Posting to Dublin

[hcrafts]

I was hoping that someone here might be able to give me some advice. I have several customers in Dublin who order through my website. I regularly send parcels that are 12" x 12" through Royal Mail. I have one customer who has emailed me to complain that her parcel has yet to arrive. I sent it last Wednesday at 4pm. I understand that Dubliners do not get mail on weekends, so if that is right that would be 6 days now that the parcel has been in transit. Some of my Dublin customer (whose parcels I sent at the same time) have received theirs already, others not.

Does 6 days seem a long time for a parcel to go from Edinburgh to Dublin (including one weekend) via Royal Mail?

Any advice would be very helpful

H

 

[alanc]

We're talking about Dublin in the Irish Repbublic? So it's 'overseas' in Royal Mail terms. Surface or Airmail?

 

[hcrafts]

I sent it Airmail and today it still is not there

 

[J-Wholesale]

That's not long at all, especially if it's going via ordinary mail. I order a lot of stuff from UK businesses, shipped to Ireland, and I never expect to see it before the same day next week. I wouldn't query it as missing until about 10 days. For a letter from England to Ireland, I've never had one sooner than 3 working days.

 

[roydmoorian]

Ouch, what do these boxes weigh & how much does "Air Mail" cost ?

 

[hcrafts]

The parcels to Dublin cost me about £4.26-£6.71 to send. Clearly postage is killing my profits at the moment

 

[alanc]

If this were in the UK, I would ask the customer to check with their local sorting office who may be holding the parcel for collection. I find that 95% of late parcels are held up this way.

There is probably a similar arrangement in Ireland.

 

[deniser]

Usually 3-5 working days to Dublin 99% of the time.

I have also noticed delays to international post recently. I have one posted to Sweden on 23rd which hasn't left the UK yet.

 

[ian-d]

Royal Mail make you wait to put a claim in with them, but in reality, you won't want to keep "your" customer waiting that long, so maybe consider sending out a replacement order and simply claim from the Royal Mail once the timescale of delivery has been met. Don't forget that Airmail covers you up to approx. £41 (can't remember exactly) providing you have the original receipt, so claim the absolute maximum you can to cover your losses in full. As Airmail is a non-trackable service, Royal Mail won't be able to do anything to reject the claim.

 

[hcrafts]

Just an update - the parcel sent on 22nd June to Dublin has still not arrived. A parcel sent to the same address on 29th June has arrived, although it was being held in the customer's local post office unbeknown to her until I suggested that she went along to check. Her post office said that since the later parcel has arrived and the one before had not, then it was unlikely it had ever left Edinburgh.

Would anyone advise to just refund the cost of the goods (£30) and claim from Royal Mail now? I don't want to get the customer's back up by waiting too much longer - they order from me each week.

On another note, would anyone suggest that I use a signed for service for post to Dublin rather than just Air Mail?

Thanks in advance

 

[deniser]

Can you not send the customer a duplicate?

I wouldn't refund until the RM regards it as missing and that is 25 days for overseas. You can't claim before then.

I send every international parcel signed for. Seems to stop them going missing.....

Sometimes they just get sent to the wrong country and without a tracking number, are very difficult to locate. I have a parcel which has spent the last 2 weeks in Amsterdam, having been sent there when it arrived in the UK instead of being delivered to me.

 

[hcrafts]

I can't send the items as they are now out of stock. My money is on my grumpy local post master who told me he doesn't want me taking 25 parcels a week for him to process. I expect my parcel went in the wrong bag.

 

[deniser]

Gosh, ours is the opposite! He wants our several hundred weekly parcels in order to stay open as a post office!

I think lots of postmasters are grumpy because they bought a declining business and then resent being stuck behind the counter all day.

 

[hcrafts]

I go somewhere else now who is happy to take my business. You think that someone spending up to £100 a week on postage (I know I am small fry, but the principle is the same) would be welcomed into a declining post office (this particular one looks like it has been closing down for years). Everyone else in front of me in the queue is buying one second class stamp or getting their cars taxed.

I think I will have to opt for International Signed Mail next time as I can see this costing me big bucks long term.

Just another smack in the face for me today - just had my house valued at £25000 under what I paid for it 2 years ago with the advice that I might have to accept £20000 less than the asking price.

Roll on Wednesday......

 

[ian-d]

Absolutely don't waste your time with International Signed For or Airsure; both services offer no value to you once they leave the country, as no other country has to adopt the service you've paid for; International Signed For doesn't speed anything up, and Airsure is only given priority in this country, so might be a day faster, but certainly won't have made a difference in this situation. Stick to Airmail, it has the same basic compensation cover.

As for the current situation, refund the customer to keep them happy, explaining you don't have any more stock. Royal Mail won't be able to prove delivery and will refund you up to the compensation level advertised; take them for all you can, for the inconvenience and risk of loosing a customer.

Re post offices, some smaller ones do get a little stuffy about handling large quantities of parcels, but bare in mind that the post offices don't actually make profit on individual parcels, infact, I don't think they make profit from the post office at all; Royal Mail claim they earn extra revenue on other items they sell (confectionary, drinks, ice creams etc) due to extra customers coming in to use the postal service!

 

[deniser]

Absolutely don't waste your time with International Signed

I don't think they make profit from the post office at all; Royal Mail claim they earn extra revenue on other items they sell (confectionary, drinks, ice creams etc) due to extra customers coming in to use the postal service!

No international signed for isn't much quicker not does it give you extra compensation BUT it stops parcels from going missing because the recipient can use the tracking number in their own county to locate the parcel which is often sitting in a depot undelivered.

Without international signed for we lost one parcel a week. With, we have not lost a single one. It's not just the cost, it's the hassle factor of sorting out the lost ones with the customer.

Sub post offices are paid on commission so their volumes are important.

 

[ian-d]

No international signed for isn't much quicker not does it give you extra compensation BUT it stops parcels from going missing because the recipient can use the tracking number in their own county to locate the parcel which is often sitting in a depot undelivered.

Unless it has changed since I used it, International Signed For is only good for tracking it to the point of leaving the country; after that it isn't tracked any further which renders it useless imo.

 

[deniser]

Unless it has changed since I used it, International Signed For is only good for tracking it to the point of leaving the country; after that it isn't tracked any further which renders it useless imo.

No, that isn't the case. After it leaves the UK you can track it online in the country you sent it to (but not on royalmail.com).

With the number, you can find it. Without, you can't.

 

[hcrafts]

I am a little bit perturbed this morning as I have had an email from another Dublin customer (I have refunded the previous one) to say her parcel posted to her on lunchtime on 29th June has still not arrived. That is about 6 working days, so I am not overly worried, but I know that customer 1 and 2 are friends as they chat on my FB group and live very close to each other. I have sent mail that has been received to both addresses before so I know the addresses are correct. I don't know if I am being overly suspicious, but I wonder if customer 2 has heard of customer 1's full refund and is now angling for the same. :|

 

[deniser]

I am a little bit perturbed this morning as I have had an email from another Dublin customer (I have refunded the previous one) to say her parcel posted to her on lunchtime on 29th June has still not arrived. That is about 6 working days, so I am not overly worried, but I know that customer 1 and 2 are friends as they chat on my FB group and live very close to each other. I have sent mail that has been received to both addresses before so I know the addresses are correct. I don't know if I am being overly suspicious, but I wonder if customer 2 has heard of customer 1's full refund and is now angling for the same. :|

Another reason to use a signed for service.

 

[hcrafts]

Just back from the post office where the helpful lady told me that when posting to Dublin from the UK, Royal Mail just waits until they have a container full of parcels to ship. It doesn't matter if you have paid for priority International Signed for (£9.50 for the parcels I send) or just Air Mail.

I am just getting quite frustrated with all of this. I might change my delivery charges to cover the actual shipping for shipping cost to Dublin. I will probably lose customers, but not any more parcels!

 

[Mr Dibb]

Just back from the post office where the helpful lady told me that when posting to Dublin from the UK, Royal Mail just waits until they have a container full of parcels to ship. It doesn't matter if you have paid for priority International Signed for (£9.50 for the parcels I send) or just Air Mail.

I believe that is just surface mail only. Airmail (should have a little blue sticker attached) is sent straight away.

We always send ours ISF and they get to Ireland fairly reliably on the 3rd working day. We send 4-5 a week to Ireland.

ISF travel with the Special Deliveries over here (secure) instead of the ordinary post with Standard Airmail. In Ireland, ISF travel with the registered post instead of standard mail. They can be tracked on the anpost.ie website.

Lost mail always comes in batches for us. We go 3-4 months without losing any, then lose 4-5 in a month. So it is not necessarily dishonest customer(s).

 

[deniser]

I am just getting quite frustrated with all of this. I might change my delivery charges to cover the actual shipping for shipping cost to Dublin. I will probably lose customers, but not any more parcels!

Irish customers should pay European shipping charges. They are used to it and there is no need to charge UK rates. Don't forget it is much cheaper for them anyway because if the exchange rate being in the euros's favour.