I have been on a bit of an Ebay rush the last couple of weeks.

The couriers have been a mix of the usual suspects and Royal Mail.

Some stuff is getting to me within 2 working days, others I am waiting over a week, after “tracking number provided”.

Seems completely random. Both with RM and the others.

Is this all a knock on from the posties strikes?

Anyone else had similar recently?

Its a combination of those things I’d imagine, plus increased workload due to Black Friday week.

You may also be seeing some of the fall out from allowing people to print their own packing labels at home and then arrange for a courier to come and pick up the parcel/drop it off at their leisure.

I had a case a couple of weeks ago selling something on ebay where I sorted out the shipping label with royal mail on the Sunday and uploaded the tracking number straight away so the buyer could see this. Everyone in the house then fairly quickly came down with norovirus so I didn’t make it to drop off the parcel until the Thursday, during which time the online tracking just sort of sits there being very unhelpful. The parcel was delivered in the 48 hours advertised by royal mail once I’d dropped it off but I was definitely the cause of the apparent delay from the buyers point of view.

Depends on the seller. If they do the postage through eBay then as soon as the postage label is generated you get the tracking number. It’s then a lottery depending on how long it takes the seller to get the item dropped off with royal mail or other courier.

If they do the postage through eBay then as soon as the postage label is generated you get the tracking number.

So that explains the “tracking number provided” on Ebay.

If they do the postage through eBay then as soon as the postage label is generated you get the tracking number.

So that explains the “tracking number provided” on Ebay.

Yes – in a lot of cases sellers purchase the various shipping offers through ebay and as soon as  they pay for it  paid for the tracking info is gernarated  and sent to you – but particularly if its a private seller they’ve maybe still to actually pack the item and then go out to whatever drop off point the courier uses – when they do its usually another day until the couriers van comes by to collect. So the clock for delivery only really starts from that point  – the day after the day the seller got round to dropping it off. In some cases those couriers don’t come by that drop off point every day – for me if I send by UPS theres only pickups twice a week at my nearest shop – if I miss a thursday drop off it wont get picked up til the following Tuesday

I’ve had issues with RM recently  I had a package sent to me early October which landed here last week (on 48 hour tracked service).  I also sent a package of tyres sold on here at a similar time, first class, still not turned up and will likely need to refund the (patient and understanding) buyer.

I think that delivery services is also one of those jobs where they are struggling to fill roles post covid.

Depends on the seller. If they do the postage through eBay then as soon as the postage label is generated you get the tracking number. It’s then a lottery depending on how long it takes the seller to get the item dropped off with royal mail or other courier.

This👆

Ebay is misleading on postage as you can have a tracking number for days without the item being in the postage system.

Part-time postie here – the only thing we are measured by is our delivery rate on tracked parcels and packets. If you’re sending stuff non-tracked it will be put to the back of the queue but there currently is no backlog from the strikes as everything clears in 2-3 days.
I also run an online business and have sent out over 500 parcels this last year with a 100% delivery success rate via Royal Mail.

It’s possible that AWBs/Tracking nos are being raised by the sender but the packages aren’t being handed over to the collection driver or collection point for some days after.

Just as an example, you have 28 days from raising a DHL AWB to actually presenting it for collection.

Finally have got 2 of my items out for delivery with Yodel.

However, while 1 shows out for delivery on the Ebay tracking, the other shows “tracking number provided” but if I got to the Yodel website, they are both on the van.

All my other stuff is with RM so I might get some of it on Saturday with a bit of luck.

You may also be seeing some of the fall out from allowing people to print their own packing labels at home and then arrange for a courier to come and pick up the parcel/drop it off at their leisure.

This. See Hannah’s Evri thread for further details, but a bike frame I sold sat for a week in the gatehouse at work without being picked up. Eventually I sorted it by taking it to a drop-off shop. But I did get a bit of a refund from Packlink, which I think I’ll pass on to the buyer for being patient.

Third day in a row i’ve not received a fedex delivery that’s showing as out for delivery on the van.

Evri and RM have been spot on as normal.

I don’t know how the couriers work, but RM don’t give you any devices to assist you during deliveries, only for saying ‘delivered’ Somehow we’re supposed to remember every single one of these items and deliver them in the right sequence…by the time I’ve drive 6 miles of twisty singletrack road everything has gone back-to-front and side-to-side. I’ve created my own check-sheets so I can tick things off when I sort out the van, but quite often parcels get buried and it only turns up at the end of the day.

Dovebiker, there is (or was, a year ago) an app on the RM PDAs that lets you scan in all your parcels. After chuntering away to itself for a minute it spits out an optimised route you can can follow. You might not be aware of it due to Royal Fail’s woeful training and staff development, plus the asshole ‘full time’ (haha) legacy workforce that are a big part of RM’s problems, and who treat the ‘part time’ (haha) staff like second class citizens.

Like most things RM it’s a bit half arsed, but it might help. I sacked those clowns off just over a year ago: told my line manager to get **** and threw my ID badge in the DOM’s face, walking out three days into my month’s notice. One of the best decisions I ever made!

Well, none of my colleagues know how the PDA’s work either, even the ones who’ve been doing it 20 years! We only have one full-timer, the rest are split 3-days. We have one who does a specific island round who puts double-time in on a Saturday – goes from 1 hour to 2! The only ‘managers’ are on the mainland – they got all huffy last week when I told them they were an utter failure for the dangerous state of the vehicles and they’d be culpable if it resulted in a serious collision.

Big win this week was getting 4 new tyres on the van – this was a tyre being sent back to the depot for replacement (just come off another van) 😳

Nothing you could say/write about that shambolic bunch of managerial charlatans and 1970s sicknote workforce would surprise me. 500 years of corporate heritage? They are so ****.