The 'lost in the post' myth?

[iTopz]

Hi there, this is based on my own experience from down the years and I would love to hear from fellow sellers who deal with internet/postage sales.

Anyway, long story short I have seen a trend with people whose items 'go missing' in the post, I.e. they claim 'it has not turned up'.

I also have a friend who gets a few items delivered for his business daily, who claims he doesn't really have things go missing.

So basically, is it just a myth made by buyers who feel like a free item? On ebay I have seen a clear trend: New buyers = 'lost post'. I won't bother explaining why this is significant as it's quite easy to see why...but it does favour my argument right - that things just don't go missing in the post.

Anyone got any views?

 

[Lease4Less]

So basically, is it just a myth made by buyers who feel like a free item? On ebay I have seen a clear trend: New buyers = 'lost post'. I won't bother explaining why this is significant as it's quite easy to see why...but it does favour my argument right - that things just don't go missing in the post.

Why not try New Buyers = "Recorded delivery".

Problem solved.

 

[Paul Norman]

Very little gets lost in the post.

However, send everything recorded delivery, otherwise there is close to nothing you can do to counter this.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

I never seem to have things lost in the post, BUT, one particular person claimed to have posted me 4 letters last year all of which got "Lost in the Post". Of course the truth is that she never posted them.

 

[iTopz]

Why not try New Buyers = "Recorded delivery".

Problem solved.

Not really 'problem solved'...

My point is that lets say across the board, out of 1000 buyers who have been members for 1+ year, with over 50 feedback, literally about 10 things will be 'lost' which I can cope with.

However, with new buyers it's more like 100.
My items aren't worth sending for the extra £1 to get things sent recorded, as generally most are honest people, but it's certainly noticeable which is my point.

Besides, I have also found that with new buyers if you do send things recorded then equally problems can arise such as 'partial refund' or they're more likely to say something is broken when it clearly isn't.

I don't intend to bash new buyers or go on about ebay but my point was that growing up I genuinely assumed 'lost in the post' was a genuine thing, which it clearly isn't.

I also know a guy who sells chavvy clothing who sells much less quantities than me; yet gets way more lost/damaged stuff which reinforces my point.

 

[JPMiddleton]

I also know a guy who sells chavvy clothing who sells much less quantities than me; yet gets way more lost/damaged stuff which reinforces my point.

I thought you were saying that new customers are the issue?

 

[iTopz]

I thought you were saying that new customers are the issue?

Where did I say postage issues are tied down to a singular customer base?
I was saying for me, the majority of issues involved new accounts. I sell fairly run of the mill stuff so I can't comment on the 'culture' of my customers but my friend has seen significantly more stuff go missing with his products which attract a different customer.

 

[owas]

To be fair to the customer their is clearly an issue with items lost in the post,

20 MILLION undelivered items >>

"The primary reason an item goes astray is that there is no return address *attached and it is incorrectly addressed in the first place."

As a seller there are steps you can take to prevent this sort thing such as,

Make sure you catch the full delivery address and contact info at the checkout,
Add a return to sender address on the label,
Include in the parcel, senders and delivery contact info,
print the address rather than handwrit.

Once sending your goods, you can send by recorded post, courier etc, and factor this and lost items in your pricing/postal structure.

In the instance of a claim for a lost parcel, you can first let the customer know that there is a waiting period of when you re-send parcels. You can then also send a stern but fair email stating they are asked to complete the lost parcel form with royal mail, and that royal mail will/may investigate the claim. You can create a system where you personally log "lost parcels" and this will give you to an insight to whom or where the lost parcels are being ordered from.

No doubt there will be surge in "lost post claims" as more shoppers move online, but I guess its up to the seller to spot these things.

 

[kihughes]

I used to have the exact same issue with my eBay clothing business. eBay is packed full of scammers these days and its a pity.

For the 75p-£1 to send each item recorded it was actually cheaper to send items normally via 1st class and lose a few hundred each month in scammers.!

 

[TheGeekestLink]

Well I'm going to be controversial and say I get quite a few. It's still a REALLY tiny percentage, and most of them either have gone to the wrong address and a larger percentage come back to me - eventually.

I'm still getting the odd item returned to me from Xmas last year (not at this address, etc).

But overall, I only get perhaps 1 to 4 parcels a month that go astray.

 

[AlexandraS]

I had a fairly expensive parcel sent recently which didn't arrive. I felt really bad and was worried the seller would think I was a scammer. She sent me a new one and luckily for my conscience the original turned back up at her PO the day she sent the replacement. Stamps indicate it made it to my town, so I can only assume I missed the delivery notice and it sat on a shelf at the PO for a fortnight.

 

[SillyJokes]

I had a fairly expensive parcel sent recently which didn't arrive. I felt really bad and was worried the seller would think I was a scammer. She sent me a new one and luckily for my conscience the original turned back up at her PO the day she sent the replacement. Stamps indicate it made it to my town, so I can only assume I missed the delivery notice and it sat on a shelf at the PO for a fortnight.[/QUOTE]

This is a big issue - customers ask for deliveries to home where there is no way the delivery can take place as they are at work. The notification card either never gets written or is not seen by the customer or, commonly, people just don't want to go to the post office to fetch it believing it is Royal Mail's job to get it to their door, even thought they aren't in to accept the parcel.

We get parcels back nearly every day which were awaiting collection at the post office. If people just thought for a moment about how they were going to get it delivered they could have it sent to work and have it within a couple of days. Frustrating for both buyer and seller.

 

[CAEDAN]

There re things that do go missing, however, it is the fact that it is a commonly used excuse that makes it a real problem.

Government bodies such as DVLA and so on almost rely on the 'lost in the post' scenario - when people have this happen to them all the time, they start using it themselves as an excuse for absent mindedness, or just to con people.

Of course most of us think 'BS!' when their may be a genuine case every once in a while. Couriers quite often lose things. Problam is, how do you know which is which? You end up treating everyone as scamming swines!

Personally, I do not like it as an excuse - and find it hard accepting it as a genuine excuse. Always send recorded or registered where you feel this may happen. All other items must be tracked to prove delivery.

 

[TheGeekestLink]

Personally, I do not like it as an excuse - and find it hard accepting it as a genuine excuse. Always send recorded or registered where you feel this may happen. All other items must be tracked to prove delivery.

Like another poster said, it's just not worth sending everything recorded. I've not lost any more or any fewer items since I stopped sending everything recorded, but I have saved myself hundreds of pounds a year in postage.

I just send another item out now and have done with it. Thankfully it's a really incredibly rare situation.

 

[shirtmasters]

Hey all
After reading all the posts i thought i should post my experiences having run an online business for over 2 years.
Being an online only business means all our orders are posted out.
We have only ever sent out recorded delivery or special delivery to UK and either International Signed For or Airsure overseas.
And to be honest even sending via a signed for delivery service does not always ensure that it gets to its destination as i can testify to on many occasions during the past 6 months.
You have to learn to presume that there will be some customers, who of course are always right, that will claim not to have received an item when they have and factor this into your costings.
I think the only way you could 100% guarantee delivery to your customer every single time is to hand deliver it - but that really is unrealistic!!!!!!
Hope this helps.
Beccie

 

[GarryP]

Hi,

One think I have noticed when using Recorded Delivery the post person doesn't always get a signature. I have had the same from companies who use recorded delivery and the post person, just put it through the door

 

[deadgoodundies]

Hi,

One think I have noticed when using Recorded Delivery the post person doesn't always get a signature. I have had the same from companies who use recorded delivery and the post person, just put it through the door

Or worse still the postman signs it and THEN puts it through the door.

 

[iTopz]

So I think the consensus is:
Very rarely things genuinely DO get lost, but often it's just scammers?
As people have said; somethings just aren't worth sending recorded. I wish eBay developed a message monitoring system which looked at 'suspicious' accounts' messages regarding how many things get lost, and if say 50/100 got lost over a period of 100 transactions then the user gets banned.

I do agree regarding lazy postmen though (somewhat). I've had some before put a slip through as they're too lazy to knock/wait for a big parcel which is silly as it's their job. I've also had a courier leave things on my doorstep which is not on.

One day I will leave retail and be a happy man!

 

[Deleted member 59730]

I think the only way you could 100% guarantee delivery to your customer every single time is to hand deliver it - but that really is unrealistic!!!!!!

Oddly enough we get all our problems with goods delivered straight off our sales van into shops. I once had to spread out all our stock on the floor of a WHS store to prove that as some of the stock they had left was still there and was unique to the missing delivery they must have had it all.

 

[JPMiddleton]

Where did I say postage issues are tied down to a singular customer base?

Here...

New buyers = 'lost post'.

If you didn't mean just new customers then fair enough, but it read like that to me.

 

[JPMiddleton]

I've also had a courier leave things on my doorstep which is not on.

This really depends on the courier and the sender. For example, UK Mail offer a service but charge extra for a mandatory signature. If the buyer does not pay for the signature it's in their ts and cs the driver can leave it in a 'safe' place. I agree though, a doorstep has never been and never will be a safe place.

 

[TheGeekestLink]

I've had loads of problems with the post. The post man left 200 quids worth of games on the doorstep two doors down (presumably thinking it was my address which they rarely get right despite a whopping number above the house), I've had parcels put in my blue bin which I've no idea about and lord knows how many have been destroyed if I've not checked). But the worst one was last week when I found a parcel left under a load of matting that was to be thrown away. It came from the US and must have been there four weeks as it was rain soaked and dirt stained.

No note, just left there.

With that kind of service, it's hardly surprising customers find their parcels going missing.

So I don't complain too much (although I have just had a non-receipt on eBay for 30 quid which I know full well I posted). Thank goodness it doesn't happen very often.

 

[I Hear You]

We've sold on Amazon and eBay for 7+ years. Roughly 4000 packages on each platform per month.

eBay packages that go missing outnumber Amazon by 5 to 1. Make of that what you will...:|

 

[iTopz]

We've sold on Amazon and eBay for 7+ years. Roughly 4000 packages on each platform per month.

eBay packages that go missing outnumber Amazon by 5 to 1. Make of that what you will...:|

Generally speaking, would you say most of the 'missing' post involves new/low feedback buyers?

 

[gibby]

From our experience its a bit of both.
Yes items do go missing with royal mail but we find some areas can be worse than others. We have recently pulled royal mail delivery due to it being too expensive but we did have regular customers stating goods went missing. Generally its not very high but the rate always rocketed at xmas and I have been told by our postie that its down to agency staff.

On the other side yes some low life customers will tell fibs and steal. We did find a higher rate of this when we tried Ebay.
We also found a very small problem through our own store. Usually first timers placing sub £10 orders who preferred cheaper delivery.
Even when we replaced the product and gave freebies they didn't place further orders, but our courier priced customers normally do.

We tried a little experiement after reading in a biz book or two to avoid cheap customers, as they expect so much and are unwilling to pay for it.
We have now dropped the cheaper rate royal mail delivery and 99% of our stuff goes through a courier now. We also added a minimum order level on the store for £10.
We thought this might have hit us a little in lost business but the opposite has happened. Our order levels have been higher every month. Customers are loving the next day delivery with great feedback and reviews.
We have saved hours per week in chasing up and sorting lost RM orders and saved money due to lost items and reposting.

Im certain there is something to be said in avoiding cheap customers and those groups that may be more prone to steal than others.

 

[14Steve14]

I sell through my website and occasionally on ebay. In the last year I have had maybe 2 or 3 parcels go missing though website sales and RM delivery. In the same time I have probably had over 10 go missing through ebay sales and RM delivery. I probably sell 10 times as many items through the website as I do ebay. That must say something.

I have not looked to see about how new the customer is, but I will start to look now.

 

[Philip Hoyle]

I do think that RM get a lot of undeserved complaints.

Between us, our household have probably sold well over a thousand personal items on ebay (i.e. kids' clothes & toys, duplicated gifts, etc) and we've not has a single claim of anything being lost in the post. We've also bought hundreds of items via Ebay or Amazon and suffered a handful of items that havn't arrived - funny thing is that every time, the seller has bad feedback from others for non delivery and communication with them is poor - i.e. they don't answer emails etc - thank heaven for being able to get a refund via Paypal or direct through Amazon chargeback!

In my business, we send out quite a lot of mail (accounts, tax returns etc), although not as much as we used to. We deal with the same clients every year and it's absolutely astonishing how, whenever any paperwork gets "lost in the post", it's always the same clients. Whether it's them sending something to us, or us to them, it's the same people year after year. I suspect it's more down to their poor organisation and simply losing/forgetting things, and blaming the postal service is easier for them than to admit it.

I think it's more a matter of the sender not sending it all, or sending it badly wrapped or wrongly addressed, or the recipient lying to say they havn't received it when they have. I think that the number of true "lost in the post" due to RM is very small.

RM aren't blameless. I certainly have other complaints with their service, for example not delivering every day anymore (despite them saying they do!), and post taking longer than it should, i.e. first class taking 2-5 days instead of next day and second class taking 1-2 weeks. But, my personal experience is that it's seldom RM's fault when post isn't delivered at all.