Courier delivery times / Royal Mail / eBay seller reputation

[hayfield]

People seem to get pissed when you pay/charge £3-90 for postage and the actual price RM charge is £3-90, the box/packaging and brown paper if used is not included, so £5 is fair enough, so they see £3-90 on stamp and think "I paid £5 .... I'll give 3 stars for postage"

Postal charges are advertised so if you don't like it don't buy it... Simple. RM seem OK here as do Hermes, yodel not so.

 

You are quite right, the seller states the postage price an by bidding you accept it. Like many others I work out the maximum price the item is worth to me, deduct the postage and there you have your maximum bid, postage costs are irrelevant !!

 

Price verses service is the topic, all things being equal why pay more for a substandard service

[hayfield]

I'm liking the click and collect option via Argos, brilliant as it's easy to pick up and the wife doesn't know!

 

I recently sold some motorbike gear on EBay, I didn't plan it to sell abroad but the buyer came from Bulgaria. He contacted me and asked for some quotes but specifically asked for me to not use Royal Mail as they are unreliable and overpriced. I sent it Hermes which aren't the greatest but I dropped it off at despatch point and he got in two days!

Your lucky, it took my package 2 days to get from one end of the warehouse to the other, a few yards not a few hundred miles !! 

[alastairq]

No issues at all with Hermes here......[rural].....no uniform, often a small hatchback delivery vehicle...but always, a charming young lady who knows her customers [first name terms].....and doesn't mess anyone around....SAme with the other couriers...Royal Mail is also first name terms....and they all know which neighbour to leave stuff with too.

Only stuff I've ever had 'go missing' was with Royal Mail.  But I was on the receiving end, so the vendor refunded..probably something to do with floods and the Midlands?

 

This c##p about feedback and stuff [the feedback system, not the observations in posts above, I hasten to add]....seems to me to be  a method whereby people can invent gripes about services or products....or have a complaining session...simply because they can.

 

It's far too  easy to vent one's spleen these days.

 

Simply clicking boxes to 'rate' a transaction is far too simple.     [Like exam questions that are multi choice.?]......Being compelled to justify one's  rating decision would surely put off many an easy griper? {Is that a word? IE, One prone to having a gripe?}

 

The system is also wide open to abuse...since fatuous complaints cannot be sifted from genuine ones.

 

To make a nonsense of the  system, I always tick all the boxes at 5 stars......and I've never had  reason to give poor feedback....even for a transaction that.....for some reason, hasn't followed the normal course.

 

I totally ignore Amazon feedback requests.

[newbryford]

Sorry to drag this topic up but I think all eBay sellers should be aware that by using a delivery company rather than the Royal Mail may result their feedback being affected 

 

I have bought something off eBay, the seller took it immediately to the pick up point of the delivery company and was collected by the courier that day, within 2 days it had travelled to my local depot where it now has been for over 2 days and they seem to think it may still take till Monday to deliver.

 

I had similar issues back in Hertfordshire, which in the end seemed to be down to the quality of the final delivery staff. Who I must say turned up not in uniform and in a beat up old car

 

Why do people risk their seller feedback by using these types of service, when for items under £20 in value with proof of postage, the cost of Royal Mail is the same, and delivered in 2 days. This time I paid £5 P&P, not a cheap option for me and I have no issues with the price providing the item arrived well packed within a reasonable time frame, the seller had sufficient funds to pay for a tracked service and still had money to cover fees and packing

 

Sellers on eBay and any other platform, the service you provide to your buyers is as good as the weakest link, is it worth squeezing every last penny out of a deal risking a decline in your feedback ?

 

No I am not a postie or have any connection with the Royal Mail other than being a satisfied customer

 

Needless today I have both encouraged them to step up their game and emailed their CEO with my dissatisfaction 

 

Just a thought - have you passed your opinions onto the sender?

Have you marked their delivery feedback down?

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited March 10, 2018 by newbryford

[hayfield]

Just a thought - have you passed your opinions onto the sender?

Have you marked their delivery feedback down?

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

Mick

 

My feedback message thanked the seller for posting the item so quickly, but let down by the courier

 

I feel I gave honest and fair marking 5 stars in all but one area where I gave 4 stars. On refection I may drop him a note suggesting he could save money by using the Royal Mail plus recieve a better service

[hayfield]

No issues at all with Hermes here......[rural].....no uniform, often a small hatchback delivery vehicle...but always, a charming young lady who knows her customers [first name terms].....and doesn't mess anyone around....SAme with the other couriers...Royal Mail is also first name terms....and they all know which neighbour to leave stuff with too.

Only stuff I've ever had 'go missing' was with Royal Mail.  But I was on the receiving end, so the vendor refunded..probably something to do with floods and the Midlands?

 

This c##p about feedback and stuff [the feedback system, not the observations in posts above, I hasten to add]....seems to me to be  a method whereby people can invent gripes about services or products....or have a complaining session...simply because they can.

 

It's far too  easy to vent one's spleen these days.

 

Simply clicking boxes to 'rate' a transaction is far too simple.     [Like exam questions that are multi choice.?]......Being compelled to justify one's  rating decision would surely put off many an easy griper? {Is that a word? IE, One prone to having a gripe?}

 

The system is also wide open to abuse...since fatuous complaints cannot be sifted from genuine ones.

 

To make a nonsense of the  system, I always tick all the boxes at 5 stars......and I've never had  reason to give poor feedback....even for a transaction that.....for some reason, hasn't followed the normal course.

 

I totally ignore Amazon feedback requests.

 

 

Alistair each to their own, I actually try to give an honest and accurate appraisal of the transaction and more often than not giving 5 stars, as usually items are received quickly and as described. As far as feedback is concerned on eBay unless I am spending quite a lot I never read it prior to bidding, however I see feedback more as a recognition of the service given and giving them a show of thanks

 

As far as feedback is concerned you do have to look at all of it, not the odd one in isolation. We use trip adviser and with negative comments see if it would affect us, For example "Not child friendly" rather than negative to us is a positive 

 

My dad gave me some good advice

 

If something is worth doing, do it well

Treat others how you would like to be treated

Go the extra mile when you can

 

Certainly if you have received good service, be polite and acknowledge it, half the time as well as feedback I send a short message thanking the buyer, I also usually confirm via messages I have sent thee item and thanked the buyer.

[newbryford]

 

 

As far as feedback is concerned you do have to look at all of it, not the odd one in isolation. We use trip adviser and with negative comments see if it would affect us, For example "Not child friendly" rather than negative to us is a positive 

 

 

 

Good old Trip Advisor.

Now there's a keyboard warrior's heaven...............

 

Cheers,

MIck

[hayfield]

Good old Trip Advisor.

Now there's a keyboard warrior's heaven...............

 

Cheers,

MIck

 

 

Used correctly though a good tool, we changed our plans from visiting lake Garda to going on the Italian Riviera tour and had a splendid holiday, and when we mentioned this to the rep he said a wise choice. Also the year before despite some of the comments we had a wonderful time at Lake Como, you would have thought it was a different hotel. The difference being we had the Platinum level of all inclusive, which was another level of service altogether including moonlit lakeside dining in the evening.

[40F]

Like all  review sites we see only ONE side of the story. Most are rubbish

[Suzie]

With Royal Mail having closed their online postage system (so we now have to use the rubbish 'click and drop' system instead) using Royal Mail is becoming harder, and having to argue with post office staff that you have paid the correct amount is another hassle when they try and insist that you pay the over the counter price instead.

 

While the royal mail service is on the whole quite good, with only some areas getting less than adequate service due the way delivery offices are organised (being managed by trades unions does not appear to aid the flow of mail - just overtime payments to a select few), any premium royal mail service is very expensive when compared to parcel courier companies that are much better geared up to handle higher value items.

 

The Chinese seem to have no difficulty sending items for 79 US cents including post from Honk Hong with a signed for service via royal mail - I wish I had access to that service for whatever they are paying!

 

Having seen Amazon parcels left lying in the rain - including some that would fit through the letter box if they were not too soggy from the rain - not all courier companies have the highest standards for their lower priced services.

 

My current favourite is APC for higher value items, but they are pretty useless and very expensive for international so I will have to look elsewhere next time.

[hayfield]

Perhaps I am lucky, a Post Office counter is quite close within a local shop, never bothered with buying online as the counter staff are extremely friendly and helpful, and this seems to be the case in other post offices I have visited. 

 

Above all on the delivery side they offer an excellent service

 

The only downside is when the item in question has to go Parcel Force, which is expensive and when I do use another courier   

[chris p bacon]

The Chinese seem to have no difficulty sending items for 79 US cents including post from Honk Hong with a signed for service via royal mail - I wish I had access to that service for whatever they are paying!

 

They are encouraged to export at cost price with the postage paid for by the Chinese Government, they are then given a payment of 17% of the cost price. This is paid for by import tariffs.

 

In one swoop they are undercutting and eliminating their competition with cheap imports that are paid for by the competition. 

[Crosland]

I'm liking the click and collect option via Argos, brilliant as it's easy to pick up and the wife doesn't know!

 

I recently sold some motorbike gear on EBay, I didn't plan it to sell abroad but the buyer came from Bulgaria. He contacted me and asked for some quotes but specifically asked for me to not use Royal Mail as they are unreliable and overpriced. I sent it Hermes which aren't the greatest but I dropped it off at despatch point and he got in two days!

 

It's not Royal Mail who are unreliable in these cases, it's the local postal monopoly.

[Crosland]

They are encouraged to export at cost price with the postage paid for by the Chinese Government, they are then given a payment of 17% of the cost price. This is paid for by import tariffs.

 

Do you have a reference for that? I would like to quote it elsewhere.

[jacko]

occasionally you do get very good service.  I ordered some packs of coach wheels on ebay yesterday afternoon. To my surprise they were delivered in Amazon packaging first thing this morning.  No Idea who the courier was but most unusual to see one out and about on a sunday.

[Andy Hayter]

Well as an international customer of ebay.co.uk, I can at least say that most of you are protected form the ebay "International shipping Service"  - aka Pitney Bowles - and known in our household as Pitts and Bowels .  I expect high shipping charges, but P&B ensure double the cost, double the transit time and both are ultimately delivered by the local postal service.

 

Any UK based international sellers out there, I suggest ditching this ebay moneymaker for conventional postal services - for France at least.

[adb968008]

Universal parcels union, by the UN, relating to “terminal dues”.

 

Each country is responsible for mail costs from point of origin to delivery to the country of destination.

Once in that country, there is a nominal fee for local delivery within that nation by the national carrier.

 

So China Post ships at local RMB Chinese rates from China to UK, once in London Royal Mail delivers “the last miles” for free or a nominal amount.

The deal is reciprocal, but obviously postal rates in China reflect the affordability by the local economy...

 

Hence China (or HK) post can offer proportionality excellent exports rates, compared to what we pay in the UK to go the other way.

 

It’s meant sellers in China are having a party with cheap goods and cheap postage to detriment of sellers in western countries.

 

http://fortune.com/2015/03/11/united-nations-subsidy-chinese-shipping/

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/12/the-postal-service-is-losing-millions-a-year-to-help-you-buy-cheap-stuff-from-china/?utm_term=.d518c9ef9578

 

http://www.vatfraud.org/blog/stop-subsidising-chinese-post-via-united-nations-universal-postal-union-upu-terminal-dues/

 

The problem is, if you change the UPU arrangement, shipping costs are going to massively rise on a country by country basis, the only solution is import tariffs, or country by country “trade deals” on mail handling rates.

 

Here’s how the terminal dues are calculated :

http://www.upu.int/uploads/tx_sbdownloader/resolutionClassificationMethodologyEn.pdf

 

Basically a measure of gdp (gross national income)/ affordability to pay to shipping costs to recipient countries to deliver “last mile” mail in the country exported to.

 

And current classifications..

 

http://www.upu.int/uploads/tx_sbdownloader/listCountryClassificationEn.pdf

China is 0.073 and classed as a developing country, at the last conference in 2016..coincidentally convened in Beijing.

UK by example is 0.499 meaning we subsidise incoming mail to process it domestically on behalf of a poorer foreign carrier and pay more to countries we export, to handle ours.

Edited March 12, 2018 by adb968008

[chris p bacon]

Do you have a reference for that? I would like to quote it elsewhere.

 

 

 It came from a conversation a week ago with a chap (name forgotten) who does business in China for the last 15 years, he's also advising government on future trade after Brexit.

A very interesting discussion from a non political and practical viewpoint.

 

 

Post above clarifies the postal costs.

[hayfield]

Well as an international customer of ebay.co.uk, I can at least say that most of you are protected form the ebay "International shipping Service"  - aka Pitney Bowles - and known in our household as Pitts and Bowels .  I expect high shipping charges, but P&B ensure double the cost, double the transit time and both are ultimately delivered by the local postal service.

 

Any UK based international sellers out there, I suggest ditching this ebay moneymaker for conventional postal services - for France at least.

 

 

I sold 2 items when this system was introduced as I was unaware it was a default option. First thing I do is to turn this and click and connect off

[Sir TophamHatt]

With Royal Mail having closed their online postage system (so we now have to use the rubbish 'click and drop' system instead) using Royal Mail is becoming harder, and having to argue with post office staff that you have paid the correct amount is another hassle when they try and insist that you pay the over the counter price instead.

Splitting the Post Office from Royal Mail was never going to be a good idea.

Same with splitting off Parcel Force.

 

I thought surely if the Post Office are truly independent from Royal Mail, they should be offering all courier services (IE, Hermes, TNT, DHL) for larger than life parcels?

 

I pick letters up from one Royal Mail sorting office, Parcel Force from a Post Office... all just a mess!

[justin1985]

I explicitly request sellers NOT to use Royal Mail, and have given neutral feedback sometimes when they have.

 

Royal Mail are a great way of delivering your parcel. To the back of an interminable queue in an anonymous warehouse at least an hour's round trip from home.

 

At least locally here in Croydon, Royal Mail seem to determined to leave as many "We called" cards as possible. All of the houses on my street have a purpose designed parcel cupboard beside the front door, and every other courier now seems happy to leave parcels in there. Or leave things with my neighbours, who on both sides are retired and very likely to be in, and willing to take in parcels.

 

Yet Royal Mail seem to refuse to either use the cupboard or the neighbours. The red "we called" cards are endless. And since the privatisation the Royal Mail have closed their conveniently placed sorting office next to the station (still hasn't been redeveloped though) and moved it to what must be the least accessible location in the borough, between the council tip and the Tesco "dark store".

 

As I work, and often have things planned on Saturdays, it is exceptionally difficult for me to use the rearrange delivery option, as you can't get any more specific on times. Redeliver to neighbour is also problematic as you have to nominate a specific neighbour, which just moves the waiting around problem on to them.

 

As I understand it most couriers give their drivers a financial incentive to make the delivery and avoid re-tries. I have no shortage of safe spaces I'm happy for parcels to be left in, so this works for me. I have a feeling that Royal Mail works the other way around - "correct" is more important than prompt.

 

Royal Mail has changed so much since privatisation I find it's just more hassle than it's worth.

 

Justin

[hayfield]

Splitting the Post Office from Royal Mail was never going to be a good idea.

Same with splitting off Parcel Force.

 

I thought surely if the Post Office are truly independent from Royal Mail, they should be offering all courier services (IE, Hermes, TNT, DHL) for larger than life parcels?

 

I pick letters up from one Royal Mail sorting office, Parcel Force from a Post Office... all just a mess!

 

I won an item on Friday night, seller posted it 1st class Saturday, low and behold sitting on my doorstep this morning.

 

I have found that the reorganised Post Office and the Royal Mail are both at the top of their game these days

[PaulCheffus]

 

So the book was picked up from the seller on March 4. As of this morning, March 9, it is sitting in a courier service depot approximately 25 miles from the bookseller's location. But the courier hasn't been idle in the meantime. The book has been to Chicago and back. A definite disadvantage of couriers with a national hub in a country as large as the USA.

HI

 

Reminds me of a recent eBay purchase I made.

 

Item picked up and reaches the senders local hub (Sheffield) which coincidentally is my delivery hub.

Item then goes for sorting at the central hub where it sits for 5 days.

Email seller who looks into it and following day its back in Sheffield.

Item is then delivered the next day.

 

Other items I have bought from the same seller go to Sheffield and then direct to me, no idea why this one went to the central hub and sat there.

 

I didn't mark the seller down for this as they have no control over what happens once the carrier has collected the parcel.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[hayfield]

These couriers just shoot themselves in the foot with their state of the art tracking systems and compared with the Royal Mail a third world delivery system, worst of all is they are so complacent about it by saying it was within our (very generous) delivery window, whilst at the same time saying things went wrong (yet again)

[njee20]

I hope I never sell anything to the OP!

 

Get over your consternation about it "languishing 20 miles away" for 3 days - were you happy with the time from auction ending to the item arriving? If not then you have unrealistic expectations - the seller clearly stated (by your own words) that it was an "Economy Service". If you were then why on earth are you moaning!?

 

I usually use Royal Mail, as my wife can often get to a post office within working hours. I can't. So if she can't for whatever reason then people have to wait, or I use another service. No one has ever complained, if they asked for a specific service I'd do my best to accommodate that. I have 100% positive feedback, I never look at the breakdown, they were all 4.8 - 5 last time I looked, admittedly only on 350 or so sales, so not phenomenal, but enough that I'd hope people would reflect if they had a fundamental problem.

 

I don't understand why any buyer would opt out of the Global Shipping Programme on eBay, I think it's great. Less good as a buyer, but that's not my issue. You send the item to Staffordshire whereby it's counted as "delivered", any problem which happens downstream of that is entirely taken by eBay. So no chance of scamming, or "it's not been delivered", or "it doesn't work" or anything of that ilk. Great! If a seller emailed me and asked to circumvent it I probably wouldn't sell to them, shipping charges are often excessive anyway, would depend on the item. I did have one chap in Germany who bought 5 different lots, and I contacted him to say that if he was buying more than we'd do it outside of the GSP to save him money. He declined, and was happy with the higher unit cost. Not sure why admittedly!