Late delivery defects / royal mail not scanning

[wolfcycles]

Hello

We have recently had a barrage of late delivery defects taking us up to 4%, resulting in us being due to loose our top rated status this month. 

We have recently switched to Royal Mail as our default courier, but it appears they are regularly not scanning items until the day of delivery rather than the day they receive our parcel. Consequently, the late delivery defects we were previously getting struck through as we had dispatched the item on time, are now counting defects as eBay consider we have not dispatched the item until this first scan date, so we don't get our "on time dispatch waiver".

The 4% late delivery rate we now have reflects the percentage of parcel RM are delivering late (we very rarely have a genuine late dispatch).

Has anyone else found anything similar? I'm trying to explain the issue to eBay customer support but don't feel they really understand it. We can't easily just not upload tracking as we ship through 3rd party provider Veeqo and it is auto synced. 

Thank you

[therma-tec]

If you take all parcels to the post office, the first scan will be at the post office so even if an item is delivered late, ebay will remove the defect if it shows you dispatched on time.

[wolfcycles]

Hi

Unfortunately its not feasible, we have around 100-150 parcels going out per day.

Thanks, Alex

[moldosgifts]

They should be automatically removed every month, for those that aren't you will have to get them to ring you and appeal each one separately. Date of review is normally  20th each month

If you need links just ask  

[wolfcycles]

No, they are not. The problem is as Royal Mail are not scanning the parcels on receipt or at the depot as they should be, they are regularly not being scanned until the day of delivery. eBay uses this first scan from the courier as the "dispatch date" consequently they consider that our parcels are being dispatched late (which is not the case) therefore they do not qualifying for the auto removal that you refer to for on time dispatch. So any of our parcels that Royal Mail delvers late does not qualify for on time dispatch, defect removal.

Surely many other large volume sellers using Royal Mail are having this problem?

Thanks

[moldosgifts]

Do you use a royal mail account?

But even so your ebay account should be rectified on the 20th every month

With a royal mail account you can have all tracking number automatically added this counts as dispatched

[therma-tec]

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@wolfcycles wrote:

Hi

Unfortunately its not feasible, we have around 100-150 parcels going out per day.

Thanks, Alex

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Yeah, the post office wouldn't be too happy with that volume each day!

Do the RM collect your items or do you drop them off at the sorting office? Either way I don't think they would scan every item on the day due to the amount. Maybe you need to have a discussion with your local sorting office to come up with some arrangement to ensure they are scanned when the RM receive them.

Failing that, if you use the RM click and collect site (it syncs with your ebay orders), you can choose to mark your orders as dispatched or not. Not marking them as dispatched won't automatically upload the tracking information to ebay. Maybe try NOT adding the tracking for a few weeks to see if that helps?

I really hope you can get this sorted!

[wolfcycles]

Thanks for the reply both!

So an update - The issue is caused by eBay taking Royal Mail's second scan into their main hub as the dispatch time, not at the point of the label generation or the tracking being added, or even Royal Mail's first scan. Royal Mail's wording is what i think confusing eBay into taking this second scan as the point of dispatch. Royal Mail's first scan when they first unload the parcel gets labelled as 'sender has dispatched the item'. Their second scan into the regional sorting hub then gets labelled as "item received". It is this "item received" scan that eBay consider to be the point of dispatch, and as this is usually a day or two days after actual dispatch of the item, it means that if Royal Mail delver the parcel late (happening around 5% of the time) then eBay consider it was due to late dispatch and add the defect. I've attached the same tracking for an item on Royal Mail and eBay and it shows how the interpret it it differently, leading to the defect, as eBay use "item received".

We've gone through numerous calls to eBay and depending on the staff we get, we have had the defects removed about 25% of the time. Most don't understand or don't feel they can help, quite a few help but state they can only remove 5 defects at a time, one out of the 20+ calls we have made, really understood and said he would remove as many defects as he could and got 10 off in one go.  So far we have had 30 defects removed (5,5,5,5 then 10) which is nearly bringing are seller level back to top rated but has taken around 8 hours of phone calls so far and we still have another 80 or so to do. We get around another 2-3 defects daily too. Unless eBay can do something about this we will either have to move courier or take on another staff member to constantly call eBay and get defects removed.

As you mention, not uploading the tracking might be one of the only solutions to this. It just would slow us down quite a lot through click and drop as we bulk ship multiple orders at a time through Veeqo our dispatch manager and stock system. It also may impact the stock integration as the system auto updates stock on our website, Amazon and store so we are quite reliant on it and can't bypass a step. I really hope eBay can acknowledge the issue and do something about it.

Cheers

[suelel1968]

Totally agree. I am only a small private seller, i take everything to PO counter (large letter) and get POP. Ebay do not use that. EBAY use the RM scan, timing of which is uncertain, but what is obvious is that about 30% of the time it is not being done at all. I assume that everything is dumped on a conveyor and scanned as it goes past, but that this is not working properly.

Coupled with the deliveries going to the wrong address and not being scanned by the postman on delivery,

it has become a farce.

Ebay have always removed my defects, but i am low volume. I have however emailed RM for their explanation as  i assumed it was just my local depot which was a problem. No response yet. 

[4_bathrooms]

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@suelel1968 wrote:

i take everything to PO counter (large letter) and get POP. Ebay do not use that.

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How do you pay for the postage? Do you pay online via eBay or Royal Mail's website or do you pay at the Post Office counter? Either way the PO counter should scan the barcode on the address label when they accept the item; this should show up on Royal Mail's website as an acceptance scan.

[4_bathrooms]

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@wolfcycles wrote:

So an update - The issue is caused by eBay taking Royal Mail's second scan into their main hub as the dispatch time, not at the point of the label generation or the tracking being added, or even Royal Mail's first scan.

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I have a similar issue using a pallet network (haulier). The driver from the local collecting depot brings the shipping labels with them then takes the pallets back to the local depot where they are forwarded to the main distribution hub. The first scan the pallet network's online tracking shows is when the pallet arrives at the distribution hub which is normally one or two working days after the pallet has actually been collected from us therefore attracting an automatic "late despatch" defect even if the item arrives by the latest (made up) EDD eBay chose to show the buyer.

The simple answer was to not upload tracking to eBay unless a buyer opened an INR case - this stopped the defects immediately.  

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@wolfcycles wrote:

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I'm pretty sure that initial "Sender despatching item" scan happens when the shipping label is created within the account - this is something eBay will be aware of and is the reason they are ignoring it. I don't know what type of account you have with Royal Mail but do you take a printed manifest to the Post Office counter when you drop the items off? 

[rjwilmsi]

From the images that's a Tracked 48 package (presumably purchased via a Royal Mail business account, so you can't take those to the post office). My experience with Tracked 48 is that yes, when Royal Mail are operating normally the parcel gets its first scan overnight but in early hours of next day e.g. dispatch Monday afternoon, first scan 2 am Tuesday. If you need same day scanning then you would need to pay for Tracked 24. So if RM then deliver the item late (as would appear from this tracking - 3 or 4 days for delivery) eBay will say you dispatched late.

eBay don't use the "sender dispatching item" entry as that is just label creation, it doesn't prove that RM have the item in their hands. I've had some sellers buy a label but only drop item off 3 days later (e.g. Evri where item is scanned on drop off).

I suppose the argument that needs to be put forward to eBay is that if the item is scanned overnight, e.g. by 6 am, then the courier must have received the item the previous day, as couriers don't collect between midnight and 6 am. So like with train tickets that are valid from 4am on the date of ticket to 4am next day, rather than simply the date of ticket, eBay should allow scans post midnight up to 5 or 6 am to count as previous day. If you do enough volume on eBay to get access to the concierge service you might be able to speak to somebody with enough authority to make it happen. Standard CS won't get it.

[suelel1968]

I buy via ebay. Untracked. I belive tracked adds straight to ebay orders, but untracked dont. That only happens when the parcels get scanned by RM. 

[crn303]

Postal delivery personnel do not scan all items they deliver, as they should.  
More likely to scan bigger parcels but packages, large letters are often ignored.

Therefore payment by eBay delayed 14 days, especially more certain to be delayed as buyers not bothering to leave feedback so much these days.

[4_bathrooms]

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@suelel1968 wrote:

I buy via ebay. Untracked. I belive tracked adds straight to ebay orders, but untracked dont. That only happens when the parcels get scanned by RM. 

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Any postage label you purchase via eBay will show "tracking" within the sales record. eBay seemingly have access to Royal Mail's acceptance/first scan even though this scan doesn't show up on Royal Mail's Track and Trace page for services like regular 1st Class & 2nd Class (Large Letter & above). This also appears to be the case even if the postage was purchased directly via Royal Mail's website rather than via eBay; if I create a transaction report any transactions I have sent via regular 2nd Class show the correct acceptance date that correlates with when the item was scanned at the PO counter.

I believe your issue lies with the Post Office counter you are using rather than Royal Mail; i.e. the counter is not scanning the label to indicate they have accepted the item.     

[superchallenge]

I had a similar issue sending via Tracked 48. Postie had kindly left me a post bag to put all the parcels in so he could just grab the bag each day, hand over a new one, and be on his way. Problem is that the parcels weren't getting scanned until the wee small hours and I was getting defects.

Spoke to eBay multiple times and the only way to fix it was to ask the postie to scan them at the doorstep. He's a nice bloke and is more than happy to do it, but I only do 5-20 parcels a day. Fixed the problem instantly. But for 100-150, it wouldn't even remotely be feasible. Surely they need to implement a fix here?

[suelel1968]

Yes, they are, i have POP for everything from the PO. And I use about 4 post offices depending on where i am. It is a delay or total failure by RM to scan the mail, and or ebays system to add them to the orders page. 

[4_bathrooms]

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@suelel1968 wrote:

Yes, they are, i have POP for everything from the PO. And I use about 4 post offices depending on where i am. It is a delay or total failure by RM to scan the mail, and or ebays system to add them to the orders page. 

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Hmmm...is this something that started happening very recently or has this always been the case for you?

The acceptance scan should happen at the Post Office counter before any Royal Mail employee ever handles the item. That initial acceptance scan at the PO counter is when the item was accepted into Royal Mail's network for the purposes of eBay's "tracking" (or should be).

[moldosgifts]

With a royal mail business account it's the manifest that is scanned, that then marks you items with in that manifest as in the system.