Sudden alarming increase in INR cases Royal Mail Christmas 2024

[shopping-ferret]

I am an established and responsible business seller of 18 years.  Most of my sales are for values under £10 per item.  I do  not use tracking (due to cost) unless the item is over a certain value.   I purchase postage stamps as I can get a little discount and use these on virtually all my packages.  

Since 2 weeks ago, I have had a constant stream of reports or complaints of items not received.  Many tend to be items posted the same day, suggesting they are sat in my local delivery office or the local area one.  It is not the first time!  I have also had several INR cases opened.  Currently around 10 - 3 today alone!  This is dramatically different to the norm.

The complaints are giving me anxiety!!

Yes, I understand that tracking protects sellers.   My complaints are these:

Ebay must be aware, surely, that currently Royal Mail are running behind and prioritising only certain mail (my postie confirmed this).  The rest - well it is taking anything from 3 (if I am lucky) to 14 days for delivery.  So why are they not adjusting the expected delivery dates in line with these backlogs?  I post 2nd class and even the Signed for packages I have known to be several days delayed.

I could adjust my handling time, but then lose my Top Rated seller benefits.  

So Ebay should use their intelligence; note the sudden rise in cases being opened as it cannot only be happening to me!!  They ought to permit more than 3 business days for cases to be resolved.  Some buyers are understanding and acknowledge current postal delays - but there are those who are impatient or trusted Ebay's EDD and left shopping till the last minute - or are simply untrusting and  make demands of an immediate refund and will escalate the case to Ebay the minute they are permitted - despite promising if they could please permit a little more time, I am sure it will be delivered or else will refund with no quibble.

Anyone else have this same frustration?  I mean, it is nothing new, is it?  Same every Christmas, half-term school holidays, summer holiday season, etc etc.  Clearly an issue with how RM is managed resulting in a system that is not fit for purpose.

[shopping-ferret]

I just phoned Ebay - which took, me a while for the Chatbot to allow me to have a call back from an agent.  It turned out a waste of time.   The first call resulted in the agent putting the phone down on me.  The second call... well that was also a waste of time as the whole argument revolved around... 'TRACKING'.

Thoroughly frustrating.  They won't accept any responsibility for advertising misleading delivery times and blame RM who provide those (inaccurate) handling times... whilst in the next breath tell me that buyers EXPECT delays around this time of year.   I said not all do and if that was the case, why the rise in INR cases with buyers reporting they expected their delivery 3-4 days after purchase?

I guess RM don't admit the truth because they are avoiding another big fat fine for failed services (as if nobody will notice how particularly inefficient they are).

[jangothegeordie]

Not sure if this is of any help but it is always best to try and speak to someone at ebay. This is just my experience but I have just dealt with an INR request for a really difficult buyer. Trying to reason with them just wasn't paying off and I annoyed them when I said that I would expect the money if it arrived after I gave them a refund. I posted the item on the 2nd December and he just wasn't willing to accept that the post is a mess right now.

He put in a refund request last night and I was going to leave it for the three days just to give the item a chance of arriving, even though he said he wouldn't keep it out of principal as I had hurt his feelings.

I got a bit irritated this afternoon and just though stuff it, get it over with and get him off your back. I sent the refund and that was that. I thought I would check and see if the item had arrived today. It just so happened that it arrived an hour after I made the damn refund.

I tried the app and it said I had no right of appeal. I decided to try and speak to someone and a lady from ebay called me back after putting in a request for a call. She was incredibly sympathetic and could see that I was a good seller. As a result, she gave me the money back as a goodwill gesture. The amount was just short of £70 so I was more than pleased.

I'm not sure if this was purely down to my service over the last few years or if they have had a lot of people complain about this but it might be worth speaking to someone if you have a similar experience. I had messaged the person prior to speaking to ebay to ask what they were going to do to return the item but I highly doubt I will hear back from them. To be honest though I got what I was due so I don't really care at this point. Ebay also said they would remove any feedback relating to the sale. I'm sure if I do get any, it won't be good.

[shopping-ferret]

That is a good outcome after a bad experience, however I suspect going by what you said, you sent the item tracked.  That is what makes all the difference.  If tracked, you have seller protection, unless the tracked item is stuck in the system and no movement for days (lost/stolen/damaged etc) or if the buyer is dishonest and the postie has failed to scan out the delivered item.  In that case, Ebay can side with the buyer and you would have to make a claim off RM and we all know by now RM only compensate upon proof of your own purchase price, which we cannot always produce, for whatever reason and is unlikely to be the same as your resale price on Ebay.

I am not surprised Ebay covered your losses in this case.  Still, your buyer did very well out of it!!

I wasted my time on 2 calls. to Ebay today.  The first agent actually put the phone down on me - I was livid at having this done to me mid conversation and contacted Ebay again and stated I wanted that agent reporting.   The 2nd conversation was going round in circles.  Without tracking, you simply don't have a leg to stand on, no matter how good your reputation or how sympathetic the agent!  I am a reputable seller of 18 years with good feedback and some repeat buyers.  Makes no difference without proof of delivery.