eBay

pelhampumps_ltd · ‎12-12-2024

I've been on eBay 20- years, business for around 10 (limited company). I am military about sending items out within time and at the moment that is next working day (as advertised). I never miss one. I now sell around 30 items a day. Most are large letter size, all RM tracked 48 or 24 (at great cost over 1st/2nd class which are not tracked which is why I changed to this to avoid defects).

I've had the odd 1 or 2 strange tracking glitches each year but these have been solved, in the last 3 months though I now have nearly 10 which have been collected by RM from home and simply not scanned until days later (eg. once collected Monday am, eBay claims scanned Wednesday- when I wasn't even in the country!). This then pings an un-true 'dispatched late' defect.

Reading online it seems this is RM scanning items late and is common- how do I solve this without notching late sent defects in seller performance over 3% and losing my top seller status (which means increased fee & decreased visibility I believe?).

aquilagames · ‎12-12-2024

Not uploading tracking to ebay has fixed things for me. I had defects from parcels being posted on time and not being scanned. I buy the labels from the 'Royal Mail Sending' page instead. Now I have no defects at all.

A longer dispatch time of 3 days may give you more time to breathe. If you fall sick or something comes up you will be better able to respond.

I have used Royal Mail parcel collections and have had problems. The most common being the failure to e-mail me the proof of postage on parcels, especially on the parcels going abroad. This happens even when the tracking says the parcel has been collected. I get a message saying that they could not collect the parcel. I mainly drop the parcels off now, and use the collection service only for UK parcels if I can't make it to the post office.

Hope some of this is useful!

bravergrace · ‎12-12-2024

I have found two ways of avoiding these late-tracking defects.

One is not to upload tracking - unless you buy your postage through eBay, in which case eBay uploads it automatically.

The other is to take my parcels to a post office counter, and get the clerk to scan each one in.

This means there is an acceptance scan in the system with the correct date. It may take a while to show up on eBay's system, but ultimately it's there, and it should avoid the problem.

Post offices don't always like doing this "extra" scan, but they will do it if you ask nicely.

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Cesario, the Count's gentleman

pelhampumps_ltd · ‎12-12-2024

Thank you both- yes, the eBay postage option is so easy and integrated- takes around 10s vs a half hour manually doing each (depending on number). I've tried doing it then removing the tracking but won't let you...of course.

Perhaps more chance of a mistake manually too but it's what I do for the website (shopify) and that works fine. If I end up having to manually message each buyer with their tracking that will take even more time but I think I'll just paste the number to 'note' on the item and then can tell them if requested.

Re taking them in- funny isn't it, my postlady has a little go at me every time, which confuses me as it's literally her job, and I'm there doing mine but there we go. It's a small village one and never a queue. I used to do that and was saving a half hour a day loving the collections- sadly not to be perhaps. We've had a different postman and I think he's skiving scanning the envelopes especially as to be fair there are a fair few, assuming they'll be done later.

Take the point re the 3 days but this then dents the fast postage offer I can make on the site (and am fulfilling) and also some of these defects were around 5 days scanned late! Hopeless.

We do try don't we - jumping hoops that aren't even our hoops to jump..! Thanks again.

aquilagames · ‎12-12-2024

I used to buy postage through eBay. I found it to be very quick. I sent parcels using the large letter 2nd class format and that earned me a ton of defects. Then I switched to the Royal Mail sending page. You can fill the address fields out a little more quickly by clicking each line of the address on eBay, this copies it. Then you paste into the address field.

I liked the Royal Mail collection service at first but then ran into problems. Sometimes the postman would not show up to collect the parcels. Other times the parcels would not scan properly, so I would not get proof of postage. You also have to wait around for them to show up. Sometimes they show up at 8AM and other times it's past Noon. When the service works it is great but problems keep cropping up from time to time. I found it simpler just to take the parcels myself. If you have heavy parcels you don't want to carry then the collection service can be useful.

The silly thing I don't understand is you sometimes pay more to drop off tracked 48 parcels at the post office. Say you book a collection for a tracked 48 parcel and the post man does not show up. You need to reprint the label because it is £0.16 more expensive to drop the parcel off than to have it collected.

Thanks for the scanning tip bravergrace. If I purchase a label through eBay again I will try it.

I used to hand write labels for a long time but since I changed to printing the labels out I have noticed that the number of parcels going missing has dropped quite a bit. I don't think my writing is terrible but the printed letters are certainly clearer and the scanning codes on the label probably help quite a bit.

I have used my local post office for many years and have encountered some anger and hostility from staff and other customers in that time due to the number of parcels I drop off. Services have been taken away from the Post Office in that time and more people are using printed labels now. This has led to far shorter queues and less frustration at having to wait. I am very familiar with being told off by the post office ladies though. Had the blinds pulled down on me a few times lol.

nutrafituk · ‎13-12-2024

Hi there,

there is a simple solution however it may require a bit of patience. So we were in the very same situation several times last month ruining our LDD rates. What solved the problem eventually was a statement (email really) received from Royal Mail saying the delay was caused on their side despite collecting on time.

What is tricky here is getting it done. Forget your account manager (ours is useless and cannot be even bothered to respond to any enquiries), you need to contact your regional team. Unless you have the email address or their number, call on 0345 7950950 and ask for contact details. It took us 5 mins to get it each time once we managed to speak someone who cared. Then just forward it to eBay CS and request a manual removal.

Optionally, as already advised you can skip any tracking info upload for those items under £20 to avoid being penalised and losing your top-rateed discount if you still have it.