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. 😖

[direct.gifts]

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I think eBay have misinterpreted the announcement regarding the changes (as did I in my previous post; apologies) and are incorrect in saying that 2nd Class Large Letters are not affected by the new schedule.  Although there is no specific mention of Large Letters in either Ofcom or Royal Mail's official announcements or, for that matter, in the actual USO ('DUSP Condition')  Ofcom does state in the consultation document (bottom of page 13) that Letters includes Large Letters:

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I think Royal Mail have been deliberate in not mentioning Large Letters. None of the communication given to the public has once mentioned that Large Letters will be impacted, it always talks about letters which most people take as being mostly non essential correspondence

Second Class Large Letters are widely used for non correspondence items such as gifts, ecommerce orders etc. It would generate a lot more public annoyance if they realised exactly what was being impacted

As a business seller I am okay as I use RM48 Large Letters which remains six days a week.

To be honest I think Royal Mail could be a lot clearer on what is actually going on.  

[custom-giftsuk]

I'm fairly sure that Royal Mail have been as clear as they want to be. That way they can change things round at their own discretion without introducing new restrictions but they can move the goalposts by "clarifying" their policy

[theplaceforlace]

Ebay CS rang me today, after I spoke to them yesterday.  I spoke to 3 different CS reps today at length.  None of them could explain why items I sold on Saturday afternoon/evening, that cannot possibly be posted/collected by RM until Monday 4th August, have dispatch date of 4th August and EDD shown to the buyer 4th to 6th August.

They all agreed it is incorrect and delivery would be impossible 2nd class Royal Mail by 4th August and highly unlikely to be delivered by 6th August.

So I.T. responsible for EDDs was contacted for their opinion apparently - and they said it is all working fine and those EDDs are correct.  REALLY?? PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW A DELIVERY DATE THE SAME DATE AS FIRST POSSIBLE DISPATCH DATE AFTER ORDER IS PLACE IS CORRECT??

The final CS rep suggested I alter my dispatch time to 4 days instead of 2.  I told her I've already altered from same day then next day to 2 days to try and lengthen these EDD timescales but to no avail and when I did offer 4 days dispatch the EDD showed as delivery expected BEFORE the dispatch date.

I asked why I would discourage customers from purchasing by offering 4 days dispatch when I actually dispatch same or next day, just to make up for the ludicrously inaccurate EDDs?  Why can't I.T. just get it right?  I said I would be happy to receive a call from I.T. department responsible for EDD predictions and discuss it with them.  

[theplaceforlace]

I think I'm just being punished now for making a fuss!!

Sale today:  Post service 2nd class large letter

Dispatch by 5 Aug at 11.59pm BST

Make sure you send your order within the dispatch time you specified in the listing.

Estimated delivery date shown to buyer: 5 Aug 2025 - 6 Aug 2025

[theplaceforlace]

Another - purchased Saturday night - 2nd class large letter.

Dispatch by 4 Aug at 11.59pm BST

Make sure you send your order within the dispatch time you specified in the listing.

Estimated delivery date shown to buyer: 4 Aug 2025 - 5 Aug 2025

Def being punished!!!

[hugothecockapoo]

Hola mrs lace. You’re getting punished as much as I am. Trust me we are
suffering as much as you are.
Its a mess but working as intended 😡

[qualitycardsandgifts]

INR opened for card posted Wednesday 30th July.    According to the new Royal Mail forecasts, it should have arrived today (Tuesday 5th).   So even the new forecasts are wrong.

Ebay's estimated delivery date 31st July - 1 st August.    This is ridiculous.

[typo_lee]

That is nuts!

[typo_lee]

you need to be careful as if your INRs go to high they will punish you. Ebay hold our payouts 30 days now and I think this is because our INRs are high. So be wary. If you need cashflow then ebay really can affect you without warning.

[personalised-stickers-for-you]

This sold at 7pm last night so will be dispatched today via 2nd Class post and eBay have told the customer it will be there either tomorrow or Friday! This is becoming beyond a joke and is soul destroying.

[direct.gifts]

I see this all the time. Especially for orders on a Friday Evening where the customer is told they will be there Monday or Tuesday. As I won't be posting until Monday there is little chance of them arriving on time.

To cap the stupidity of this I offer an upgrade to 1st class postage which shows exactly the same delivery time as my 2nd Class postage. So why should any buyer pay extra when they see the same delivery dates.

But apparently it is all working as it should be according to ebay.

[typo_lee]

If this is the case then arent you getting loads of INRs therefore trashing your metrics?

[direct.gifts]

I get very few INR's to be fair. I have around 1 case a week opened for non delivery and around 4-5 messages a week from buyers asking where their item is. For the volume I sell this is acceptable.

Even when I get an INR most customers are happy to wait a couple of more days.

I notice it more at seasonal times though. For example Father's day I had customers ordering late in the week saying that the order would be with them by Saturday. I had a few INR cases opened then as the item was late for Father's day.

[typo_lee]

I know for a fact we are hardly getting ANY letter post delivered at present. Had a letter dated the 9th July arrive two days ago. Only thing we are getting delivered by royal mail is parcels

[jlovie]

Part of the problem with this is RM failing to scan items on delivery.

For my 2nd LL & SP I'd estimate at least 1 in 10 don't get scanned, and I only know some are delivered when the buyers leave feedback.

[custom-giftsuk]

RM if they are lucky scan around 30% and I know that based on automatic feedback

[direct.gifts]

We get about 70% of Large Letters scanned by Royal Mail. 

With automated feedback remember it is about RM scanning it and being within the Ebay estimated delivery date. You maybe getting more scans than you think as items maybe delivered after the estimated delivery date.

[direct.gifts]

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@typo_lee wrote:

I know for a fact we are hardly getting ANY letter post delivered at present. Had a letter dated the 9th July arrive two days ago. Only thing we are getting delivered by royal mail is parcels

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Our letter post here is very good at the moment, things are arriving within 2-3 days without any issues. They are delivering 6 days a week and we have had letter post last Saturday. 

When it works well it is a fantastic service, but unfortunately i can see from many of my deliveries it is not working well in some areas.

[darth_baggins]

It's funny (not really) but according to Dave nothing has changed. If this is the case why am I getting a massive increase in messages asking where their order is?

[quartzology]

What I am concerned about is eBay seem to think it's only Letters that are impacted by the upcoming change.

Royal Mail say it is also Large Letters, so everyone sending 2nd Class Large Letters are just going to get late delivery rates through the roof - I am already anyway and my Metrics have been messed up because of Royal Mail trialing this out in different areas for a while now.

Obviously cannot communicate this with eBay as customer service don't care/understand/(are robots?).

eBay saying "We’re working closely with Royal Mail to understand their rollout plans and timeline." Just makes me REALLY worried, as they clearly do not understand what is happening at all.