xmas mail

custardy

okay its very busy already this year in RM

packets are very very busy and only being managed by overtime duties
special deliveries are very busy as well earlier than usual this year

in edinburgh they have already had to open the xmas storage warehouse for overspill beyond the mail centres storage capacity.
this increases turn around times as the storage warehouse is approx 20 miles from the mail centre.

so any sellers be prepared for delays in delivery and also in delays for packets returning to delivery offices after cards being left.

the later start times are in effect as well causing issues.

however yet again as always poorly addressed items are numerous and will be much slower getting through the system.
post codes are a must!!! as 'diversion' sorting will be starting soon where delivery offices manually sort mail into postcode areas.
without a postcode you struggle given you are sorting mail for areas you have never heard of let alone delivered to

just today i had a 9am special delivery which had cost over £10 to send which i had to return as it only had the street name.
obviously this was urgent given the 9am service but i have no option but to return.

return addresses on EVERYTHING.so many xmas cards are destroyed every year as they are poorly addressed and have no return address.
RM estimates 5 million over xmas cannot be delivered through this


correct postage again is an issue.so many xmas cards with no or insufficient postage.
your recipiant will pay the postage deficit+£1

bluebell13

Thanks for the useful tips and advice custardy. Now if only I can get people to actually buy my E-bay items I can send them correctly (hopefully!)

Jakejakejake

Useful Tips there custardy - big thanks for posting buddy!

custardy

i will have missed stuff but i will add them if i remember.
if theres any queries just post them up

TKPeters

One other thing to add;
Can all eBayers ensure that their postal addresses match the Royal Mail database http://postcode.royalmail.com/portal/rm/addressfinder

So many are coming through with clearly incorrect addresses.

Tea3

I offer Recorded or SD only on my ebay acutions but 1st class standard, 1st class recorded or SD on my websites. Recently I have been thinking about changing the 1st class standard option to 2nd class recorded instead so that in theory everything would go recorded or SD - is it worth doing this espec over the xmas period? I thought it was a good idea to get everything signed for but some threads are saying how recorded is a waste of money as hardly any actually get signed for. I dont want to raise postage prices so it will cost me more to send 2nd class recorded for the same 1st class standard postage cost but is it worth it to? I know it goes through the same postal system etc but with ebay the supposed 'lost' items reduced drastically when I changed to recorded or sd only.
Any help would be appreciated
(sorry if this seems like hijacking a thread but i first thought about it due to the increase of xmas mail so it kinda ties in)

custardy

hmm hard to say one way or another.
i would say yes but its seems many have problems of RD items not being confirmed as delivered.
i dont understand it and for me its either poor delivery office practices or an IT issue

custardy

okay after an interesting day at work :rolleyes:

pouching off

this is probably the cause of my biggest headaches at work and confusion for customers.

when a postman finishes his/her delivery they will most likely have undelivered packets,mail etc to return to the office
eg packets where red cards have been left

now it varies from office to office how this is handled.
in some offices the postie returns to the office
some have puch boxes a driver emptys and returns all of the pouch contents to the DO
some pouch off via post offices.this is how my office and many others do it and it causes issues!!

right so a postie leaves a card for an item and marks on the back an estimation of how long the customer needs to leave before collection.

they take the mail in a blue 'pouch' to their nearest post office and hand it over.
this is collected on the next scheduled collection and is put into the mail system with all the other mail to eventually return to the delivery office.
average 24-48 hours
however pouches can be delayed and this is the problem causer.
there is no tracking on these pouches so if they are delayed then all you can do is ask the customer to wait.

so bear in mind the time on the back is an estimation

recently we have more issues.
our office opens @ 7am for collections.
however with the later starts the guys can be sorting mail until 8-8.30am.
so customer gets the card on the 5th,arrives at 7am on the 7th and cant understand why we dont have it.
it maybe in the office but until the mail is sorted we dont know.

even worse when its a customer who lives very near the office so cant understand why their item takes 48 hours to return to the office.

now the xmas overspill storage is being used it causes more delays with mail being transported further

callmybill

I too work for RM

Lets face it, Xmas comes around every year & every year RM can't seem to plan for it properly and if anyones wondering, parcles, packets are left in offices because RM won't pay for extra vans/staff to deliver them.........


It's another Internet Xmas:D

Hintza

I have lowered my Special Delivery limit which was normally around the magic £34 to anything over £20-£25 for the next few weeks. It's bad enough keeping tabs on everything without having to deal with that age old question:-

"I paid 24 hours ago where is my item?"

Just trying to make it as stress free as possible. Fortunately most of my stuffis over £34 so it isn't too much of a financial handicap.

RFW

custardy wrote: »

in edinburgh they have already had to open the xmas storage warehouse for overspill beyond the mail centres storage capacity.

I believe they've opened the one in Aberdeen again too

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7132259.stm

BBC wrote:

About 4,000 items were found in an area of the Aberdeen Mail Centre that has not been used since last Christmas, following a relocation of equipment.