Your funds will be available for payout once we receive delivery confirmation

[silverfoxx68]

Hi I've just received this message contacted ebay and is being sent to everyone 

That's me I'm done no more ebay for me bye bye

We are making changes to the way we process payments on eBay. Going forward, we’ll make your funds available for payout within 48 hours after we’ve confirmed delivery of the item. Until then, you’ll see a “hold” on your funds. This process helps keep our marketplace safe.

[dch2112011]

Do not even worry about it - HMRC really will have no interest or inclination to look at a few dvd's or whatever  - unless your sales volume and turnover exceeds thresholds and is constant  ie not occasional and even then they are unlikely to be over interested

[steven5872]

I don't think that makes you a business seller - HMRC won't be interested unless your "profit" is more than £1,000 and if overall you are making a loss on your original outlay it's not going to concern you.  My beef with Ebay is that they were originally set up for people like you who wanted to sell off old stuff, basically private sellers.  Now they are dominated by business sellers - some calling themselves "private" sellers for sure, but many declaring themselves as such.  Ebay says that you are a business seller if you buy stuff to resell, which makes sense BUT they encourage private sellers to experiment with buying to resell by gradually increasing their selling limits.  I have posted elsewhere that my original selling limit was 10 items, now it is 10,000!  What private seller needs a 10,000 item sales limit?  I am convinced they do it to entice you into becoming a business seller because that's where they make their money.  And at the same time they are making it increasingly difficult for private sellers - free to sell sounds great until you realise that they are going to charge buyers fees if they buy from a private seller, so you are going to have to factor that into your price without being exactly sure what they buyer is being charged - meanwhile, buyers are going to shy away from private sellers.  And don't get me started on "Simple Delivery" where Ebay doesn't even let you choose who to ship your items with!

[make-my-day-357]

I have a friend whom has said for a few years now that eBay is only interested in big business sellers, I am now thinking he has been right all along.

I am really sad about all this - I am diasbled and find it difficult to get out and about much. This is why I have lots of films and music as my hobby.

AND being a Seller on eBay was a BIG fun hobby for me and it seems come Feb 4th this may well diminish.

Also I can't work out will I still be allowed to send stuff by Royal Mail or am going to be dictated to has to what delivery services to use?

[vintique*violet]

Price is not always the issue - if it is left to the  buyers to choose what " service"  options from a list eBay provide, I imagine  they would go for the cheapest which is NOT  often adequate ...many items require a more specialist packing and delivery service .. ie value , fragility, collectors, antiques etc etc. 

Plus it is taking away the sellers prerogative to choose the best delivery service for their items sold. 

Choice it appears is being allocated to the buyer? 

I cannot sell like this, as many items are fragile etc and I only use Royal Mail direct at the post office for a multitude of reasons and have done for the past 17yeras without issue. 

[thewatchshelf]

I can only imagine (hope) that the postage options available differ depending on the sale price or the seller can specify the options available. Otherwise, as you suggest, the buyer may select a postage option that doesn't fully cover the value of the item from an insurance perspective, then if it gets lost or damaged guess who's going to be liable and out of pocket.

[dch2112011]

I think certain categories will be excluded from simple delivery - guessing ebay have mined all the delivery info sellers use in each category and will target those categories where predominately common delivery services are used where they  fall into fairly uniform conforming parcel size  less than 2kg weight

Hopefully your fragile products will be in an excluded category ?

[steven5872]

I spoke to customer services about opting out of simple delivery and they assured me you can.  However, given the way things are going I am not convinced this will continue to be the case.  I am almost, almost, reconciled to having to wait a few extra days for my money as I tend only to request my funds weekly anyway, but if they bring in simple delivery on a mandatory basis that's it for me and Ebay.

(edited for spelling)

[martinsnest]

Not even sure what simple delivery is?

[tressygirl]

CS is correct to a point,   but they missed out an important word in their answer.....  Now.

You can opt out of Simple Delivery Now,  but as from  somewhere in Q1,  true no exact date has been announced, so anywhere up to March,  Simple Delivery is to be compulsory for Private sellers.

@steven5872 

[vintique*violet]

https://channelx.world/2024/12/ebay-uk-further-differentiate-business-sellers-from-private-sellers/

I would encourage everyone to read the above ( and other information on that site) 

[vintique*violet]

https://channelx.world/2024/10/ebay-uk-buyer-fees-insights-from-q3-investor-call/

Some explanations on managed shipping on the above link...

Managed shipping leverages eBay’s scale and expertise to create a better experience for customers while generating incremental revenue and operating income dollars. Managed shipping is currently live for C2C pre-owned apparel listing in the UK. In Q4, eBay plan to expand managed shipping horizontally on an opt-out basis, before mandating the program for eligible items listed by UK C2C sellers during Q1 of 2025. This means eBay will make a shipping margin on every C2C item sold.

eBay are also defaulting new C2C listings to offer both pickup and shipping options. They have created a new eBay local landing page and map view for optimal browsing of nearby inventory.

Talking to the changes, Jamie says that “It’s a change to the marketplace, and we want to give sellers and buyers time to adjust their processes. So that’s why we’re going to ramp up managed shipping through Q4 and Q1. And why we decided to introduce the buyer fees in the back half of Q1“.

Talking directly to investors, Jamie said that “We believe based on where buyer fees are in the UK, we have the ability to remonetize these moving those fees around”, meaning that even though they will be removing the friction to selling that upfront fees for C2C sellers presents, eBay have plenty of ways to extract fees from these sales.

[anne.craig]

I am hoping that Simple Delivery will only use suitable carriers on a per item basis - eg sufficient insurance and items that are covered by the carrier's policies.  I sell a few nail polishes, a few items of jewellery - none of which Evri will take at the moment, whereas my clothes and shoes they are fine for if the insurance covers the selling price.  It all sounds very complicated though (maybe they'll work on a listing category plus final price calculation?).  Or maybe they'll throw everything through Evri and hope for the best, leaving themselves liable for hundreds of thousands of pounds in losses if it goes as pear-shaped as most of us are expecting!  I wait to see how it will work and have opted out for now.

[ile136yz]

---

@steven5872 wrote:

I spoke to customer services about opting out of simple delivery and they assured me you can.  However, given the way things are going I am not convinced this will continue to be the case.  I am almost, almost, reconciled to having to wait a few extra days for my money as I tend only to request my funds weekly anyway, but if this bring in simple delivery on a mandatory basis that's it for me and Ebay.

---

My Sister opted out or Simple Delivery on her Private Account in October 2024 to give her time to think out the Simple Delivery situation. (she has had many discussions with me on the subject).

She always kept her account ticking over by selling cheap items, so there were no problems with her account payouts in the past when she sold an expensive item.

She has seen on her Account that from Feb 4th, 2025, that Simple Delivery is the only option for Private Sellers.

So, she has now decided to carry on using RM Large Letter for the cheap items & isn't bothered waiting the 14 days for a payout if delivery is not shown.

Her expensive items up to a certain amount will be sent with the usual well insured Tracked postage.  She said, let see how it goes.

[depthcharge00]

Will be best getting stuff sold before the 4th of February, then wait after that date and see what happens

and then you can decide whether you want to continue with ebay or not!

[steven5872]

The stress of this is not worth it.  eBay is being abusive to private sellers.

[lucy_farmer]

I think  I've just about understood how 'Simple Delivery' should work :

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the seller puts up a listing, the ebay computer will pick out the various bits of information:

What the item is. (i.e. will certain carriers take batteries, for instance? or perfume?  etc)

What the item is being sold for (what's it worth for insurance purposes?)

Is the item in a seriously scammy category (is it a phone? or a lap-top? etc)

How much the item weighs and how big it is *when packed* (which the seller will have to organise before listing- what a p.i.t.a. that will be for some sellers...)

Where the item is being sold from (ie are you a seller in the Highlands and Islands? and what services will collect from you) .....{ or delivery to  you when you are the buyer. When you are buying something your information as the buyer will also affect what you will be shown, carrier-wise, I assume?}

And so-on...

The computer will then pull out the service or services that tick all the necessary boxes and give the buyer the choice of *those*.

---------------------------------------------------------------

So if you're selling a second hand lap-top from your home in Thurso, a buyer *should* only be given the option to pick Royal Mail (the only reliable service that far north..) Special Delivery (the only service reliably *insuring* such a parcel) Or perhaps similarly reliable other services, but I don't know who they are.😅

If on the other hand, you're flogging a second hand pair of trousers from your home in Reading, a buyer will probably be given 15 different choices depending on how fast they want their parcel.....

(Least I 'ope I got that right, because I've got a head ache now..)

[reidscott1]

I think the message that's slowly but surely coming through is that eBay really do want private sellers but only those who have big ticket items to sell.

With the buyer's fees and the impending changing to postage removing the options for free postage, small low value items will become worthless. 

That's a large section of what feels like the core business going through ebay's systems every week that are going to be removed but they clearly think the gains will be worth it.

A lot of people are stating that this is the last straw and that they are ending their time using eBay. I'm not going to quite head down that path at this stage but my gut feeling is that in a few months time it's going to be what a lot of people are forced to do whether they want to or not.

Odd that while ebay seem keen to attract new sellers through their constant advertising across many platforms, they do seem to be making it not just less attractive but downright difficult to make it viable.

[dch2112011]

Yes but the new accounts know no different and will think it is just the way ebay works

[jond1492]

You said: "Soon all private sellers will have to use managed/simple delivery. The buyer will choose and pay for the delivery and the seller will need to print the postage label or use the QR code and drop off at wherever the buyer has chosen."

Sorry, but bollards to that!  The buyer doesn't get to dictate to me what service I send the item by, as I may not have a certain service available in my area.  So are seller's who sell items and a buyer chooses (for example) DPD or Yodel, because it's convenient for the buyer, mean that the seller than has to travel to their nearest DPD or Yodel point, which could be miles out of the way?  Sorry, not happening!

What if the buyer wants to use Evri/Hermes?  Nope, I'm not sending my valuable goods via them, because they are well-known to be thieves and incompetent.

So, if this is eBay's new fangled idea to help sellers, it's going to fail spectacularly!

[jond1492]

As you say, "in theory".

I doubt people are going to risk this, with anything other than low-value goods, under £10, or stuff that can't easily be replaced.  Anyone selling anything unusual, unique, expensive, fragile, rare, or a one-off, isn't going to risk it, no matter what eBay may claim.