Royal Mail tracking unreliable

[fitzop_17]

Is anyone else experiencing a lack of reliability with items not being delivered? To date I am a purchaser of many items, but I am not a seller.  In the past 2 weeks I have had to file not received claims. And today I see there is an ebay notice that an item I purchased is supposed to have been delivered. The system says it was delivered at 01.57 recorded.  I was up early before 7am so I checked every possible place outside. No parcel. And it's now mid day and no parcel has been delivered. I imagine this is input error by someone at Royal Mail Midlands. Perhaps the item arrived with them in the early hours of the morning. And instead of clicking appropriately they clicked delivered. So the ebay and Royal Mail systems now say that the item has been delivered. All very frustrating. I don't have any confidence in Royal Mail especially when the items are quite expensive. Hermes seems much more reliable, and alerts you with a 2 hour time slot warning that they are going to attempt delivery on the day.  There are a lot of problems with parcels now. This is the 3rd item I've not received. All items that I very much wanted, and rare or hard to find. After all the bidding also, it is very frustrating for both seller and customer.                 

[redwick1]

Royal Mail is much more reliable that any courier or other postal service

If you have a lot of items missing and having to make claims then you need to contact RM and tell them about it

First check your address on ebay by going to Shortcuts then Site preferences the Addresses and check all the addresses you have on their

If the items are coming from more than one seller then the problem is not with ebay items it is either the address or the postal service

Royal Mail should check why you are missing many items especially to see if they are being stolen on route

[fitzop_17]

The tracking on Royal Mail shows that an item I've been waiting for was delivered today at 01.57am. There are deficiencies in the Royal Mail track & Trace and this is not the first time that there has been input error online. The problem is then that ebay system shows a purchase as having been delivered when it has not. There are no deliveries at that time in the morning are there? Royal Mail is not as reliable as you suggest. And at least couriers services like Hermes alert you to a delivery attempt.

[redwick1]

If the tracking is incorrect then you need to contact RM. Contact your local Delivery office and ask them where it is. If it says Delivered then you would lose any not received dispute on ebay or paypal

[fitzop_17]

I'm not sure that you are right to suggest that as a buyer who has not received an item although the courier in this case Royal Mail shows online tracking as delivered that one loses the right for compensation from ebay or the seller. The contract for delivery is between the seller and the courier. In fact on the RM website it says something contrary to your advice. They advise the intended recipient to wait a couple of days and then to ask the seller to contact them to look into it. The seller has all the info as to where it was sent from and what address it was sent to etc. Clearly if the system is faulty and shows delivery at 01.57 etc it's not the buyer's fault in any way. This item has not been delivered yet. The buyer said they will contact Royal Mail to see what's happening. I'll remain in contact with the buyer. But hope the parcel will turn up very soon. Offices are closed over the weekend, so in any case will have to wait till Monday. Website RM says What if the item can’t be located and the address was correct? If the item has been scanned as delivered today but it can't be located, this may be due to a rare scanning error. Please allow an extra day for the item to be delivered before contacting us. If you’re the recipient please contact the sender. They will contact us to make enquiries on your behalf. If you’re the sender: If the item was posted in the UK, please contact us. If the item was posted from another country to the UK, you need to contact that country’s postal authority. They can make enquiries on your behalf.