Royal mail blunder or possible scams?
Hello everyone, looking for some advise really from experienced ‘small value item’ sellers.
We have always sold items over £20 however, we purchased small value stock for this Christmas. Many items under £5 RRP.
However, so many customers are claiming that their item has not been received. These have all been sent via royal mail. But not worth sending via a trackable service as would cost too much.
Do you guys find this happens a lot? Would you say it was a royal mail error or a possible scam.
The clue that points us towards customers trying to get the item for free is the messages, the customers immediately state that ‘they want a refund NOW! etc’
We really don’t have a leg to stand on as there is no tracking? Just proof of postage receipts.
How do you guys deal with these claims?
Thank you very much in advance!
Royal mail blunder or possible scams?
Hello everyone, looking for some advise really from experienced ‘small value item’ sellers.
We have always sold items over £20 however, we purchased small value stock for this Christmas. Many items under £5 RRP.
However, so many customers are claiming that their item has not been received. These have all been sent via royal mail. But not worth sending via a trackable service as would cost too much.
Do you guys find this happens a lot? Would you say it was a royal mail error or a possible scam.
The clue that points us towards customers trying to get the item for free is the messages, the customers immediately state that ‘they want a refund NOW! etc’
We really don’t have a leg to stand on as there is no tracking? Just proof of postage receipts.
How do you guys deal with these claims?
Thank you very much in advance!
23 replies
Seller_mBENc0rmDmw5W
Are there any smilarities or connections between the buyers’ addresses? Could it be someone / a group trying to get freebies to sell elsewhere, even a market stall?
Have you checked with RM?
It is unlikely but possible that RM is a fault, but could a mail sack or two have been lost?
Seller_Rds42gzScDQFa
This is the reason I have begun shipping items signed for to all new customers who don’t have a buying history with me. Far too many scammers. Too many refunds for INR will get you suspended!
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
RM have been running late, but if you’ve been selling low value items it is likely you’ve fallen victim to drop-shipper INRs. Have the order account names been matching the delivery names on the orders, have you got multiple orders with the same account name but different delivery names and addresses? Any requests to not put paperwork in with the parcels?
Unfortunately if you ship without tracking you have no choice but to refund.
Seller_ARJVdTJUmYDPc
We sell a lot of low value items (<£10) and usually send these via Royal Mail. Over the last few years we have found Royal Mail reasonably reliable. In the run up to Christmas we find an increasing number of buyers trying to claim that items did not arrive, demanding an immediate refund. We have now been shipping using Royal Mail 48/24 services which provide a “scan on delivery” and a tracking number of sorts included in the service provision.
This seems to have halted some of the more dubious claims with the added benefit of having some delivery proof/information in case of customer claims.
It is not a cure all, but seems to have somewhat helped with our “not received”-issues.
Seller_sxu7tg1ecQ5ps
Royal Mail have been very good and since the introduction of 2D barcodes the number of claims are virtually zero on our website and ebay. Amazon on the other hand is a fraudsters paradise, they know that Amazon will refund them regardless and that they can do it as many times as they like without being penalised.
There is no good reason for Amazon to not recognise the 2D delivery confirmation.
Seller_GVJbZ3Sx0LoMn
I sell a lot of lower value items, when I do get a missing item, its usually a product that was sent in a non standard size package
might be worth checking the post office preferred sizes to see if your missing items are in packages that the machines or whatever contraption they use to sort finds hard to process
Seller_a7MrxjS6zgY22
Its happening a lot, lost mail increases, wrongly delivered mail increases, scamming increases.
The combination of all three makes this time of the year noticeably worse. If you’ve no tracking and the items are of low value then just refund and move one, there’s very little else to be done. I cannot even be bothered to claim for compensation, its simply not worth the time and effort and mental fatigue.
Seller_lIO5eEUrtKRFG
We sell lots of items under £10 and have the same issue.
First send them a message asking them to confirm their address for the Royal Mail investigation, we have a barcode that prints on the bottom of the address, it means nothing to anyone but we claim that Royal Mail can trace through the barcode on the envelope.
Most orders then seem to turn up, surprise surprise!
If they give you their address and ask you to trace, it’s probably genuine.
Hope this helps.
Seller_0Amk0hnQkPWMH
In cases such as these (I had one yesterday) we let the buyer know we are reporting it to Action Fraud and their local RM depot (I look up the address and tell the buyer the RM depot address). in case there is “a known issue with deliveries from that depot”, and that we will arrange a refund. I then wait a few hours before refunding… invariably the item is “delivered” shortly after my message or miraculously appears - without me having to refund. Call me a cynic ….
Seller_d5xGVic0qWqw7
They are running late but not too late. The customer knows which parcel us scanned on delivery and which are not.
We have had 2 or 3 this year claiming not arrivef even though it was sent via amzon logistics.
But these people are so good that theh claim it never arrived and we wont refund . Left a negstivr which amazon removed as if was sent by amazon. We claimed it back from amazon and refunded these 2 or 3 people. They know what to do. We have sent last christmas by royalmail and we have far too many customers claim not received even after we sent 2d barcode info never heard back. With the odd 2 or 3 claiming it never came and forced to refund. But touch wood it is better thid year and noticed now royalmail tracked 24 is delivering next day now and 2d scanned within 3 days. With the odd few redirected as went to wrong depots.
I have 37 customers that need to pick up parcels from royalmail. I am spending 2 hours every day do redelivery requests and still not in to pick up. They get delivery notifications to pick up and dont still pick up. Its a chore every evening doing redeliveries as i want to avoid them coming back. But it looks like customers order and forget about they need to pick up or collect. But i think now royalmail are getting on top of deliveries and 1 day out of schedule and all the scammers are coming out during christmas
