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?

[shapewearuk]

I'd just like to add that there is a noticeable difference in INR depending on the target audience of the product/niche. Obviously.

The fact is some people would rather claim INR instead of pay to return an item they don't like/doesn't fit. Scum.

Genuine buyers usually have a bit more patience / may want a replacement. The warning signs for me is usually a message saying: "I needed this item for an event/occasion but it hasn't arrived - refund me in full".

Those that are blaming Royal Mail need to get a reality check.

[towelposter]

No INRs on ebay since November on 2k+ sales.

Do you address your labels differently from ebay to your own site?  For example if you use ebay labels the address includes United Kingdom on them which makes them stand out as likely to be ebay items.

Do you have anything else on the parcels that identify them as being an ebay item, such as your user id in the return address?

[theeboon]

I want to chime in as a buyer, not as a seller, as I see a lot of negative comments about buyers lying about the arrival of parcels.

I have been on a buying kick since last december and have been ordering from UK stock sellers left and right, on eBay and Amazon Marketplace. Since 2014 I have not received maybe 25% of everything I ordered, about 10 CDs I ordered since beginning of the year have been 'lost' in the post. Lately I have to send e-mails about missing items way too regularly.

Trust me, it's just as frustrating for the person buying as it is for the seller.

[shapewearuk]

Hi.

Nope. There is no way to distinguish it is an eBay item I am dispatching. They also get collected with the (many) websites mail.

The facts remain:

I am 10x more likely to recieve an INR on eBay sales versus website sales in one particular niche.

Why?

- The type of buyer that uses eBay .

- Buyers are aware that they the "system" is flawed, and easy to scam sellers.

- Niche. Womens fashion stands out as my most scammed account. Some people would rather commit fraud than return an item they do not like/does not fit.

Of course, this varies depending on niche. Some niches rarely get an INR - because of the maturity and expectactions of buyer.

Am I complaining?

Yes and No. Losing £ x amount to scammers form part of my calculations when I decide if something is profitable/worth doing on eBay.

Conclusion:

- It is not Royal Mail. Easy scapegoat.

- Some niches suffer more than others.

- eBay is rife with unscrupulous buyers.

- Prepare yourself for disappointment if you sell to teenage girls.

[inks4printing]

We have traded on eBay for 9 years and send about 700-1200 items per week, up until the past 4 months we relied upon eBay for 100% of sales.

We got a few from website & Amazon, what we noticed was there was virtually no complaints of non receipt from website sales & Amazon, but eBay there is lot's of complaints about non receipt and not as described, I wonder why??

Just recently we have had a 20% swing in other portals to sell our products and I can tell you all the amount of claims for non receipt are virtually non existent, whilst on eBay we still get lot's per week.

I would also add I personally buy lots of items on eBay and in 9 years of buying I only had 1 item not turn up so the Royal Mail are not that bad are they?

I think the reality is there are many buyers on eBay simply playing the system that eBay allow them to scam us sellers.

[estreetshops]

it is ebay, that is targeted all the time. I have been trading with 2 ebay shops 1 Amazon and 1 Play.com since 2008. 

I have had 1 issue with a Amazon buyer about 4 years ago. everything else has been ebay. The system is flawed. I also have been buying off ebay for years, and i cannot even remember last time I never had an item turn up. I get stuff that comes late all the time but it comes.

 I get the great quotes "where is my tracking number", when you clearly do not get a tracking number on standard post. etc etc etc. I think I have had 1 person take the optional SPECIAL DELIVERY and pay for it in the last year. 

I had the classic Italy one the other day. 0 FB where is my item 2 months later blah blah. Great when I had actually had it tracked and could tell him, "it is in your console getting played right now", heres the proof you signed for it. I did a report a buyer as that does anything.

I know royal mail have now set up a special team to deal with ebay transactions, and will monitor certain mail now. These are the guys who end up paying out at the end. AM sure they have quite a big database off suspect address's (they actually do)....

[e-time]

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@inks4printing wrote:
We have traded on eBay for 9 years and send about 700-1200 items per week, up until the past 4 months we relied upon eBay for 100% of sales.

We got a few from website & Amazon, what we noticed was there was virtually no complaints of non receipt from website sales & Amazon, but eBay there is lot's of complaints about non receipt and not as described, I wonder why??

Just recently we have had a 20% swing in other portals to sell our products and I can tell you all the amount of claims for non receipt are virtually non existent, whilst on eBay we still get lot's per week.

I would also add I personally buy lots of items on eBay and in 9 years of buying I only had 1 item not turn up so the Royal Mail are not that bad are they?

I think the reality is there are many buyers on eBay simply playing the system that eBay allow them to scam us sellers.

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Totally agree with this.

I get the occasional missing item with Amazon, never with my own website but consistently with Ebay.

Something seriously needs to be done.

I find Royal Mail pretty good on the whole, although once they lost a whole bag of large letters of mine - 14 INR's, thanks.

Also today I went to collect a parcel of mine from the depot, and they had managed to lose it since trying to deliver it yesterday. Oddly enough someone else down there was ranting the same thing had happened to them only a week ago.

[flashmemo_uk]

I totally agree with you. We sell more on Amazon than Ebay and  receive 10 times less NRG claims. Ebay just promote buyer to make claims. If they do not receive their goods in 3-4 days they claim NRG , when they receive the goods they do not close their claims.

[ribbonsltd]

It is getting worse.

More claims raised with no communication.  Ebay do not even say when the claim is raised so it can be a day or so before I know

for sure.

I have had royal mail parcels all at same time arrive at same address up to 10 days apart !   I have refunded on this basis after the first arrives and then told the second did actually arrive but then the buyer refuses to pay me back for the wrongly refunded.

I have to jump through many hoops to try and get the money.

In the UK it seems to be a national sport to get things off Ebay for free.

Royal Mail are a national disgrace. It is not even the woeful managment fault.  It is posties who play fast and loose with the rules.  Very convenient on the local level but a gaping hole in the process for online sellers.

I am going to look for alternatives especially as the insane pricing for small parcels in the UK now.  Royal Mail are pricing themselves out of the market and their reliability is at an all time low.

[tomsjan]

Whatever do your ribbons weigh that you charge £12 for a courier delivery????  They can't be that heavy or you wouldn't be offering First Class postage (why bother when 2nd mostly gets there the next day?).  I sent a 10.7 kg parcel overnight to Scotland for £8 so I suspect you could get a far better rate.  I have stopped using RM for just about everything now as Hermes have reinstated their 1 kilo rate and I get tracking and doorstep collection thrown in for 18p more than the RM with no stupid size limits on the boxes.  The scammers can't argue with a tracking number - they still try but it once it is loaded into an INR case they don't have a leg to stand on.

[nwelectronics2014]

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@**daisysboutique** wrote:

Hi 

I just wanted to put on ebay our situation.  We send nationwide and everything via Royal Mail’s Signed For service, so we have proof of delivery.  On a number of occasions we have experienced buyers claiming non-delivery. Royal Mail's on-line info just states "still being processed" even though months have passed since posting.  Items were never returned. We submitted claims but received poor excuses and in one case a packet of stamps!  Becoming frustrated and annoyed we decided to evaluate all items sent for the month of January.  We discovered 46 items were never signed for.  In a nutshell we could have more claims for non-delivery than we receive.  You may already be aware that the seller has to submit the claim and compensation is minimal, the seller is out of pocket due to loss of sale, admin etc etc.  Infuriated I decided to request previous claims to be re-opened and fully investigated, and I submitted a multiple claims form for service failure (obtained via RM’s website).  Evidence to support my grievance.  I then posted one copy to RMs customers complaints/compensation dept and the other to Moya Greene CEO.  I pointed out that their service failure is not only fraudulent in that they are taking money for a service they are clearly not providing but they are also placing my business in a position where we are vulnerable to fraud.  I have received an acknowledgment from Moya Greene that the matter will be investigated. 

The process of all of this is very time consuming but I intend to submit and accrue more evidence and am more than willing to take it to Ofcom if not satisfied.  I urge everyone in the same situation to adopt this approach.  It is painful and an admin nightmare, but RM is placing you as the seller in a very vulnerable position.  After all RM charge enough!  Surely obtaining a signature shouldn't be too difficult!

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We've noticed a similar issue. International Signed For, the signature is not always obtained. This doesn't mean it wasn't received, just mean the postie didn't follow protocol and get the signature. We've had a higher success rate with International Airsure, as a signature isn't required I guess it takes less effort for the postie to scan the barcode confirmation on their handheld computer.

As for practical advice. I would stop sending via International Signed For, you are clearly not getting the service so its flushing money down the toilet. Invest in a few fake tracking barcode stickers and place them on your package. This alone with minimise INR cases, it has halved mine.  The few cases you do get you can try to resolve it in the resolution centre, you have 8 days to scare the buyer or to allow time for it to "arrive" before they escalate. On day 7, if the buyer hasn't closed the case you can send a replacement via Signed For and ultimately win the case or issue a refund if you feel he is genuine. But either way, the money sending the odd replacement and issuing the odd refund will save you money over sending everything International Signed For.  Also on our international listing we jack up the dispatch time to "3 days" and select "economy out of abroad post". Using this parameter it puts the arrival date to about 3 weeks. This means  buyer cant open a case for 3 weeks, so the buyer is forced to talk to you to resolve first. 

We only send International Signed For if customers order multiples or pay for express. Otherwise we employ the strategy above. It isn't perfect but it has minimised INR significantly and saves us more money.

[tomsjan]

Strangely I don't get any problems with International, never charge the extra £5 for Signed For and even offer surface as an option, warning them that it could take a long time but I am finding it mostly gets there in 2 weeks to US and Australia, 3 to Brazil. Most are now choosing surface if they are prepared to wait but I am annoyed that it is not available through Paypal still after years of being told "it's coming". I am ashamed to say it is the Brits I have the most trouble with.

[Anonymous]

As a supplier of pool accesssories you can imagine that last summer was very busy.... more so as Royal mail were 'losing' mail every day. On one day we have two complete sacks of pool nets just vanish. We were on a franking system back then so had our details available from that and alos our own return address on the back. Yet out of 236 parcels lost last year only one came back to use! I actually threatened legal action and had the fraud and securities manager look into it, and to be fair he was great, full investiagtion but admitted that poor record keeping at depots etc meant he couldnt conclude his investigation. he did agree though that someone was taking stuff at the depot!

the worst bit is claiming..... what a long winded system. Hardly worth it some times.

It's just so annouying that R.M make you wait over 10days for it to be classed as lost yet the customer considers it missing if just a  day later than the ESTIMATE ( yes they dont under stand its an estimate not guaranteed date!) . with this new 45 day claim thing ebay are bringing in it will be a nightmare... who waits 45 days?! Oh yes a customer of mind who claimed he forgot he had ordered a £60 accessories set in July then tried to claim a refund from me for not arriving in Sept!!!!

sick of Ebay... really pushing our own web site now. Strangely... never had an inr from the website!

[evb0779]

I have been using hermes for the past 18 months with great sevice , I have an agreement with my local collection man and he calls daily to pick up regardless of whether I have parcels or not. They now have a lower rate for small items a few pence dearer than Royal Mail .
This service is tracked so has cut down on the number of items not received the very few I have had have been genuine and as they are tracked and customers can see for themselves I have posted and on time they are very understanding . Also the rigmarole of filling in forms for Royal Mail claims , a phone call to hermes and a small online form job done

[masbro1]

hi

I can say beyond doubt that Royal Mail UK delivery is losing more and more items.

I post around 300 items per year in the Uk, usually signed for and sometimes tracked,

the problem is signed for, many go missing, when I check on line, I get 

we have your parcel

and that is the last of it, phone calls, form filling (online which is never processed) and back to physical forms,

most times no compensation and just daft responses, like we return your postage and thats it,

I think some people are just stealing stuff and Royal Mail does not give a damn,

I lose aound 8 items a year costing me 10% of my profit, I am now looking for alternatives for posting items,

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@yadancer2009 wrote:

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?

---

[*j-m-e*]

I'm a very infrequent ebay user. I've lived at my current home for 8 years and never had any problems with the post, but just recently I bought (separately) a book and a CD from the States. Both appear to have gone missing. I am beginning to wonder whether postal workers target ebay packages, especially those from abroad, although whether the problem is stateside or with the UK I cannot say. The turnaround time for these problems is very slow, it's beginning to put me off ebay altogether.

[maddog.jones]

I've had a few issues with Royal Mail.

They've left my Items in waste bins, on the doopstep, under my car.. they sign for Items using my name and they've red carded me without knocking when I've been in. They have "lost" 3 items so far this year. One occasion I was standing on my drive way talking to my neighbour when the postman turned up in a van with a red card but no Item... It's p*ss poor service and why I tend not to buy from sellers who use Royal mail or Parcelforce. 

To add to this poor service, this morning I recieved an ebay item for a seller in the U.S. I say received.. I got a box with all the packaging, foam pellets and bubble warp including the packaging for the acutal Item except no Item itself. Now it does have a 'damaged in transit' label on it but It's obvious that someone at the post office has opened it and taken the item. The box has been well sealed with many layers of tape but you can see that the tape was cut with something sharp as the cuts to the tape are clean. we all know tape tends to stretch and warp or tear.

I would have rejected but the postie did the usual 'dump and run' and signed for the item his/herself so I couldn't reject it. I've telephoned to complain but they did the usual 'So what.. contact the seller'.

It messes things up for honest ebay users. I can't give the seller a negative cos it's not their fault. And I'm going to be down £30 because the postie signed for it. 

So yeah moral of the story.. Royal mail - All you need is theft..  

[puzzlingtimes2014]

Very grateful to an earlier blogger. Recieved INR query from customer. Sent her proof of postage and on bloggers advice suggested she contact her local postal depot. They denied knowing anything, but an hour and a half later (5.30pm) she got a knock on the door and there was the postman!

Don't recall who mentioned this, but thankyou very much.

[jenniferl750]

Hi

I have the same thing recently ...but I would like to add that some of it is the Royal Mails fault however last Christmas I had 3 no shows on anther selling medium and 10x's that amount on Ebay! I have drawn my own conclusions

jenni

[jenniferl750]

Just a thought...perhaps we should all leave feedback saying "I am sorry your item didnt turn up" would make it easier

jenni