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?

[chrishunter1978]

I am losing the will to sell on eBay at the moment.  I am having half a dozen lost packages a week.  I am now going to move on to tracked as I can't take it anymore.  It is going to damage my sales massively but what do I do?   Amazingly there are only a tiny few that do turn up and turn up after a postage delay.  Even with international packages that can get stuck in customs nobody ever says 'hey it turned up!'  I only deliver now to a few countries as I have lost so much money.  eBay will seemingly only do something about it when sellers start to jump ship and they start losing money.  It seems simple enough in theory, put an option to flag up the buyers who never receive there items. 

I have only had one item not delivered before and that was suspicious as I won some valuable collectables at 99p on an auction.

I am open to any ideas of trying to reduce my losses.

chris

[chrishunter1978]

Hi,

I would just like to say how helpful this was. Great advise thanks.

chris

[colinsfoto]

Well your T&C's leave a lot to be desired for a start. "We will issue a full refund on receipt, excluding the original delivery charge" is illegal anyway.Maybe dodgy T&C's are attracting more dodgy buyers than most of us get?

[powerp0192]

Interesting bit of news on this subject as there has been a Postman in Birmingham jailed for eight months for dumping at least 30,000 items, it does not mention over what period.

[andy4077th]

I too have had packages gone missing. Even recorded packages that tell me the item is still being processed through the office I posted them at. It's frustrating and filling the forms in are time consuming and at times, a waste of time and effort. They ask for original receipts for items you may have been given or bought second hand etc.

That said, I am a Postman and know that between November and the first week of January, there are a lot of parcels going through the system, therefore simply more parcels means more losses. It shouldn't happen but it does and even people that have signed for recorded parcels will argue that it wasn't them etc.

My policy now is to charge 1st class recorded for items, but offer 2nd class too. Any high value items I offer 1st class recorded but send Special delivery. I lose a little, but it's a couple of pound for peace of mind and I am covered on the higher rate of compensation if it goes missing.

[colinsfoto]

Well Andy, if you really are a postie you must know that recorded delivery is  just thrown in the same bags as standard mail and a lot does not get signed for on delivery, let alone show delivery online.  Much of the time it is a serious waste of money for a non tracked service.

[vicky6288]

MyHermes is a good way of posting items (you pay for and print postage address labels off your computer by entering postcode & house number).  It starts at £3.15 for any items under 1kg and everything is fully tracked with signature obtained at other end so I have already caught one person this month who claimed they had not received item.  I was able to obtain information such as time of delivery, address delivered to, name of person who signed for goods and electronic view of signature.  Their tracking is equivalent to Royal Mail Special Delivery.

I emailed this info to customer and never heard from them again.  It is more reliable than Royal Mail signed for as like somebody else said, the postman does not always obtain a signature and when you check tracking number it just says 'being progressed through delivery system'.

Also MyHermes customer service better than Royal Mail because if something is being delayed, MyHermes will contact the delivery driver and then get back to you and let you know what has happened.

MyHermes is also much cheaper than Royal Mail for heavier items such as shoes and books.

If something does go missing Myhermes email you a claim form which you just fill out and email back same day with no attachments so without having to find all the various receipts for proof of value etc.  Do not know yet how good they are at paying out claims and their delivery times are possibly 1 or 2 days slower than royal mail, but it is good for the customer to be able to access full tracking information of their package by going on to Myhermes website. 

[bankhaunter]

but it is good for the customer to be able to access full tracking information of their package by going on to Myhermes website.

Even when it may say the item was delivered and signed for at a time when the buyer was not actually at home to receive it.

Have you never seen all the complaints about myHermes?

http://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.myhermes.co.uk

[colinsfoto]

Sounds like vicky has been lucky with MyHermes. I can barely remember the last time I signed for a package delivered by that dubious outfit. I do recall having to sign for one on a sheet of A4 paper. I noticed that most of the other sigs were identical squiggles, so I guess  the driver had signed for them. Very few had any name printed beside the squiggle.

[vicky6288]

Yes I have seen the complaints about Myhermes but you can get a copy of the actual signature if you contact their customer support.  I know you can get problems with Myhermes as well.  Their website and setup is good but you do get some of their drivers not great.

I had one customer where it took over 3 weeks for them to get their item because the driver refused to go down their road because there were too many pot holes! (the tracking said 'out for delivery - access denied' every day for 3 weeks)

I had to contact customers services about 3 times, but in the end the driver did deliver the item because they were made to!

Another customer, they were worried because after they tracked their package it said it had been delivered when they had not received it - but after contacting Myhermes customer service on phone, they spoke to driver and it had been delivered to neighbour opposite so problem was resolved.

Myhermes does have alot of problems but at least you can speak to someone on the end of the phone and they usually resolve problem, also the tracking is better if you have dishonest customers trying to say they have not received item.

I do still use Royal Mail, but find they are worse when an item is reported lost.

I always use Myhermes for heavier items.

[bankhaunter]

but after contacting Myhermes customer service on phone, they spoke to driver and it had been delivered to neighbour opposite so problem was resolved.

It might have never occurred if the driver had done their job properly in the first place.

[*brilliantbeads*]

Still, this is only my opinion and to be honest I am a bit hacked off with ebay at the moment as my shop says I have nothing to Sell!!  I just put it in holiday mode for a few days and thats the way they treat me.  I thought I had paid for a Service whether on holiday or not, my Items should still be showing for people to bookmark to come back!!

mishelflo

If you have no items showing in your shop when on holiday mode this is because of the boxes you clicked or did not un-click.

Shop holiday settings click Turn On

then make sure the box in front of:

"Hide and block purchases for my fixed price listingsNote: This doesn't affect your auction-style listings." is unclicked.

that way your items will still show, but your message will be in place.

Kath

[darbrorcmodels]

Some of the claims will be genuine - a look at the buyer's feedback (left and received) may give you a clue. 

Looking at a buyers feedback received will not tell you jack. They will only EVER have positive feedback.

[0777timbo17]

Hi, YES!!! I have had the same problem!! Over the past two weeks I have had two seperate buyers both claiming to have not recieved thier goods. Lucky (if thats the right word!) they have been fairly low cost items, 0.99p- £2.50 + P+P. In both cases I had no option to re-fund total costs to each bidder. Only fair as long as they were genuine! Both items that had gone missing were both sent 2nd class, wonder if there is a conection here??? Either way, like may others it leaves me out of pocket!! Anyway, thanks for raising this issue!!

[stamps88]

I just had an item returned on March 15th, 2013 that was sent January 5th, 2013.  The item was delivered on February 18th, 2013, but was no longer needed by the buyer.  The invoice and address on the package matched, so it was only the fault of royal mail.  I was one of 5 packages mailed at the same time and all the others made it. 

I can only say that Royal Mail is having serious issues and are working to put themselves out of business!!!!!

[jenna_1980]

I get 'where is my item' emails all the time from Europe... usually i ask them to wait a few more days and then i never hear back, as the item arrives.

These past two months, ive had a lost item to a customer who orders regularly (no reason to disbelieve them), and i sent a replacement.  Now the replacement hasnt arrived either!  Normally id think the customer was pulling a fast one, but given who it is i genuinely believe them. 

Now ive had another two items go missing.

It's starting to leave me no option but to do trackable post only, but if we are meant to offer free postage to customer, then item cost price would dramatically increase.  It's insane! 

The only option for us sellers is bring in some high profit items to absorb the loss from the loss/minimal profit items.

[lee_bay_ltd]

4 items 'not received' notifications in the last week! All international. I usually only get 1 every few months, so this is really getting me down now. I wouldn't mind but with sales down and all costs/fee's going up! I'm about to throw the towel in!

I also believe that they are getting them. All ask for tracking numbers (knowing full well there isn't one) and they can see there isn't one on the package (could put a pseudo number on?).

But there's no point paying for tracking on items that are worth less than £10, that also only gets tracked up until it gets to the airport? RM don't track it after that.

Getting very @#@#@#......

[its_my_hat]

Yes, on our other user id we are powersellers and we have received 3 negatives on amazon for items not received this last month, all are international, we've also 2 cases opened on ebay for INR and we have been replacing items regularly, Royal Mail are quick to whack the prices up but it looks as if since Jan the service had dropped to an all time low.

[colinsfoto]

In the last three months I've had 2 international and one UK item go missing. That is 3 out of 450 sent. Most overseas seem to be arriving fast. I just had feedback from a Norwegian buyer 4 days after posting. Last week I spotted 2 days to Belgium, so it is not the same picture that I am seeing.

[lee_bay_ltd]

yes but I only usually lose about 1 in 400 items sent (i have another larger business account), but this last week for some reason it's really getting to me, as it's a big jump up in numbers. I use clearly printed address and return labels. Nothing has come back to me and I don't like being ripped off.