What's the point of sending anything recorded delivery?

cracker1979

in which case it would be the BUYERS fault that THEY werent there to sign for it!

Mr_Squiddy

FWIW my view is that it is probably better simply to get proof of posting and not bother with recorded delivery. Then if you get chargeback you can at least try and get the compensation out of Royal Mail.

benjimoron_2

Mr_Squiddy wrote:

My recollection is that PayPal only accept recorded/special delivery if the consignment is signed for by the eBay/PayPal member to whom the item is sold. So if someone's mum signs for the item you are !!!!!!ed (basically.)

How do Paypal know what the signature should look like? I guess as long as they can see on-line that someone at that address signed for it then they're happy.

Looks like I was wrong about recorded delivery, thought paypal didn't accept it! Sorry for any confusion.

benjimoron_2

Mr_Squiddy wrote:

FWIW my view is that it is probably better simply to get proof of posting and not bother with recorded delivery. Then if you get chargeback you can at least try and get the compensation out of Royal Mail.

Yeah, that's what I sorta meant. You should get them same money at the end of the day just have to go through the bother of claiming from PO if you get a chargeback. But you'd save on postage fees in the long run. I'd do that if my items were worth under £32. Only problem is what if you claim from PO and the buyer tells them they recieved it, do you reckon they'd look at the paypal dispute to see that they said they didn't receive it? Maybe PO would say the buyer had received it therefore your complaint is with paypal for refunding the money? But paypal would refuse to get involved with that as it's too much hassle and they'd say you should've sent by recorded/special delivery to be covered by their terms and conditions.

Only thing left to do in that case would be to call police and report buyer for fraud I guess? Or go round there with a few of your mates?

cracker1979

sending by recorded delivery would dissuade the buyer from filing a fraudulent claim for an item not arriving, as as far as they are concerned you have got proof that the item arrived

i reckon the extra 60p is worthwhile for this reason as it could potentially save a lot of time/effort and getting into an it did/didnt/did/didnt arrive argument!

benjimoron_2

cracker1979 wrote:

sending by recorded delivery would dissuade the buyer from filing a fraudulent claim for an item not arriving, as as far as they are concerned you have got proof that the item arrived

i reckon the extra 60p is worthwhile for this reason as it could potentially save a lot of time/effort and getting into an it did/didnt/did/didnt arrive argument!

Very good point. I place alot of value on 60p though! Probably would rather have to chase a fraudster 1 time out of 100 to save £60.

soolin

benjimoron wrote:

Very good point. I place alot of value on 60p though! Probably would rather have to chase a fraudster 1 time out of 100 to save £60.

Same here. On a conservative estimate I send 100 items a month (often much more). To send those 100 items recorded would cost an additional £68 (68p per time). So I could lose up to £68 worth of goods every 100 items and still be in profit by not using recorded.

All my items under £32 go standard post with a COP. If the buyer says item doesn't arrive then I refund in full and reclaim my losses with the RM. At no point is paypal even involved, so I don't need to prove anything to them. If I thought every buyer was out to cheat me and therefore sent everything recorded 'just in case' I would probably end up giving up on ebay.

The result of my policy is that I have lovely cheap postage rates, which is very important with the proposed new feedback system which includes feedback for postage costs...happy buyers as I trust them and no paypal chargebacks.

Soo

Sybarite

Simple, recorded delivery is for documents you want a good chance of arriving so you can prove to the addressee they were sent when you said, (ie The Link and CPW cashback mobile thingies)

Special Delivery is for when you actually want the item to get there because its valuable & the addressee can't claim they didn't receive it (ie for OSPS cashback claims!). Posties are apparently personally responsible for the item as it's tracked to them.

Most of the recorded items I receive are simply shoved through my letter box as the postie can't be bothered, contracts, insurance docs, the odd DVD it doesn't matter, the postie isn't as worried.

Recorded delivery in most situations a complete waste of the extra 60p, you're better off using the standard post and making sure you have a cert of posting or Special Delivery if it's over £28 value. If it's heavy use the additional insurance option with standard parcels, no it isn't going to stop a Paypal claim (my understanding is that Paypal ONLY view SD as acceptable proof of delivery btw) but you will be covered against loss damage etc - I've had to use this and it's been fine. The equivalent SD charge is ridiculously high.

If Royal Mail wanted more people to use the Recorded service what they could do is offer a 1/2 way house between cert of postage and SD, say recorded delivery would cover you up to £100 (SD is up to £500 as standard).

neilwoods

Paypal accept these forms of online tracking

Parcelforce Worldwide
Royal Mail - Special Delivery
Royal Mail - Recorded Signed For
Royal Mail - International Signed For
Royal Mail - Airsure
UPS
FedEx
Airborne Express
DHL

Recorded delivery isnt worth it 99% of time. I do use it on the odd occassion if i think a buyer is going to be awkward, try an claim it hasnt arrived. OK i hear people saying that the postie does not allways bother getting a sig, i know this. But most buyers dont know that.

Anything over £75 i send special deliver or use a reliable courier

suzzi2704

I work for the Post Office but I don't really think there is any point going for Recorded Delivery in most circumstances. It is no more secure in terms of the way it travels than normal mail is - It goes in the bags with norm al mail and travels at the same speed as normal mail.
Getting it signed for obviously confirms that its got there so you don't get any fruadulent claims, but you can get a proof of postage for free if you ask for it and this is sufficient to say its not your fault it hasn't arrived. You are also covered for items up to the value of £32 if you use recorded, whereas by using normal post its at Royal Mail's discretion whether they give you compensation or not.

Hope that helps!!