Royal Mail Changes to Second Class Delivery 28th July 2025

[knit-in-styles]

Has there been any information from eBay re RM changes from today in that Second Class deliveries will now be every alternate day and no Saturday deliveries.

I cannot see any announcements and hope they are going to change the Estimated Delivery Dates. 😖

[xyz307xyz]

It is but [as you say] not enforced.

(from 2022): https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Chat-with-the-eBay-Community/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Community-Tea...

I would think the policy (if it was enforced) is mainly looking to prevent a seller using a worse/cheaper option than listed e.g. slower or untracked/unguaranteed (when stated it would be). RM 2nd is faster than OC5 (according to ebay) and neither need to be tracked.

Clearly ebay could enforce the policy or an updated one, in the future, as per the linked comment.

[bazinga-games]

I made a purchase from a business seller several days ago and when I went to pay I was shown similar - it said that the seller's standard delivery would arrive in 1-2 days and that their next day service would arrive later than that...  🙄 😕   (I wish I'd taken a screenshot to prove it, but didn't think at the time).  It's madness!

[custom-giftsuk]

 The reason for having a "other courier" option is because some people dont use Royal Mail for whatever reason they have. I know of a few customers who have refused to have Royal Mail deliver for one reason or another - mainly to do with disputes with RM delivery (ie never delivering) but that is between them and RM. 

There are only a few courier/delivery companies that deliver nationwide, and eBay should provide options for all of them for Business Sellers and do away with the "other courier" option

[knit-in-styles]

One thing that puzzles me is all the Inpost Lockers that have sprung up everywhere. In our small town they are all over with many being installed over the past year. I know Evri used to use them until earlier this year and know from when I sell on Vinted 99% of the sales are posted to these lockers.

It would  be interesting to see if eBay started to use these which could make life a bit easier for many people.

For Simple Delivery it is Royal Mail or Evri. Most people chose Evri as they are probably cheaper. Our local Evri shop is a nightmare though as they regularly shut the shop with a note on the door " back in 5 minutes" which turns into half an hour.

[personalised-stickers-for-you]

I wish I could use another courier but there's no other choice when it comes to sending a letter🤷🏻‍

[custom-giftsuk]

You can use other couriers for any item even letter size, but yes it becomes unsustainable due to price. What people dont realise is the actual size of Royal Mail being able to deliver items all across the UK, day in day out. Even if a fraction of RM deliveries went  to any one courier company, that courier company would collapse within days unable to deal with the sheer amount of items.
RM has the infrastructure in place to deal. Sadly it's run by muppets.

[jbrusby]

Just based on my last 3 weeks of selling, 2nd Class Large Letter now has a delivery time of anywhere between 1 day and 3 weeks. Had three 2nd Class that were posted last Saturday and delivered on Monday, one posted 2 weeks ago that took 10 days, but one posted 3 weeks ago only just turned up yesterday. I've already had to send out 2 replacements for ones that subsequently arrived.   

It's entirely unpredictable and doesn't even fit with Royal Mail's stated timeframes, so goodness knows how anyone - businesses or Ebay - deal with that.

[typo_lee]

This is why our INRs are now through the roof!

[personalised-stickers-for-you]

This is my bug bear! I live on the south coast and both of these items were bought on the same day. One I dispatched the same day to Lanarkshire and its estimated to arrive by the 6th August. The other one was purchased the same day but posted to Wales this morning and it has a delivery date of between this tomorrow and Saturday the 2nd! Both were 2nd class letter. I know that eBay estimates the delivery date by location but both of these are quite a way from me. They're not even using  Royal Mails estimate of 2-3 days.

[theplaceforlace]

That is interesting.  I am so stressed about this.  I post mainly 2nd class large letters.  My dispatch is set at 2 days and 2nd class should be 3 to 5 days (probably now 6-7 days) but sales I made last night have a dispatch date of 1st August and estimated delivery of 1st August to 2nd August (2nd class).  

I am getting INR's every day now and losing money on issuing refunds for items not received according to ebay's estimated delivery dates.  Which are WAY OUT OF RANGE.

I work so hard to dispatch before the 2 days and I think there is an algorithm that shortens the estimated delivery time based on the performance of the seller.  So, by frantically getting my orders out early I am shooting myself in the foot?

[personalised-stickers-for-you]

"So, by frantically getting my orders out early I am shooting myself in the foot?"  I've had exactly the same thought!

[handstitcheruk]

As RM 2nd class is now not delivered on Saturdays, how is ebay able to estimate a Sa turday delivery?  Makes no sense to me.  When I post an item RM 2nd class today Thursday 31st July, the earliest I would expect it to be delivered would be Tuesday 5th August to fit in with RM delivery estimate.  The aim would be within 3 working weekdays which would make the last expected day Thursday 7th August.  This is useful from RM website.  Maybe ebay could look at it - it is not exactly hidden.

[theplaceforlace]

I just did that - I have 2 days dispatch and changed a couple of listings to

Other Courier 3-5 working days and above it, in green, is Get it in 2-3 days.

?????????????

[custom-giftsuk]

To be fair and honest here.... I think a lot of buyers have just cranked things up to 11 with the INRs of late. 

I dont know if its site wide, but we've had 2 INR's today and 2 yesterday from buyers complaining items havent arrived. However these 4 claims have come in at just a few minutes past minute on the first day that they could open an INR, so I'm unsure if its just coincidence that this has happened or somewhere online there is a post teling how people should claim INRs.

Also we've had 2 cases from different buyers where tracking showed the items were delivered before they opened INRs which I didnt think was possible but apparently is. 

[darth_baggins]

I asked exactly this on the weekly chat yesterday and got the usual non-reply. From this and other responses it seems eBay are still working out how to deal with RM's 'planned' change that actually happened already and was announced months ago.

[kyanyama]

They (eBay) already stated they are going to 'monitor' the situation - despite knowing the estimated delivery dates are practically impossible!

But I wonder what's going to happen when Bank Holidays affect deliveries?  Most are on a Monday.

[typo_lee]

Postie told me 2nd class has been delivered only on certain days of the month for weeks! He is also said 2st class is also on alternate days. This is why our INRs are now so high and has confirmed why this has been happening.

[moldosgifts]

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@sml192 wrote:

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@typo_lee wrote:

Postie has just told me these so called changes arent official as yet but have been trialled in various areas over the UK? Can anyone tell me if it is official at all?

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These are the official announcements from Ofcom and Royal Mail:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service-so-it-delivers-what-people-nee...

https://www.royalmail.com/receiving/the-future-of-letter-deliveries

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Thanks for the links just had a look and royal mail are telling lies again, using their own example list of day of posting and day of delivery .

Week A day of posting Monday delivery day is Thursday but they don't deliver that Day of week A so must be the Thursday of week B  making it 8 working days not 3. again if posted Friday week A, then you look at week B Tuesday delivering Friday on a day they don't deliver so will not get there till the Monday of week A.

And these are at best delivery times delivering on a day they don't actually deliver.

So they should say anytime inside of 2 week period.

i can imagine when you complain to royal mail they will say you sent on the wrong week we are on week B not week A.

[shaman7uk]

Think it will be weeks before this all kicks in properly as I am getting 2nd class large letter items I posted Monday being delivered yester day and this morning according to the QR code scans, so clearly some 2nd class is getting through any week day of the week.

[darth_baggins]

I'm sure (or at least hope) some posties or DO managers with common sense will see that it makes more sense if they have, say 2 1st class and 5 2nd class to deliver, if they're going to take the 1st class they may as well take the 2nd class rather than go another day.

Or am I hoping for too much?

I've put my LL items to 5 day despatch now and letters to 6 days. I don't like doing it and I'm still getting ridiculously optimistic EDDs but at least it will prevent INRs for a bit longer.