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.

[dougbat20]

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@podlingsmum2007 wrote:

I couldn't send it at the post office as I wasn't given a QR code as I had booked collection. I managed to cancel the collection beforehand so they aren't coming with the label. I don't have a printer so I asked customer service. They said it's not possible for me to cancel a collection and wanted to see the email confirmation that it was cancelled. They won't supply a QR code. They said to go to a Xerox store to print it 🤔 or pay 30p to book collection again. What is Xerox as I've never heard of it?  Far from simple! They said the only other thing is to cancel the sale and get the buyer to hopefully buy it again. All this rigmarole to make money on labels for ebay.

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I'd be making note of the delivery details, paying my own postage to get it to the customer (via whatever method I'd choose) then just get the Simple Delivery label refunded. Then never use Simple Delivery again, as it's more farcical than useful.

[books1ecb]

I have to agree. I have just listed at item to sell for #300 - yet the
stupid Simple delivery system assigned a Tracked 48 Postage Label to it
which only provides compensation up to #75.

If sold I will simply cancel the SD label and hope I get a refund, and
buy a Special Delivery label on Royal Mail's Click & Drop website. And
before anyone says anything about 'protected by EBAY', please don't - I
can already hear the swell of laughter rising from readers of this thread.

[xyz307xyz]

I would guess by Xerox store they mean a print shop, which in real terms means anywhere you could print the shipping label (if you've only cancelled the collection not the label itself). You could try e.g. at a library, a photo shop (or anywhere with a printer that looks helpful and not busy!)

[pegr-834437]

I know its pointless telling you but eBay covers you upto £750 so buying a special delivery is a waste of money, but you do you though. 

[books1ecb]

No I was not aware that Ebay offers #750 cover thank you for the advice,
but my recent experiences of Ebay Customer Services gives me no
confidence in them. Special Delivery also covers me up to #750, it is an
easy and transparent process to claim, and I have confidence in Royal
Mail - cost is about #2 more than SD and is worth paying.

[dougbat20]

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@pegr-834437 wrote:

I know its pointless telling you but eBay covers you upto £750 so buying a special delivery is a waste of money, but you do you though. 

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I would personally have more confidence in Royal Mail Special Delivery than  I would eBay correcting things if they went wrong with a pre-paid label. Remember that the buyer has to open a case saying there was an issue with the delivery, yet if it gets damaged in transit they might instead say "doesn't work or is defective", or "doesn't match description or photos" - both of those are not covered by seller protections.

[podlingsmum2007]

I had not charged for postage so I cancelled the order. Hopefully the buyer will choose to buy it again. It is a shame there isn't an option to cancel for the reason 'problem with un-simple delivery label'

[dahath-5906]

Hello there,
As far as I understand there is nothing stopping a seller from offering to
post an item
About three years ago I bought some bike bits off gumtree and the seller
was happy to post as he lived eighty miles from me.
Try it see how you get on.
Cheers.

[pegr-834437]

Yeah I agree with you its a risk, customer services are probably a bit (a lot) better with Royal Mail. I'm not 100% sure but with Royal Mail do you not need proof of how much it was worth so the chances of a private seller being able to give a receipt for an old book (looking at the sellers items) I'd imagine is pretty hard as who keeps receipts for a book they just wanted to read/collect and not to sell on kind of thing. Both have risks, lets just hope the seller has no issues and its delivered and the buyer enjoys it.

[books1ecb]

Royal Mail have a streamlined process for EBAY sales - you need to
provide proof of the EBAY sale and the price the item was sold for. They
use that to determine the compensation level. All online and very easy
if the parcel is lost.

If it is damaged you have to provide photographic evidence of the damage
and the packaging

So you refund the buyer in full for loss or non delivery, and claim from
Royal Mail

I am selling of our lifetimes book collection, having retired years ago
and I can;t take them with me - so do not have purchase receipts - but
what you claim is the EBAY selling price

[dougbat20]

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@pegr-834437 wrote:

I know its pointless telling you but eBay covers you upto £750 so buying a special delivery is a waste of money, but you do you though. 

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Would you trust that eBay would actually pay up on a lost item? I certainly wouldn't, and even more so if the item arrived damaged and the buyer opened INAD instead of Arrived Damaged (first one is seller's fault, second one is covered under SD). Would the buyer know which case to open? Probably not!

It would be better to just charge the buyer (or pay up yourself) Special Delivery via Custom Postage and then make a claim yourself to Royal Mail in the event of loss or damage...if Custom delivery was even a thing nowadays.

[dougbat20]

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@pegr-834437 wrote:

Yeah I agree with you its a risk, customer services are probably a bit (a lot) better with Royal Mail. I'm not 100% sure but with Royal Mail do you not need proof of how much it was worth so the chances of a private seller being able to give a receipt for an old book (looking at the sellers items) I'd imagine is pretty hard as who keeps receipts for a book they just wanted to read/collect and not to sell on kind of thing. Both have risks, lets just hope the seller has no issues and its delivered and the buyer enjoys it.

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To show how much the item was worth you would take a screenshot of the order details page on eBay - that is proof of what the item was valued at when it was shipped out.

When I had to claim off Royal Mail a while ago (as in a few years ago) they took the order details page for the item as the value of it.

Fort an expensive item I'd rather have the protection of extra insurance, compared to just hoping for the best and then having inadequate cover if something did go wrong (or no cover at all if it arrives damaged and the buyer just opens INAD or Defective instead of Damaged).

[seal8877]

I want to sell a few op amps which weigh a few grams, would like to list multiple items and post using some large letter stamps.

Nope eBay won't allow any of that, has to be 1kg and £3.

[pegr-834437]

They've paid out a lot of times with Authentication Guarantee as I'm in a few groups for watches and trainers and I've seen people worry about the tracking not updating, as long as its in the system eBay pay out. 

Last time I had to do a claim with Royal Mail they wanted a receipt not just an eBay screengrab, screengrabs can be easily doctored or easier than an official receipt I guess, but its been a few years (touch wood). eBay gives you the standard protection for special delivery too, its upto £750 which I always thought was standard special delivery. Anything above that though I'd be paying extra myself for sure.

[baryon97]

There might be things about SD I don't understand and you might be right about communicating but, to me, there are fundamental problems. I might not know the size of an item until I package it. I might want to charge £3 but upgrade to a more expensive service as an act of goodwill. I might want to buy my postage at my local post office, to give them my business. But I am prepared to investigate it further to see if I've misunderstood it, or can make it work better for me and the good people who buy what I sell.

[xyz307xyz]

In most cases (in my experience) ebay recommends the size and weight of a parcel, so that isn't a problem (in most cases).

You can't upgrade to a more expensive service, other than paying for the whole cost of that yourself - taking the delivery out of Simple Delivery.

Ebay is responsible for the delivery of Simple Delivery - whether it arrives on time and if it gets damaged. Ebay should the refund the buyer if lost/damaged without any input from you.

You can't buy Simple Delivery at the post office.

You can list without Simple Delivery on items ebay allows you to opt out of.

You shouldn't use Simple Delivery on items which are prohibited.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575

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

[suelel1968]

@seal8877  try this category. You must put the price in first to get custom delivery

Other Business & Industrial

in Business, Office & Industrial

[dunstun365]

Yes it's rubbish because If I ever sold a lot on ebay again (I hold my breath)  I'd want RM to pick up my packages which they will do for free - cannot see that on SD though 

[dunstun365]

Yes, I was tricked into using SD to buy postage for a freepost DVD which only sold for £2.50 needless to say I was v angry and had to redo my listings so postage was charged separately & they're exempt from SD thankfully

[dunstun365]

Yes for standard sized items SD is fine. it's for longer heavier items where it seems to get complicated because ebay missed out some measurements on the listing probably trying to trick people into buying more expensive postage than they need. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575