Royal Mail.......lost items!!!!!

[dancestationdirect]

Hi, has anyone noticed an increase in UK Royal Mail packages going "missing" recently. In the last 2 days I have had 3 different buyers claiming item has not arrived. One looks genuine as it is Recorded Delivery which has not arrived. The other 2 are fairly low value First Class items and of course I have no way of knowing if  this is genuine or not.

Prior to this (I have "lost" a few international parcels) but only 1 UK parcel last year went astray and never turned up.

Anyone else having problems with this?

[cheekychapsclothinguk]

Tell me about it, the last few months have been shocking for me and having to resend items! I've had 4 item go missing on the 3rd alone. I dread to think how many in december... 

Royal Mail and eBay need to sort themselves out.

[wheels122]

Delivery has been late on all items. i have received since the new year.

[25ronaldo]

Yes, I had a neighbour come to me with a parcel that was to be signed for. He said that it was one of many that had been thrown in his porch for other people in the area. He had a bundle of small packages with elastic holding them all together. Only the top item was his, all the others were for people in surrounding area.

This week I have ordered two small items off two different suppliers. Both have gone missing.

What is happening with royal mail.

[avro109]

I am a buyer from eBay ,in the last two weeks I have bought items from eBay and not received them,now I had this problem last year with post man ,I reported lost of items to post office and they got back to me to tell me they had sent then to my local post office to deliver,I also asked around local area if people had not received parcels small. Items ,and to my surprises lots of people had not received items,so cut the story short ,post man has been helping himself to my goods ,twa$ .

[kusnierzovao77]

Hello, 

I have the same problem with the international parcels. I would like to ask if possible to find out according to the reference no of the foreign post office this parcel in UK ? 

[collectabletoyshoppe]

I'm having this problem right now. 3 sent the same day 2 weeks ago and and informed none of them have got them. I'm putting it down to theft at Royal Mail. I just wish the courier I use would lower their delivery time and price for small items as they would be getting all my trade, they have not once let me down. Thankfully my 3 buyers have been nice about it.

[marchantdice]

Hi, has anyone notice a marked increase in lost items since privatisation?

We accept 1package per month as we ship worldwide.... now it has increased to 5 to 10 per month and the losses are in the UK! May be I'm funding the shareholders LOL

[towelposter]

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@marchantdice wrote:

Hi, has anyone notice a marked increase in lost items since privatisation?

We accept 1package per month as we ship worldwide.... now it has increased to 5 to 10 per month and the losses are in the UK! May be I'm funding the shareholders LOL

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How many items are you sending out as I have only had 1 loss in the last 1,000+ items since November?

[1122malcolm]

I have never had any problems with RM never had an item go missing but then I do print the postage label after I have amended the address taken from Paypal. Ebay have no idea on how an address should be written even if the buyer does it perfectly the town and shire are always on the same line the post codes are in lower case and there is no space between them. So to me anyone who prints a postage label striaght from Ebay/Paypal without amending it to the proper format  runs the risk of that post going astray.  If RM are mechanising how the address is read then for it to be in the correct format is more important than ever. Perhaps RM have mechanised more how the address is read and this is the cause for so much post being lost, so RM are not losing the post the machines just cannot read the address and if the return address is the same then it will not be able to read that either. 

[shipradar]

I've currently (as far as I know to date) had two large letters not delivered to buyers and my wife one, both posted on the same day 17th February, but from different locations and at differernt times.  I have only just gone over to using the online ebay print postage, I don't think it helps having   'ebay' on the front.

The address was ammened, as when you do an address search, having provided the postcode, it doesn't always provide the town name.  That said, if the Royal Mail  'MACHINE' cannot read it, do they not employ a 'HUMAN' or two, who can?   They could surely go through the rejects, or do they decide these items are going straight to their auction of so called Lost Property?  I fail to see how any item can go missing from RM, unless it has been physically removed from the system!

Or of course the address label has been removed.

[shipradar]

I think a police investigation is appropriate, There are clearly more than just a few items going missing. My wife phoned Lost Property the other week and was told it was due to the floods! Anyone that has gone through RM 'CLAIMS' know the most they can expect is a book of 6 stamps, which doesn't even cover the original cost of posting!

[shoebou]

Are we all not victimes of Royal mail increasing their prices for buyers to return items not suitable. We sell high fashion womens shoes. When it was approx £3 to return people would do so. when cost went to approx £7-£8 we had many items "not arrived". we now offer the customer FREE UK returns and our "not arrived" droppped significantly. What is the price of honesty?

[shipradar]

I've had even more items 'lost' that were sent using ebay online postage, during latter part of February.  Buyers are being refunded, but I'm expecting more still.  I would like to know where these items have gone and why they have dropped out of the system - having never had any lost when buying postage direct from the PO.  I know where they'll end up - in the auction house that has the confidential deal to take all the RM 'lost' property, so one day, they may even be back on ebay; perhaps the next seller will have more luck?  Royal Mail is unable/unwilling to deal with the level of 'lost' postage (these are not really lost) and they certainly don't want to spend the money by returning to the sender.  Instead it's far better and certainly more profitable to ship to BELFAST, where it's stored until it can be bought by the auction house. This surely is a crime - akin to being mugged, but paying for the 'privilege'; except it's happening on a grand scale?

I had an item damaged in the post (at least six times) and I sent it to the RM claims office, to prove it really had been damaged.  I received compensation (manufacturing cost ONLY) but I asked for the return of the item - a print.  It was duly returned, but only after Royal Mail had defaced it, with a black marker pen.  What kind of organization, has such low regard for peoples' possessions as to do that, particularly as they had already damaged it beyond reasonable use.  Oh yeah... the same that deals with millions of items of post and should be treating it with care - not damaging it and certainly not loosing it!  I was then told to stop making claims and the last time (January) only received a book of 6 First Class stamps, which didn't even cover the cost of postage.

But what can be done - it seems absolutely nothing!   I should have bought shares.

[sparklesbrightly]

I buy quite a lot of items from ebay and I must say that since November/December I have had 6 items not delivered and I feel like a fraud having to email sellers informing them, I really do feel they do not believe me. I know as a seller when I get INR claim I always check buyers feedback automatically and you can usually get a feeling about a transaction.

I don't know if the non-delivery is an area thing..who knows? I have since moved from the South East to South West and I can honestly say i never had any problems until I moved areas. That's probably a complete coincidence but it makes you wonder how and why this happens?

I too have sent numerous parcels via signed for delivery with RM 3 weeks ago and none of the info has been updated and still shows as being accepted at said Post office. That usually happens when they have tried to deliver and left a calling card, but it is of no help to me as a seller if somebody claims INR.

I bought something from ebay over a week ago with delivery stated 3-5 days so I am keeping everything crossed that it arrives as I am going to feel bad contacting the seller about INR and I really shouldnt feel like that 

[norseway53]

Well, non-receipt of 6 items presumably from 6 different sellers in 6 different areas would suggest to me that there was a problem with your local delivery office.  In your position I'd be making very firm enquiries with the manager there.

Some people have problems because they live in blocks of flats where access can be problematic and if this is the case with you then you might need to get advice from RM.

[mpdesignerwear]

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@danielsportssupplies wrote:

Hi Everyone,

We have had 4 INR  claims this week alone ,all our mail is dropped off  in  sealed sacks, l I have got to the stage where I ask the buyer to open a case up in the resolution center after pointing out that all our mail  is checked by the prevention team and we are obliged to pass any INR details to the Rm investigations team and guess what not one of the 4  has opened a case up which if they was genuine they would.

I have had 1 opened case in the last 3 months and in the feed back I put INR resent thank you for your patience and understanding thus to warn other sellers if this happens again.

Cherie

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Good comment for feedback !!

[bmw_r1200gsa]

Why do tracked and signed for nearly always arrive but normal post go missing if its RM thats loosing parcels it should it not be a 50/50 split?

Eventually the buyers will loose out as nearly everything will end up tracked and signed for if the increase in INR claims carries on increasing at the rate it is.

Refunding £200+ a week now that will buy a lot of signed for postage 

[towelposter]

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@bmw_r1200gsa wrote:

Why do tracked and signed for nearly always arrive but normal post go missing if its RM thats loosing parcels it should it not be a 50/50 split?

Eventually the buyers will loose out as nearly everything will end up tracked and signed for if the increase in INR claims carries on increasing at the rate it is.

Refunding £200+ a week now that will buy a lot of signed for postage 

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Many of us aren't losing parcels at all.  Lost parcels in 2013 cost me less than £100, far less than adding tracking to 300+ parcels.

The last INR I have paid out on was a poarcel sent on the 22nd October, so even over the Christmas rush I didn't have any INR worries.

[freakypeepshow]

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@towelposter wrote:

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Many of us aren't losing parcels at all.  Lost parcels in 2013 cost me less than £100, far less than adding tracking to 300+ parcels.

The last INR I have paid out on was a poarcel sent on the 22nd October, so even over the Christmas rush I didn't have any INR worries.

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One hundred pound loss on 300 sales looks like a scandallously high amount to me, especially when you consider that the £100 comes straight out of your profits.

I think were all agreed that we dont like having to use a recorded or tracked service but just having to subserviently accept losses on ebay because it may be cheaper is not right either.

[beyondcosmetics-ltd]

Hi all,

Re reason i have popped in to the forum just for this reason. We have notices a huge ammount of lost items, almost 10% of everything we send, recorded or not, makes you wonder about the honesty of people recieving the items! 

  Ebay should create something in buyers feedback that everyone can see, how many claims of item not recieved they have done.

Unfortunately still no protection for sellers at all nor from Ebay or Royal mail.  

   We had a claim that is still going on from December, Royal mail are normally waiting on buyers to confirm in writing that item not recieved before issuing refund: why as a buyer would you bother doing that if you already had a refund and probably half of the time item as wel!!