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

[redmoorvinyl]

To be fair, I called eBay and they removed the defects manually so that was good. To get around this going forward, I've set my despatch to 2 days, and changed my business days to Monday / Tuesday / Thursday and Friday. That basically means that I'm always posting way ahead of the eBay post by date and that the first scan is on time, even if it's late. I shouldn't need to do this of course, and eBay should correct this, but it's not the hill I'm prepared to die on.

[silicon-press]

My despatch is set yo 2 days, I post Monday/Wednesday/Friday regularly but often post every day as I walk into town every morning.

I posted 3 x large letter via Tracked 48 on Monday - two arrived by Wednesday - the third is hopefully going to be delivered today, and according to the tracking Sender Dispatching item on Monday - Item received on Friday.

There is no way to complain to Royal Mail, no compensation for late delivery as the 2 to 3 working days is just guidance, and I'm expected to waste my time correcting the faults created by the eBay and Royal Mail automated systems. There isn't any technological barrier for this to be automated, given that OCR can pick up the date of the receipt, the post code and then match it to the post code of the buyer's order.

The only solution is not to enter the tracking information.

[stuart2538]

Hi, yes it's happening to me as well, late delivery rates have increased and I'm at risk of losing Top Seller rating. 

I'm a business seller with one day dispatch and use Parcelforce 24 and always post the same / next day.  The parcels for Parcelforce aren't scanned until arrival at the depot which will sometimes be in the early hours of the next day.

Based on reading this thread, I'm not optimistic about getting the late deliveries deleted.

[vflexyzmodding]

Late defects are not difficult to remove unless you are on the concierge customer service.

[a45heaven]

With Simple Delivery, shouldnt Late Delivery and Shipping Costs, be marked as feedback against ebay, as they determine  both factors not the seller?

Its not easy making a narrative comment with ebays contribution being the target rather than the seller - but its worth the effort i would assume.

[vflexyzmodding]

If you are a new seller on eBay, I would recommend inputting tracking information even if you get a late defect as you risk payout restrictions. 

Late defects can be removed later.

[vflexyzmodding]

Increasing dispatch times and opening hours would fix your issue with late defects however this may result in reduced sales and not having premium service badges.

I would take time every month to remove defects.

[silicon-press]

I haven't historically even used tracked services as they make the item more expensive without really adding any value, as I am still responsible for any items that don't arrive irrespective of tracking, and have never had any issue with payouts.

I have successfully appealed two defects simply by using the online chat service.

[cineedwaa]

Has anyone found a solution to the issue where Royal Mail 2nd Class Large Letters/Parcels aren’t being scanned on delivery by the posties? I initially assumed orders were going missing, only to later find out customers had actually received them. Aside from switching to Tracked services, has anyone had success using Scan on Delivery stickers to prompt the postman to scan the code?

[nat_pol]

---

@vflexyzmodding wrote:

Increasing dispatch times and opening hours would fix your issue with late defects however this may result in reduced sales and not having premium service badges.

I would take time every month to remove defects.

---

No, it dows not, as it doesn't matter for Ebay wich dispatch time you set as they count estimated delivery time on previous time frames.  I have 3 days dispatched time for all my listings for about 4 years already, but ebay estimated delivery time for buyers always shows as overlap with dispatch time: for example I have order placed  on 24/09/2025 and for customer  says it would be delivered in 25-27 September.  How this is possible as my dispatch time only takes 3 working days plus RM delivery 2-3 working days ( which is in times when there no delays,  but now they experience severe delays, which actually not mentioned anywhere) . And according the proof of deliveries which I have ( standard 2nd class post can take up to 10-15 working days to be delivered, many cases opened after 2 weeks and some fortunately closed as delivered after that time). Unfortunately,  Ebay does not take as considered there are delays and dispatch time doesn't counts as order processing time.

[silicon-press]

General Second Class mail shouldn't be scanned (unless you pay for signature) as it's a non-tracked service?

[cineedwaa]

That's correct, but providing a scan at the time of the delivery attempt is part of the service, unless that's a load of cobblers from RM.

[wolfcycles]

Few updates

- The problem is specific to tracked services, using 48 standard means the "first scan" doesn't exist and eBay cannot wrongly give you a late dispatch as they only see the delivery time. The problem we have is standard 48 for us is 50p more per parcel than Tracked 48 through our account, which is a bit bizarre! £2.80 tracked against £3.30 non tracked.

- Another potential solution we are testing is marking the items as dispatched prior to shipping them meaning they go out without tracking so eBay can't misunderstand the dispatch time and give you a defect. Its quite labour intensive with our Veeqo order management shipment as we then have to cancel all the "zero" shipments on there then reship them properly. 

- We now also have an official letter from Royal Mail taking responsibility for our late scans through our account manager. According to her, she has done this for a few other eBay sellers, but so far I cannot find where/ who to provide this to on eBay who can appropriately deal with it. I've attached the first page as an example (it won't let me attach a few page document as a JPEG)

Cheers

[stuart2538]

I've just spoken with eBay and they are only willing / able to remove defects within 90 days, anything outside that period stays.  

eBay use the courier's tracking and the first scan for Parcelforce is at the depot not from when it is scanned at the Post Office.

I'll now need to keep every receipt for every item I post in case it's wrongly classed as a late delivery so I have proof it was posted on time.  This just adds more burdens onto a small business and makes me less likely to use eBay.

[silicon-press]

Just found out the 90 day limit myself - I have been now been downgraded when selling to China due to a late dispatch from November 2024.

I was told by the customer service rep on chat to ask Royal Mail for a letter where they stated that they were at fault for not scanning! The rep also said that it was my responsibility to ensure that Royal Mail scan my items.

[babyoriginalsltd]

Has this worked for you?

Marking the orders as dispatched with no tracking?

Thanks

[silicon-press]

I've tried to appeal some defects via the web chat, and have been told both times that they won't remove the defects as the tracking shows I dispatched late. One rep asked me to email the receipts (which got me a message from eBay saying that email address wasn't to be used for enquiries) and then proceeded to ignore the receipts (if they even got them) and told me again that the tracking was correct, so the defects will remain.

All of my defects relate to Royal Mail online tracking - none from feedback - so the only solution is not to enter the tracking UNLESS tracking shows that it has properly entered Royal Mail's system, or to send the tracking via message.

[babyoriginalsltd]

I think i am going to go back to Royal Mail 48

I still send some Royal Mail 48 - I don't have any issue here as the date of actually printing the label is taken as the ship date by eBay. So for whatever reason if RM delivery late on these - it still recognises the shipped on time date which is the day i print the label/ship it. I ship everything the same day i print.

The only problem here is - that if the customer states that nothing has arrived and claims an item not arrived - i have to either refund/replace or ebay sides with the customer as i have no tracking.

But at this rate i am willing to accept that. We use click and drop. On most occasions with RM 48 standard - the postie does scan on delivery.

Lets see how this goes now and the closer i get to Christmas i will move it all to 1st class.

[amannltd]

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

[a45heaven]

With the introduction of SD, where ebay control who you use for shipping and as such the costs, 

Then surely the 'Reasonable postage cost' & 'Delivery time' should be metrics marked against ebay rather than the seller.