Royal mail are killing us
I send small items out, we use RM because it is the only way i can think of to send letters and very small packages. We are getting 1 star feedback from customers who havent recieved their items or are late.
Unfortunately rather than contacting us they are choosing to leave bad feedback.
The really odd thing is that we dont get the same issue on other platforms we sell ob.
Does anyone have any suggestions for sending small letters that dont involve RM?
145 replies
Seller_lljyzgTxr5fgI
This is, regretably, a trait of the Amazon buyer and unfortunately, it is often encouraged by Amazon themselves contacting customers and requesting them to leave feedback and / or make claims for items deemed late. There is no cheap option to avoid Royal Mail when it comes to letters. Other companies do provide services but most of them then use Royal Mail anyway. However, it’s not all despair and gloom as there are things you can do.
Firstly, the sheer volume of mail in the system over the last couple of months has meant delays for everybody when it comes to Royal Mail so, whilst it doesn’t help, we have all experienced what you are describing.
Secondly, if you’re not using a Royal Mail account, buy your shipping in future through Amazon (if you are not doing so already). We have done this for years and Amazon have been automatically removing negative and neutral feedback left for late items where the labels were purchased through Amazon.
Thirdly, whilst the situation with mail in the system will improve in time, sending items first class is a faster method of delivery (though some here will tell you otherwise, no doubt). Second class has been taking two weeks or more to arrive. The use of signed for doesn’t speed things up but does provide a bit better protection for items over £20.
Finally, letters have no evidence of delivery, parcels do. If you buy your postage through Amazon, you always have a copy of the label on your order page with the 2D QR panel and reference number on it which can be used to confirm delivery or to prove to a customer that you purchased postage and shipped the item.
Seller_MaCn7NvTI3GGw
Since the beginning on pandemic, first lockdown, once we noticed Royal Mail getting slower we did 2 things that have helped:
- Increased the time of delivery on shipping templates
- When possible (large letter) we sent RM24 instead of RM48 (only costs us and additional 20p or so.
Basically customers expected a 7-10 day delivery but as we sent first class it normally got there within this period (definitely not a normal 1 day delivery though).
This kept our complaints about non-delivery to practically Zero.
It’s not ideal because I’m sure some buyers saw our delivery times and may have gone elsewhere but as at lot of our listings are unique it didn’t hit us too much.
Seller_0qkdXEKUCxHNs
consider sending using a broker such as parcel2go. Multiple shipping/courier options, but almost all are tracked, and not significantly more than RM Small packet. If a customer can see where it is, it reduces the chances of them leaving negative feedback
Seller_qzZOZZ6dIjGZw
I stopped using RM48 and used RM24 pre-Xmas. Royal mail lost two days’ worth of post for over 3 weeks!
I now use standard 1st class as I’m, not VAT registered it’s cheaper than RM24 and doesn’t have any extra surcharges charges like RM do at 4% plus VAT. Plus if it’s lost for 10 days I can make a claim for either the postage or if I get proof of posting I can claim up to £20.
RM service just gives nothing as compensation. Not even your postage cost back when it’s missing so they can basically throw everything in the skip and still charge you for the privilege!
Seller_DJwE1RXTpAHPh
Customers:
want tracking on a £2.50 order inc. free shipping;
expect full returnless refunds if orders don’t arrive within their shrinking patience limit, then don’t return the property when it does come;
don’t understand the difference between calendar days and working days, thinking it’s been X days since they ordered when really it’s been X minus 2,3,5 whatever;
expect to receive items on Sundays;
compare prices of items found in supermarkets and other brick-and-mortar outlets with items online that have delivery costs included in the price
What can you do? It’s pointless to worry or to try to change any of this!!
Personally I never even look at our Amazon feedback because of the limitations in removing ridiculous reviews from customers, why bother with something you are limited in affecting, waste of energy!
Seller_cedsnRIkO32W2
Parcel2Go are a good comparison site. I mean, I’ve sued them once and we’re suing them again but that’s because of Hermes, not them specifically sooo…
Seller_lx80i5sEkq4UI
Thanks Retro_Emporium. Yes you’re right. Didn’t think. Appreciated. Here is the amended edit.
We’ve had good results and reduced non-delivery claims and poor feedback/reviews down by creating a low cost system/process that allows us to continue using RM 1st or 2nd class regular mail plus an additional label. Note, we only use this on items with a relatively low value.
We suspected many non-delivery claims for untracked items weren’t genuine and, we also questioned the integrity of RM seasonal staff.
The labels we use don’t track but worth consideration. Some of the labels use a bit of psychology to help keep items ‘on track’ eg, indicating the item content is of an urgent or a medical nature.
Barcodes and QR codes are all unique to the business… they work and lead to a delivery confirmation page tailored to your business. This page may indicate the item is still in transit. Perhaps ‘smoke and mirrors’; a convincing deterrent rather than a full on tracking system. But I should say that we do dispatch quite fast - same day or next AM on >99% of orders.
That said, using the labels had an unexpected effect too in that it helped increasing positive reviews and Seller Feedback on occasions as buyers are clearly impressed that we’ve unexpectedly marked their item for URGENT DISPATCH or URGENT DELIVERY.
It’s definitely improved things for us. Good luck and hope you manage to improve things. Happy New Year.
Seller_2JXNLecJDOAHj
We have been on this platform for a few years now and we sell items which we send by Royal Mail as they are just small parcels. I find the customers on Amazon believe that every seller is Amazon or that the item will be sent out through the Amazon platform and they can’t understand why it didn’t arrive the next day. So you end up with most customers wondering why the service is not as good as next day which most are expecting to happen. That’s what Amazon Prime does for you.
I am a third party seller and I am guessing you are too. In my experience the Royal Mail offer the best service when it comes to delivering my items. We send every thing out by recorded first class delivery and it works well for us.
Seller_SixCE7Zfu1HwN
We have been using Royal Mail for around 15 years, when we first started there was never a problem of customers not receiving their order. As time went on we had more and more parcels, envelopes etc going missing and when we contacted Royal Mail they made it virtually impossible to make a claim and they could never give us an reason for it not being delivered. We have since been in touch with many small companies with the same problem. One thing that Royal Mail can never answer is, where all of the missing mail is going to ?, are they being delivered to wrong addresses ?, are they still at their depot ?
One day we may get an answer ? Don’t hold your breath !!
