Need help with INR on some items

[evamarievinyls]

I post most items 2nd class RM.  Postage is purchased through eBay and I’m having a lot of INR cases.  I copy and paste the tracking ID from when I buy postage into the item that I’ve dispatched because eBay doesn’t do this anymore.  I know it’s not tracked but it’s the proof I have that I’ve bought postage online and through eBay.   I’m sick of all the cases being open.  It’s completely ruined my sales on here now my busiest time of the year.  I’ve opened the window on postage 3 to 4 days dispatch and changed delivery to other courier  3 to 4 days just to cover myself because delivery is taking 10 days.  I do think there’s also some dishonest people.

My question is am I covered for buying postage through eBay as at the moment I just give in and refund.   Is there anything else I can do?   My items are not worth sending tracked £2.70 and I always offer free postage.   It’s a competitive market.

[suelel1968]

@evamarievinyls 

"..am I covered for buying postage through eBay as at the moment.."

I'm a little confused as to what you want to know. You presumable put stamps on envelopes and send with Proof Of postage via RM at the PO?

As long as you have POP you can claim off RM for the lost postage and the cost price of goods, but I'm not sure how you would convince them of your cost price as you wouldn't have an invoice presumably. You can buy RM 2nd class through eBay, and it will add the POP to your item order. I don't think RM scan normal letters, only large letters, so i guess you never know whether the letter got there or not.

The new "extended INR cover" from November only covers tracked services, so that wouldn't help you.

"Opening the window" on dispatch days may not help you either because eBay thinks it is "dynamic" to tell customers that they will receive an item in your dispatch window. As far as I could make out from the information they give about this, the longer your dispatch time is and the more often you beat that dispatch time, the more often eBay will tell a customer that they will receive it before you are committed to send it... "Dynamic"! That's my understanding anyway.

What i do is get chatty with the customer, I tell them when i posted it, tell them RM are a nightmare and  don't class anything as late for 14 working days (True) and that things regularly take up to a week, but that I would never make them wait that long and that a refund will not be a problem (which seems to be all they want to hear) and would they mind waiting until....most agree to wait and most let me know that it has turned up.

[sml192]

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@evamarievinyls wrote:

My question is am I covered for buying postage through eBay as at the moment I just give in and refund.   Is there anything else I can do?   My items are not worth sending tracked £2.70 and I always offer free postage.   It’s a competitive market.

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Ebay has just introduced a new policy to protect and reimburse sellers if an item is subsequently delivered after a refund is issued.  See the highlighted section below for details.

If a buyer reports that an item hasn't arrived

If you send an item within your stated dispatch time, and you upload tracking information before the estimated delivery date that shows evidence of successful delivery, you're protected.

We require all of the following to prove a successful on-time delivery:

• Tracking number that can be validated on the shipping carrier's website and which was uploaded to eBay before the latest estimated delivery date;
• A delivery status of "delivered" or "attempted delivery" (or equivalent in the country to which the item was delivered);
• The date of delivery or attempted delivery;
• The recipient's address, showing at least the city/county or postcode (or international equivalent) that matches the one found on the Order details page; and
• Signature confirmation, on orders with a total cost of £450 or more. Learn more about our signature confirmation requirements 

Additionally, we’ll protect you if you use an eBay label and the item is delivered to the buyer after you’ve issued a refund. We'll automatically reimburse you for the item, remove defects, and exclude the case from service metrics.

[firstgardencity]

Like you I post most items 2nd class RM and purchase the postage through eBay BUT the "so called" tracking number then appears against the item being posted.  I do not have to copy and paste as it is there already.

I post same day for orders received by 15:00 hrs and have had a couple of problems over the years but generally a message asking eBay to phone me results in a positive result.  I think you should talk to eBay about the problems as I have only had 6 items "not delivered" in 23,000 sales.

[vinylscot]

I had a quick look at the items you are selling. It looks like almost all of these would be sent as small parcels, by Royal Mail's definition.

If you have an online "Click & Drop" account with RM, the difference between sending by second class and Tracked48 is 5p. For that extra 5p, you will get full tracking, resulting in better protection from eBay, and Royal Mail will also cover for up to £75.00 compensation, rather than £20.00.

The C&D account can be synched with eBay, so all your eBay sales appear there, and all your tracking details are automatically added to your eBay transactions. Printing postage labels is also very simple, and can be set to "four per page" or individual, for label printers.

It's an absolute no-brainer.

[vinylscot]

I've had another look at your items - hadn't realised it was just stickers. Sadly the savings on letters/large letters are not so great. Sorry.

[evamarievinyls]

Thank you for your replies.

firstgardencity I will speak to eBay about this as the "so called" tracking number doesn't appear once I have bough the postage and sent.  Maybe its a browser issue but I will look into it.

suelel1968 No, I don't put stamps on the envelopes.  I buy the postage through ebay, this generates a postage label and I print and put on the envelope.  I realise these are 2nd class RM and there are cases when I get 6 or 7 from a single customer in which case I add the £2.70 48Hr tracking.

I just thought maybe I was covered by actually buying the postage through the ebay system.

I think opening the window has helped me a lot.  I dispatch all orders the same day even though it states dispatch in 3 to 4 days.  This way it shows the buyer a longer wait time.  I'm not getting as many orders but the headache its giving me with all the INR after just 1 day of being over is something else.  It's just not worth the stress.  RM are taking up to 10 days with 2nd class at the moment within some areas.

[xyz307xyz]

I don't know if it is any different for business sellers (I didn't think so) but for private sellers (not using Simple Delivery) ebay is only interested in proof of delivery not proof of postage.

Buying postage on ebay would I hope provide proof of postage for Royal Mail purposes for compensation for lost items or late delivery (by their definition).

"Is there anything else I can do?" - claim compensation from Royal Mail based on their t&c. The new delivery after refund policy should also help - so keep checking to see if refunded items have actually later arrived.

[neovass0]

  Can I just add, that yes, there are simply just a lot of dishonest people out there, unfortunately. With no tracking, they will claim non-delivery and receive a refund. I'm a very small seller, who mostly sells my used books. When I first started selling, because of their low value, like you I just sent them out 1st / 2nd class. I tell people this all the time, but in my first ever ten sales, to ten different buyers, on ten different dates and using three different post offices, five of the buyers claimed their item never arrived, lol. I used proper book mailers, paid the correct postage at the post office counter, etc. Most, if not all, will have lied. From that point on, I switched to listing only items (or bundles) where it was feasible to use tracked services.       

   Furthermore, before simple delivery, I was terrible with adding tracking data to the orders, as usually it would fit through the letter box anyway, plus ebay tracking would often not sync up with what the royal mail website was showing. I still received messages about non-delivery. I would then check the tracking number, and yes sometimes the item was still out for delivery. But the number of people who stated their item had not arrived, when in truth it had been delivered, was ridiculous. I would provide them with the tracking number, and politely tell them the date and time it was delivered and to check with a family member. Never heard back from them, lol.