Numpty ebay questions

elsien

It is a long time since I last sold on ebay and things appear to have changed somewhat.
As a private seller I used to offer free postage and send with stamps I already have with proof of posting from the post office- no point in sending tracked as these are low value items.

Gone to list something pet related today and under their simple delivery options it would appear that I can no longer do this. Is that correct, any way of turning it off, and is tracked now obligatory.
I suspect that I can no longer chuck some stamps on and just post but wanted to check to be sure.
Current item is on for around the £40 mark. 

Any other changes I need to be aware of - also looking to sell some pottery at some point. 
Thank you 

se2020

No. You can no longer use your own stamps for most items.
There are a few exceptions for letter size items in certain categories where a 'custom postage' option shows on listing.

Basically,  once you have sold an item you will get the label from ebay.
One advantage is, as long as you get the item scanned when you drop it off or have it collected then you do not have to refund the buyer if it gets lost in the post. Ebay will pay for the loss. 
Ebay will also remove any bad feedback left due to late delivery. 

soolin

se2020 has covered it well. I would just add that some people suggest opting for 'seller pays' postage and then ignoring the SD label and sending it yourself. However I would caution against that for 2 reasons. Firstly, you get no protection at all for any loss or damage and for expensive items that can be hard to take if an issue is raised. Secondly, you will still be charged for the SD label and whilst there is a mechanism to reclaim that cost to apply you need to provide your own tracking details and also it is not guaranteed that you will be refunded as the guidelines say 'they may' reimburse you. 

se2020

soolin said:

se2020 has covered it well. I would just add that some people suggest opting for 'seller pays' postage and then ignoring the SD label and sending it yourself. However I would caution against that for 2 reasons. Firstly, you get no protection at all for any loss or damage and for expensive items that can be hard to take if an issue is raised. Secondly, you will still be charged for the SD label and whilst there is a mechanism to reclaim that cost to apply you need to provide your own tracking details and also it is not guaranteed that you will be refunded as the guidelines say 'they may' reimburse you. 

This is a downside of SD.
I have only ever had refunds for around half of my unused labels. 
What's even worse is if a buyer cancels an order I still get charged for the label even if I haven't downloaded it.

I haven't changed any existing listings yet but I am changing all my new listings to Buyer Pays postage although that causes it's own issues..

soolin

se2020 said:

soolin said:

se2020 has covered it well. I would just add that some people suggest opting for 'seller pays' postage and then ignoring the SD label and sending it yourself. However I would caution against that for 2 reasons. Firstly, you get no protection at all for any loss or damage and for expensive items that can be hard to take if an issue is raised. Secondly, you will still be charged for the SD label and whilst there is a mechanism to reclaim that cost to apply you need to provide your own tracking details and also it is not guaranteed that you will be refunded as the guidelines say 'they may' reimburse you. 

This is a downside of SD.
I have only ever had refunds for around half of my unused labels. 
What's even worse is if a buyer cancels an order I still get charged for the label even if I haven't downloaded it.

I haven't changed any existing listings yet but I am changing all my new listings to Buyer Pays postage although that causes it's own issues..

Personally I’m very happy with SD in the majority of cases, in fact I’m seeing the option to choose on some of my LL items, and anything over 100g and more than £10 I’m opting to use SD as opposed to my own labels. My RM items are often seeing long delays now, and the eBay estimated delivery times are getting more and more un realistic, it’s quite reassuring not to have to worry when I get the ‘my item is late can I have a refund’ message , and instead apologise and politely refer them to eBay. 

The main issue, and it’s not really a fault with the system, is that like the OP I have huge quantities of stamps that are now just sitting there unused. I did use a couple about 8 days ago on LLs under 100g , and one of those has triggered a ‘where’s my item’ message from a buyer who needed it urgently (don’t they all,) and who doesn’t give me any scammer vibes at all, so is probably genuine. 

savergrant

soolin said:

se2020 said:

soolin said:

se2020 has covered it well. I would just add that some people suggest opting for 'seller pays' postage and then ignoring the SD label and sending it yourself. However I would caution against that for 2 reasons. Firstly, you get no protection at all for any loss or damage and for expensive items that can be hard to take if an issue is raised. Secondly, you will still be charged for the SD label and whilst there is a mechanism to reclaim that cost to apply you need to provide your own tracking details and also it is not guaranteed that you will be refunded as the guidelines say 'they may' reimburse you. 

This is a downside of SD.
I have only ever had refunds for around half of my unused labels. 
What's even worse is if a buyer cancels an order I still get charged for the label even if I haven't downloaded it.

I haven't changed any existing listings yet but I am changing all my new listings to Buyer Pays postage although that causes it's own issues..

Personally I’m very happy with SD in the majority of cases, in fact I’m seeing the option to choose on some of my LL items, and anything over 100g and more than £10 I’m opting to use SD as opposed to my own labels. My RM items are often seeing long delays now, and the eBay estimated delivery times are getting more and more un realistic, it’s quite reassuring not to have to worry when I get the ‘my item is late can I have a refund’ message , and instead apologise and politely refer them to eBay. 

The main issue, and it’s not really a fault with the system, is that like the OP I have huge quantities of stamps that are now just sitting there unused. I did use a couple about 8 days ago on LLs under 100g , and one of those has triggered a ‘where’s my item’ message from a buyer who needed it urgently (don’t they all,) and who doesn’t give me any scammer vibes at all, so is probably genuine. 

Did you get a certificate of posting?
I've had two INRs in the past month, one royal mail sent stamps and buyer wamted a refund, the other buyer wanted a replacement and royal mail sent a cheque (o ought to check it hasn't bounced) so some you win....so long as buyer states 'I have not received....' I'm happy to state 'item lost by royal mail'. Of course the risk is ending up with more stamps than you started with...

soolin

savergrant said:

soolin said:

se2020 said:

soolin said:

se2020 has covered it well. I would just add that some people suggest opting for 'seller pays' postage and then ignoring the SD label and sending it yourself. However I would caution against that for 2 reasons. Firstly, you get no protection at all for any loss or damage and for expensive items that can be hard to take if an issue is raised. Secondly, you will still be charged for the SD label and whilst there is a mechanism to reclaim that cost to apply you need to provide your own tracking details and also it is not guaranteed that you will be refunded as the guidelines say 'they may' reimburse you. 

This is a downside of SD.
I have only ever had refunds for around half of my unused labels. 
What's even worse is if a buyer cancels an order I still get charged for the label even if I haven't downloaded it.

I haven't changed any existing listings yet but I am changing all my new listings to Buyer Pays postage although that causes it's own issues..

Personally I’m very happy with SD in the majority of cases, in fact I’m seeing the option to choose on some of my LL items, and anything over 100g and more than £10 I’m opting to use SD as opposed to my own labels. My RM items are often seeing long delays now, and the eBay estimated delivery times are getting more and more un realistic, it’s quite reassuring not to have to worry when I get the ‘my item is late can I have a refund’ message , and instead apologise and politely refer them to eBay. 

The main issue, and it’s not really a fault with the system, is that like the OP I have huge quantities of stamps that are now just sitting there unused. I did use a couple about 8 days ago on LLs under 100g , and one of those has triggered a ‘where’s my item’ message from a buyer who needed it urgently (don’t they all,) and who doesn’t give me any scammer vibes at all, so is probably genuine. 

Did you get a certificate of posting?
I've had two INRs in the past month, one royal mail sent stamps and buyer wamted a refund, the other buyer wanted a replacement and royal mail sent a cheque (o ought to check it hasn't bounced) so some you win....so long as buyer states 'I have not received....' I'm happy to state 'item lost by royal mail'. Of course the risk is ending up with more stamps than you started with...

I always get POP and it used to be fine, a simple online claim and a week or so later I'd get a cheque. The last one I did, again it was probably near a year ago - took me around 5 months to get any response from RM, they kept either losing the online claim- or saying my item wasn't covered when their own FAQs said it was. It caused me so much stress that the last stamp one I lost , which was only about £5 I didn't bother claiming for as It's not a good use of my time to spend literally hours arguing with RM merely to reclaim £5. 

The current one that is delayed will probably result in an INR Monday, although buyer is being lovely about it and as I said I have no reason to doubt them. That was also a sub £6 item, so I'll just refund them and forget it. I suspect it is just lost in the very slow Royal Mail system - as happens a lot to my incoming post.