Warning - Royal Mail items are delayed in sorting centres for 8+ weeks, no seller protection

Pierre_De_Grenoble

My problem destination is Japan. two Int. Standards timed out ( 30 days after eBays arrival date ) that I've had to refund and a tracked that took 26 days to be delivered. I could see that it was sat in the UK until 2-3 days before delivery.
I understand that post normally goes in the belly of a passenger flight but in the case of a country like Japan post volumes held up must be horrendous, so why isn't RM chartering a cargo flight...??

custardy

Pierre_De_Grenoble said:

My problem destination is Japan. two Int. Standards timed out ( 30 days after eBays arrival date ) that I've had to refund and a tracked that took 26 days to be delivered. I could see that it was sat in the UK until 2-3 days before delivery.
I understand that post normally goes in the belly of a passenger flight but in the case of a country like Japan post volumes held up must be horrendous, so why isn't RM chartering a cargo flight...??

Well I would assume the costs are astronomical given its not 'a' flight.
Keep in mind this is a company who has done the bare minimum for staff in a pandemic,cut a days delivery in the UK and isnt bothering with overtime or any plan to clear mail in the UK. 
You think they will pump masses of cash into international mail when COVID19 pretty much gives them a free pass?
When you say it was in the UK till a few days before delivery,Is it not more likely the item sat for a period of time in Japan before being scanned?

Pierre_De_Grenoble

just checked..
Tracking doesn't mention the usual comment about leaving the UK or similar just:

Item Received by Royal Mail LANGLEY HWDC (4th April)

Item Received KAWASAKI HIGASHI, Japan (26th of April)
Its possible that it was held in Japan, but it goes against everything I know about the place and people, which is honest, fast, courteous and efficient.
Royal mail says:
We're accepting letters and parcels destined for Japan, however, delays may be experienced as air connections have been severely limited. We're looking at alternative solutions to maintain service.

now I'm thinking about it 22 days could well be a container on a ship.

soolin

Whilst some of my 2nd class parcels appear to be taking 4-5 working days to arrive my large letters seem to be all over the place. Several LLs 2nd class sent yesterday have had feedback left already mentioning lightening fast delivery! 

RFW

soolin said:

Whilst some of my 2nd class parcels appear to be taking 4-5 working days to arrive my large letters seem to be all over the place. Several LLs 2nd class sent yesterday have had feedback left already mentioning lightening fast delivery! 

There's limited rhyme or reason to it. On a personal note my son subscribes to a magazine that is usually delivered every Friday. We received last week's and this week's today (Thursday).

I've put my RM deliveries on hiatus for now. Partly due to fending off where's my item messages and partly to have some time off. The last week has been a roller coaster of delays and a couple of damaged letters (which is unheard of). First and second class doesn't seem to make any difference. I've had everything from next day delivery on second class to 3 and a half weeks delivery on first. Whilst I'm having a bit of a moan I will say that RM staff seem to be doing exceptional work with the vast majority of mail getting through as normal. I'm getting messages about delays and loss on about 3%, I guess I'm lucky for that to translate to quite a lot of messages. As a one man band that pushes the stress levels up a fair bit!

Pierre_De_Grenoble

Just had a thank you mail for a parcel that arrived in Brazil Today. It was posted on Feb 28th!
Blocked the whole of South America 2 months ago.

Pierre_De_Grenoble

Yet again I have just been messaged by a Japanese buyer that an item worth only £28 has not arrived.
It was posted on the 9th April by Std. Int. Airmail.
I would really appreciate if Custardy could give some info from his in house contacts as to what is happening to mail to Japan.
Pre Covid I would never hesitate to send anything of any value to Japan untracked. In 20 years of eBaying I had never had a problem.
I am convinced this is because of Royal Mail and it would be nice to have some knowledge of what Royal Mail is actually doing for mail to Japan

soolin

RM still have their warning in place on International deliveries including Japan

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5317/~/international-incident-bulletin

Japan

Start date: 11 March 2020
Latest Update: 
End date: Ongoing
Incident: Coronavirus

We're accepting letters and parcels destined for Japan, however, delays may be experienced as air connections have been severely limited. We're looking at alternative solutions to maintain service.

Pierre_De_Grenoble

It would be nice to know what RM's "alternative solutions" are.

custardy

Im confident RM wont be chartering flights (big talks right now on drops in revenue,extra COVID19 spend,Rico going etc)
So alternatives will be whatever existing flights they can use.