Hi all,

Been reading this for a while and decided to register. I've been running a fairly succesful ebay business for a while selling various bits and bobs between £3 and £30. My problem has been posting items. I've grown tired of trips to the PO. Not because of the actual trip but because of the aggro involved in filling out recorded slips once there (with a queue of customers etc.).

Wondering if there are any solutions to this, like franking at home? Most small stuff I just stick stamps on with my own scales and post but items over £5 I always send recorded as it's too much to refund if they decide to claim it didn't turn up! The £28 cover on first recorded covers 99% of my stuff and the rest is special delivery.

Anyone got any ideas how I can prepare say 20-30 items for recorded mail a day at home and then just dump them at the PO?

What would the costs be and what equipment is recommended>

Cheers

Hi I've pm'd you a link for a company you get a home fanking machine from, I'm not an affiliate I just saw a special offer they have for a free trial on another website. Also you can contact the po and a van will come to collect your parcels and you pay a lump sum for them to frank it for you. I can't remember the exact details as it was over a year ago I used this service for a mailshot.

Hope this helps

I hardly ever use recorded. A certificate of posting covers items up to £28 also and my Post Office tell me more recorded delivery items go missing than anything else.

My Post Office give me a bundle of all the different stationery to keep at home and I fill the forms out before I get there.

I think someone said once that you could take your recorded items to the sorting office and they stamp a book or something, I will try and find the old thread. I know you can print your own stamps now but it doesn't solve the problem of the Post Office stamping your paperwork to say it's been sent.

One thing that has saved me so much time is I bought one of those Dymo labelwriters and it is fantastic. I know I am going off topic but if anyone is still writing labels by hand then they should definitely invest in one of these.

Royal Mail collection service

Here's the link for the Royal Mail collection service. You're looking at about £5 per week I think.

And all the other info including Smart Stamp is here

Thanks for the reply's. I've used proof of posting before but my local PO guy told me that it's a waste of time. The RM website implies that POP will give you £28 compensation for lost mail, which is plenty for most of the things I send.

He said that there is no way that you can prove that the item didn't turn up. I sold an item the other day and the lady said it didn't show up after 5 days. I believed her and refunded (£3 so no big deal). If I had done POP what would be my chances of compensation? Especially if it had been a more valuable item? WOuld they need her to fill out a form etc.?

I don't see the point in POP unless RM will just believe you that it didn't show up as they don't track standard mail!

In two years I've had only 2 or 3 things not turn up and I've claimed before against proof of posting. They did send a letter to the people to confirm and I did get my money back ok, but I don't know what would have happened if they didn't send the form back.

A couple of items which people claimed they hadn't received were returned by the Post Office weeks later because they'd put cards through the door and these people had never bothered to collect from the Post Office! Now that really annoys me. The only one item that never came back was the one I put the claim in for and that went missing during a bad postal strike.

Interesting. I guess you have to put it on the buyer to prove it hasn't turned up and risk the neg feedback. Certainly a lot quicker and cheaper to get proof of posting. Will try it and see if I run into trouble. Might send a covering email saying that Rm will investigate claims of lost items which may put off the scammers as I'm sure a few try it on to get refund/ replacement. At least you can fax the buyer the proof of posting to show you are not a con artist.

Yes that's what I've done in the past, scanned the proof of posting and emailed it to them.

If your parcel will fit through the letter box then I think you are better off using the proof of posting rather than recorded. When things are returned to the sorting office because the customer isn't there to sign, I actually run into far more problems, this is because the customer either loses the card or can't be bothered to collect the item.

If it's a larger item of higher value then I will probably use recorded or special, because they are going to have to open the door to sign for it anyway.

Anything under £7 I definitely wouldn't bother with sending recorded because I look at it that my time is money and if I have to fill out paperwork in order to make a claim then that would probably cost £5 or more of my time to do so, so there's no point.

I know I could be more efficient, I could probably warrant paying for the collection service now, but I know it is only me and a few other ebay sellers keeping our local Post Office open so I keep going. If that Post Office closed I would definitely look into the collection service. It's quite funny because when the OAPs tut at me for having so many parcels the couple who run the Post Office tell me to take no notice because the OAPs have nothing better to do than collect their pension. They treat the ebay sellers like royalty and we get choccies and wine at Christmas.

Yes, I apologised to the PO people in my village for bringing in so much junk but they told me they would much rather have it than me take it into town. I didn't realise they get paid per item. So, now I'm happy to take it all to them. Keeps them in jobs too.

I think I'll email RM and get their take on the POP thing. I may put to them the scenario I had the other day with the lady saying her parcel didn't turn up and see what they would do. I reckon she's probably got it by now and maybe I need to put up some proper t+c's stating that lost mail needs to be given a month to show up before any claims are made.