Simply Postage : I find this rather confusing!

[marsm_27259]

Since the introduction of Simple Postage my new listings viewed in the Seller Active listings screen show postage as free. The Simple postage overrides this so when you see the listing as a buyer would see it the postage is showing as extra (Buyer Pays).

It is somewhat confusing to see the postage listed as free in my active listing screen!

Screen grabs below to help explain this.

I keep looking at my active listings view and worrying that I'm going to be charged postage on an item that will not cover this mistake!

Anyone else have this issue or is it just me?

[ruby*ryan]

What you see on your Active Listings page is what you will receive, for the item and for postage.
Note for price you only see the amount you will get - £4.35, where as the buyer sees £5.24, which has the Buyer protection Fee added.

You won't be charged postage, your buyer pays it, you will get a label to download or QR code to take to post office/drop off shop.

[marsm_27259]

Thanks for the response which makes sense...however...my concern is at the seller active listing screen it is no longer easy to spot listings where I am offering free postage and those that are using the simple postage (buyer pays).

Also, and since my original post, I've noticed that the buyer view offers collection. I thought that Simple postage over-rides the postage policy for the item.

I still think this is rather confusing.

[ruby*ryan]

Oh, I don't disagree that it's confusing - as a private seller eBay is now the fiddliest it has ever been, and I have been selling on here both as a business and a private seller for 24 years.

It's such a mess now with the BPF showing inclusive in some cases, and exclusive in others. Trying to do the postage section now is such a pain, that I really haven't been bothered to list for the last week.

[cobwebcottage]

The best way to solve this which will help you with future listings:

Under your user name, top left, click account settings.

Under selling on the left side, click business policies.

Check to see if you have a free postage policy in the list. If you do, turn off the collection toggle if you don't want it. If you don't, create a policy for the delivery of your choice and enter free postage. ( turn off collection).

Once this is done, you wont need to do it again unless you want another delivery method with postage.

Now, click on edit on your listings and go to delivery details. Choose custom postage ( not SD) and in the postage policy box, click on the 3 dots and choose the policy which you have just created.

You just need to remember every time you list to choose custom postage by switching to advanced options.

[marsm_27259]

Thanks for your most helpful reply...yes I do have postage policies setup (was happy using them before SP came along). Not trying to be negative but to me the edit screen should not say SP overrides these postage policies only to leave Home collection active...if people start arriving at my home address it will be most inconvenient.

I do however require a home collection option for large items that RM will struggle with. Therefore I need the postage policy to include this as one of the postage options (Setup within business policies).

It appears to me that I will have to select the postage policy at the edit listing screen each time. I can see what eBay are trying to do with the SP process I just think that the Active listing screen should indicate that the free postage is either buyer or seller pays not just showing as free postage.

Also, if the edit listing screen states that the SP over-rides the postage policy then it should do just that and not provide collection as an option on the buying screen. (See screen grab below)

This issue will mean I have to edit every listing done yesterday (around 50) to remove the collection option. I have enough to do getting them listed in the first place!

[cobwebcottage]

It will not override the postage once you have selected 'switch to advanced options'.

You just have to remember to do this each time you list or they will catch you out!

[marsm_27259]

Testing the theory, I have just edited the item and selected a delivery policy that does not include home collection, saved the change with SP still in place and then viewed the item for sale. The item no longer includes home collection.

My take on this is that the SP override does not work correctly (at the edit listing screen) or is at best miss-leading. It perhaps should either fully override the postage policy or state that the SP does not override home collection if included in the currently selected postage policy.

Interestingly the active listing page now shows the amended item as incurring postage. It therefore appears the reference to free postage on the active listing page is also down to the fact that the postage policy (which included collection) was previously selected but theoretically over-ridden by the SP! Wow all of this is too much for this time of the day I think I need to recover with a brew :>)

[cobwebcottage]

If you keep SP on the listings then it will always show a postage cost as Ebay will recover it from the buyer.

[marsm_27259]

Thanks I have tried that and it does as you say.

It appears to me that if the edit listing process worked as indicated I would not need to do that.

[marsm_27259]

Unless your selected (or defaulted) a postage policy which includes a collection option. In which case the active listing summary screen will show postage as Free and the buy screen will show a collection option!

[red357rose]

Hi sme of my active list same why they do this I really want free postage my buyers, I tried changed but I can not. I used my postal policy as free post but when put active list shows post cost. Thats not good :(( 

[marsm_27259]

I understand and have had similar issues.

Think you need to select the switch to advanced options:

(Note that the advanced options link does not always appear when I try to use it!)

and then you will see Custom Postage and you can select the Postage Policy from the Postage policy box above it.

Needless to say you must have already setup the desired postage policy for it to appear here.

Hope this is helpful.

[marsm_27259]

So this is what I ended up having to do:

Step 1 was to:

1. Edit or create the necessary postage policy

To do this by editing an existing sale item and then edit / created the policy

Step 2 was to:

2. Bulk edit the items I wanted the new postage policy to apply to

To do this I used the edit Selected items from the Active listings screen.

and then the bulk edit

Step 3 was to:

3. edit each sale item individually to set the postage policy and Simple delivery options

and then save the for sale item changes.

so that it looks like this

And then save your listing

Step 4 was to:

4. inspect each individual live sale item to see if the postage changes have been applied.

Special note: postage changes took several minutes to show on the live for sale page but eventually they did.

About 5 minutes later the changes where live and synchronised with the postage prices being displayed for each item in the back-office active listings.

Anyway, hope this is useful.