As a buyer - loads of Royal Mail items going missing - advice?

VanyaHargreeves

Hi everyone

I have been doing a lot of online shopping recently (gulp) but have noticed a seemingly big problem in the past few weeks.

I have not had any problems receiving my parcels when sent via courier, but Royal Mail parcels have been going AWOL left right and centre! I'd estimate that around 40% of the things I've ordered in the past 4 weeks posted RM have not arrived. Is that an abnormally large amount or is it just me?!

I've checked with all neighbours to make sure they don't have anything lurking, but no joy. It's only incoming mail that's the problem - I've also posted around 40 parcels in the last 4 weeks and each and every one has reached their destination.

I want to go down to the depot to find out what's going on but not sure if anyone would discuss it with me/do anything about it? Would it be better to ring RM about it instead? Hoping that one of the more seasoned buyers/sellers will be able to give me some advice.

sequence

Have you checked your sorting office ? Because I have had loads go missing lately as a seller, and many have been sitting at the sorting office, no card left for the buyer.

bxboards

This week I have had a couple of items not arrive.

When I contacted the sellers, both claimed the Paypal payment had either 'just cleared' or they only 'just got the e-mail from Paypal' - they then got on their !!!!!! and posted them!

I would check if they have actually been sent - also check your own address details. If you are losing 40% of your parcels and your address is correct, then this could be a local issue and your Delivery Depot needs to be informed.

One 48 Tracked Item I sent out has vanished into the ether - tracking just stopped on Monday so loses do happen, but any sort of patterns needs investigating.

ballisticbrian

Firstly, is something stupid going on, do you pay with different family members' PayPal accounts and one has an old address on it; your parcels would be going somewhere else whenever using that account? Especially as you may be a student, some items are going to your uni address and some to your home address?


Is your address ambiguous? Your address is copied and pasted exactly how you entered it each time you buy something. As a seller, I constantly see incorrect or incomplete addresses. The parcels you are receiving maybe the ones where the seller actually notices something and corrects it for you?

VanyaHargreeves

I have double, triple and quadruple checked that my address is totally correct and that I'm using the correct address every time, so that's not it! I use my own paypal account and check before payment that it's going to the right address and not my uni one.


My seller swear that they have definitely posted it, and a couple of things I have bought off big online retailers so I doubt that they would lie about having posted - at first I thought that it was the smaller sellers lying about having dispatched when they hadn't, but it's happened so often that I don't see that as being likely!


I will go down to the depot, then - I haven't yet because wasn't sure if they'd speak to me.

VanyaHargreeves

A further question - I bought something a week ago and it arrived today, but the (standard, not padded) envelope was empty, with a tear in the corner. The seller is insisting that I'm the one who has to make the claim but afaik I can't make a claim with RM seeing as I don't have a contract with them, being the receiver and not the sender of the mail. Is that correct?

campdave

The seller needs to make the claim.

But you need to resolve the issues you are having with your postage. It isn't fair on sellers if you know you are having issues with post for them to carry the financial burden of resolving your problems.

You need to get down to your delivery office and ask why so many packages are not arriving.

ballisticbrian

I agree with Campdave. Are you in student digs or a student block? It's possible that either someone on reception is thieving them or if in a shared house, one of your housemates thinks it's funny, but as Dave said it's not fair on the small sellers and you'll only get so many INR claims before you get an email from eBay stating they are not covering your items any longer.

VanyaHargreeves

I haven't actually made an INR claims at all because I know it's probably a problem on my end. All the items have been very low value so I'll swallow the cost of them myself rather than make businesses with very small profit margins suffer. As an occasional seller I know how much it can hurt when you get a spat of INR claims so I'll avoid as much as possible.

Plus, most of my purchases have been within small communities not on ebay and I'd rather protect my reputation as a good buyer. I've let it be known that I'm apparently having some issue with my post and that if they can provide proof of postage I'll assume it's a fault on my end rather than the seller's end.


Good to know that the seller makes the claim. I'll tell her that now.

VanyaHargreeves

ballisticbrian wrote: »

I agree with Campdave. Are you in student digs or a student block? It's possible that either someone on reception is thieving them or if in a shared house, one of your housemates thinks it's funny, but as Dave said it's not fair on the small sellers and you'll only get so many INR claims before you get an email from eBay stating they are not covering your items any longer.

I'm actually home for the summer, so nope. If I were still at uni I'd suspect one of my housemates because she's a vindictive !!!! but not here at home.

custardy

VanyaHargreeves wrote: »

Hi everyone

I have been doing a lot of online shopping recently (gulp) but have noticed a seemingly big problem in the past few weeks.

I have not had any problems receiving my parcels when sent via courier, but Royal Mail parcels have been going AWOL left right and centre! I'd estimate that around 40% of the things I've ordered in the past 4 weeks posted RM have not arrived. Is that an abnormally large amount or is it just me?!

I've checked with all neighbours to make sure they don't have anything lurking, but no joy. It's only incoming mail that's the problem - I've also posted around 40 parcels in the last 4 weeks and each and every one has reached their destination.

I want to go down to the depot to find out what's going on but not sure if anyone would discuss it with me/do anything about it? Would it be better to ring RM about it instead? Hoping that one of the more seasoned buyers/sellers will be able to give me some advice.

Go to the depot in the first instance.
Losses of this level indicate a problem somewhere and likely local.