Alternatives to Royal Mail for selling on ebay - UPS or DPD

Buster_Danog

I'm thinking of sending items with a value of between £60 and £100 with UPS or DPD using the ebay shipping portal. I'm just wondering if anyone has experience of the pros and cons of other carriers compared to Royal Mail? I have been using Special Delivery as I know that people are used to the Royal Mail and their local sorting office but it is usually about £2 or £4 more expensive as the insurance is up to £500 for loss of an item which is more insurance than I need.

I tried UPS about four times but had an item a few weeks back where the buyer said there was no attempted delivery and it had been left at a local access point. The tracking said there had been an attempted delivery. This is what worries me about UPS. As for DPD I have no experience with them, but am concerned they might do the same. 
For Paypal purposes I don't want the parcel left with a neighbour. The insurance with UPS and DPD is up to about £60 but I am willing to take the risk of losing a small amount if something went missing.

soolin

Whatever you choose do consider going direct to the courier rather than using a third party broker like eBay packlink. Adding a middle man can complicate things if needing to track or claim a lost or delayed item.

if you are a business seller with a fair volume you might even be able to negotiate a business price for your parcels if you go direct. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

You can now buy Royal Mail Tracked 48 for £4.74 including £100 cover if your items are small parcel up to 2kg. 

send.royalmail.com

soolin

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

You can now buy Royal Mail Tracked 48 for £4.74 including £100 cover if your items are small parcel up to 2kg. 

send.royalmail.com

It is only available with a RM business account though and that can depend on volume .

https://www.royalmail.com/business/shipping/uk-services/tracked-24-48
This service is available with a Business Parcels Account.
To access Royal Mail Tracked 24® and Royal Mail Tracked 48®, you need to send a minimum of 1,000 items per year, per site, across UK, International Tracking and Signature and Tracked Returns services.

Buster_Danog

Thanks guys. I generally post cheap items with Hermes tracked and more expensive items with Special Delivery. I rarely use recorded as it is not a tracked service. Paypal requires items to be tracked.

I'm not a business seller, but I thought the Tracked 48 service was available for non-business sellers as long as you have an account on the Royal Mail click&drop website. In any case I like to post within two days, and my work clashes with the new hours of the local sorting office which changed during the lockdown. Tracked 48 can't be sent from the post office unless it is a prepaid return from a retailer. I will look at posting directly with UPS, and will look up the ebay forums to see the pros and cons.

I'm aware that services like Parcel2go and Parcel Monkey can be a pain. Their terms and conditions allow parcels to be left with neighbours. I almost got stung for £120 on an item I returned on ebay a few years back, but Paypal refunded me before the tracking showed it was left with a neighbour. I got lucky.

soolin

Buster_Danog said:

Thanks guys. I generally post cheap items with Hermes tracked and more expensive items with Special Delivery. I rarely use recorded as it is not a tracked service. Paypal requires items to be tracked.

I'm not a business seller, but I thought the Tracked 48 service was available for non-business sellers as long as you have an account on the Royal Mail click&drop website. In any case I like to post within two days, and my work clashes with the new hours of the local sorting office which changed during the lockdown. Tracked 48 can't be sent from the post office unless it is a prepaid return from a retailer. I will look at posting directly with UPS, and will look up the ebay forums to see the pros and cons.

I'm aware that services like Parcel2go and Parcel Monkey can be a pain. Their terms and conditions allow parcels to be left with neighbours. I almost got stung for £120 on an item I returned on ebay a few years back, but Paypal refunded me before the tracking showed it was left with a neighbour. I got lucky.

Just one point, neither PayPal nor eBay require a fully tracked service, all they require is proof of delivery and you get that with standard parcels. Upgraded services are only needed if you want to insure for more than the standard amount of £20 with standard post.

You can win an INR with proof of delivery and can win a claim for fraudulent use of a card merely with proof of postage. Have a read of the sticky thread.

I use RM24 and RM48 not tracked just standard RM24 or RM48) for my large letters via an RM OBA and can drop the sacks off at the Post office - although I do use the mail centre most days as it is more convenient. My parcels go standard parcels but through an RM OBA and again I can drop my sacks off at a PO or the mail centre.  My large letters are a few pence more than standard post but I get proof of delivery with them the same that’s available with standard parcels.

This is probably all a bit immaterial though for you if you are just selling a handful of unwanted personal items , but it might be of use to other sellers who are running small businesses.

Buster_Danog

Thanks for the detailed advice. I'm sure I'll revisit it in future. I was definitely told I needed a tracked service although it could have been for a return. I didn't know I could win an INR case without a tracked service.

Anyway I just took a look at the ebay forums and DPD seems to get better reviews than UPS. UPS seems to be opting to drop parcels of at their local access points instead of rearranging deliveries. There seem to be a lot of DPD drop off points near to me too so I will switch to them for now and see what happens. I don't know why I didn't try them before but I'm a creature of habit I guess.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

soolin said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

You can now buy Royal Mail Tracked 48 for £4.74 including £100 cover if your items are small parcel up to 2kg. 

send.royalmail.com

It is only available with a RM business account though and that can depend on volume .

https://www.royalmail.com/business/shipping/uk-services/tracked-24-48
This service is available with a Business Parcels Account.
To access Royal Mail Tracked 24® and Royal Mail Tracked 48®, you need to send a minimum of 1,000 items per year, per site, across UK, International Tracking and Signature and Tracked Returns services.

No it's not, check the link  

martindow

Both DPD and UPS have drop off shops.  I use DPD quite a lot and it is liked by customers as they get an email or text with a one hour slot on the day of delivery along with several options if they are going to be out.

I never use their insurance as it is expensive and I take on the risk.  Until recently I had no problems but in the last few weeks I have had two parcels that were very slow being delivered (one still unresolved) but no losses at all.

As has been mentioned I book directly even though it is cheaper to go via Parcel2go and the like.

Spoonie_Turtle

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

soolin said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

You can now buy Royal Mail Tracked 48 for £4.74 including £100 cover if your items are small parcel up to 2kg. 

send.royalmail.com

It is only available with a RM business account though and that can depend on volume .

https://www.royalmail.com/business/shipping/uk-services/tracked-24-48
This service is available with a Business Parcels Account.
To access Royal Mail Tracked 24® and Royal Mail Tracked 48®, you need to send a minimum of 1,000 items per year, per site, across UK, International Tracking and Signature and Tracked Returns services.

No it's not, check the link  

The very confusing thing is that a Click and Drop account (not necessary, but useful if you want to use it more than once in a blue moon) is sort of classed as business - to sign in it takes you to business.parcel.royalmail.com - but without special volume rates and can be functionally no different from being a personal customer.

(Straying off topic I know, sorry.)

RFW

You seem to be on the right track of UPS v DPD. UPS can get a bit uppity with various things. UPS are essentially a business to business courier, they do do a lot of domestic but the service varies when delivery is to a house, especially when no one is in.

DPD is a much better service for a customer, if the delivery details are linked to their order they will be given options for delivery/redelivery.

If it's low weight/high value item you may get deals with some other couriers (FedEx or Parcelforce spring to mind).

I know you've had problems with third party sellers but it may be worth trying a couple of one offs via a third party to see which service works the best for you.
If you're working you may have secure drip off points that are local to you so could be worth factoring that in with couriers.