You don't seem to have understood my earlier post.
@dch2112011 wrote:
Yes that makes sense a postal receipt gives tracking reference as you described - that is a post office service and makes correct use of the service.
Once you use this service offered by the post office, they are responsible for the correct postal amount in that if RM check it and it is underweight /size then they will occur a penalty - RM pay the post office for these checks hence the penalty if it is wrong payments / charges. These are identified back to the post office branch by the receipt.
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This is really designed for postage purchased and applied by the post office although it seems to be being used for online labels which according to the post office do not need checking, the free service offered is printing the label not applying it to a parcel.
I said that I buy and print my own RM labels from ebay. It's the same if I buy postage direct from RM online. They are scanned when posted at the PO. They need checking because I might not have weighed and measured my packages correctly. It's not just for postage bought at the PO. They appear to be treating SD labels the same way as other labels bought by people using the RM website.
With SD this service is unnecessary at the post office as it is not penalised if underweight / size,
It should be treated in the same way as account business post which also can be dropped at the post office, the post office get paid per sack or part of sack collected - they are not responsible for the weight / size -
Weights / Sizes are checked at the sorting machines and a charge is made to the business account holder - not the post office - so any charges are for ebay - ebay can pass on the charge plus some if the seller chose the service weight and size, or as part of the enhanced protection swallow the charges if ebay made the size and weight estimate.
The question is whether the receipt gives any added protection - the answer is probably not from what I can make of it - the label is a business postal service which offers no recompense from RM to a business account holder (special terms may have been negotiated by ebay - who knows ? )
Of course it gives protection (although I admit I've never had to use it). How would I prove I had posted a 1st or 2nd class item if I didn't have a receipt?
Under normal business terms ebay therefore pay for any lost or damaged items from the buyer protection fees by refunding the buyer (mbg) not deducting them from the seller proceeds.
If ebay calculate the wrong postal rate the seller does not pay the excess again funded from the buyer protection fees.
Have they discussed this with the Post Office or just with Royal Mail?
The ebay system generates the tracking number - a new label issued by the post office becomes an independant transaction cancelling the unused SD label and refunding the buyer so receipt or no receipt the seller pays the postage.
Why would a new label be issued by the PO?
The receipt could give a seperate tracking number to add to the ebay system - it allows you to add a second tracking number which supercedes the SD tracking number.
The ebay system will at the moment penalise the seller metrics because it will identify the first tracking number as not delivered on time before it is cancelled and the seller will get the cheery please make sure you post on time reminder - not a good part of the system but then it is designed as being able to add the second tracking number to protect a replacement sent for damaged or lost goods !
So what does a receipt give you for SD ? possibly a scan which will be accepted as proof of it entering the RM system - it would be interesting to see if this is immediate or whether the tracking is updated later in the day as it enters sorting - I am unsure of this.
If it's a fully tracked RM service, the tracking would be the same as any other fully tracked RM service. The scan at the PO (where they also check size and weight) is proof that it has entered the RM system.
But what it does do is changes the responsility for SD if the label is changed - effectively it cancels SD and the protections and leaves the seller paying for the postage
This is how I see it reading the published terms from the Post Office, ebay and Royal Mail - I haven't looked at EVRI
On balance it seems that not using the post office 'checking service' is the best course of action - if dropped off at the post office it is almost certainly going to enter the RM system but of course there is always a risk - it would all depend on whether a post office scan saying received at post office enhances the protection or is ignored.
What is the benefit of not scanning the label at the PO?
Certainly if the post office replace the label charging you it is not a good idea because the buyer will be refunded for the original SD label not you.
In reality SD is an agreement with RM and the tracking is activated once it starts it's journey at RM
This is where it differs from normal Business account postage - with a business account the tracking is added as soon as the label is generated automatically - this is accepted by ebay as in the RM system because business account holders are vetted and authorised to act as post offices including issuing their own postal receipts.
Under SD this happens but ebay seem to have added another layer where the tracking is only accepted when scanned by RM - so even though the tracking is uploaded automatically for enhanced protection ebay do not count this and start when the package is actually scanned by RM
The proof that a package has entered the RM system is when the item is scanned at the PO or by the postie if you request a collection. Not when the label is generated. This is the same as when buying postage direct from RM. The error that ebay and/or RM seem to have made is to encode the size and weight into the QR code. If the size and weight were the maximum that can be sent using SD, then packages wouldn't fail the check at the PO. At the moment the PO is treating SD packages in the same way as those with labels bought from the RM website.
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