recorded delivery or not?

eaglesrjh

Hi Guys.

I'm going to start doing a fair bit of selling on ebay. My first instinct is to only offer recorded delivery (Having looked at p&p rates i think I could do this and still be competitive). I would do this for the security it provides of knowing if an item has got to its destination or not.

My questions are, firstly do you think some buyers may be put off by this? Maybe because it means they have to be in to receive their item and if not they have to go to post office?

Secondly is it worth it? I've heard bits about just getting proof of delivery from post office. How does this work, what protection does it give me?

Value of goods vill be variable, some quite low <£20 but hopefully some a lot higher.

Any advice greatly appreciated

meyore

It really depends on what you're sending.

Recorded delivery doesn't offer you any more protection than normal first or second class-basically all it does it get a signature on delivery. It offers the same standard insurance of £34 (or 100 x price of a first class stamp).

If you're sending something worth more than £34 then you need to use special delivery as royal mail will not cover this if anything happens to it.

Proof of posting is free to obtain from the post office and if something were to go missing, you need this to make a claim.

Personally, I don't really rate recorded, I think its an extra 70p wasted for no reason. It goes in with the normal first or second class post, it isn't trackable and it doesn't offer any extra protection other than proof it has got to its destination.

eaglesrjh

does recorded not give you some protection through ebay/paypal though? Because you can prove the item has been received?

meyore

That I don't know, sorry. I work for the Post Office so I just know their rules on stuff.

BruceyBonus

eaglesrjh wrote: »

does recorded not give you some protection through ebay/paypal though? Because you can prove the item has been received?

In my experience, on around 1/5 of occasions, no signature is collected anyway.

frivolous_fay

eaglesrjh wrote: »

does recorded not give you some protection through ebay/paypal though? Because you can prove the item has been received?

Here's the deal... if it gets signed, you're covered. No signature = no cover.

I would dearly love to know the statistics on how many RD items get signed for and properly logged... popular knowledge is that it's not all that many.

Never mind the stuff that never makes it to your door because it's a highly visible indicator of value... :rolleyes:

carolinosourus

meyore wrote: »

Personally, I don't really rate recorded, I think its an extra 70p wasted for no reason. It goes in with the normal first or second class post, it isn't trackable and it doesn't offer any extra protection other than proof it has got to its destination.

There do seem to be a relatively large amount of people that have had issues with posties handing recorded delivery envelopes to kids/neighbours/family pet...

I thought it was trackable? Or is that something that I've been mislead on?

meyore

With recorded you can use the track and trace service after its been delivered to prove its got there, but if it doesn't get there, theres no way of tracing it at all. It goes in with the normal post and is given any priority or special handling, its just meant to get a signature.

I'd only really recommend it if you're sending something to someone who you believe will deny receiving it. Then you have proof whether they have.

eaglesrjh

Ok so my summary,
if items valued at <£34 send by normal post but get proof of postage from post office. If goes missing claim back from post office (how does this work? seems like this could be very open to fraud!)

Over £34 my only way to get insurance is to send special delivery?? Is this correct.

Recorded would only give me £34 if it failed to be delivered.

Any more advice greatly appreciated