Royal Mail - Missing Post

[RanchoGrande]

We've just started fulfilling web orders which is still fairly small scale and as such we rely on using Royal Mail and it's PPI system.

So far it's been fairly painless but we've already experienced a number of missing deliveries and it got me thinking about what people would consider to be an acceptable level of loss? Would companies expect to lose, say 1 out of 20 deliveries?

It can mount up quite quickly in terms of cost as you have lost stock and have to pay for postage twice. From what I can understand, RM offer no form of compensation for lost deliveries.

Can any one offer any advice or share any tips on how we can minimise losses?

many thanks

[ModernAndy]

Maybe 1 in 100-200. This will likely fall if you start using DMO with the barcodes and put off a few of the scammers

[anonymous-user]

Anything without a barcode or signature is likely to go "missing" IMO. It really pisses me off and most of the time we were able to prove it was the customer trying it on rather than RM themselves (the delivery office got involved and the postie knew full well he had given it to them and said so during the investigation! Customer then claimed they had forgotten, yeah right!). This time of year mind it tends to be RM with the casual staff they employ when we started sending everything recorded the lost items went down to less than 10 a year! It's a trade off from cost of losses vs the extra for recorded.

[ModernAndy]

You can avoid a certain amount of loss by sending recorded but it would cost us far more to send everything recorded (not to mention the extra work) than to just take every lost item claim at face value. We always ask questions when items are reported missing and a lot of the time they end up being at the delivery depot or the address is wrong and they get sent back to us so not all missing post is malicious.

[anonymous-user]

Like I said it's a trade off & depends on what you sell. If the item is worth pence then recorded makes no sense, if a missing items costs £20 the it's worth doing.

[V8mate]

What kind of people buy your products OP?

If you're at the mouth-breather end of whatever market you're in, and are sending out parcels which don't have to be signed for, you can bet your bottom dollar that they're being delivered just fine.

[ctrph]

I send a fair few orders 1st and 2nd class, I used to use recorded for some items but had more of the recorded ones go missing than the regular post.

[russy01]

Its all a game of numbers, we send thousands via PPI everyday and what seems like a lot go missing. I mean it drives me nuts when we have to refund orders for "non receipt". But this my friend is just part of the game we have to play.

I have done the numbers various times and taking the very small % on the chin is significantly cheaper (to the tune of tens of thousands PA) than sticking everything on a recorded service.

When we migrate to the 2d Barcodes next year it will be interesting to see if it makes much difference. As for a % Ratio I am sure you will find its considerably less than 5% and likely much much less than 1%.

As a side note, do you put a returns address on your parcel? This will make a big difference if you dont already - you'll actually find some of the "lost" stuff does come back!

[RanchoGrande]

thanks for all the feedback, this side of the business is all new to me so it's good to hear other peoples experiences.

We sell clothes which sit in the mid-range price bracket so when stuff goes missing, it can cost us about £10-£15 per item plus the cost of postage the 2nd time.

We've lost 4 items now out of 150 in 8 weeks and we are posting using 2nd class RM. Given the extra hassle and expense of sending via signed for, it seems as though we have to just take this loss on the chin. (The 4 items lost total about £40 of stock value)

After losing the 1st few items, I started putting a return address on the packages on the off chance that if it does go stray it may find it's way back. I'm also checking peoples addresses more thoroughly as customers seem to write their addresses badly or miss obvious things like door numbers off their address!

How do you make a compensation claim from RM? I've asked them several times about it but I keep getting a different response - my account manager said we can get compensation for missing items but the people on the help line said I can't...

[RanchoGrande]

ModernAndy said:

You can avoid a certain amount of loss by sending recorded but it would cost us far more to send everything recorded (not to mention the extra work) than to just take every lost item claim at face value. We always ask questions when items are reported missing and a lot of the time they end up being at the delivery depot or the address is wrong and they get sent back to us so not all missing post is malicious.

Who do you ask questions to, RM or the customer?

[ModernAndy]

RanchoGrande said:

ModernAndy said:

You can avoid a certain amount of loss by sending recorded but it would cost us far more to send everything recorded (not to mention the extra work) than to just take every lost item claim at face value. We always ask questions when items are reported missing and a lot of the time they end up being at the delivery depot or the address is wrong and they get sent back to us so not all missing post is malicious.

Who do you ask questions to, RM or the customer?

The customers. Sometimes the item isn't lost so can be found at the depot or a neighbour's and sometimes when people are at it they're put off by being asked.

[veevee]

RanchoGrande said:

thanks for all the feedback, this side of the business is all new to me so it's good to hear other peoples experiences.

We sell clothes which sit in the mid-range price bracket so when stuff goes missing, it can cost us about £10-£15 per item plus the cost of postage the 2nd time.

We've lost 4 items now out of 150 in 8 weeks and we are posting using 2nd class RM. Given the extra hassle and expense of sending via signed for, it seems as though we have to just take this loss on the chin. (The 4 items lost total about £40 of stock value)

After losing the 1st few items, I started putting a return address on the packages on the off chance that if it does go stray it may find it's way back. I'm also checking peoples addresses more thoroughly as customers seem to write their addresses badly or miss obvious things like door numbers off their address!

How do you make a compensation claim from RM? I've asked them several times about it but I keep getting a different response - my account manager said we can get compensation for missing items but the people on the help line said I can't...

In my experience, despite their rep, RM lose very very little. Way less than 1%, I'd say probably closer to 0.1-0.2%.

Things which are obviously non-signed for will be claimed non-received by customers, even for items costing £2.

Significantly less of my 2D barcoded items seem to be getting 'lost', shocker!

There are some dummy 'tracked' stickers that I've used in the past which also work quite well, might be worth a go.

[veevee]

Also noticed today that the majority of the 'I haven't received my item' people, have fairly poor grammar skills. Coincidence?