Ebay holding private sellers funds until proof of delivery from 4th Feb, 2025

SidJ

At moment I put a DVD/Blu-ray into a padded envelope, put a £1.55 LL stamp on it and post it in the nearest post box, Come February I use time and resources to print a label and hope it fits on the envelope. The cheapest tracked option would be Royal Mail at £2.70. I then have to make a special to trip to a post office and wait in a queue or hang around at home until the postie arrives to pick it up. Not really seeing an up-side

soolin

purplevamp said:

I don't have a problem with this as I buy my postage through Ebay anyway.  But I sometimes sell things that are sent as a 2nd class letter and they very rarely show as delivered because there is no tracking.  I know they have been delivered because I get feedback.  Would Ebay hold on to these payments?  If this is the case, then I'll have to send everything at least as 2nd class large letter.

SidJ said:

At moment I put a DVD/Blu-ray into a padded envelope, put a £1.55 LL stamp on it and post it in the nearest post box, Come February I use time and resources to print a label and hope it fits on the envelope. The cheapest tracked option would be Royal Mail at £2.70. I then have to make a special to trip to a post office and wait in a queue or hang around at home until the postie arrives to pick it up. Not really seeing an up-side

There is no requirement that I can see on a quick read for tracked postage, so nothing actually changes there. Which is why I wondered how and when they deem something 'delivered'. It could be as simple as if after 7 days buyer hasn't said there is a problem, then funds are released. 

If you are happy for things to go in a post box without proof of postage now then you can continue doing that, just with a printed label. Incidentally, I'm surprised your DVDs stay under the 100g limit - I always found that they annoyingly just went over. 

SidJ

Some DVDs creep under the 100g limit. As you say annoyingly most don't

RFW

It's fairly standard on all marketplaces, or it will be.

For many business sellers on Amazon it is "DD+7" which is day of delivery plus 7 days for payment to be released, Then it's generally a 3 day wait for funds to get to a bank account. Wayfair is 60 days for payment.
Etsy has a similar hold to Ebay for newer sellers, it gets removed after you reach a certain number of tracked deliveries.
It doesn't seem to apply to business sellers on Ebay, it may do for newer ones. All my items are sent tracked now, pretty much by default. I'd only save pennies for them not to be and I'd lose some seller rankings so it wouldn't be worth it.

RFW

Langerhan said:

If we have to buy postage through eBay, I won't be using eBay any more, which is a shame. I work full time so I can't wait at home for a courier or go to a Post Office to hand things over, and don't have a printer to print postage anyway. At the moment, I can just stick a stamp on something and put it in a postbox (tend to sell flat things like birthday cards, badges, comics, etc). Maybe this would be doable if I was selling high value antiques or something. I know I'm going to be in the minority here as a low volume, low value seller though, so eBay won't really care if I leave.

There's nothing to stop you putting items in a post box if you buy post from Ebay. Obviously you'd need a printer. Have a look for thermal label printers. You can probably pick up a decent second hand one on Ebay for not much. Your only running cost for that is electric and labels.
Some drop off points offer print facilities by a scan of a QR code you get. I'm not sure if RM do that yet but it can't be far off if they don't.

soolin

RFW said:

Langerhan said:

If we have to buy postage through eBay, I won't be using eBay any more, which is a shame. I work full time so I can't wait at home for a courier or go to a Post Office to hand things over, and don't have a printer to print postage anyway. At the moment, I can just stick a stamp on something and put it in a postbox (tend to sell flat things like birthday cards, badges, comics, etc). Maybe this would be doable if I was selling high value antiques or something. I know I'm going to be in the minority here as a low volume, low value seller though, so eBay won't really care if I leave.

There's nothing to stop you putting items in a post box if you buy post from Ebay. Obviously you'd need a printer. Have a look for thermal label printers. You can probably pick up a decent second hand one on Ebay for not much. Your only running cost for that is electric and labels.
Some drop off points offer print facilities by a scan of a QR code you get. I'm not sure if RM do that yet but it can't be far off if they don't.

Just to pick up on the RM point , there are now lockers where you buy postage online, scan the QR code on your phone , the label is printed and a locker opens . Once parcel is deposited a receipt is given. These lockers are rare though, we do have one near us but I’ve never used it, the local one is on a Texaco garage forecourt next to an Amazon locker and an Inpost one. 

As for holding funds, I sent something nearly 5 weeks ago on Vinted which was not collected by buyer. Item was apparently sent back to me but has not been received and it is currently under investigation. I’m still waiting for either my item or my money and Vinted just keep telling me to wait 48 hours for them to investigate , even though it’s been longer than that already. 

misterthrifty

If I am forced to use Ebay postage options then this will have a big impact on my costs. I started selling on Ebay about 15 years ago partly because I had a lot of stamps to use up, so I could send parcels for little cost. Since then I have found that I can buy postage a lot cheaper than PO prices keeping down my postage expense. I guess that after Ebay removed selling fees, they would have to find another way to make money.
I sell to stamp collectors and I get a lot of positive feedback if I use stamps on parcels as so few letters are sent with stamps now. Also, Post Offices are struggling already, a lot of offices are likely to be closed, and this will be a further blow to them
I will be seriously thinking about giving up on Ebay over the next few months.

GadgetGuru

I don't think eBay make anything on postage - the RM Tracked services are actually a little cheaper then going to the PO direct, and the same prices as RM online (last time I checked)

RFW

soolin said:

Just to pick up on the RM point , there are now lockers where you buy postage online, scan the QR code on your phone , the label is printed and a locker opens . Once parcel is deposited a receipt is given. These lockers are rare though, we do have one near us but I’ve never used it, the local one is on a Texaco garage forecourt next to an Amazon locker and an Inpost one. 

I've actually got one in walking distance. It appeared about a week after I'd set up daily collections.
The one near me was originally just a DPD locker and now they share it. It's worth checking the RM site for where they are as they aren't always visible.

soolin

RFW said:

soolin said:

Just to pick up on the RM point , there are now lockers where you buy postage online, scan the QR code on your phone , the label is printed and a locker opens . Once parcel is deposited a receipt is given. These lockers are rare though, we do have one near us but I’ve never used it, the local one is on a Texaco garage forecourt next to an Amazon locker and an Inpost one. 

I've actually got one in walking distance. It appeared about a week after I'd set up daily collections.
The one near me was originally just a DPD locker and now they share it. It's worth checking the RM site for where they are as they aren't always visible.

I agree about not being obvious, I only found my local RM lockers as I went to use the Inpost locker. 

It’s the same with Inpost, the web site is not very accurate, it still shows my local one as available when it was removed several months ago. I’ve also found a triple Inpost locker at a local Tesco and a double at my other nearest Tesco neither of which are shown on website and both are hidden away from plain sight near lorry parking. 

I suspect therefore that there are more of these RM lockers than I think, they are just hidden away behind shops and petrol stations. However, the space in them is still quite limited. Even if they have 30 -40 individual lockers (I’ve never counted them) that could easily be filled up if a couple of bigger sellers used them . 

More and more parcel lockers are turning up generally if you look for them, I’ve seen several new ones in the back of car parks with courier companies I’ve never even heard of, there’s one a few towns over green parcels (or something) can’t even find out who they are!