Royal Mail are taking my profits - advice please

soolin

Madness, I would pay good money to switch and have my items delivered Royal Mail rather than DHL any day. My RM depot is 5 mintes drive away and they'll redeliver for free at my convenience or even drop them at my local PO for a small charge. My DHL depot is a good hour away, I can never get through on the phone nor do they redeliver when they tell me they will and once they even sent an item back to the seller without me even having had a card or anything!

Kestrel

as cyberbob pointed out, nothing is perfect. I would rather send with DHL - at least it's trackable. They collect from my door, my collection driver knows me, the prices are very competative (compared with Special Delivery which is the RM equivalent for the service I use) example: one of my items with a market value of £99 would cost me over £20 with Special Delivery for tracking etc, it's only £8.04 inclusive of VAT with DHL. I sell heavier, larger, and more valuable items September-December during the Christmas trading months and I have used DHL (via parcel2go) for the past 3 years for these type of items and (touch wood) I have had no probelms and no customer complaints - no doubt a problem will come, no business is smooth sailing but I doubt I would have 4 missing parcels in the space of 3-4 weeks.

Kestrel

soolin wrote: »

My DHL depot is a good hour away, I can never get through on the phone nor do they redeliver when they tell me they will and once they even sent an item back to the seller without me even having had a card or anything!

I would rather have my item delivered to my customer than it mysteriously disappear off the face of the earth never to be seen again, which is what seems to be happening with parcels entrusted to RM in my area of late. Obviously you have had a bad experience with DHL returning an item in the past - but at least it could all be tracked and therefore resolved.

I am not claiming that DHL are the best company by any means, all I am saying is that RM have, in recent weeks proved themselves to be unreliable and have cost me a good amount of profit and until the issue is resolved satisfactorily I will, where possible, use the company that can offer me a trackable service at a reasonable cost for my customers.

custardy

Kestrel wrote: »

It was the manager at my local depot that told me they had lost the Amazon account so I suppose if RM staff are telling the public that they have lost it what are people supposed to believe?

)

well believing a delivery office manager,thats the first mistake
most dont have a clue whats going on in their own office let alone nationally

Kestrel

custardy wrote: »

well believing a delivery office manager,thats the first mistake
most dont have a clue whats going on in their own office let alone nationally

How very reassuring.

It's just another example that RM are failing in lots of areas. If the people in the mangerial roles don't have a clue what's going on, how am I supposed to have confidence that they can provide a reliable service and take care of my parcels? If the managers don't have a clue what's going on in their office it's hardly surprising that things get "lost"

custardy

Kestrel wrote: »

How very reassuring.

It's just another example that RM are failing in lots of areas. If the people in the mangerial roles don't have a clue what's going on, how am I supposed to have confidence that they can provide a reliable service and take care of my parcels? If the managers don't have a clue what's going on in their office it's hardly surprising that things get "lost"

this is what posties have been trying to get across
however joe public has little interest
ive posted before on what goes on and will no doubt post again after xmas when RM walk away from negotiations

Kestrel

well custardy, I for one am very interested in the shenanigans at RM as it is affecting my business - slow deliveries, currently 4 "lost" parcels in less than a month, terrible customer service, difficult to comminicate with (quite ironic really for a "communications" company) I will watch out for your posts with interest.

I also refer the point of RM being terrible to deal with / contact by telephone to soolin - you have to call a non-geographic number, press this, press that and then press the other followed by hash, hold for what seems like all morning and then get put through to some poor soul who hasn't got a clue about my claims and does not in fact deal with ebay businesses and can do little to assit me except log the call. Great. It's no doubt similar to the DHL "helpline"

itsnotfair_2

fedupwiththeworry wrote: »

twotimes wrote: »

...and they will be gaining £39 of your income.;)

I agree, it's ridiculous the way they operate their claims process. You should never post anything that you received as a gift, because as you received it free, in their eyes you won't have lost anything.

Say you bought something back in 1950 for a very low amount, now due to inflation and the item becoming a lot rarer, the value has risen significantly, is it fair that Royal Mail just give you back the original cost price?[/QUOTE]

Exactly, I'm currently selling off a load of my old toys from the 50's & 60's they may not have cost much then and you can't just go out and replace them now so how how much would you claim for ? I certainly haven't got any invoices as they were Xmas/Birthday presents.

If you can get an independant valuer to give written evidence what the cost would be to replace the item today they will refund the amount you need.

cyberbob

thriftymanc wrote: »

That's ridiculous. What happens if e.g. you sell a coat that cost £150 new for £50? Would they say the same thing then I wonder, or would they only want to reimburse the £50?! I bet they always switch between the price you sold it for vs the price you paid for it, depending on which is cheaper... anything to get out of paying for their mistakes!

Its in the terms and conditions

Kestrel

thriftymanc wrote: »

That's ridiculous. What happens if e.g. you sell a coat that cost £150 new for £50? Would they say the same thing then I wonder, or would they only want to reimburse the £50?! I bet they always switch between the price you sold it for vs the price you paid for it, depending on which is cheaper... anything to get out of paying for their mistakes!

As someone said earlier in the thread RM want it both ways and will just pick whichever suits them the best.