Guidelines on when to use Recorded delivery?

RFW

soolin wrote: »

As a seller I do love my competitors using recorded and being 95p more expensive than me, it does my sales a greal deal of good.

There's quite a lot of people who don't want anything sent to them recorded because of its many problems. We've actually got a new postman now, but the previous one would leave recorded anywhere he felt like and not tell me about it, either with a neighbour, in the dustbin, under a mat, etc. The chances of me receiving anything recorded was substantially less than something with just a stamp on.

soolin

RFW wrote: »

There's quite a lot of people who don't want anything sent to them recorded because of its many problems. We've actually got a new postman now, but the previous one would leave recorded anywhere he felt like and not tell me about it, either with a neighbour, in the dustbin, under a mat, etc. The chances of me receiving anything recorded was substantially less than something with just a stamp on.

I'm in one of the areas that never has to sign for recorded, it is all bunged through the door with no signature at all. I worry when people spend so much on this service thinking it is somehow safer.

Crowqueen

Same here, Soo. To be quite honest I avoid RD items.

Quite honestly, there are things that are just not worth selling on eBay if they are that attractive to fraudsters. If you are getting a lot of INRs it's also worth looking close to home at packaging and addressing.

Self-insurance is another way to make sure INRs are covered. Adding a few pence onto sales to create a slush fund is only an option when you sell in considerable bulk, but it does make sure your prices and stars can be competitive whilst still protecting yourself.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Having sent 367 Recorded parcels (out of around 10,000 parcels) since the middle of May I haven't had a single issue with any of them. RD is a decision that can only be made on personal preference.

Yes it's pointless sending everything Recorded if the item is cheap as the cost of Recorded will far outweigh the cost of loses (or more accurately false INR claims) but it has it's purposes.

I sent a parcel to customer at a place of work, customer claimed INR. I called the reception who said only tracked parcels are logged, the rest is placed straight into pigeon holes. The odds are the parcel was delivered and then taken from the pigeon hole (whether intentionally or not), sending that parcel Recorded would have proved delivery and if it was deliberately stolen the Recorded sticker might have prevented this if the person knew tracked parcels were logged into the building.

Customer ordered an item today that cost me £3 and they've paid £30, it's going to an office building in London so I'm sending it Recorded, the same item to a farm house in the middle of nowhere in Cornwall would go standard, a £3 item to the office in London would go standard.

It all depends on how much the profit margin/item worth is, what makes you feel comfortable and, if you do this for living, what is smart based upon previous issues with certain types of addresses.

Crowqueen

I think I agree with Loony - the judgement is something you make at the time; I know on reflection I shouldn't have but I sold a few Warhammer figures this time last year - I'd read a lot about potential scammers but in reality insisting on tracking and UK postage only lost me considerable interest and probably was not necessary.

However, as a buyer I still avoid RD items as it is me paying for something that is not even getting the seller vfm, let alone myself. Anyone 'upgrading' my item will just waste £1.

custardy

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

Having sent 367 Recorded parcels (out of around 10,000 parcels) since the middle of May I haven't had a single issue with any of them. RD is a decision that can only be made on personal preference.

Yes it's pointless sending everything Recorded if the item is cheap as the cost of Recorded will far outweigh the cost of loses (or more accurately false INR claims) but it has it's purposes.

I sent a parcel to customer at a place of work, customer claimed INR. I called the reception who said only tracked parcels are logged, the rest is placed straight into pigeon holes. The odds are the parcel was delivered and then taken from the pigeon hole (whether intentionally or not), sending that parcel Recorded would have proved delivery and if it was deliberately stolen the Recorded sticker might have prevented this if the person knew tracked parcels were logged into the building.

Customer ordered an item today that cost me £3 and they've paid £30, it's going to an office building in London so I'm sending it Recorded, the same item to a farm house in the middle of nowhere in Cornwall would go standard, a £3 item to the office in London would go standard.

It all depends on how much the profit margin/item worth is, what makes you feel comfortable and, if you do this for living, what is smart based upon previous issues with certain types of addresses.

have you looked at Tracked?

Crowqueen

Custardy - perhaps you might be able to answer this.

When you send something RD, and the PO cashier prints off a label rather than uses stamps, does that label's stated price include or exclude the 95p premium paid for RD?

I ask because I paid £3.95 for a parcel sent RD this spring and received a package with £3.0-something (can't remember the exact amount but what I paid was about a pound in excess of what they paid). IIRC it was after the prices went up and I gave the seller the benefit of the doubt since the book would have cost me £40 new and it cost me £7 on eBay including the £4 postage. But I'd just like to know before I start marking people down for charging me a pound in excess of stamp cost (which for me is only worth 4 stars rather than 5).

lovinituk

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

Having sent 367 Recorded parcels (out of around 10,000 parcels) since the middle of May I haven't had a single issue with any of them. RD is a decision that can only be made on personal preference.

Have you checked the tracking to see how many were actually registered as delivered on the RM track and trace? We did an exercise last year and checked all of ours and only about 70% showed as delivered on the system - the rest were as good as lost according to the system however none of the customers said they never received their orders! We just got lucky with that 30% I guess!!

I still use Recorded occasionally for much the same reasons as you mention in the rest of your post.

custardy

Crowqueen wrote: »

Custardy - perhaps you might be able to answer this.

When you send something RD, and the PO cashier prints off a label rather than uses stamps, does that label's stated price include or exclude the 95p premium paid for RD?

I ask because I paid £3.95 for a parcel sent RD this spring and received a package with £3.0-something (can't remember the exact amount but what I paid was about a pound in excess of what they paid). IIRC it was after the prices went up and I gave the seller the benefit of the doubt since the book would have cost me £40 new and it cost me £7 on eBay including the £4 postage. But I'd just like to know before I start marking people down for charging me a pound in excess of stamp cost (which for me is only worth 4 stars rather than 5).

The printed gold label should include the full postage cost

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

custardy wrote: »

have you looked at Tracked?

Just in the process of being set up but it's going to be a bit of a struggle hitting 1250 every 3 months (to get the lower price) as most items sent are LL.

lovinituk wrote: »

the rest were as good as lost according to the system however none of the customers said they never received their orders! We just got lucky with that 30% I guess!!

Barcodes are wonderful things;)