topic Re: Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes in Seller Central

Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes

drmjrossmba — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:43:27 GMT

HI all

Just a warning about using royal mail parcel mailboxes. I posted an item recently in a new parcel mailbox, with proof posting. The item got lost and tracking failed. When I spoke to Royal Mail they said they wouldnt deal with me because Ebay organised the simple delivery and are therefore the client. Ebay refunded the buyer from my own funds. I had to appeal the decision to then get my money back, and you may have to also.

Re: Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes

vinylscot — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:51:23 GMT

If eBay refunded the buyer from their own funds, what were you appealing for? You were not out of pocket at all.

Re: Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes

drmjrossmba — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 10:23:19 GMT

ahem…the fact royal mail lost my parcel? if i hadnt used simple delivery id be able to claim compensation…

Re: Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes

jckl1957 — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:09:44 GMT

When sellers use Simple Delivery and the buyer opens a case saying they have not received the item, Ebay deal with the case, refund the buyer, and pass the buyer's payment to the seller.

However, you would need to have proof of posting.

Do you have any proof of posting when you use a RM parcelbox?

Is that the point of your post?

If you use a RM parcel mailbox, there is no proof that you sent the item, so Ebay will expect you to refund.

Re: Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes

drmjrossmba — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:21:25 GMT

no, I did have proof of posting which you can get using the royal mail phone app. but the later tracking wasnt working.

Re: Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes

drmjrossmba — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:23:29 GMT

but if you didnt it would be even harder to get ebay to pay you

Re: Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes

jckl1957 — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:27:24 GMT

OK. Thank you - I didn't understand how the parcel mailboxes worked.

When you used the app to confirm the item had been sent, was your selling account updated - did Ebay know the item had been dispatched?

Re: Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes

drmjrossmba — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:38:27 GMT

no, the ebay tracking didnt work at all. the item got marked as dispatched when i printed the label. but the tracking code is in the ebay listing didnt even show it was posted, even though the full info was available via the royal mail website. that website had better but not great info as they lost the parcel. so all in all a bad experience and I will not be using these postboxes again. the annoyance of that is that i will have to spend 30p for collection but that isnt chargeable.

Re: Warning re Royal Mail parcel mailboxes

sml192 — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:49:26 GMT

@drmjrossmba wrote:
so all in all a bad experience and I will not be using these postboxes again. the annoyance of that is that i will have to spend 30p for collection but that isnt chargeable.

If you book the Royal Mail collection through eBay when generating the label then there is no charge.