eBay Scrapping Private Seller Fees

eBay Scrapping Private Seller Fees

Author
Discussion

Granadier

795 posts

40 months

Wednesday 2nd April
quotequote all
As I said a few months ago, the CEO said in an investor meeting that they were planning to make Simple Postage mandatory...

My problem is that in the past eBay has sometimes suggested wholly unrealistic postage costs, and I've then ended up out of pocket when I went to post the item.

I'll see how the new system goes but it is very irritating. A good prompt to delist some of the lower-price items and give them away, maybe.

KTMsm

28,581 posts

276 months

Wednesday 2nd April
quotequote all
I think there should be something where if you've got 100% feedback and sold say 50 items, you should be given more leeway on these things

I have no doubt private sellers cause eBay problems as some can be wholly unreasonable

I had one post me something, the postage was far below what it should have been and there was a fee to pay to collect it.

I asked him to pay it, he said eBay charged the postage so it was their problem. Needless to say it became his problem but it cost me hassle


egomeister

7,127 posts

276 months

Wednesday 2nd April
quotequote all
Granadier said:
As I said a few months ago, the CEO said in an investor meeting that they were planning to make Simple Postage mandatory...

My problem is that in the past eBay has sometimes suggested wholly unrealistic postage costs, and I've then ended up out of pocket when I went to post the item.

I'll see how the new system goes but it is very irritating. A good prompt to delist some of the lower-price items and give them away, maybe.
I'll "simply" not use a system where I am subjected to mystery box postage costs. I walk past my local RM delivery office most mornings at opening time so it's a no brainer for me to use their services - totally within my control on timings and costs. If I'm railroaded down dropping items off at random parcel shops depending on what the buyer selects then it doesn't make sense for me to use ebay to sell half the items that I do.

witko999

682 posts

221 months

Wednesday 2nd April
quotequote all
Another irritated about the 'simple postage'.

I sell several items at £10 (now inflated to a higher price with 'buyer protection') which I only need to put in an envelope with a 2nd class stamp, so total postage cost ~90p, which I'm happy to absorb.

I just checked the cheapest simple postage option. £2.70. Three times the price. On an item which I previously sold for £10, I don't know if buyers will bother at circa £14 with all the inflated costs.

Clockwork Cupcake

77,327 posts

285 months

Thursday 3rd April
quotequote all
egomeister said:
Ok, I have just had a look an existing listing and my postage settings. While I appear to be able to exclude Evri in the settings and that only leaves Royal Mail, when I go to the listing I have no visibility of what services will be available to the buyer and the "from" price listed is less than the appropriate RM Tracked 48 service, so I have no idea what they'll be stitching me up with.

What a dumb system.
All my existing listings are unchanged and still have "Custom Postage" selected and the carriers & prices I specified are unchanged.


CoolHands

20,510 posts

208 months

Thursday 3rd April
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So can we still choose the carrier we want? Eg sometimes I use UPS and choose a drop off location. Other times DPD with a drop off etc. I almost always like to use drop off.

S6PNJ

5,538 posts

294 months

Thursday 3rd April
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
All my existing listings are unchanged and still have "Custom Postage" selected and the carriers & prices I specified are unchanged.
It's no wonder people are surprised by some changes when they don't bother to actually read what the changes will be...

ebay said:
Simple Delivery will apply to new eligible listings by private sellers in the UK, and from 7 April to any existing listings that are eligible. If you selected buyer-paid postage, this will stay the same when your listings are updated. If you’re covering the costs, they’ll be deducted from your sales.

Clockwork Cupcake

77,327 posts

285 months

Thursday 3rd April
quotequote all
S6PNJ said:
Clockwork Cupcake said:
All my existing listings are unchanged and still have "Custom Postage" selected and the carriers & prices I specified are unchanged.
It's no wonder people are surprised by some changes when they don't bother to actually read what the changes will be...

ebay said:
Simple Delivery will apply to new eligible listings by private sellers in the UK, and from 7 April to any existing listings that are eligible. If you selected buyer-paid postage, this will stay the same when your listings are updated. If you’re covering the costs, they’ll be deducted from your sales.
Which is ironic, as if you'd have "bother[ed] to actually read" my post you would have seen that I was replying to egomeister

egomeister

7,127 posts

276 months

Thursday 3rd April
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
egomeister said:
Ok, I have just had a look an existing listing and my postage settings. While I appear to be able to exclude Evri in the settings and that only leaves Royal Mail, when I go to the listing I have no visibility of what services will be available to the buyer and the "from" price listed is less than the appropriate RM Tracked 48 service, so I have no idea what they'll be stitching me up with.

What a dumb system.
All my existing listings are unchanged and still have "Custom Postage" selected and the carriers & prices I specified are unchanged.
Mine too, I had a play with revising a listing to see what the effect would be.

As it stands I'll pull all my listings before the 7th and then consider which (if any) I relist

Clockwork Cupcake

77,327 posts

285 months

Thursday 3rd April
quotequote all
egomeister said:
Mine too, I had a play with revising a listing to see what the effect would be.
Ah, I see. Apologies, I thought you were saying that your listings had changed.

egomeister

7,127 posts

276 months

Thursday 3rd April
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Ah, I see. Apologies, I thought you were saying that your listings had changed.
Nope not yet, I was just exploring what they might be changing to

vdn

9,116 posts

216 months

Thursday 3rd April
quotequote all
I just took a few things down. Can't be bothered with the messing about. I'll try and shift a few higher value bits and then call it a day.

Narcisus

Original Poster:

8,477 posts

293 months

Friday 4th April
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One thing I have notice and this is off topic the 4 Lego sets I have listed have between them had one view in 2 weeks which is something I have never encountered before. The last month these sets were listed they had 15 to 20 views and a couple of watchers each by this time.

On a more positive note in the last week I have sold 2 sets on dedicated Lego groups on FB so nice one eBay you've done yourself out of £30 in buyer protection fees.


Clockwork Cupcake

77,327 posts

285 months

Friday 4th April
quotequote all
All my stuff has been slow selling anyway but I have noticed it is even slower now. Half inclined to just de-list everything.

Most of my stuff is old computer parts that would only appeal to those into retro computing (either as a hobby or businesses needing to keep old kit running). Some is retro computing stuff I bought within the past 6 months and now no longer need, and I just want to get some proportion of my money back. But maybe I should just write that money off.

CorradoTDI

1,734 posts

184 months

Friday 4th April
quotequote all
Can anyone recommend a good platform to setup a website to make a storefront / shop...?

I'd want something simple to manage that takes payments and ideally links to Royal Mail to print labels - these are the things that makes eBay so good - just a shame it's run by a bunch of utter clowns!

Clockwork Cupcake

77,327 posts

285 months

Friday 4th April
quotequote all
CorradoTDI said:
Can anyone recommend a good platform to setup a website to make a storefront / shop...?

I'd want something simple to manage that takes payments and ideally links to Royal Mail to print labels - these are the things that makes eBay so good - just a shame it's run by a bunch of utter clowns!
Probably simplest to use something like Squarespace or similar, if you don't want to go to all the hassle of getting webhosting and doing it all yourself.
But how are you going to drive customers to your site? How are you going to let them know that you sell stuff and that's where they need to go?

Or are you asking for alternatives to eBay? In which case there aren't that many. Depending on what you sell then Vinted or Etsy might work for you. Or possibly Gumtree. I would steer clear of Facebook Marketplace though if you want to retain your sanity.


Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Friday 4th April 15:20

Clockwork Cupcake

77,327 posts

285 months

Friday 11th April
quotequote all
In case anyone hasn't noticed, when you create a new listing and it appears to force you to use Simple Delivery, simply click on "Package Size" and you will see at the bottom of the resulting popup a button labelled "Switch to Custom Postage".

Click on it, and you can then specify postage as before.

CorradoTDI

1,734 posts

184 months

Friday 11th April
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
In case anyone hasn't noticed, when you create a new listing and it appears to force you to use Simple Delivery, simply click on "Package Size" and you will see at the bottom of the resulting popup a button labelled "Switch to Custom Postage".

Click on it, and you can then specify postage as before.
For 3 more days....

Narcisus

Original Poster:

8,477 posts

293 months

Friday 11th April
quotequote all
Sent my first using Simple Delivery and have to say after having my doubts it really was simple !

Simpo Two

88,618 posts

278 months

Friday 11th April
quotequote all
Narcisus said:
Sent my first using Simple Delivery and have to say after having my doubts it really was simple !
I read the message and it said you get a QR code and an address label to print. I've been doing that for years, what's new?