Babz media

RFW

Vatfraudguy wrote: »

Perhaps I should say "any ebayer in the same business as them"

Fair enough. I'm around a few trades where I can spot something amiss. I know that packaging supplies is especially competitive, if there's money to be invested, it can be a good way to knock out all the competition and then increase prices when you get a bigger market share. That's pretty much how Amazon work. So either a risky business or a dodgy one.

I'm still confused by the Royal Mail part of the story though.

petestan

RFW wrote: »

None of that explains how RM can fine going back five years and be able to prove it.

Perhaps Royal Mail first caught them doing it 5 years ago and they warned them at the time but they haven't changed their ways and although Royal Mail may have checked them every so often and seen they were still doing it, they never decided to do anything about it until now. Now they are under enormous pressure to start making a profit or stop losing money on contracts now they are a private company. Who knows.

Sam_26

Royal Mail revenue protection is the department to police the self billing! If you make a genuine oversight, you get a slap on the wrist and small fine. Any bigger and deliberate attempts are simply assumed at sample fraud x time trading. Eg frauding by under declaring 100 parcels a day equals to £250 a day, thus £1250 a week x 52 weeks equals £65k and if RM customer for 3 years your fine is just under £200k.

Very hard to wriggle out of that assumption in court and most people liquidate that that point.

RM have a business target of 80% of online retailers to be on tracked mail by end of this year. This will make the online market a much more level playing field :T

thebestnameshavegone

I too am on the 'self declaring' tariff at Royal Mail - when I once realised I'd under-declared by one parcel and rang them up in a panic, they didn't ask who I was/account number etc, and just said 'don't worry, just declare one too many in tomorrow's bag'. I therefore don't think they check too closely!

I'm currently being encouraged to switch to the new system by RM, but as from what I can see the procedures take considerably longer, I'm holding out until after the busy Christmas period.

RFW

Sam_26 wrote: »

Very hard to wriggle out of that assumption in court and most people liquidate that that point.

Thanks for the information. I'd wonder how enforceable it was in court but it's not likely to ever get there. Anyone trading would need to pay to keep using RM, so would have to pay up. Any legal case would mean they'd have to find an alternative post system, for letters and large letters there isn't one, so they're screwed either way.

petestan

RFW wrote: »

Thanks for the information. I'd wonder how enforceable it was in court but it's not likely to ever get there. Anyone trading would need to pay to keep using RM, so would have to pay up. Any legal case would mean they'd have to find an alternative post system, for letters and large letters there isn't one, so they're screwed either way.

Presumably if they start up again under a new company Royal Mail will have a good idea of this and still not be willing to deal with them as well.

ballisticbrian

Well on linked_In, his specialist skill is... "Business Strategy" so, he must have thought this all through in advance?

lovinituk

Apparently they've done Royal Mail out of £16million!! Lying about the quantities sent out and misrepresenting weights and sizes seem to be the reason.

lovinituk

Sam_26 wrote: »

For you guys not in the online business its very simple. Royal Mail operate 2 billing systems, self-billing and Pay as you Go.

Self-billing was the old system whereby you bill yourself (correctly otherwise previously fraud against the crown) for the parcels you sent you identifying the class (ie 1st/2nd), weight and quantity. This system was open to massive abuse and can be identified as a simple 1 or 2 in the top corner.

The newer PAYG system involves a 6 x 4" label printed on Royal Mail software (eg Paypal type) whereby you pay as the label is printed. Most businesses use this now and also has either 2D tracking or full tracking of the item shipped within the label.

That's not quite right. We're on the 2D barcode system and its not pay as you go. We still use the OBA system to log our orders and are invoiced on a monthly basis just as before.

The 2D barcodes are primarily a tracking tool however I'm sure they will also be used in the future to check that individual items have been sent using the correct service.

They have also said that the tracking details will become available to customers at some point in the future which I would imagine would see the end of the Signed For service and undoubtedly a more expensive standard service!

ballisticbrian

Apparently they've done Royal Mail out of £16million!!

Where did this info come from?