Royal Mail are taking my profits - advice please

Kestrel

cyberbob wrote: »

Its in the terms and conditions

Not all T&C's are fair or lawful - the banking charges is a prime example.
And when do you ever get told about these T&C's? Certainly not at the counter when you pay for the "service" and nor have I ever seen any notices referring to these T&C's displayed in my local post office. It's only when there is a problem that you find out you have unknowingly agreed to these terms and that you will have to jump through hoops to recoup some money.

brightonman123

Not sure on legalities of this, though have you considered physically tracking a test item, with a GPS chip inside (cheap mobile phone?)

I take it items are securely packaged, clearly labelled etc.. makes you wonder who’s xmas tree they will end up under.. plain packing may help deter / fool any snoopers.

Re the buying price, would it be worth setting up a ‘go btweeen’ company, and bill items to yourself at the RRP?

itsnotfair_2

Yep they openly say they give you which ever amount is lowest.

Kestrel

Update: Now 5 parcels missing
Still haven't heard anything from RM - maybe they have "lost" my claim form and the paperwork I sent?

custardy

Kestrel wrote: »

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"

well heres an eye opener for you
i will describe my day today(bear with me)

so we go in this morning(my day off yesterday) and find a pile of undelivered 'van sized' packages from the day before
no surprise as i didnt deliver any on Thursday
loads of machine sorted bundles of mail to start,then loads of manual mail for good old hand sorting (wheres those machines?)
so we sort that load of mail and get the duties up,loads of packets with most duties having 2 mail sacks of packets plus driver packets

then more manual mail and packets come down.the 5 york trolleys of packets are pushed aside as theres no time to sort them(this is just for my delivery postcode,we have 4 in total in my office so there will be more)
that mail is sorted and the posties put them mail up in their frames

then another load of manual mail comes down.now by this point we are out of time.as in we need 3.5 hours for foot delivery,plus 30 minutes packet delivery plus traveling time.
managers tell us to sort the mail anyway and stream the mail as required to complete on time.

now lets cover streaming.this is where you pull out mail of certain types and put it aside
it starts with mailsort,then 2nd class,then downstream access depending on time available.
so im told to remove all three of these,so the time i spent putting this mailup has been wasted and i pull out 3 full trays of mail (large grey trays for anyone thats seen them) leaving just 1st class stamped & dated mail
no drivers packets will be delivered and one bag of smaller packets are left.

the problem is i deliver to stairs so regardless of streaming i still have to go to the top floor and dont save as much time as it would appear.

eventually get tied down and leave the office over an hour later than i would need to so as to allow a full duty to be done.

drive the 20 minutes to the duty,deliver to the businesses,post office local collects and drop bags for my park & loop partner.

park & loop is where 2 posties do 2 foot duties plus the van packets moving the van around as you go.great except there i no parking for my duty.
so i eventually get the van parked and walk to my duty with my first bag.
then repeat this back and forward dead walk until i complete the duty.even after streaming i was still past my finish time

so ive left large packets,small packets and 3 trays of mail.its 20 days to xmas and yet to get (in real terms) busy
then theres the yorks of unsorted packets plus mail that was put aside
this is an office which has gone through RM's savings.
if you think the strikes were the problem then look at how today went

Kestrel

well that is indeed an eye opener, as was the Panorama programme. It's no wonder items aren't arriving. Just to briefly update on my situation: I have received a reimbursement (my purchase cost) for one item. Another item has been returned to me as "uncollected" though my buyer tells me there was no card left at her home and when she contacted her sorting office they had no knowledge of any item awaiting collection. Third item is in the claim process and I have yet to make claims for the others. Surely RM will realise there is a problem somewhere in the system when I subit all these claims? All have been posted from the same Post Office and presumably all make a similar start to their journey? I would hope that RM can pinpoint where the common "glitch" is for all these "lost" items?

Kestrel

brightonman123 wrote: »

Not sure on legalities of this, though have you considered physically tracking a test item, with a GPS chip inside (cheap mobile phone?)

I take it items are securely packaged, clearly labelled etc.. makes you wonder who’s xmas tree they will end up under.. plain packing may help deter / fool any snoopers.

Re the buying price, would it be worth setting up a ‘go btweeen’ company, and bill items to yourself at the RRP?

These are a couple of good suggestions though probably not something that I as a small business could justify.

I have no idea how I could track an item as I'm not very techie minded but I'm sure it would be possible, though it may take a good few attempts as it's only "a few" items which go astray - if it were a higher percentage I would consider looking into it, though I would probably be completely broke if the loss were any higher.

Yes, all my packages are secure and well labelled and unassuming (ie they don't have a shop logo/ebay logo etc stamped anywhere on them, just a residential address for reference to who sent the item)

I like the idea of a go between company but as I said, for a sole trader such as myself I think this would be a little difficult to do for various reasons.

Thanks for your suggestions and input though, it's much appreciated

novelli

so how would the valuing work on items that i make myself and sell?
as far as i am concerned the item is worth at least the amout it sells for, i wouldnt have receipts as i make the items??

the same item can sell for £20 one week and £5 another week depending on demand and bidding??

and also for every item we sell there is fees from ebay and paypal, so are they refunded??

ive had several go missing recently, i keep meaning to put in a claim, but havent got round to it yet, (too busy responding to missing parcel enquiries from customers and re making the items for them)!!!, which means i am not making new ones, so theres a bit more profit gone???

We need to get together and challenge this as i am disgusted at what i have read here, i had thought that if i made a claim for a missing parcel where the item had sold for say £20, i would be refunded the £20, and the cost of packaging as well as any associated fees, clearly this is not the case.

as someone who spends at least £150 a month to royal mail for posting items i think the service needs seriously looking at and challenging, why should they profit from my loss????

custardy

novelli wrote: »

as someone who spends at least £150 a month to royal mail for posting items i think the service needs seriously looking at and challenging, why should they profit from my loss????

whats wrong with the service you are getting?

twotimes

novelli wrote: »

We need to get together and challenge this as i am disgusted at what i have read here, i had thought that if i made a claim for a missing parcel where the item had sold for say £20, i would be refunded the £20, and the cost of packaging as well as any associated fees, clearly this is not the case.

Couldn't agree more. At the moment it is in Royal Mail's interests for items to "go missing". They can get an item worth £39 and, unless you can prove the item's value which is difficult in most cases, will generally only have to pay out a few stamps in compensation for it.

Royal Mail should just pay out the full £39 for every claim made, regardless of the item's value. That way they would have an incentive to not lose so much mail.