Royal Mail and Amazon rant, sorry
Is anyone else having huge problems with Royal Mail. About 20% of my parcels are being lost by Royal Mail, ie not scanned on delivery. This is killing my business and I am close to giving up. I have to use Royal Mail as i sell products which are posted thru' a letterbox and I need to keep the costs down as it is a low margin product. BUT I am losing so many deliveries. Not helped by Amazon seemingly sending messages to customers claiming non delivery because the Royal Mail tracking shows non-delivery - why do Amazon even need to do that? A customer knows if their parcel has been delivered or not. Real shame as I have a solid business but loss of deliveries by Royal Mail/customers scamming me is 'death by a thousand cuts'. On top of that even when Royal Mail do confirm delivery if a customer claims they don't have it then I have to pay for that also.3 really simple fixes which are very unlikely to happen:
1. Royal Mail improve their service level by a) stop losing so many parcels, b) actually scan parcels on delivery like they say they will
2. Amazon stop sending messages to customers about non-delivery because royal mail have not scanned when they actually have delivered
3. Amazon stop crediting customers for non-delivery when tracking says it has in fact been delivered. Maybe Amazon could pick up that cost as a gesture?
Royal Mail and Amazon rant, sorry
Is anyone else having huge problems with Royal Mail. About 20% of my parcels are being lost by Royal Mail, ie not scanned on delivery. This is killing my business and I am close to giving up. I have to use Royal Mail as i sell products which are posted thru' a letterbox and I need to keep the costs down as it is a low margin product. BUT I am losing so many deliveries. Not helped by Amazon seemingly sending messages to customers claiming non delivery because the Royal Mail tracking shows non-delivery - why do Amazon even need to do that? A customer knows if their parcel has been delivered or not. Real shame as I have a solid business but loss of deliveries by Royal Mail/customers scamming me is 'death by a thousand cuts'. On top of that even when Royal Mail do confirm delivery if a customer claims they don't have it then I have to pay for that also.3 really simple fixes which are very unlikely to happen:
1. Royal Mail improve their service level by a) stop losing so many parcels, b) actually scan parcels on delivery like they say they will
2. Amazon stop sending messages to customers about non-delivery because royal mail have not scanned when they actually have delivered
3. Amazon stop crediting customers for non-delivery when tracking says it has in fact been delivered. Maybe Amazon could pick up that cost as a gesture?
0 replies
Seller_pfdAL01qncBD9
The Amazon "non-delivery" message is a pain.
We had a customer contacting us for a refund because they received a "non-delivery" message from Amazon. Only problem is, the item was delivered and the courier had actually taken a picture of the customer with the parcel, it even had their dog in picture, the customer even signed with their name. Amazons system had simply not updated the tracking correctly, as the couriers direct tracking showed updates with time stamps etc.
We sent the PoD with images to customer and they never responded and that was the end of that. It just shows how dishonest and opportunistic some customers are. Amazon encourages such appalling behaviour with their systems and policies.
Amazon whether by choice or negligence, effectively encourages fraud and scams.
Seller_VLTZdw5xkZDPx
We are also having problems with royal mail/amazon. We send all our items 2nd class tracked through our franking machine. Sometimes the tracking does not work which means amazon start threatening me with VTR failure rate. even though the tracking number is correct.
Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid
You say that you send items that ' are posted thru' a letterbox' so not many posties will scan those, I wouldn't think. It does sound as though many of yours are possible customer scams, and yes, Amazon sending out emails is the worst possible thing as less than honest customers will just try it on, sadly.
I remember a while ago someone said they bought stickers for their parcels saying "Please Scan" and it seemed to reduce the amount of INR claims.
Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn
20% non scans is much the same as I get however most don't complain about non delivery.
At the moment I get about 1% of customers on Amazon complaining the item hasn't arrived. Majority of these haven't got a delivery scan so it is hard to know if they are genuine or not.
I doubt very much Royal Mail will improve their scan rates. I don't think much is being lost either as I don't get the same level of INR's elsewhere.
It is annoying but it doesn't damage my business as I account for this amount of refunds in my pricing.
If you are getting most of your 20% non scans with customer complaints then something else is going on. It maybe you have high priced items which customers are more likely to try it on with, if so perhaps send tracked.
Seller_kueWvZmgSqTJF
We use to use Royal Mail directly for our smaller items using 2nd class letter / 2nd class parcels however our issue was about maintaining 95% VTR rate and not "non-deliveries" or "non received" customer scams.
We have since connected our Royal Mail account to "Amazon Shipping" and changed all our postage prices reflecting the price differences. This has maintained our VTR rate and has also moved us to the "buy box" and increased our sales as our delivery time frame to customers show as if we are shipping as "FBA".
May work for you - try it.
Seller_WIRSS5ZvErSsx
I'm having the same problem with Royal Mail, across orders on all platforms. Most of my products are letterbox friendly and low value too, it's not viable to send them fully tracked so send them RM48/24.
Whilst I factor in a normal refund rate in my prices, over the last couple of weeks the INR rate has be MUCH worse than normal. I assumed the horrors of last year were largely due to the Royal Mail strikes, but this year is gearing up to be just as bad, and it's not even December yet! What really boils my blood though is that Royal Mail are now charging a surge surcharge on all deliveries- so I'm paying more money for a worse service.
Seller_OM4BK6pjqIuuR
So far all customers responding to that non delivery email have not responded to me further when informed tracking shows it as delivered. Theyre just trying it on for a freebie. I wish you could block them so they dont try and pull the same scam again but Amazon encourages it so... :(
Seller_8IBTKy4xXgF04
A post office I use is encouraging customers to switch from Royal Mail small parcel second class signed for to Evri Next Day. It's about 70p cheaper, while the postmaster is sick of getting grief about non-delivery of Royal Mail packages (for which customers blame the separate organisation, the Post Office). Does this sound symptomatic of the problem?
Seller_LEraDYZE3W6hS
Seems to get rid of most of the chancers
Dear Customer,
I have fully investigated your package with Royal Mail and they insist your package has been delivered in full on the 19th of October at 10:01.
I have included proof of postage and proof of delivery for your records.
If this is not the case you will need to speak direct with Royal Mail using the attached tracking number.
I have also reported this to Amazon for you.
Sorry I can't be any more help.
Kind Regards
Craig
Seller_JoXGUyS1CgGRQ
I have started adding my own labels now next to the customer's address - in big red letters - ROYAL MAIL PLEASE SCAN ON DELIVERY THANK YOU.
I was fed up with Amazon sending me emails that my VTR was low and like you my orders are letterbox items that postmen do not bother scanning otherwise.
