Royal Mail Packetpost - Poor Service & No Compensation

[rjb7]

I use the Royal Mail Packetpost service and have recently noticed a big increase in the number of delayed and lost items. I have started adding the 'Signed for' service to more of the higher value parcels in the hope that this may improve the delivery reliability or at least let me know if Royal Mail have delivered or not. However, parcels are still going missing and when checking the Recorded tracking it appears that a signifficant proportion of delivered items are not signed for so the service is not always being provided and therefore offers no real benefit. For example, I looked at two days posting records from a month ago and found that out of 21 recorded delivery items sent 5 had not been signed for despite the fact that they had actually been delivered. Royal Mail have said that I can claim compensation for the Recorded delivery charges if I report each failed one individually, but this is totally impractical and I think completely fails to address the issue . Also, of the 5 reported so far they have only refunded 2 which means I'll have to waste more of my time chasing them up just to to get a pound back for each one.

Another specific problem I've had was a parcel which I sent by First Class Recorded Delivery on 1st October. The customer became impatient when it still hadn't arrived two weeks later so cancelled their order. Royal Mail finally attempted delivery on 19th October and the customer refused it and asked for it to be returned to sender. This was shown on the RM tracking website so I refunded the customer thinking the parcel would be returned to me. To date the parcel has not been returned and Royal Mail are now saying that it is not in their delivery office so it appears that it has been lost or stolen. Despite the fact that the parcel was sent recorded and has been logged in their tracking system they are still refusing to offer any compensation for its loss.

I'm spending more than ever with Royal Mail and the service I'm getting is worse than ever. Their response to my complaints has been completely useless and their refusal to accept any responsibility or offer compensation seems completely unfair to me. Am I alone on this or are others having similar problems with Royal Mail?

 

[AndyP]

I do feel for you. We also use RM for some of our consignments & we have also noticed a significant increase in lost/undelivered/missing items recently. And you are right, RM make it as difficult as possible to make any claim. In fairness, of course, the vast majority of parcels do get delivered so their continued use is justified but they seem to be totally disinterested in addressing the issues that they so obviously have.

For RTS though, do bear in mind that these do not get returned using the same service as you sent to parcel.....they come back using 2nd class mail and are routed, I think, through Belfast at some sort of super slow rate. Your parcel may well be returned but sometimes it can takes weeks. I actually wouldn't worry about that too much as it will almost certainly turn up, eventually.

 

[gibby]

Sometimes its cheaper to use a courier as it saves all this hassle, lost orders and lost customers.

We did start offering a RM service for smaller items last year but the amount of losses for November & December really cost us last year.
Its not just the lost goods but the time it takes to sort out the complaints from customers.

G

 

[SillyJokes]

Two things.

Are you sending high value resalable items?

How many are you sending?

You are either sending out a large number of parcels and experiencing the usual 1-2% loss or you've got someone stealing your post.

I have one item that is regularly 'lost in the post'. There are two reasons for this. One is that we send out loads of them, so proportionally more of them are lost than any other other product.

Secondly, this is a consumable product and I rather suspect they are received, used and then the buyer pulls a fast one, and says it never arrived. Since we sell loads of them and they are rarely returned we simply accept this as a cost of sending out this product.

You need to be pragmatic, unless it hammers your bottom line.

 

[P4D | Parcels4Delivery]

Hello,

The Post Office is still the most competitive rate for items under 2kg. However, the other important factor is of course volume - if you're sending tens of parcels every week this results in lower rates with carriers and if you can get these rates low enough it might mean you can transfer over to a different service for just a little extra.

I hope this helps.

Nat

 

[Jayser100]

We use Packet Post and on the whole it is pretty good and, as the above member stated, it is still the cheapest shipping method if you are sending relatively small and cheap items. Don't bother sending stuff by Recorded Delivery unless the item is very valuable. If you use Recorded and it gets lost or stolen, the chances of you getting it back aren't enhanced. The only time Recorded is useful is if a customer claims non-receipt and the tracking shows it has been signed for. In our experience, it is remarkably rare for a customer to claim they never received their goods when they actually did - if a non delivery is claimed we simply send the next one on a tracked service to make sure they can't pull the same stunt twice.

It is frustrating when things go missing and as you rightly say, claiming compensation is a waste of any Managing Director's precious time unless the item has a high value. I think businesses like ours need to accept there will be some loss in this way, it's just one of those things.

Because you are saying your loss is very high, I think it would be worth your while making a document listing the items and talking to your Account Manager about it. The RM do have an investigations team and your AM might be able to refer the matter to them if there are grounds for suspicion that something is going on at your local sorting office.

 

[Badger_Monkey]

We use Packet Post and on the whole it is pretty good and, as the above member stated, it is still the cheapest shipping method if you are sending relatively small and cheap items. Don't bother sending stuff by Recorded Delivery unless the item is very valuable. If you use Recorded and it gets lost or stolen, the chances of you getting it back aren't enhanced. The only time Recorded is useful is if a customer claims non-receipt and the tracking shows it has been signed for. In our experience, it is remarkably rare for a customer to claim they never received their goods when they actually did - if a non delivery is claimed we simply send the next one on a tracked service to make sure they can't pull the same stunt twice.

As we are only just starting out I'm interested in this discussion. I don't have the volumes yet to use packet post, and we simply send a batch to the post office for 2nd class recorded each day. I pay the extra for recorded due to a perceived better service for the customer. If they have to sign for it, they seem to feel the items have more value, and our orders are tending to be in the £30-£60 range - I also thought this would save me anyone trying on the "I haven't received it line", and also cut down on items "going missing" within Royal Mail. So far I've been very surprised to only have one missing item, and this was one I had actually sent non-recorded to save money as it was going to a friend and I knew I could trust them! To me this has convinced me (for now) to continue with the cost of adding recorded. If I step up to Packet post levels are you saying this is a different experience?

 

[Jayser100]

No, it doesn't actually make any difference, the mail all ends up in the same system. It sounds as though you were just unlucky with the one that went astray.

The other downside of Recorded shipping is that the postman isn't allowed to leave the package with a neighbour. When we sent everything by RD, we found we were getting lots of annoying issues with people claiming non-delivery and then swearing blind they didn't get a card through their door because they were out (as verifiable by the tracking). Since ceasing using RD we've had very few issues. Actually, the only (slightly amusing) issue I can remember was a guy who complained the postman threw the package over his high garden gate and destroyed his wife's young tomato plants!

A tip ref. Packet Post, that I wish I'd known ages ago: if you apply stating you expect to meet the criteria in your first year, they will give you an account. They never subsequently check your volumes so it doesn't matter if you don't make the required volumes. Even my local account manager told me this was the case. Just tell them you will

 

[SillyJokes]

Who pays for this recorded delivery? If the customer then that's fine, but if it's you taking it off your bottom line you have to do the maths.

Send out 100 parcels regular post costs £x
100 parcels recorded costs £x + £y
does 100 x £y = the cost of replacing a couple of lost parcels?

In our case, it didn't, it was expensive and the customer has to be in to sign which in itself causes issues.

 

[Jayser100]

Absolutely right, Silly Jokes. if you include free shipping in your sales as we do, then you want the cheapest option you can get. Packet Post without recorded is WAY cheaper than non-Packet Post with it.

 

[Badger_Monkey]

This is proper good info! Especially about just saying you are going to do the levels to get the account!

When orders are sitting about £20-30 we are charging £3 for postage, and recorded 2nd is usually costing £3.15 on those orders, so not a huge loss on that.
One thing about packet post, are you losing the cover you get from going the post office route?

Cheers.

 

[Jayser100]

I'm not too sure re. cover, in all honesty we never claim for anything because it is usually a massive waste time filling in the paperwork so I didn't take too much notice of that in the Terms & Conditions.

Customers love free postage. If you can get your shipping costs down enough to offer it your sales WILL go up.

 

[Badger_Monkey]

I'm not too sure re. cover, in all honesty we never claim for anything because it is usually a massive waste time filling in the paperwork so I didn't take too much notice of that in the Terms & Conditions.

Customers love free postage. If you can get your shipping costs down enough to offer it your sales WILL go up.

Sure, we do free over £40, which does actually work out to a large amount of our orders. Very few of our direct competitors offer free postage though so I was aware of undercutting postage costs but not jumping in head first, but we are still experimenting. To get to a totally free point was an aim, and with packet post second class this could be viable.... Also thinking of having free delivery throughout December as a promo and taking the hit.

As a big user do you use first or second packet post the best option?

Hmm, apologies if this has hijacked the thread a bit.

 

[Jayser100]

Second Class is fine. In the old days 1st was usually next day but now it's 1-2 working days and sometimes the RM don't even manage that. We do 2nd Class and that's fine for most people. If a customer buys on eBay e.g. and then emails us to say "I need the sunglasses by Saturday for my holiday" etc. then we'll do a 1st Class to help them out and hopefully get the good feedback.

 

[rjb7]

Thanks for all the replies.

On reflection I’d have to agree with several comments pointing out that Royal Mail Packetpost reliability is fairly good on the whole and that it is still the cheapest delivery option for most small mail items. My problem is mainly with parcels in the £60 - £80 value range which I offer free delivery on, as I can’t afford to pay for courier delivery on these, but can’t afford to lose too many either. I had hoped that recorded delivery would help, but as mentioned previously I have found this service to be particularly unreliable and I feel that it offers very little real benefit.

Weighing up the cost of a more secure delivery service compared to the cost of potential lost items makes sense, but somehow replacing lost items seems more painful than choosing to pay the same amount for an enhanced delivery service. Ideally I’d like to use a delivery service somewhere in-between Royal Mail and Couriers in terms of cost and reliability, but I’m not sure if there are any economical options. I still want to send most items by Packetpost so it seems that the volume would be too small to get a good deal with the Royal Mail Tracked service or couriers.

 

[Jayser100]

Use www.interparcel.com

Cheap as chips and you can use their Economy service which is actually run by UPS who NEVER let us down - ever. With an account it will cost you about seven or eight quid to ship a parcel up to 15kg or more.

 

[P4D | Parcels4Delivery]

"Ideally I'd like to use a delivery service somewhere in-between Royal Mail and Couriers in terms of cost and reliability, but I'm not sure if there are any economical options" - that's exactly what a reseller does... us, our competitors, the collection and delivery service is exactly the same as if you went direct, but you pay less as an SME and have a choice of carrier. Like Jayser says, you can pay around £7 on an adhoc service, but as soon as you send more, it goes even lower. Full explanation at www.p4d.co.uk/about.

 

[deadgoodundies]

What some people are forgetting though when using a service other than Royal Mail is that if you have to go and pick up your parcel (due to non delivery, customer not in to sign etc.) is that often the collection point for a non Royal Mail service can often be miles and miles away whereas mostly Royal Mail collections offices are within the locality of the customer so is easier to go and collect if need be.
Also with Royal Mail your parcel will mostly turn up at the same time as with your regular post which is roughly the same most days (well in our area...... at the moment )

 

[SillyJokes]

True Dead Good, but for guaranteed next day delivery Royal Mail have basically priced themselves out. Their special delivery is really expensive and the tracking sucks.

 

[KateCB]

Use www.interparcel.com

Cheap as chips and you can use their Economy service which is actually run by UPS who NEVER let us down - ever. With an account it will cost you about seven or eight quid to ship a parcel up to 15kg or more.

Thats great , but I can ship a parcel up to 20kg for £6.50, however as I send out around 90 a day weighing 100gms each that the customer doesn't pay shipping for, then that £6.50 is not viable any longer!

I even got a super duper rate from my courier of £3.75 for the 100gm packets, however, despite it being next day delivery, signed for, ability to leave with neighbour, unless I pay an additional insurance premium of £3.50 per parcel, there is no insurance/compensation on that product (value between £60 - £300) and if I DO pay the extra, the excess is £50.......

We have looked at everything as RM's removal of compensation on Recorded Signed for items has hurt us as they DO lose quite a lot, and its not the replacing of the item that is the problem, it is the perception of the customer; we have been accused of not sending goods, taking money without the intention of sending goods etc, and all this becasue RM's delivery service failed, or their tracking is rubbish and tells you nothing.

 

[kulture]

You should consider royal mail tracked service. You might be able to negotiate them down to about £2.95 a parcel. The tracking on that is much better than special delivery.

 

[cholland]

I spoke with Royal Mail yesterday about the tracked service. As said above the cheapest I could get it to was £2.95 for a 48hr and £4.60 for 24 hour!

 

[roydmoorian]

I spoke with Royal Mail yesterday about the tracked service. As said above the cheapest I could get it to was £2.95 for a 48hr and £4.60 for 24 hour!

Incredibly good value IMHO

Try hand delivering the goods / documents yourself and see what it costs you

That there will be the inevitable hiccough should surprise no-one and a contingency plan should be in place for that situation.

If the goods/ documents are really irreplaceable, time sensitive or indispensible then you ought to consider a dedicated service which WILL BE considerably more expensive but can be truly guaranteed to be successful at the first attempt.

 

[cholland]

Good value but I can get it cheaper from a courier

 

[roydmoorian]

Good value but I can get it cheaper from a courier

Depends on your interpretation of the description "courier".

The term used to mean that a single person was allocated to your delivery but that has now been hi-jacked to include hub and spoke express overnight and next-day parcel services.

And then the problems begin.................

It all depends wether you really need a 100% service and are prepared / able to pay for / justify it , or wether the items you are having delivered are really not that important and your customers are only willing for you to use a low cost relatively efficient service with the likelehood of a small % of deliveries going bad.