Well, eBay are carrying out their threats re: ‘Simple Delivery’. It has been announced today it will be mandatory, and the only method for shipping in the UK from April 15. They will start to convert existing listings from around April 6 / 7.
The only shipping options will be Royal Mail or Evri. No other couriers will be allowed. To say there is hell up amongst sellers and buyers alike is an understatement. It was bad enough when they recently implemented ‘Buyer’s Protection Fee’ for private sellers. There are so many unanswered questions as to how ‘Simple Delivery’ will work in reality. It’s a mess.
Anyway, I wondered if / how GS will implement ‘Simple Delivery’?
I’ve asked Kristian via email about this a few days ago - bit concerned about what’s going to happen. eBay is going in a dark direction, sales have dropped substantially for me
Hopefully they can incorporate something into GarageSale
@fedege96 Yes, they have been increasingly trying to mimic Vinted, and this is their latest step.
Sellers must choose between Royal Mail or Evri, or both, and the buyer will be presented with options within that, eg standard or express delivery. There’s scant information as to what services they will translate to. The seller has no control over that choice, or Simple Delivery as a whole. It will be mandatory from April 15.
There are some exemptions thus far - items that sell for less than £10 (not sure if that includes / excluders the buyer protection fee) and are under 100g in weight, items that are collect in person only, and items that are over £750. Also parcels which exceed 20Kg or the following dimensions:
For an Evri parcel shop drop-off – no side exceeds 120cm in length, the volume is no more than 245cm. To calculate the volume, add together the two shortest sides and multiply it by two, and then add the length For a Royal Mail parcel shop drop-off or collection – dimensions should be up to 61cm x 46cm x 46cm
To see just how furious / confused sellers are, and to get an idea of the plethora of unanswered questions, and there are many, check out the discussions here: Discussion - eBay Community
In few words, you do not cash one single cent for shipping cost. If I correctly got it. It sounds like the final coup de grace, I will definitely give up with ebay the exact day it will arrive in ebay.it
There is not a single word about this new “Simple Delivery” option on eBay’s developer website. So we have no idea how to add support for this new “feature” at this moment.
In the site metadata for eBay UK, I can see two new options “Simple Shipping Standard”, and “Simple Shipping Express”, both being marked as “not valid”. These might be connected two the “Simple Delivery” change in some way, but without an official information it’s hard to tell.
It doesn’t surprise me in the least that eBay have left developers in the cold regards these significant changes. With just two weeks to go before Simple Delivery goes live, it’s an absolute disgrace that important information hasn’t been disseminated.
I wonder what will happen when we try to list after April 15? Will we received a red warning, and be unable to list? I guess we’ll find out soon enough…
Ebay UK appear to be doing their level best to alienate their customers, with great success.
Just a note to say this is for Private sellers and not Business accounts.
I think this could be a way take away policies and other recent changes from private sellers, to give business sellers back more for their payment.
If you have any extra built in to your postage costs to help cover packaging or the odd return cost, you would have to work that into your item price.
I use Evri for 99% anyway.
There have already been accounts of Business Sellers having listings sold with Simple Delivery assigned by eBay. Could be a hitch, or a sign of things to come.
My local Post Office knew nothing about Simple Delivery when I asked them today. There are still so many unanswered questions, it’s an absolute joke.
If iwascoding aren’t able to fully implement Simple Delivery, then it’s game over for GarageSale for private sellers in the UK.
Still waiting on any helpful information on how to implement this on the API level from eBay. It seems eBay’s line of defense is, that the change only affects private sellers, who are not using API tools anyway.
I wonder how much of that has anything to do with eBay not having Simple Delivery fully tested & fit for purpose? The weekly live chat today displayed quite clearly that even eBay’s official representatives have no answers to legitimate questions raised about some of SD’s features and implementation…
There have been changes made to address some issues since SD went live for some sellers, but these changes have served only to raise more questions. With less than a week to go before SD becomes mandatory for all private sellers, this is a farcical situation. They appear to be quite literally making it up as they go along.
Hope thats the case regarding API tools. So far any of my personal account sales haven’t changed and I am getting the postage charge to use how i want and it’s allowing me to upload as normal. We will see. Hopefully Simple Delivery is contained to using the Ebay app or via web browser.
Well, from eBay stating Simple (stupid) Delivery will be mandatory for all new private account listings from April 15th, it seems the rollout will now be staggered. One of eBay’s rep’s stated today in the weekly chat that all private accounts be ‘onboarded’ over the coming days.
It’s evidently unfit for purpose. The latest weekly chat can be found here, where eBay’s reps again have few answers to legitimate questions and concerns.
Just as an aside, none of the Post Offices in my area knew anything about SD when I questioned them. All three said they would refuse parcels that were oversize and / or overweight for the label provided by eBay.
I feel for developers involved in this. It’s bad enough for users negotiating the shambles that is SD.
Anyway, I await my account to be ‘onboarded’ and the impending red triangle of doom.
