eBay environmental responsibility - combining postage issues

[guymafo]

Why isn’t the combined postage issue fixed for private sellers?

The extra time, packaging supplies and parcel volumes that this increases is ridiculous.

GM

[style_wise]

You're preaching to the choir here. There are workarounds suggested on these boards, but they are not ideal. The best of these is politely ask the Buyer if they would like to cancel and repurchase, then relist as one bundle with single postage charge.

Have you tried reporting directly to eBay? If enough Sellers do they may take action, as they did recently with shorter payment hold times.

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[lucy_farmer]

I don't think ebay are in any hurry to fix this. 

Impatient , dim or uninformed sellers and buyers will just pay for stuff and postage individually because they don't know, can't work out how or can't be bothered, to do work-arounds .

Thus making more profits for ebay.

The extra enviro costs of more packaging, delivery vans etc, mean absolutely nothing when put in competition with 'the bottom line'. 

[guymafo]

@style_wise I appreciate your reply about workarounds. I was talking from a buyers point of view. Was about to purchase three items from one seller, but decided not to because of the faffing around. 
Given the communication system is now overseen by eBay as well, I don’t see why the seller should have relist as a lot, using their allowance up. 

But my initial point is other sites simplify multiple purchases or bundles with a point of making reference to environmental issues. 
Just another whinge….

GM

[jokers_toybox]

Ahhhh don't forget the more items sent through simple delivery the better the discounts they get from Royal Mail...

They won't be in a hurry to fix it

[porte2425]

Completely agree. RE both environmental impact and nuisance.

I used to bid on other items from a seller if I had won / was likely to win an item, and they had any other items that I wouldn’t otherwise have bid on because of the postage price. After doing this the last time and getting ripped off on Simple Delivery combined postage, I have now stopped.

It appears to me to be another case (similar to their implementation of age verification for bladed items) where they’ve gone with the cheaper “fix”. The must have decided that undercharging for combined postage sometimes and losing out would cost them more money than in lost combined postage sales.

I think it’s safe to say that Simple Delivery items such as t-shirts were not being packaged carefully enough to fit as a large letter, and so Royal Mail was charging for a small parcel instead, and that happened enough that eBay changed all the recommended sizes to small parcel. Again, I guess eBay's thinking was: better off overcharging the buyer slightly, and risk losing some sales, rather than pay more ourselves when items were packaged incorrectly. So buyers, Royal Mail (because most t-shirts would now be sent via Evri), and the environment have all lost out because of this change.