Royal Mail tracking

[truck-88]

Most tracking services are very good but not Royal Mail. When checking the tracking for Royal Mail for goods supplied by an e bay seller the Royal Mail site says the tracking will be updated when they try to deliver. Now that is not much good if you are waiting for a parcel.  I think E bay should get involved and put pressure on Royal Mail to get then to upgrade their system to a modern standard.

[style_wise]

Royal Mail offer a range of services. The one you describe is called Special Delivery.

[vinylscot]

Tracked postage does show all stages of the journey. If you're just using the acceptance/delivery code as a tracking number, you will only get confirmation of delivery.

[3942rick2005]

Special Delivery has tracking throughout ( I have used it for years ). Cheaper services are available that only get tracked at delivery - this appears to be what has been used here. It is one way for sellers to satisfy ebay's tracking requirements without complete tracking and save postage monies. Available to Royal Mail  business users only I believe ( not 100% certain on that though ).

Certainly not Special Delivery though!

Not the fault of Royal Mail at all.

[sml192]

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@truck-88 wrote:

Most tracking services are very good but not Royal Mail. When checking the tracking for Royal Mail for goods supplied by an e bay seller the Royal Mail site says the tracking will be updated when they try to deliver. Now that is not much good if you are waiting for a parcel.  I think E bay should get involved and put pressure on Royal Mail to get then to upgrade their system to a modern standard.

You are referring to Royal Mail Standard Tariff services which currently only provide proof of delivery.  Full tracking is available with Royal Mail Special Delivery and their commercial Royal Mail Tracked service.

Royal Mail Standard Tariff services are governed by the USO which is controlled by Ofcom.  Under the USO (Designated USP Condition 1) the provision of tracking on Standard Tariff services is currently prohibited. 

Royal Mail actually requested removal of this prohibition in their proposals to Ofcom concerning the recent USO reform, in order to be able to provide tracking on all parcel deliveries, but Ofcom did not consider such a change to be necessary.  You, therefore, need to direct your complaint towards Ofcom rather than Royal Mail. 

[dch2112011]

This causes a lot of confusion - Royal Mail offer business customers a proof of delivery only service  for RM48 and RM24, not to be confused with RM24 and RM48 tracked services.

The reason sellers use the proof of delivery service is that it is less expensive and was designed in collaboration with ebay to allow seller protection under the MBG and  metrics seller protection.

Because the 'tracking number' is automatically uploaded by RM it is accepted as proof of dispatch by ebay and protects the seller from late delivery penalties.

The tracking info does not change until scanned on delivery which is confusing for customers who would not realise this service exists  especially when RM and ebay describe RM48 / 24 tracked  as a seperate service  - Most customers would assume RM48 and RM48 Tracked are one and the same but they are totally different,

Think of RM24 and RM48 as business 1st and 2nd class post  with extras ie scanned on delivery

[the-nutwood-collection]

Royal Mail Tracked 48 and Tracked 24 are available to all users  - not just business users - and can be purchased online and handed in at a post office.

Both services give end-to-end tracking with email and text notifications to the recipient.

[dch2112011]

That is true but not RM48 and RM24 delivery confirmation only, these are cut price business services which offer delivery confirmation only, the price varies on volume and averaging. 

[3942rick2005]

"Royal Mail Tracked 48 and Tracked 24 are available to all users  - not just business users - and can be purchased online and handed in at a post office."

Yes but the untracked ones are not. We are talking about the untracked service - as posted above by dch2112011 in the post before yours ( did you not read it?):

 "This causes a lot of confusion - Royal Mail offer business customers a proof of delivery only service  for RM48 and RM24, not to be confused with RM24 and RM48 tracked services."

[thepillenwerfer]

RM24, RM48 — which are only available to Business customers  — and Signed For (Recorded Delivery as was) only give confirmation of delivery, not full tracking throughout the item's journey.  Full tracking is available with Tracked 24, Tracked 48 and Special Delivery; the latter being a combination of the old Special Delivery and Registered services.

Private Sellers are generally compelled to use Tracked 24, Tracked 48 or Evri but Business Sellers can use what they like and are unlikely to pay for full tracking when all they need is confirmation of delivery.

[truck-88]

As well as selling on E bay we also buy a lot and it would help with customer service if E bay put pressure on Royal Mail. The tracking is not much good to a buyer if the tracking only tells him he may have missed the delivery. Another matter is that many delivery companies are now asking for the customers e mail address which E bay will not provide.  I understand why they will not provide it before the sale is made but once the buyer has paid I can then see no reason for e mail addresses not being made available as the buyers phone number is available. The e mail address would allow the buyer to plan to receive the parcel and there for not miss the delivery and it would also give a better customer service.

[sml192]

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@truck-88 wrote:

As well as selling on E bay we also buy a lot and it would help with customer service if E bay put pressure on Royal Mail. The tracking is not much good to a buyer if the tracking only tells him he may have missed the delivery. 

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Put pressure on Royal Mail to do what exactly?

If the item is being sent using the untracked RM48/24 business service then that is a choice made by the seller because of the cost saving that service provides.  It is spefically intended to be untracked in order to provide that cost saving. 

If the item is being sent Standard Tariff then Royal Mail cannot provide tracking, even though they would like to, as it is currently prohibited by the terms of the USO.

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@truck-88 wrote:

Another matter is that many delivery companies are now asking for the customers e mail address which E bay will not provide.  I understand why they will not provide it before the sale is made but once the buyer has paid I can then see no reason for e mail addresses not being made available as the buyers phone number is available. The e mail address would allow the buyer to plan to receive the parcel and there for not miss the delivery and it would also give a better customer service.

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Ebay does provide the buyer's email address and phone number to the carrier.  I always get email and SMS notifications from Royal Mail if the item is being sent using Royal Mail Tracked.  If it's being sent using Evri then I just get email notifications.  It does need to be an integrated carrier and the seller does need to actually purchase the postage on eBay, or be using Simple Delivery, in order for it to work.