Is CRL bought through Buy Shipping automatically VTR compliant?

#25

I think what we are talking here is through C&D accounts not linked to OBA. Therefor only 1st & 2nd classes available, unlike through OBA where there are number of options.

#26

Thanks I’ve edited my post.

#27

How do you view an up to date report? On my Delivery Performance - Valid Tracking Rate the only one I can see runs to 28th March. " Time Window: 30 days. Promised Delivery Date : 27-Feb-2021 - 28-Mar-2021"

#28

Don’t think you can - we can only see the same as you

#29

Just to throw a spanner in the works, I have Royal Mail click & drop integrated with Amazon, I do not buy shipping with Amazon and I currently have 0% on untracked mail.

#30

Jessica just posted FAQs on Valid Tracking Rate policy in UK - UK Announcements - Amazon Seller Forums
So it seems if you buy through Seller Central your shipping is valid. Whether it need scanning at any stage still isn’t clear.

#31

@Smiley_Guy Thank you for all the info.
Can you please confirm if your click and drop account is linked to your Amazon as well as integrated , my account is integrated with Amazon however due to the problems with sellers being double charged, I have not yet linked it ( to be able to purchase shipping at our discounted RM rates) I have automatic dispatch and tracking confirmed on the C&D site for Amazon which is what we have used for many years without any major issues. However due to 17% of our RM48 orders not being scanned we are looking into other options…

#32

My C&D account is Integrated to Amazon. I don’t have a RM business account so it is not linked and I am not subject to any of the double charging issues that are being reported.

My setup is very simple I just buy postage on RM Click and Drop and post the items at the post office or just put some of the smaller items in a post box.

To be honest I was looking at going to a RM Business account as we have sufficient volume to do this but I think with the way things are on Amazon at the moment I will put this on hold for a couple of months.

#33

Thank you very much for confirming @Smiley_Guy.

Good idea to wait and see what happens with Amazon.

#34

I know this is probably a very basic question, but how do you link RM Click & Drop to Amazon ?
Do you have to have an account with Click & Drop ?

I just cannot see why using ‘Buy Shipping’ is not exactly the same as C&D as they are still RM postage labels that are produced, with a 2D QR code on them, even for 2nd class LL - that is why I cannot understand why you are getting 100% VTR, and I am 0% for buying the same thing ?!

I suppose is this because Amazon have failed to link their ‘Buy Shipping’ in the same way, and that is what is needed to solve the problem with using their buy shipping service ?

#35

Yes I have an account with Click and Drop. Anyone can set an account up and just link it to their online marketplaces such as Amazon. Orders then come through to the click and drop account and you mark them as despatched which then confirms despatch on Amazon.

If I look at an item that has been despatched by Click and Drop it updates the order as below is this the same way Buy Shipping updates the despatch information?

AmazonShippingExample
AmazonShippingExample.PNG752×133 13.1 KB

#36

Can you link to these rumours please? Or copy paste or screenshot so we can see what is being said.

#37

Hi

I’m a bit late to all of this (we don’t use Amazon all year so I’m only just getting on top of the whole VTR thing). We buy RM24/48 through C&D and then have C&D upload the tracking to Amazon. It looks like from my VTR rate on Amazon that only items scanned upon delivery count as “valid” and hence my VTR shows the % of tracking that gets scanned rather than whether this is a valid tracking ID or not. This is just wrong, but there you go. I also understand from these threads that if I “Buy Shipping” through Amazon then all my RM24/48 would automatically (as if my magic) be VALID. So that’s one solution…

However it also seems that if I buy First Class/Second Class (i.e. no tracking) through C&D then my VTR would be okay? That’s madness as now we are not providing tracking information to customers but have a “good” VTR. That’s a backwards step.

Is this all correct (as far as anyone knows)?

Presumably the “third” way is to print RM24/48 in C&D and then mark items as despatched in Amazon (rather than have C&D do it automatically) but mark it as First Class/Second Class. Amazon now doesn’t worry about having a valid tracking ID but we have one should a customer query delivery of their item?!?!?!? It’s dishonest but Amazon force us into these sort of childish practices!

Regards
Gary

#38

All mine go recorded 1st large letters

#39

Mine has gone up from 2.64 to 2.7% today but the new ones appearing on the report are still 2nd Class Large Letter bought via buy shipping :frowning:

#40

It’s all a mess, we hold a business account with RM, we ship around 800-1000 orders a week, depending on the season this climbs or falls. The majority of our orders are printed (packing slips) on amazon, packed and then we dispatch them in Click & Drop CRL48 where they are then marked and as dispatched and tracking ref uploaded to Amazon. Currently our VTR report for the specified period is showing 84%, approx 800 parcels not ‘valid’ as no delivery scan, all CRL48. We also use DPD for premium orders and heavier items, all valid and delivered on-time, no issues there.

We’re struggling at the moment to get hold of RM to look at tracked 24/48 which is something we don’t really want to do, our customers don’t need it, we don’t need it, and it will put us out of competition.

We could look at a different courier, perhaps Hermes but past issues with them don’t help our decision and whenever I see problems with a courier it always seems to be them, again something we don’t really want to change.

So at the moment it looks like we’ll have to buy CRL48 through Amazon, this would be fantastic if we could bulk print orders with a shipping label combined, but apparently this isn’t an option yet (despite ship.amazon allowing this when we were with their courier collections for SFP).

We’re too late to correct our VTR problem, so we will be suspended in all our main categories, it may actually allow us the time to really think about what we want to do!

#41

Hate to throw a spanner in the works but it was stated in the webinar that your VTR will only be protected if you use buy shipping through Amazon. If you use click and drop it will only count the successful scans. At the moment Royal Mail scan 80 percent. You only have 2 shipments and not enough data to produce a good stat. One non scan and your vtr will be 66 percent.

The issue with linking the account is that at the moment many like myself are being charged twice for postage. You get charged by Royal Mail and you also get charged by Amazon. It will appear in your transaction reports. Amazon are aware of a technical glitch and they are aware of the issue.

#42

Only if you have an RM business account I think

#43

All of my experiences are based on not having a RM Business account. Click and Drop for this purpose works fine for me and my VTR is showing at 100%.

I have a lot more than 2 shipments but only 2 have been sent with any form of tracking. Everything else has been sent untracked using RM C&D

As I stated above sending tracked items is rare for me as our items are low value with high margins. It doesn’t work out feasible to use a tracked service. Any tracked items we send are next day delivery where the delivery scan should happen. I don’t see any problems with further shipments on my account.

#44

This has now been fixed.