Is anyone else seeing postage delays at the moment?

[teap0t42]

I've had four INRs in the last two weeks or so, more than I've had in the rest of the year. (Indeed I don't actually recall having any this year before these...)

One turned up half an hour after the buyer opened a case, but the rest are still AWOL. Two replaced, one just opened today where the buyer wants a refund as it's beyond the eBay estimate.  Looking at my postage labels, there are a lot which don't have delivery confirmation yet, but I suspect quite a lot just don't get scanned anyway.

My buyers tend to be honest - I get less than one a year where my spidey sense tingles, so I'm inclined to believe most of these are genuine. Still a long way out from the normal Christmas delays, so is anyone else seeing problems or am I just unlucky?

[typo_lee]

It’s horrendous. I can even tell with the lack of letters we are getting delivered in the week these days 

[style_wise]

Your T&Cs mention that you've just downgraded to 2nd Class. Unfortunately Buyers don't understand practically what this service is only being delivered two days' a week means. So they order on Wednesday and expect the item to be there Monday, for example. To add insult to injury, when holiday post overwhelms Royal Mail my insider says that they set 2nd Class aside until Special, Tracked, Signed and 1st Class backlogs are cleared - so you can expect this situation to worsen in the coming weeks rather than improve. The silver lining is that the Reference Number you receive on all 2nd Class parcels and Large letters over 100g is actually a tracking number that you can enter into eBay, including into INR Cases. This basic internal RM tracking helps Buyers wait more patiently.

[teap0t42]

I really need to edit that, as I switched to 2nd over a year ago...

While I get your point, these INRs were all well past when they should have arrived. For example, the most recent one was posted last Thursday. The first two went missing from the same post drop and again were well over a week after posting before the case was opened.

As an aside, did we ever get clarity about what second class is delivered every other day? Only letter post was mentioned, and my items are large letter. Plus, how many areas has it actually been rolled out to yet?

Unless I'm missing something, it's not tracking, it's just delivery confirmation. If they've not attempted delivery you get nothing. If the postie hasn't scanned the item you get nothing. Looking back through my last three pages of postage labels on here, I'd estimate nearly half of the non-tracked items have not had delivery confirmation - including ones I know have arrived as I've had correspondence with the buyer.

It's a really awkward situation to be honest - paying >£3 for First when my average sale is around £10 just doesn't stack up. Any order of any size I upgrade to RM48 anyway, but the lack of a reliable cost effective service for small items of low value could well be the thing that brings an end to my selling.

[typo_lee]

Or customers will have to pay for tracked post even for low value items. So basically for us they will need to pay £2.55 for RM48 tracked letter post for an item that costs a fiver. Crazy eh. We certainly can’t build that postage cost into our price without putting the item price up by the same amount. We’d be bust. I can see how online selling is going and it’s getting harder. My kids now have to pay on average a fiver to send their online shopping clothes items back to the company they bought them from. Few years ago it used to be free 

[style_wise]

Yes, confirmed for all 2nd Class the delivery schedule is Monday & Wednesday one week, Tuesday & Thursday the following, with no more Saturday deliveries. As you say this is a newer development than your initial switch to 2nd, which is probably why you're seeing more INRs now.

[darth_baggins]

Do you have a source for that? eBay staff insist it's only for letters and it hasn't even been fully adopted yet in all areas.

I don't doubt that there are delays and it's getting worse, but the official line doesn't seem to match what's actually happening.

[the_book_seekers]

I posted something 2nd class LL on Monday, it arrived Tuesday. Now I should be pleased with the speed, but my first thought to wonder what ebay's EDD calculator will do with it. Sad. 

[the_book_seekers]

I should add that it was quicker than a special delivery posted at the same time which was delivered yesterday. 

[style_wise]

Directly from one of the managers of my local Post Office.

[tribalgiftsuk]

I overheard a postman in my local shop this afternoon talking about a new starter they had who posted a whole load of post through one persons door that wasn't for them and that they have a huge backlog of stuff to deliver as some of the new staff that were recruited are not very competent. 

I was shocked as the post in my area is usually really good but i thought if that's the situation here what is going on elsewhere.  Lots of new starters in most sorting office areas.

So far my very few orders seem to be arriving ok. But i think after black Friday it will be chaos with all delivery services.

[honeymonster007]

Posted a couple of letters with 1st class stamps a few Saturdays ago and neither of them turned up until the following Saturday.

Large letters 2nd class seem fine at the min ..touchwood

[direct.gifts]

The official line from the CWU union is that they have agreed with Royal Mail that it is limited to a few pilot areas until the new year. They made a statement about this a few weeks ago.

What is happening in reality though is that Royal Mail are not delivering letter post for days on end. Even with alternative delivery days it wouldnt account how late some of my letter post is.

I fear for Christmas this year, I have this dread that I will be drowning in INR's come December.

[teap0t42]

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@style_wise wrote:

Directly from one of the managers of my local Post Office.

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I'd be slightly cautious with that, as the Post Office and Royal Mail are two separate entities.

Even then, it's not the sort of delay where second might be 4 or 5 days rather than 2 or 3, it's second being 7 days, 8 days, even 10 days.

eBay really do need to get a hold on this, as they appear to be keener to hit us with late despatch ratings rather than updating the delivery guesses to reflect what is actually going on.