller with a significant number of listings.

I often think it's incredible that we have to deal with so many issues. When I complete a listing now, I feel as though I've somehow managed to cajole and force it into existence, like I've overcome some form of resistance put up by eBay. It shouldn't be like that, should it?

[mechman61]

Absolutely,, have you tried cancelling an sd label. I read that if it,s not used in 14 days, you get a refund, no chance, i have tried cancelling one 6 times and still no refund.
Ebay is running a dictatorship, zero customer service, active discrimination against sellers,
I have been battling for 4 weeks after a buyer bought a left handed golf club, everything in the listing was correct, then the buyer said he ordered a right handed club, impossible,.. a late night probably drunk purchase.
yet ebays robots agreed with him. He could have said he ordered a pink elephant and ebay would agree with him.
I eventually got a human reply now 5 replies and none of them will come out and say, yes your listing was correct.
It,s like asking a politician a straight question, no chance of an honest reply.
I,m at the point of closing my account.

[department28]

...'have you tried cancelling an sd label. I read that if it,s not used in 14 days, you get a refund, no chance, i have tried cancelling one 6 times and still no refund.'

The refund for an unused label will be automatically refunded if the buyer paid for the postage, but if you offer free postage/seller pays, you have to apply for the refund within 14 days. Did you fill in the 'Request a refund for Simple Delivery' form?

'He could have said he ordered a pink elephant and ebay would agree with him.'

😂

Yes, and even when a sale seems to have gone well, it feels like you have to wait a dog's age for all danger of a buyer piping up to quibble about something has passed...

[mechman61]

Hi yes i do seller pays and I've done the form 6 times so it,s yet another example of ebays contempt for sellers.
Zero customer service, zero seller protection.

[department28]

Due to all the many & varied problems with Simple Delivery, there are many reasons why a seller won't have been able to use the label. Obviously, eBay don't want to make it too easy for sellers to not use SD, but if there is a valid reason for cancelling, it is unfair to expect sellers to jump through hoops to get a refund.

This thread from a few weeks ago, by another seller having problems with SD postage refunds:-

'WARNING! Ebay are not properly refunding unused Simple Delivery postage!'

[ragitis]

Simple Delivery....QR  Code....Don't own a mobile phone, so for me personally, It is only going to become more complicated. Get the impression eBay wish to get rid of private sellers.

[pegr-834437]

Was at the open event yesterday and asked about Simple Delivery, with regards to combining shipping only 5% of orders have this so eBay just thought meh wont be a big issue, obviously its a 5% big issue and they are working on a solution to it.

I mentioned how made the coms were before release, Im not here to argue if its good or not but we all know theres some bloody great parts, not having to fight evri bot for a start. I mentioned how they just released the beast and allowed a fire to start and then tried putting it out with a bucket of water which they agreed was a huge mistake. Theres no plans to roll it out to businesses even though some have asked if it will be rolled out in a opt in basis as if you are sending small parcels its not much difference.

Obviously as its for business sellers there wasnt much said with regards to it but thought I'd pass that on as I know combination postage has been a complaint for some so it will come just no fixed date.

[jonatjonatjonat]

Was at the open event yesterday and asked about Simple Delivery, with regards to combining shipping only 5% of orders have this so eBay just thought meh wont be a big issue, obviously its a 5% big issue and they are working on a solution to it.

To an extent - you can see their logic there. Many businesses adopt an 80/20 rule and a lot of business once you reach a critical mass, do adopt thought processes like that.

That being said, it sounds like they were very honest in their responses!

[books1ecb]

There are two simple solutions to allow combined shipping

1) Allow sellers to cancel labels immediately and refund either buyer or
seller immediately - and then open up Packlink to select the correct
postage. The same solution works for parcels of different size for which
the label is pre-prepared for, allow buyers to opt to collect once they
realise they are nearby, allow sellers to deliver for free, and allows
purchase of expedited shipping. In fact just allowing the labels to be
cancelled would solve most problems. It is easily done by asking sellers
to confirm the label is correct before issuing it.

2) Allow sellers to opt out totally

there is a 3rd way - scrap the whole thing

[pegr-834437]

2 and 3 wont happen, they say they have brought this in as buyers complained about the shipping process, and this is what was asked for, a more vinted approach (obviously they didnt say vinted). Cancelling and allowing sellers to ship however they like wont really work either as again it just removes SD, I think it'll be a quicker refund process but you might lose some protection on INAD or missing as who can judge if 1 or 2 items are in the parcel. Its a complicated issue if eBay self insure.