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.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I’m getting INRs and “where is my item” questions.    After years on here, I’m now getting negatives and neutrals for late deliveries.     I post by Royal Mail second class, but the eBay forecast is the next day.   I’ve given up stressing about it.   It’s totally outside my control.   

[shopping-ferret]

Yes, that is one way of dealing with the stress of it.

The issue to sellers during RM's busier times is when items are posted without a tracking number.  Ebay is pushing us all to provide that service.  Makes life easier for them too and if it was cost effective, would be better for buyers and sellers as well.  Ebay will simply tell us to increase our prices to cover additional costs, but maybe they need to get rid of all the cheaper Chinese sellers, then (not to mention get their finger out and force all the business sellers pretending to be private sellers 'clearing out the attic'.   Many UK business sellers simply cannot compete with either of them.   We have to save somewhere, so saving on ridiculously higher postage costs is the obvious and really only option.  

I will be phoning Ebay to put a complaint in.   I was unable to get an agent to call me, so had to use the useless chat.  All the agent did was repeat what I had already told her I knew.  It infuriated me and I told her it was a waste of my time that she was just quoting Ebay policy.

Rarely, Ebay will protect sellers for INR cases, negative feedback etc, but only step in after a lot of pressure and complaints and if it results in fewer sales (affecting them), as they did during a lockdown when the postal service was just dire.  I am sick of RM and their deteriorating service.

This is not what we signed up for!!

[exponential_developments]

I honestly couldn't care less anymore, it's all become ridiculous....

[susapric-68]

Always happens at Christmas, off the back of the black Friday and normally bad weather will increase delivery times and buyers know that. I used to be like you and send same day and all untracked and wait for the normal "where's my items" message but i got an OBA with RM and now get cheaper postage and delivery confirmation as standard and have seen the amount of none received item claims drop.

Got to ask yourself is the 10% discount on fees worth the stress when you know the chances are it will not arrive in time. I moved mine to 10 day dispatch and have not seen a decrease in sales but again helped bring down the none received item claims as most are racing the postie to open a claim and don't want to wait over 10 days to open one so they go elsewhere

[bojangled]

@shopping-ferret 

Have a read of RoyalMail sub on Reddit. Lots of p’d off posties trying to do the best they can but admitting what we all know, Tracked and SD are priority and letters are piling up.

Jo

[jangothegeordie]

I feel your pain. I'm sick of it myself. I was saying to the wife that I'm not selling anything next December. We are just over a week in and I've had enough already. 

[shopping-ferret]

All good until the customer demands a refund when you know that the chance is in a couple more days it'll be delivered. 

Staying chilled is also influenced by the value of the goods too X the number of claims. It adds up.

[bearandballoon]

I had a word with my postie about the targets for 2nd class delivery. They confirmed the target is 3 working days but at present they are only hitting that target 30% of the time! I’m not sure if that’s locally or nationally, I was that shocked I forgot to ask!

[shopping-ferret]

Sounds about right but I reckon that's at best and most of the time it's even less. I had an INR case opened and that 2nd Class large letter took 10 days. I imagine the figure is local and not national, but maybe it's a national or regional average I'd take with a bag of salt!

[wyntersemporium]

Same here. Couldn’t care less for this outfit anymore .

[wyntersemporium]

I don’t even get 10% discount on fees not had it for a few years 

[qualitycardsandgifts]

Just got my third “where is my item” for cards posted on 4th.   All letters / large letters posted today by second class are showing delivery 11th- 12th.     I’m think I’m going to have to close until after Christmas. 

[1956glyn]

I send everything tracked so no issues there (apart from the tracking not updating on Ebay when delivered) BUT i have an influx of buyers saying item not as described and trying to get things for free without returning.   My items are 100% as described as can be seen from my feedback.    Until recently i never had buyers complaining 😞    Its just not worth listing currently .....just not worth the hassle

[bravergrace]

I think that part of the problem is that eBay are using old figures.  

Let's face it, some years their delivery estimates don't even recognise that Christmas is not a working day for Royal Mail.  They have never been able to allow for Bank Holidays or weekends in any meaningful way, let alone the system failures and backlogs in December.

I reckon their system of dynamic estimates is set up to fail because:

- it probably works off last week's or last month's Royal Mail deliveries (so it won't ever allow for Black Friday or Christmas until a fortnight down the line).

- it probably takes Royal Mail's figures for delivery, from first scan at the sorting centre to delivery, and doesn't allow for the fact that at busy times, stuff doesn't get processed by the sorting centre till after midnight (conveniently snatching a day off the time), and sometimes doesn't even get collected on the right day.

- it works off sellers' normal "achieved" dispatch times (ie how long it took sellers to process  and post stuff last month when there wasn't a Christmas rush, storms or floods).

- it deliberately ignores sellers' own holidays or non-dispatch days when setting estimates.

This sort of historic data will always give over-optimistic estimates to buyers at peak times and Bank Holidays.   This isn't a fault, it's a feature - designed to increase trade and increase fees.  These "estimates" are not really estimates, they are actually guarantees, underwritten unwillingly by sellers.  

The only way that eBay are prepared to correct their own deficiencies over delivery dates, is by not adding insult to injury by occasionally suspending their Seller Punishment Scheme, or by adding a blanket 5 days to all estimates when the system collapses totally.  We still have to pay for failing to deliver an item on Boxing Day, or whatever this year's mess-up is, and let the buyer keep the item for free.

[theelench]

I remember watching news about RM Christmas backlogs on black & white TV when I was at school, yet with all their computing power, dynamic calculations and many years experience of UK weather, ebay still can't take on board that delays are as inevitable at Christmas as their FDDs are useless.

I'd say that indicates that it's ebay's management of what has been a recurring problem for longer than they've been around that is "Not fit for purpose", rather than RM, who don't claim to be able to predict and overcome something that by its nature is bound to be different every year.

So here's a couple of suggestions of how ebay could help relieve the stress ebay causes its sellers by insisting they should be guided by ebay's Fantasies.

1.    Suspend its inaccurate Delivery Estimates in the run-up to Christmas as they only ever get even more ridiculous during this part of the year.

2.    If they're so convinced that using Tracked services will somehow reduce the problem, they could suspend their skimming of FVF on postage over the Season of Goodwill and allow sellers to use what ebay steals towards the extra cost of buying tracked postage.

Ho, ho, ho.

[shopping-ferret]

I love your suggestions.  You should put these forward to Ebay!

I have now altered the handling time by 4 days for all the lower value items I sell that will not be sent with a tracking.  It is not much but gives me a bit more time should buyers open INR cases.  It infuriates me as will result in fewer sales, for sure.  I am going to monitor its effect over the next couple of days.

Why don't the decision makers listen to the established business sellers?  They are more concerned about keeping the buyers happy and increasing sales and revenue for their benefit.  This might not be so bad if it was not for the fact their sellers are mostly members of the public and small individual independent businesses, who are mostly usually buyers too.  Ebay might have a different perspective if they were the sellers themselves, not just providing a selling platform.

Sigh...

[exponential_developments]

And yet another one this morning....................not many weeks left on here and it's "good riddance".

[theelench]

What a waste of time that would be, so won't be bothered.

Like many other private sellers I've given-up trying to sell anything and my account is now dormant unless I see something I want to buy.

[shopping-ferret]

That's a shame. I can't afford to give up Ebay although I'm downsizing when I move next Spring. 

You should complain to Ebay. It might just help to get the message through to them if enough people do.