Sending Ebay Parcels with Royal Mail

[Crosland]

On 17/12/2022 at 14:56, micklner said:

Using Proof of Posting is useless , no tracking and Royal Mail have'nt a clue where the item will ever be at any time.

Small parcel has some limited tracking from the parcel reference number. It doesn't tell you where in the system it or when it will be delivered, but it does inform of successful or failed delivery.

 

I hade an export parcel with full tracking that showed only that my local PO had received it, for about three weeks. It was probably stuck in a pile at Langley waiting to be scanned. It is now, thankfully, on the move.

[RFS]

Just a small update for the future on my initial post. The free collecting of items from your home was a promotional offer until December 31st, having previously incurred a 60p charge which I still found useful for parcels although not for small items. However this offer of free collection has now been extended to 17th February 2023.  

[andyman7]

On 17/12/2022 at 08:44, hayfield said:

 

The Royal Mail must have changed their policy and I guess if you challenged them they might well consider. Thankfully I have not had the misfortune to have anything recently but when I have had to claim in the past (2 or 3 times) I gave them the eBay reference and they refunded me fully for the sale price and the cost of postage (not P&P), with eBay refunding all fees I was a few pence better off  

No change, this has been their policy for business sales for some time. That includes resale of items for profit on ebay but should not include personal items sold as a private seller. I think in the case referred to the sender was wrongly advised.  

[hayfield]

10 hours ago, RFS said:

Just a small update for the future on my initial post. The free collecting of items from your home was a promotional offer until December 31st, having previously incurred a 60p charge which I still found useful for parcels although not for small items. However this offer of free collection has now been extended to 17th February 2023.  

 

8 hours ago, andyman7 said:

No change, this has been their policy for business sales for some time. That includes resale of items for profit on ebay but should not include personal items sold as a private seller. I think in the case referred to the sender was wrongly advised.  

 

Its my own opinion that Royal Mail see the parcel delivery service being their main business activity moving forward, people are sending fewer and fewer letters these days and if you exclude Christmas cards the majority of mail I get are bank and credit card statements, most if not all I could receive via email. My bank tried by default to do this, but until the bank shares the interest it makes on our savings I will continue to receive these by post 

 

Personally I see the unions have shot themselves in the foot, simply showing that we as customers don't mind  receiving post every other day. Valuing next day delivery of our parcels seems far more than our post. Not saying its right but now as consumers the majority expect items that we would have gone into town to buy delivered to our homes.

 

Long gone are the days of the Postie walking down the road with big bags of mail, they all have vans full of small parcels. If anything internet shopping is the saviour of our postal delivery system aided by the poor service operated by other low cost carriers.

 

I have noticed recently the Royal mail tracking system is getting better, and I guess its the migration of modern IT systems into an old IT infrastructure 

 

I think posties should be proud of how the business has turned around and hopefully will be able to embrace what its customers want.

[micklner]

12 hours ago, Crosland said:

Small parcel has some limited tracking from the parcel reference number. It doesn't tell you where in the system it or when it will be delivered, but it does inform of successful or failed delivery.

 

I hade an export parcel with full tracking that showed only that my local PO had received it, for about three weeks. It was probably stuck in a pile at Langley waiting to be scanned. It is now, thankfully, on the move.

I was talking about a Certificate/Proof of Posting , you get a number on the reciept. Looking at Tracking for two items I have never recieved within the last two months, all it shows is recieved at the Post Office, nothing at all re going anywhere or whether was delievered or not.

It appears that is just a recorded of posting only??. The Postman on ones I have recieved, just hand them over , they never record anything.

Anything I sell via ebay, I always post Signed For any items  listed valued over £5, the listings are noted saying so. Never lost anything so far with Signed for.

For the sake of about a Pound extra its not worth using the normal post, obviously you charge the extra postage cost when the item is listed. No brainer.

Edited December 19, 2022 by micklner

[RedgateModels]

I've used Evri for the first time this weekend to send a parcel. 3 x X04 motor refurbs and the customer did not want to risk RM with al the strikes etc. Lets see how they perform.

 

On a related matter I posted a Hornby Britannia on the 29th November, specifically to avoid the strikes that were going on at the end of the previous week. It arrived thankfully on the 13th December, the day the buyer started a claim on eBay for non-delivery.

 

We had a delivery of letters yesterday (Sunday) I hope RM are not paying striking workers overtime to catch up on their missed deliveries ......

[Edge]

15 minutes ago, RedgateModels said:

I've used Evri for the first time this weekend to send a parcel. 3 x X04 motor refurbs and the customer did not want to risk RM with al the strikes etc. Lets see how they perform.

 

On a related matter I posted a Hornby Britannia on the 29th November, specifically to avoid the strikes that were going on at the end of the previous week. It arrived thankfully on the 13th December, the day the buyer started a claim on eBay for non-delivery.

 

We had a delivery of letters yesterday (Sunday) I hope RM are not paying striking workers overtime to catch up on their missed deliveries ......

sincerely hope that all goes well with the delivery. However as EVRI is essentially a re-branded Hermes service my personal experience is that even a striking Royal Mail delivery service is better in every way. 
 

had no choice but to order something via eBay GSP about two months ago. American postal services got the parcel to the UK in four days. It has been at the EVRI distribution office ever since.

[RedgateModels]

48 minutes ago, Edge said:

sincerely hope that all goes well with the delivery. However as EVRI is essentially a re-branded Hermes service my personal experience is that even a striking Royal Mail delivery service is better in every way. 
 

had no choice but to order something via eBay GSP about two months ago. American postal services got the parcel to the UK in four days. It has been at the EVRI distribution office ever since.

 

We shall see, as I said it was the customer's choice to use Evri. Think it's a desperate attempt to get them before Christmas, if he'd sent them to me earlier and paid up quicker he would have them by now ....

 

They are all struggling with the extra demand as businesses switch from RM on mass

Edited December 19, 2022 by RedgateModels

[andyman7]

9 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

I've used Evri for the first time this weekend to send a parcel. 3 x X04 motor refurbs and the customer did not want to risk RM with al the strikes etc. Lets see how they perform.

 

On a related matter I posted a Hornby Britannia on the 29th November, specifically to avoid the strikes that were going on at the end of the previous week. It arrived thankfully on the 13th December, the day the buyer started a claim on eBay for non-delivery.

 

We had a delivery of letters yesterday (Sunday) I hope RM are not paying striking workers overtime to catch up on their missed deliveries ......

We have been told by our local delivery office that as of last Saturday they will not be sorting or delivering any letters until after Christmas as they are focusing on parcels. Which seems to make any debate about whether the 'Universal Service Obligation' should be for delivering post either five or six days a week entirely academic!

Edited December 19, 2022 by andyman7
Spelling

[andyman7]

3 hours ago, Edge said:

sincerely hope that all goes well with the delivery. However as EVRI is essentially a re-branded Hermes service my personal experience is that even a striking Royal Mail delivery service is better in every way. 
 

had no choice but to order something via eBay GSP about two months ago. American postal services got the parcel to the UK in four days. It has been at the EVRI distribution office ever since.

Certainly not here. Evri far more predictable and reliable than RM right now (and that's a low bar)

[andyman7]

4 hours ago, micklner said:

I was talking about a Certificate/Proof of Posting , you get a number on the reciept. Looking at Tracking for two items I have never recieved within the last two months, all it shows is recieved at the Post Office, nothing at all re going anywhere or whether was delievered or not.

It appears that is just a recorded of posting only??. The Postman on ones I have recieved, just hand them over , they never record anything.

Anything I sell via ebay, I always post Signed For any items  listed valued over £5, the listings are noted saying so. Never lost anything so far with Signed for.

For the sake of about a Pound extra its not worth using the normal post, obviously you charge the extra postage cost when the item is listed. No brainer.

There is no tracking of letter post unless 'Signed For' or 'Recorded' is used but all parcels now have a basic proof of delivery - or at least they do when they are been scanned correctly. Right now the tracking is not particularly effective. The basic proof is a 16 figure (alphanumeric) sequence presented as XXX-XXX-XXXX-XXXX on the receipt

[D9020 Nimbus]

I had a GSP parcel from the US that arrived in the U.K. on Monday 12th December, delivered by EVRI on Friday 16th December. With this firm it seems to depend on who the local courier is; all of mine have been excellent. Recently my experience was that EVRI were two days faster than RM 48 hour Tracked, and there have been two more strike days since.

Edited December 19, 2022 by D9020 Nimbus

[Butler Henderson]

First class parcel sent yesterday arrrived today.

[Tofufi]

On 13/12/2022 at 15:05, Tofufi said:

Since the strikes this last few weeks, I've had a few items not delivered - sent on 27th Nov.

 

As my wife has thrown the receipts (proof of posting) away, I'm not even eligible to claim anything - and am likely to be several hundred pounds out of pocket.

 

Disappointing - but I'll be keeping the proof of posting in future. I had thought that it being scanned in was sufficient for them to be sure it had entered the system.

 

For what it's worth, the items sent on 27th Nov are now all delivery made or attempted.

 

Of course, I refunded two buyers so am £85 down. One has promised to send the money for the item (but hasn't yet) and the other has maintained complete radio silence, just putting in the claim through eBay and ignoring any attempts to communicate with them directly.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Tofufi

[hayfield]

3 minutes ago, Tofufi said:

 

For what it's worth, the items sent on 27th Nov are now all delivery made or attempted.

 

Of course, I refunded two buyers so am £85 down. One has promised to send the money for the item (but hasn't yet) and the other has maintained complete radio silence, just putting in the claim through eBay and ignoring any attempts to communicate with them directly.

 

I would contact eBay with proof of delivery and claim the money off them, last resort is the small claims court

[Crosland]

According to our local Evri agent, they have taken on a contract from RM to deliver parcels and he now gets 500/day when he can only cope with 250.

[John M Upton]

I would rather my parcel was late than let Evri anywhere near it.

[RFS]

Late Tuesday evening the wife ordered a new bath mat from John Lewis. Got an email yesterday afternoon saying it would be delivered by Evri. Oh no! But 09.30 this morning, it was delivered much to our surprise. And the nice lady actually rang the doorbell and handed me the parcel. Great improvement on previous delivery people where delivery was confirmed by email with a picture of the parcel on someone else's door step!

[itsthegman]

Posted on the 29th November three items 2nd class signed for have been delivered just in time to stop the eBay item not received claims.

 

One less thing to worry about.

 

Cheers,

 

G.

[John M Upton]

Parcels seem to be flowing fairly well now but I am still missing several cards and items that would be 'flat' as it were.  One card did make it here yesterday to the Sussex coast from Carshalton (Surrey) which had two postmarks on it, one Croydon 2nd December, the other Portsmouth on the 21st.

[5 C]

A parcel which I despatched using Evri on 20th December and which arrived at the delivery depot just 24 hours later, was finally delivered to the buyer today.

 

It's only taken a month and I was on the verge of making a refund.

 

The buyer has confirmed it's safely in their hands and it seems none the worse for being MIA. A good outcome as the buyer told me it was something they'd been particularly searching for.

[melmerby]

I ordered some items from an e-bay seller Sunday evening, despatched Monday, arrived yesterday lunchtime.

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

I ordered some items from an e-bay seller Sunday evening, despatched Monday, arrived yesterday lunchtime.

 

I had the same result 3 weeks ago with 4 packets, all were 1st class 3 were recorded.

 

As I have said long ago, online selling has been the saviour of Royal Mail, its like all businesses if it does not change to customer requirements it will go bust. If anything else this strike has shown that for the vast majority letters are not that important any more. In fact if anything time critical correspondence is now done electronically. Long gone are the days of telegrams, even faxes are old hat. 

 

But I must say the Postmen at Royal Mail are in general giving excellent service.

[Tofufi]

On 21/12/2022 at 09:43, Tofufi said:

 

For what it's worth, the items sent on 27th Nov are now all delivery made or attempted.

 

Of course, I refunded two buyers so am £85 down. One has promised to send the money for the item (but hasn't yet) and the other has maintained complete radio silence, just putting in the claim through eBay and ignoring any attempts to communicate with them directly.

 

As a final update...

 

The buyer who had agreed to send the money didn't (and ignored a couple of ebay messages), until I sent them a paypal invoice - so thank you to the person on here who suggested to get a buyer's email address before sending a refund!

 

The buyer who ignored me completely failed to pick the parcel up from the post office, so 3 weeks later it was returned to me. I put it back on eBay and it sold for the same price a couple of days later. 
:)

[Mark Saunders]

On 18/01/2023 at 11:59, hayfield said:

 

But I must say the Postmen at Royal Mail are in general giving excellent service.

Reminds me of Lions led by Donkeys!