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Am I silly to send lower value items signed delivery?
I generally send lower value items standard delivery, however I am recently noticing an increase in non receipt claims and A-Z claims without fair contact to resolve. All of which is costing money, time, and account ratings.
Am I silly to send low value items from £6 signed delivery? and what is the ideal threshold when you're just a small business.
TIA
27 replies
Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid
I am a book/media seller, and only send items signed for if over £20 value, and even then it depends on the weight, but have to say I rarely have claims for INR, and only ever had one A-Z in 18 years of selling on here !! - maybe book buyers are more honest ! For items up to 1kg in weight I personally use Yodel,as their standard compensation is up to £50 anyway, so the same as signed for via RM. A no-brainer.
Seller_FQHkqHJI5SqTh
RM Tracked 24/48 is only slightly more expensive than Standard.
Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn
I send a fair few tracked around the £6 mark. I do have really good negotiated tracked rates though.
I started doing this a few months ago and virtually no INR's on the tracked items. Those I get are suspected scammers and nearly all go away once you provide proof of delivery .
Loads of INR's on RM48 and second class which are mostly down to Amaxon telling buyers these items maybe lost.
So no I don't think it is dilly to send them tracked provided it still makes your item profitable.
Seller_So4cfa2TwpZTV
The decision really depends on your profit margins. For our part, we only use signed delivery for items priced over £20. For items under £20, it’s currently more cost-effective to send them via standard delivery and accept occasional losses due to fraud. Unfortunately, this is just the reality of doing business on the Amazon platform. Our experience shows that claims for missing parcels are significantly higher on Amazon than on eBay. On average, we receive a claim for every 132 standard deliveries sent through Amazon, while on eBay, it’s only 1 claim per 1,923 parcels
Seller_TufyJDtetbrlU
The problem here is because Royal Mail only scan about 70-80% of there CRL24 / 48 packages on delivery, then when it is not scanned amazon show the customer that 'there item may be lost' ... which causes some customers to try it on and ask for a refund, of course there will always be genuine INR cases, but considering i also sell alot on Etsy / Ebay aswell and it's very rare i get a customer say the item has not been recieved on those platforms, shows it's probably 80/90% of people trying it on on here. ive had a few customers say ''amazon told me my item might be lost id like a refund'' .. i have actually had 2 customers message me in the last 3/4 months saying ''amazon told me my item might be lost, but im just letting you know ive recieved it and it's great'' Amazon need to stop pushing this 'item may be lost' thing imo.
Seller_YAxcDLHl55uw4
I send all low value items (books) with either Royal Mail standard 2nd Class or Evri, bought via Amazon Buy Shipping. Whichever one works out cheapest based on weight and dimensions. With Evri you do get the added bonus of full end to end tracking.
With Royal Mail, I just make a note of every label barcode before it goes out, so that on the odd occasions that people do send in a speculative INR, I can at least check the code on the Royal Mail Tracking website to see if the item has been delivered. I've had a couple of those in the last week or two, and the customers have backed off as soon as I've told them that Royal Mail has scanned the item as delivered at their front door, with GPS coordinates accurate to within 1m. I also give them the link to the specific Royal Mail tracking page. If they were to push it further, you would have to refund or face an A-z that you would definitely lose.
Occasionally in the past, Royal Mail has failed to scan the item, and I've had to refund, but that is rare.
Definitely not worth spending £6 on signed delivery, as the vast majority of items do get delivered successfully. Also worth adding, don't spend extra for a signature with Evri via Amazon Buy Shipping, as Amazon charges you for it, but they don't actually provide you with the Signature Confirmation service. I raised it as a fault at the beginning of September, and they still haven't fixed it yet.
Seller_540qgZMXuuXdD
Do what works for you. If you're still making a profit, then you're doing fine. Remember that people will pay more for free shipping than pay the price plus shipping which works out the same!
I work postage into my prices, so if someone buys 4 or 5 items, I give tracked postage because it covers me in case of an INR.
INR's for around £10, I just claim back from Royal Mail. Granted it's usually just stamps as reimbursement, but it's something.
Seller_Nx3Da5XPngGEm
Not being funny but have you checked your fees and accounted for taxes as well? Signed on a £6 item, i'm not sure if there is even a penny left after you factor in what you paid for it.
Seller_RJ1NNy29Fi99v
I use RM 48/24 tracked on all orders. If you have business account with them it works cheaper than regular postage. If something is lost in transit I can claim up to 150. Picture upon delivery saved me a lot of times.
Seller_T6N3WItIatvep
Depends on volume of sales and item price. If the item is less than £5 then send it RM first class (purchase the label with Amazon). If it is £10 send it RM 24/48.
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