Vendors - Royal Mail?

[schlinky]

Thanks for the input. It's interesting, so somewhere around 0.5-1% are going missing every week. It's not the 30% I saw, that was probably an extreme case but it is a consistent loss and considering it's something that shouldn't happen at all it seems more than expected.

What's also interesting is that you have switched to a registered only system because of the losses. Naturally if the numbers were lower there would be no need to switch to a higher cost option. They're essentially charging insurance on deliveries.

I ordered perhaps 4 things a year before getting into vaping, mostly courier and they always got here but since discovering this hobby it's all been royal mail and I've maybe had 10 or so items sent. For 2 of those to go missing and potentially a third is too much.
Before this I'd never had anything simply not arrive and when people had said something hadn't been delivered I was kinda like 'yeah but really though?'

It seems like a bit of a mini epidemic though and that's when the conspiracist in me starts thinking maybe it's a ploy because they need to generate more revenue and fast. Either that or they've got some serious problems with their infrastructure or employee screening.

You start digging........

 

[Soldier Blue]

Every vaping vendor I've ever dealt with (except one) has offered me better service than I've had in any other type of business. Believe me, I can say with 100% certainty that the vendors I regularly deal with would NEVER hold on to an item, simply to create a problem with Royal Mail etc'.

As a non vaping vendor myself, I love getting the orders in and can't wait to get rid of the parcels. There's a sense of achievement when you've spent all bloody packing the feckers to finally hand them over.

You'd be amazed though, at the amount of shite addresses that come through on my Paypal statement, that I have to spend time checking etc'.

For example, only this week I had this (name made up but the rest is as I received it)

John Thompson,
Insert first line of address here,
Alverton,
Nottingham.
Insert Postcode here.

 

[schlinky]

Every vaping vendor I've ever dealt with (except one) has offered me better service than I've had in any other type of business. Believe me, I can say with 100% certainty that the vendors I regularly deal with would NEVER hold on to an item, simply to create a problem with Royal Mail etc'.

As a non vaping vendor myself, I love getting the orders in and can't wait to get rid of the parcels. There's a sense of achievement when you've spent all bloody packing the feckers to finally hand them over.

You'd be amazed though, at the amount of shite addresses that come through on my Paypal statement, that I have to spend time checking etc'.

For example, only this week I had this (name made up but the rest is as I received it)

John Thompson,
Insert first line of address here,
Alverton,
Nottingham.
Insert Postcode here.

Who's talking about vendors holding onto items?

Yeah, it's not helpful when people don't fill out their address and expect a delivery

"What's your phone number?"
"0781x x6x5xx2x"
"What?!"
"Call me! Bye!"

 

[Soldier Blue]

It was the last paragraph that made me think you were talking about vendors - I assume Royal Mail then.

In any case you have a suspicious mind - LOL.

 

[VaperCaper]

we post 1st class for everything under ~£25 and send everything over £25 first class signed for.

About 0.75% ish of our stuff is lost in the post. So far in December we've had 1 item go missing, which I am very happy about.

If a customer has an item go missing and they're not a regular they go onto "the list" everyone on the list gets every order sent recorded whatever the value.

Generally speaking for us Royal Mail are great.

 

[Maxcat]

In support of vendors,

I've been operating a site for over 10 years (not related to vaping) and have sent literally 1000's of packages through Royal Mail. In all that time I've had just three 'go missing'. One of those customers was convicted for fraud (long story), one of them attempted to sell my item on ebay a few years after it 'wasn't delivered' and the other one seemed genuine.

The point I'm making, is that for all its failings Royal Mail rarely fails to deliver a package.

This makes me think that I'm either really lucky or my type of customer is more trustworthy than us dodgy vapers. Either way, if vendors are getting 2 or 3 packages going missing each week then I think we all know who's the culprit. It isn't Royal Mail and it sure as hell isn't the vendors.

Have to agree with you here. In almost 18 months I have only had one item not received, which was a replacement for incorrectly sent goods, can only take the vendors word that this was sent, and one item where the envelope was damaged and the package was put into a R.M polybag thing, nothing missing though. The culprit is, most likely as you say.

There can sometimes be another explanation. An increasing amount of internal UK mail is moved by air transport and all packages are put through x-ray machines. Any that look suspicious are held and sent to a central facility for investigation. Any batteries or liquids which do not have ID8000 labels may well end up going this route.

 

[Colonelboom]

In support of vendors,

I've been operating a site for over 10 years (not related to vaping) and have sent literally 1000's of packages through Royal Mail. In all that time I've had just three 'go missing'. One of those customers was convicted for fraud (long story), one of them attempted to sell my item on ebay a few years after it 'wasn't delivered' and the other one seemed genuine.

The point I'm making, is that for all its failings Royal Mail rarely fails to deliver a package.

This makes me think that I'm either really lucky or my type of customer is more trustworthy than us dodgy vapers. Either way, if vendors are getting 2 or 3 packages going missing each week then I think we all know who's the culprit. It isn't Royal Mail and it sure as hell isn't the vendors.

Over quite a large chunk of a year (September to around March or April) I had only lost one of two parcels sent recorded. Since then though it seems to be a free for all and it's only really since they privatised RM and got rid of a load of staff that my losses have grown exponentially. Personally I think that they have cut too many corners and as a result the service level has dropped dramatically - along with any modicum of trustworthiness.

 

[Juls]

Interestingly the only mail I've ever had go missing has been vape related ( may well just be by coincidence right enough ) in 5 years of vaping I've had 3 missing parcels which I suppose is not too bad considering there is more than often at least one package a week. All of which were quite low cost items and only chased two of them up as one was a drip tip I really wanted -the replacment arrived no problem the next day , the other was rebuildable supply's , it was supposed to be re sent but nothing turned up and I didn't bother chasing again , feel sorry for vendors too having to absorb the cost of others failings or even worse if some folk are at it playing the paypal system .