Our local post office has been taking part in a trial to change how surcharged items are handled by Royal Mail. Eg if you have a fee to pay on your item. Typically the seller would send the item and the buyer would then if there was an issue have a grey card with details to pay for the item to be released.
In the past couple of mornings I have been in there have been two examples land in the revenue bags with the changes. One was an ebay label (purchased through packlink) the other similar but from Etsy's platform. In both cases the sellers had stated the labels were for large letter post items, in both cases they were small parcels. In both cases these were items collected by the postmen using the collect service from Royal mail.
In these instances its clear parcels are not checked as they would be in the post office etc.
Royal Mail instead of delivering the items to the buyers are now returning them to the senders to pay the surcharge. Obviously if the surcharge is not paid then items will be returned to revenue department. This is a fundamental change where senders details are clearly displayed on pre paid labels. How long this trial lasts I don't know and I have no further details on the roll out in the longer term. But this is to make you aware of the subtle change.
My business was a finalist in the ebay business awards 2023.
