eBay simple delivery (merged)

soolin

TimeLord1 said:

I've watched eBay fall into decline over three-plus years, and its clueless management team coming up with these ideas really doesn't have sellers in mind. They're bleeding themselves to try and replicate Vinted, but the sellers are leaving private and business. Since the implementation of the algorithm and making life more restrictive to list, sell, and make anything or get paid to purchase other items, eBay has been and is dying. Business sellers are now reporting their sales are showing as simple delivery errors also. Let's face it, since PayPal was removed, the algorithm switched on. Now the simple delivery driving sellers who sold to buy are giving up, sales are dropping drastically, and eBay is now a flapping fish out of the water without a clue what to do next. New management with traditional selling—oh, the live vlogs are just a distraction for people who would normally be browsing to buy. 

People who sold daily are now seeing days of no sales. Because those people that were selling to buy are leaving in large numbers. Maybe a new platform will rise from the eBay, Vinted, whatnot, chaotic current carry-on.

I agree that the high days of ebay may be over, but I suspect it's down to a lot of issues, some of which they couldn't have prevented. Yes a few people have left and been noisy about it, posting about 'leaving' all over the internet, many have quietly crept back after they realise their own platforms can't generate sales and some sales on ebay are better than hosting their own website and getting no sales.

If you've been around for a while then the same thing happened when paypal became mandatory - the outcry was huge. Then when they started charging FVFs on p and P again the amount of people vowing never to sell on there again was quite substantial. The same happened with managed payments and it goes on. Every change triggers some sellers to give up. 

Some private sellers have gone, that was always inevitable , but many are finding simple delivery quite beneficial, no more worries about INRs for instance. Other private sellers have left die to the buyers premium, but it could be that they were new sellers anyway as they are ignoring the fact that private sellers used to pay fees - and now that's switched to the buyer- but the ultimate result hasn't changed the cost to the buyer much, except for some exceptionally low priced items which were probably not worth selling anyway. 

I also think Vinted have taken a lot of traffic, I'm one that has moved a lot of my stuff to Vinted (private only of course) and most days now I sell more on Vinted than on ebay. However if you visit the Vinted boards people are leaving there as well due to the lack of buyer protection- and many sellers are following them to ebay. If Vinted implemented a proper business account, and not the strange hybrid they have now, I would move business stock there as well and sell on both.

I've also seen a lot of people get worried about the new reporting rules for online sales - so many have been running sidelines and are now concerned this may impact them either tax wise or benefit wise and I've seen countless threads where people discuss giving up or trying to work under the radar as they can't risk their re selling business or hand made whatsit business attracting the eye of the authorities. That's had a big impact and I suspect once it gets properly under way and the HMRC 'prove it' letters start being sent, a lot more will be lost on all online sites. 

Finally I think a lot of change is demographic. Many of us established sellers on ebay are getting older, we are used to ebay, it almost became a thing, you didn't sell something to 'ebayed it'. Many youngsters don't have the same need to declutter, or sell online, they are busy with their careers and trying to stay afloat - they sell in other ways, assuming they sell at all. My own business account is being run down now as I get older, I buy and sell as a business far less than I used to - although I can't quite give it up as it does pay for some nice holidays and I would miss the extra income that I get every month. 

TimeLord1

@soolin listing on Vinted is by way more efficient, effective, and uncomplicated at listing items. eBay continues to complicate an easy fix. I still believe the government in lockdown expecting the economy to stagnate when it actually was continuing to grow online during lockdown. They thought, 🤔 Hold on, if we enforce the laws on online platforms, maybe we can make lots of tax on regulating these side hustle establishments. But as we know, people became confused and afraid to sell anything for fear of being in the wrong side. I also believe the YouTube vloggers have killed themselves off and platforms, which has had a knock-on effect to drive charity shops online and diminish the quality of the retail being sold within the shops. What I've also noticed since the implementation of simple delivery is several charities no longer have items available. 

The people who have given up are more inclined to be selling at a boot sale or on Facebook to obtain the funds quickly. 

I can see eBay UK being sold off in time. I don't believe globally eBay has implemented the regulations that are currently active in the UK. Its constant drive to keep dipping into sellers pockets, holding money that could be being spent within its platform, and not working with sellers and making listing less arduous will be its undoing.

It will never be what it was, but someone will see the gap in the market and move in.

Royal Mail is also struggling to get staff to do the job now, which will impact eBay's simple delivery also. Time will tell.

janb5

I realized in the last few days that since the switch over to Simple Delivery, many of my listings were transferred but were all under letter post!  The criteria for letter post is quite weird anyway as RM would reject them immediately as not fitting in a large envelope.

I have had to alter all my listings  to small parcel which has taken a considerable time.  The only items not affected were the knitting aptterns which I sell.

When I asked Ebay y`day they said they were aware of the problem and if something has been transferred with the wrong postage, then to speak to Shipping to get it changed.

soolin

TimeLord1 said:

@soolin listing on Vinted is by way more efficient, effective, and uncomplicated at listing items. eBay continues to complicate an easy fix. I still believe the government in lockdown expecting the economy to stagnate when it actually was continuing to grow online during lockdown. They thought, 🤔 Hold on, if we enforce the laws on online platforms, maybe we can make lots of tax on regulating these side hustle establishments. But as we know, people became confused and afraid to sell anything for fear of being in the wrong side. I also believe the YouTube vloggers have killed themselves off and platforms, which has had a knock-on effect to drive charity shops online and diminish the quality of the retail being sold within the shops. What I've also noticed since the implementation of simple delivery is several charities no longer have items available. 

I agree entirely that the rise of Vloggers and Youtube have changed the market considerably. I used to visit charity shops a lot , some of my favourite items came pre loved- then the vloggers started showing their re seller model of buying at charity shops and reselling- so CSs put their prices up, and a lot of the time now I buy pre loved on Vinted for less than I pay locally in a CS- or I buy new. The vloggers basically killed their own market, just as the auction vloggers did. I used to attend 2 auctions a week, buy to resell- then all those shows 'bargain hunt' etc made it look easy, the auction houses went online, and now I mainly buy from just one auction house, occasionally dipping into a couple of others. If i do go to an auction all you see on viewing day are the dealers and resellers with ebay open on their phone checking prices.

The people who have given up are more inclined to be selling at a boot sale or on Facebook to obtain the funds quickly. 

FB is slowing down- I used to do very well there but now virtually nothing. Locally as well car boots have started to close due to lack of cars. I went to one, almost accidentally about a month ago- I used to sell there and although it was small, it still attracted 200 or more sellers, on a warm Sunday in May there were less than 30 cars there selling, even the burger van doesn't bother turning up. 

I can see eBay UK being sold off in time. I don't believe globally eBay has implemented the regulations that are currently active in the UK. Its constant drive to keep dipping into sellers pockets, holding money that could be being spent within its platform, and not working with sellers and making listing less arduous will be its undoing.

It will never be what it was, but someone will see the gap in the market and move in.

Royal Mail is also struggling to get staff to do the job now, which will impact eBay's simple delivery also. Time will tell.

I rarely use RM at all now, I take a load to a local shop (business stuff mainly LLs) but virtually all my private sales are Evri and on Vinted it's a mix- Ebay is the only one I have disabled as it hasn't integrated well on Vinted. I haven't set foot in a PO or sorting office now for around 2 months- and I'm happy never to darken their door again. The mail centre has such reduced hours it's useless - they even now have a RM locker outside so they can reduce their hours even more. As for the PO, that's a joke now. 25 minutes in a queue was not unusual.

I don't entirely agree that listing on Vinted is easier than ebay- I'm happy now they have allowed more categories- but it is frustrating trying to find the correct category sometimes when there is some overlapping, I'm always worried about getting a warning or a ban. The limits on new stock is a problem - even for the pro accounts, and handmade stuff is still not allowed. 

TimeLord1

Item specifications Vinted is way quicker. I am currently using Etsy more; it gets decent traffic and is probably underrated. But good for older items.

shapala

Hi all. I purchased an RM label independent of eBay but see I've been charged £2.72 for an SD label. Is there an easy way to cancel this? ....I can't see anything on the postage labels section. I paid £1.70 direct via RM for large letter. Item was delivered a couple days ago with good feedback left. Tia.

soolin

shapala said:

Hi all. I purchased an RM label independent of eBay but see I've been charged £2.72 for an SD label. Is there an easy way to cancel this? ....I can't see anything on the postage labels section. I paid £1.70 direct via RM for large letter. Item was delivered a couple days ago with good feedback left. Tia.

If you scroll back a bit then there are instructions about trying to reclaim from ebay for the unused SD label. The time frame is strict, from memory it's something like 14 days from issue- and refunds can take a while. It also isn't guaranteed as SD is supposed to be compulsory, so it is likely that any work rounds might be closed at some point.

I found this which should help.

Simple Delivery | eBay

If you don't use the Simple Delivery label provided, you or your buyer will be refunded, depending on who paid for postage.

• If you selected 'Buyer pays’ when you created the listing, your buyer will automatically be refunded for any Simple Delivery label that isn’t used after 30 days
• If you selected ‘Seller pays’ and offered free postage on your listing, you'll need to fill out the Request a refund for Simple Delivery form for the label that wasn’t used. Make sure to send your request within 14 days of your item selling

I was going to suggest you had a look at the brief outlines of SD, but I note that you are aware of it as you have discussed this on this thread;

Simple Delivery opt out? - Page 3 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

That is a few months out of date now, more items and sellers have been moved across to SD and I do believe that it is going to be risky going forward trying to avoid using an SD label and using your own.

shapala

soolin said:

shapala said:

Hi all. I purchased an RM label independent of eBay but see I've been charged £2.72 for an SD label. Is there an easy way to cancel this? ....I can't see anything on the postage labels section. I paid £1.70 direct via RM for large letter. Item was delivered a couple days ago with good feedback left. Tia.

If you scroll back a bit then there are instructions about trying to reclaim from ebay for the unused SD label. The time frame is strict, from memory it's something like 14 days from issue- and refunds can take a while. It also isn't guaranteed as SD is supposed to be compulsory, so it is likely that any work rounds might be closed at some point.

I found this which should help.

Simple Delivery | eBay

If you don't use the Simple Delivery label provided, you or your buyer will be refunded, depending on who paid for postage.

• If you selected 'Buyer pays’ when you created the listing, your buyer will automatically be refunded for any Simple Delivery label that isn’t used after 30 days
• If you selected ‘Seller pays’ and offered free postage on your listing, you'll need to fill out the Request a refund for Simple Delivery form for the label that wasn’t used. Make sure to send your request within 14 days of your item selling

I was going to suggest you had a look at the brief outlines of SD, but I note that you are aware of it as you have discussed this on this thread;

Simple Delivery opt out? - Page 3 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

That is a few months out of date now, more items and sellers have been moved across to SD and I do believe that it is going to be risky going forward trying to avoid using an SD label and using your own.

Thanks. Had a quick chat and was reasonably simple.

It may have been posted before but for anyone else in same situation as I need to go to this webpage:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/claims/simple-delivery/refund/seller

soolin

shapala said:

soolin said:

shapala said:

Hi all. I purchased an RM label independent of eBay but see I've been charged £2.72 for an SD label. Is there an easy way to cancel this? ....I can't see anything on the postage labels section. I paid £1.70 direct via RM for large letter. Item was delivered a couple days ago with good feedback left. Tia.

If you scroll back a bit then there are instructions about trying to reclaim from ebay for the unused SD label. The time frame is strict, from memory it's something like 14 days from issue- and refunds can take a while. It also isn't guaranteed as SD is supposed to be compulsory, so it is likely that any work rounds might be closed at some point.

I found this which should help.

Simple Delivery | eBay

If you don't use the Simple Delivery label provided, you or your buyer will be refunded, depending on who paid for postage.

• If you selected 'Buyer pays’ when you created the listing, your buyer will automatically be refunded for any Simple Delivery label that isn’t used after 30 days
• If you selected ‘Seller pays’ and offered free postage on your listing, you'll need to fill out the Request a refund for Simple Delivery form for the label that wasn’t used. Make sure to send your request within 14 days of your item selling

I was going to suggest you had a look at the brief outlines of SD, but I note that you are aware of it as you have discussed this on this thread;

Simple Delivery opt out? - Page 3 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

That is a few months out of date now, more items and sellers have been moved across to SD and I do believe that it is going to be risky going forward trying to avoid using an SD label and using your own.

Thanks. Had a quick chat and was reasonably simple.

It may have been posted before but for anyone else in same situation as I need to go to this webpage:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/claims/simple-delivery/refund/seller

I would reiterate my concern though about relying on the ability to cancel labels for a full refund going forward. SD was meant to be compulsory, knowing ebay I wouldn't be surprised if this ability to make a claim isn't stopped without warning at some point.

It's also worth noting that even that form says you 'may' get a refund, not that you 'will' get a refund. 

soolin

I've just had my first simple delivery sale for an item going to one of those airport storage locker/shipping companies, I know these sales have caused some concerns among sellers in the past.

As usual I got a cut and paste message from the company explaining that I must have all the ID numbers in bold, the ID number double spaced and bold and shown clearly on the label - etc ..Directly after that message I have one from ebay which is very reassuring as follows:

'You are posting this order via Simple Delivery. This buyer has been advised to contact our Customer Service team to help resolve postage related issues. A prepaid, tracked and fully protected label is provided for this order, which includes the buyer's full address. Your parcel is fully covered by eBay if lost or damaged in transit.'

So for those that used to be worried about these third party shipping companies, this seems a positive for Simple delivery.

Incidentally I have just printed the label none of which is in bold of course, and will be sending this later today. The buying account shows as Bulgaria.