Simple delivery- postie not collecting

[micfi9419]

Twice i’ve selected for the postman to bring a label and collect. Twice nothings happened. I cant even find the buyers address to post it myself.

i only use a phone and im not buying a printer. It feels like you’re actively sabotaging a once brilliant marketplace. 
if i cant post the items, what then?

[edwardian-dreams]

This is eBay in action 

totally dysfunctional  

well done ebay sad saps 

op I hope someone can show you through the way to achieve a postie collection cos eBay can’t 

[micfi9419]

I selected the options for the postman to bring the label, included instructions where the package was to be found (obvious). I guess the postie just cant be bothered with all the hassle. I hope ebay destroys itself, deserves nothing less.

thanks for the reply, lets see what ebay has to say.

[honeymonster007]

If you click on the order, then manage postage, then the 3 dots, click on print packing slip and it should bring up the address

[ruby*ryan]

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@micfi9419 wrote:

I selected the options for the postman to bring the label, included instructions where the package was to be found (obvious). I guess the postie just cant be bothered with all the hassle. I hope ebay destroys itself, deserves nothing less.

thanks for the reply, lets see what ebay has to say.

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But while ebay are very far from perfect, that is a Royal Mail issue.

[thepillenwerfer]

You should be complaining to Royal Mail, not that that's easy.  Did you get an e-mail from RM saying the parcel wasn't available for collection or one saying it had been even though it hadn't?

It's no more "Hassle" for the postman than if you'd bought postage on the RM web-site and booked a collection with 'Bring my label' there.  It's either a systems breakdown and he didn't even know he was supposed to collect something from you or isn't doing his job properly.  If it were a one-off I'd suspect the former but two has me leaning towards the latter.

[scarlette.fantastique]

This is not Royal Mail's fault - it is wholly eBay at fault. Royal Mail will always bring a label and collect - but only if they are instructed to do so.

The problem is that ebay's "book collection" does not seem to follow through the process to actually instructing Royal Mail to even collect it, let alone bring a label. 

My postman has just left this morning, having brought the labels and collected all the parcels that I myself directly booked and paid for via the Royal Mail website last night, as always happens. But there is one parcel left behind uncollected - the one that was on a forced "Simple" Delivery listing, despite the fact that I followed all the ebay Order Form instructions:

• "Need courier collection? Book" (I only have Royal Mail selected as my courier, so they were prepopulated)
• I clicked "Book"
• eBay prepopulated text box with "collection Monday 14 July" and prepopulated my collection address.
• I confirmed action by clicking "Book collection"
• Text box changed to "Collection booked 14 July. No label required - postie will bring label" 

But not only did the postman not bring the label, it was not even booked on his system to collect it. This is the second time I have sold via Simple Delivery - and the second time exactly the same thing has (not) happened.

It is obvious that the fault is at ebay's end because the sold item on my Orders has never changed to "dispatched" and there is no tracking number showing. It still says "Dispatch by 15 July" which means that ebay has not even recorded the collection booking, let alone advised Royal Mail to collect it.

[thepillenwerfer]

I've had no problem with collections booked through e-Bay and as I get an immediate confirmation e-mail from Royal Mail I would know if there was something amiss by this failing to arrive.

Bringing a label is something that's been introduced since I last sold something so can't comment on the reliability of that.  I have had problems with directly-booked collections in the old days as often the postman would say he hadn't got the label as the printer at the Delivery Office was hors de combat. The first time I had a mad scramble to look up the details so he'd know which label to stick on when it was fixed and after that I wrote the name and post code on the parcels in case it happened again, which it did.

[scarlette.fantastique]

"I've had no problem with collections booked through e-Bay and as I get an immediate confirmation e-mail from Royal Mail I would know if there was something amiss by this failing to arrive."

I now have several calls in with eBay Concierge who are investigating why it does not appear to be working correctly. Whilst they are certainly trying to be helpful, they have been unable to offer resolution so far - therefore if you have direct experience of booking a collection via eBay and it actually working, would you mind if I please asked you a question?

Your comment has got me thinking and that maybe it is the introduction of bringng a label that has caused the collection process to fail. When you have booked through eBay, do you press the second blue "Get prepaid label" button in order to actually generate an image file of the actual label?

The same button appears twice in the orders process - the first we all have to press in order to move on to the next page. But once on this page, another button appears "book collection / bring label" etc and because it confirms that it has (allegedly) already booked the collection with label then there is no need to press the second "Get prepaid label" button underneath, simply because if RM are supposedly bringing the label then there is no need for me to generate it as well. But I wonder if this is now where the fault lies. 

[micfi9419]

I know this is a royal mail issue, but ebay has created this problem with its new system. Its a good idea in theory but why the old way couldnt also sit beside it i do not know. It takes away agency from the seller and for those of us who work every day it is very difficult to get to a post office.

[thepillenwerfer]

From memory, so I could be wrong, I click Get Postage Label from my list of Sold items, then click Book Collection — last time I did it there was no opportunity to ask RM to bring the label — and then download the label.

[scarlette.fantastique]

Thank you, your reply is much apprciated.

I think I am beginning to see where the problem is. It has now been set up so that you can book a collection and bring the label - without the seller downloading the label. This is fine and correct, because I have no need to download the label if RM are bringing it anyway. But the problem is that it appears to have two bugs in the way it has been set up: 

1) if you do not download the label (regardless of whether you are going to print it yourself or not) then it does not generate the tracking number.

2) Without this tracking number it then does not advise RM which label to print and bring - and it does not even mark the item as dispatched.

It is possible to download the label (but not print it) anyway, just to obtain the tracking number - and then book a collection directly via the RM website.... but they have no option to have them bring the label. You can only book bring the label if you are the one that bought the label directly from RM - and of course, with "Simple" Delivery it is effectively eBay that have bought the label.

So in summary, if you print the label yourself or take the QR code to the post office then it all seems to be fine.

But if you do not have a serviceable printer and live 20 miles away from the nearest RM office that can actually print anything then this whole process does not work, despite what eBay's Help pages might say.

[thepillenwerfer]

Are you saying that downloading the label will trigger the collection you've arranged through e-Bay but if you don't it won't happen?  If so it's easy enough to just download it and then delete it, though obviously it shouldn't be necessary and the need to is FAR from obvious.

If you book the collection on the RM web-site you also have to pay 30p for it whereas it's free through e-Bay.

I print my own labels as I've had a printer since I first got a PC — pre-internet the computer wasn't much use without.  I'm now on an old laser (£20 off e-Bay) that costs near-enough sod-all per print and for paper I can often use the back of something else, junk-mail for instance.  That said if the Bring My Label thing can be relied upon I'll use it simply to save messing about doing it myself.