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. 😖

[moldosgifts]

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@darth_baggins wrote:

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.

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I think you're hoping too much 😀

[custom-giftsuk]

Just for everyone's attention, one of those INR cases that was opened in the small hours of the morning, has strangely been able to escalate their case and get a full refund. This is before Royal Mail has been able to deliver the item.  Got straight on the phone to eBay CS to ask how an INR case opened today has been escalated and found in the buyers favour when there is supposed to be a 4 day make it good grace period (also for tracking to catch up). Weirdly the member of CS couldn't explain it either and it seemed to be a "one off" where the buyer can escalate after a few hours not 4 days. No appeal possible. 

So just to let you know this, that eBay is behaving quite erratically allowing INR cases to be refunded after a few hours of a case being opened at the earliest possible time as the item was ordered over the weekend, posted 2nd class post on Monday afternoon and the case opened early morning today, refunded and closed before 11am today.

[kyanyama]

Bad buyer behaviour but bad eBay behaviour on top.  Block the buyer so they can't get any more freebies from you and claim from Royal Mail.  RM will find themselves forking out and hopefully claiming back from eBay's obscene coffers.

One of the other members advised they can change their dispatch to 5 days.  I originally had mine set at 5 days (although almost always posted within a couple) but since the Men in Black put Private Sellers onto Not-So-Simple-Delivery the max dispatch window is 3 days.  I work 2 days/week so I post on those days only (when I use my car) as nearest PO is not close by and not on my way to work.

[custom-giftsuk]

Fullly expect bad behaviour from a selection of buyers, but eBay processing an INR claim within hours of it being opened is a new low. I would imagine, that this "buyer" phoned up eBay and started screaming at the CS who was probably either new or just harrassed and they caved and escalated the case against eBay rules and procedures. The fact that I cant appeal though is wierd as the CS I spoke to didnt know how it happened (yeah they did - they can see the records of how it happened) and said that I couldn't appeal but if I waited 5 business days they could maybe look into the issue and get back to me. To which the eBay CS was very unhappy when I took her name and call ID number and said I would call back in 6 days as I think she thought I would forget about it during those 5 days. 

So yeah... escalated cases within hours is a bit of a low one, especially when buyers can now open cases when tracking shows it has been delivered and i have to wait 4 working days to escalate the claim

[typo_lee]

So I guess if you lost the case this now affects your case closed without seller resolution metrics

[custom-giftsuk]

Absolutely. It will be a case closed against me, and a defect to boot. 

It's super wierd.  Occassionally eBay does wierd stuff like this, usually when a "buyer" phones up to CS screaming and shouting but I'm shocked at escalating an INR case from 4 days to a few hours is a new one, especially as the earliest the item could've been delivered was yesterday, but with this new RM delivery window, its very possible that the item could be delivered today. The "buyer" does live in a tiny village in the middle of Norfolk, miles and miles away from civilisation so deliveries tends to be spotty because of the sheer distance involved and  the ground needing to be covered by a small number of posties so tracking might have been slow or even non existant.

But its a worry when eBay CS break their own hard & fast rules that everyone else has to obey.

[knit-in-styles]

I will always try and claim from Royal Mail if they fail to deliver and I have to resend, no matter how much the item BUT they are an absolute nightmare and make it very very difficult to claim anything.

I gave up my business account in March so now buy postage on eBay and drop it off at a Royal Mail parcel/post box which is collected at 5pm. However, 3 weeks ago I had 3 orders during the night so decided I would take them to my sorting office just after it opened at 8am. I know the staff in the sorting office from when I took my business mail in. I handed the person my 3 items and we chatted a while. I remember she didn't instantly scan them as they normally do but thought maybe she will do it after I went away.

Days later my three buyers from these items (I keep a note of where I post the item) have all contacted me (thankfully not via INR) to say they have not received their item. I thought this very odd so went back to the sorting office to get them to check the tracking numbers and zilch nothing, so they didn't scan them on receipt. So, I had to resend all three items and pay for more postage which I sent RM24 at £3.60 each

I put in a claim for these 3 with a full explanation of the above and all three were rejected with a reason " the item has not yet been posted" You really couldn't make it up. Needless to say I have appealed all three.

[hugothecockapoo]

Latest sale at 17.21 {20 past five in old money Thursday Afternoon} 31st July.....remember no 2nd class on Saturday...buyer has not paid yet!...

Postage, collection and returns

Payment methods

Postage and collection in person

Free delivery in 2-3 days

Royal Mail 2nd Class Large Letter

Estimated between Sat, 2 Aug and Mon, 4 Aug to TS20 1SA

£1.20 delivery in 2–3 days

Royal Mail 1st Class Large Letter

Estimated between Sat, 2 Aug and Mon, 4 Aug to TS20 1SA

£10.00 delivery in 2 days

Royal Mail Special Delivery (TM) 1:00 pm

Estimated by Sat, 2 Aug to TS20 1SA

Each additional £10.00

£5.00 delivery in 2–3 days

Royal Mail Tracked 24

Estimated between Sat, 2 Aug and Mon, 4 Aug to TS20 1SA

* For delivery to collection point, delivery options may vary.

[sml192]

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@hugothecockapoo wrote:

Latest sale at 17.21 {20 past five in old money Thursday Afternoon} 31st July.....remember no 2nd class on Saturday...buyer has not paid yet!...

Postage, collection and returns

Payment methods

Postage and collection in person

Free delivery in 2-3 days

Royal Mail 2nd Class Large Letter

Estimated between Sat, 2 Aug and Mon, 4 Aug to TS20 1SA

£1.20 delivery in 2–3 days

Royal Mail 1st Class Large Letter

Estimated between Sat, 2 Aug and Mon, 4 Aug to TS20 1SA

£10.00 delivery in 2 days

Royal Mail Special Delivery (TM) 1:00 pm

Estimated by Sat, 2 Aug to TS20 1SA

Each additional £10.00

£5.00 delivery in 2–3 days

Royal Mail Tracked 24

Estimated between Sat, 2 Aug and Mon, 4 Aug to TS20 1SA

* For delivery to collection point, delivery options may vary.

Technically Large Letters are classed as parcels so shouldn't be affected by the changes which are specifically aimed at 2nd class letter sized mail.  2nd class parcels will still be delivered on a Saturday, as well as each weekday, and the same should, therefore, apply to Large Letters.

That said, those estimated delivery times from eBay are rather optimistic, as usual, and they definitely shouldn't be stating Saturday delivery for the Special Delivery 1.00pm option as Special Delivery on Saturday's is a different, more expensive, service. 

[darth_baggins]

2nd class large letters are classed the same as letters in this new scheme. RM48 large letters are classed as parcels because RM48 is a parcel service.

[bazinga-games]

😳 😫 😠

I have no words, sorry...

[theplaceforlace]

That is just terrible.  

[theplaceforlace]

I changed my dispatch time too.  It made no difference to the estimated delivery dates so I changed it back to 2 days.  I am convinced that EDD is based on seller performance rather than Royal Mail estimated delivery times, otherwise it wouldn't be so random across sellers.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

INR this morning.   Card posted second class on 21st July and not arrived yet.    Refunded as the birthday has passed.    This is only going to get worse.  

[theplaceforlace]

Dispatch by 4th August - estimated delivery date shown to buyer 4th - 5th August

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

I spoke to customer service about this a couple of weeks ago.  Said they are getting a lot of calls about the same issue and keep referring it to the tech team who keep saying there's nothing wrong and it all works fine.  They said they would get a member of the tech team to ring me.  No one did.

[theplaceforlace]

EDD's are inaccurate now, even before Royal Mail begin to deliver 2nd Class every other working day and not on a Saturday.  How is it possible for an item with a dispatch date of 4th August shows estimated delivery dates of 4th to 5th August, 2nd Class Royal Mail??  This has been going on for WEEKS, not just recently.

[knit-in-styles]

It has been going on for years. I first raised a complaint to the then CEO back in May 2021 as I was furious a buyer could open an INR the day after my last dispatch date when the item was sent second class Royal Mail.

It was referred to OOTP in Ireland who were helpful and nice but stuck to the eBay story that everything is working fine. Absolutely nothing has changed since then.

[theplaceforlace]

So, an item I sold last night is marked as dispatch by 2nd August, EDD shown to the buyer 2nd August to 4th August.

This is clearly nonsense as 2nd August is a Saturday and not classed as a dispatch day by me or a delivery day by Royal Mail 2nd Class Letter.

However, if I go to purchase a label through eBay, the 2nd Class Large Letter option shows as delivery 5th to 6th August.

My question is, if I purchase the post through eBay, will this protect me against an INR opened BEFORE 6th August, rather than the EDD shown to the seller of 4th August?

[messier44000]

According to my maths with 2nd class every other day Mon - Fri

Under the old system. 5x delivery days in 5 days = 5 delivery days

But according to eBay when the update went live

3x delivery days in 5 days = 5 delivery days 

[technthread]

I am not sure about the INR situation but for late delivery defects one thing you can do on these is if you get a home collection or get them accepted at a Royal Mail locker, the tracking will show an acceptance scan that you won’t get at an RM Delivery Office or the Post Office. I know it isn’t always practical but I’m using the lockers at lot more now with untracked large letters so I can prove the dispatch time.