Using Royal Mail click and drop instead of ebay shipping?

Buster_Danog

I realised in the last couple of years that private sellers can register and use the click and drop website and take advantage of services like Royal Mail 24, and 48. My question is whether it is more risky to do that than to print the postage label directly from ebay in case the item was lost and you needed to make a claim from the Royal Mail. If you printed the label from ebay you could prove what you were sending, but if you print a label from the Click and Drop website you are effectively asking the Royal Mail to take your word for it that the item you have posted relates to a particular ebay item. Or am I overthinking here?

Anyway, I ask this for a strange reason. Ebay barcodes seem to print in a less clear way than the click and drop website. The Post Office often have to scan labels two or three times from ebay, but if I print a label on the Click and Drop website the barcodes are completely clear. Maybe it is just my printer.

Spoonie_Turtle

RM have to take other claims in good faith so I don't see that eBay items would be any different.

soolin

You can link your RM account to ebay and it collects the same information. Like the OP I find buying via the RM site gives clearer printed labels- which is very strange! If I buy from ebay I often have to go over door numbers or my return address as it misses some of the lines. 

olgadapolga

soolin said:

You can link your RM account to ebay and it collects the same information. Like the OP I find buying via the RM site gives clearer printed labels- which is very strange! If I buy from ebay I often have to go over door numbers or my return address as it misses some of the lines. 

It may be that the eBay label is just an image of the label, as opposed to the actual label itself, IFSWIM. If you've ever printed a screenshot, the same effect can happen and what was a clear image in the screen suddenly becomes blurred when printed.

Buster_Danog

I had to print one on the Click and Drop website anyway. On the off chance that someone might know can any of the click and drop services be sent from a Post Office? I know tracked 48 used to be sorting office only a while back, but does that go for all of them or can other services be sent from a Post Office?

Spoonie_Turtle

Buster_Danog said:

I had to print one on the Click and Drop website anyway. On the off chance that someone might know can any of the click and drop services be sent from a Post Office? I know tracked 48 used to be sorting office only a while back, but does that go for all of them or can other services be sent from a Post Office?

Most standard services can be sent from Post Offices.  If you go to 'price finder' and input the relevant details, you will see the selection of services that can be bought over the counter, and those few that can only be bought online.  The online-only services are the ones that have to go to Royal Mail directly, not a PO.

Buster_Danog

olgadapolga said:

soolin said:

You can link your RM account to ebay and it collects the same information. Like the OP I find buying via the RM site gives clearer printed labels- which is very strange! If I buy from ebay I often have to go over door numbers or my return address as it misses some of the lines. 

It may be that the eBay label is just an image of the label, as opposed to the actual label itself, IFSWIM. If you've ever printed a screenshot, the same effect can happen and what was a clear image in the screen suddenly becomes blurred when printed.

That's a fair point although I am not sure it's the case. Maybe at some point in the way the files are processed they are handled as images with bad quality, and then converted to PDF. Either way it is an awful service of them not to have changed it. Also in the last year random letters started appearing in the address. Things like "Ebay rorwdpltw" I don't know what the code is for or if it is a glitch but I have seen these letters with items I have bought and sold. I usually remove them

soolin

Buster_Danog said:

olgadapolga said:

soolin said:

You can link your RM account to ebay and it collects the same information. Like the OP I find buying via the RM site gives clearer printed labels- which is very strange! If I buy from ebay I often have to go over door numbers or my return address as it misses some of the lines. 

It may be that the eBay label is just an image of the label, as opposed to the actual label itself, IFSWIM. If you've ever printed a screenshot, the same effect can happen and what was a clear image in the screen suddenly becomes blurred when printed.

That's a fair point although I am not sure it's the case. Maybe at some point in the way the files are processed they are handled as images with bad quality, and then converted to PDF. Either way it is an awful service of them not to have changed it. Also in the last year random letters started appearing in the address. Things like "Ebay rorwdpltw" I don't know what the code is for or if it is a glitch but I have seen these letters with items I have bought and sold. I usually remove them

The extra random letters is not a glitch it is an ebay code to somehow track when parcels are arriving and how quickly, there was a longish thread about it a few months back, if you are printing your own labels you can safely remove it.