ROYAL MAIL WARNING - NEW SIGNATURE SYSTEM HAS PROBLEMS

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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WHAT PAYPAL EXPECTS FROM YOU AS A SELLER (POSTAGE).

To deal safely on eBay and be protected under PayPal's seller protection, one of the obligations on the seller is to provide ONLINE proof of delivery in case of a non-receipt complaint by a buyer. This means that PayPal should be able to go online and, in the case of Royal Mail, put in the tracking number and see for themselves that the package was signed for. In the "old days", the signature was written on a piece of card, but more and more, Royal Mail are changing over to "hand-held electronic input devices".

HERE'S THE PROBLEM.

A "Royal Mail employee" has told me that the new devices don't record signatures very well. I myself have noticed this when signing for deliveries - sometimes noting that a whole signature results only in a dot or two on the screen.

In addition, if Royal Mail are delivering multiple packages, they only take one signature with the electronic machine. It's meant to share the signature with all of the tracking numbers but, again, the system is sometimes having trouble doing so, meaning that any package above the first one on the list may have been signed for, but the signature is not available online to confirm delivery.

AND THERE'S MORE.

These machines are meant to download the signature as a digital file for automatic interpretation by the system, which then should generate the signatures that go online. Obviously, with dots, rather than signatures, the system is failing to do its job, meaning that it could be weeks before a signature is available, and sometimes, it never arrives at all, with a dubious message being left online advising that "no information is currently available - please come back later" - but there's not really any point in going back if the signature's not up after 10 days.

PAYPAL WON'T MOVE ON THIS.

The official, printed, tracking receipt from Royal Mail which you receive when posting is NOT enough for PayPal - they're lazy; they just want to click a mouse and see the proof on-screen. If they don't see it, you haven't sent it, and the buyer reaps the reward.

ROYAL MAIL USUALLY DON'T PAY COMPENSATION.

If the signature was electronically obtained but didn't record, then Royal Mail can't prove anything either way. BUT, don't assume that you'll get a pay-out. Most items, such as jewellery, "fragile" items, money, precious metals and stones, artwork, (in fact, almost anything that you'd want to send), is NOT COVERED AT ALL by recorded delivery - it is certainly NOT INSURED POST. If it was lost, Royal Mail probably wouldn't pay up (*), if it wasn't lost, the certainly wouldn't pay up. And neither would PayPal.

(*) Which is why, if you do make a claim, Royal mail will often trap you into telling them that it was an eBay item, following which, they check on eBay! Especially frustrating is that if you sold an item worth £10 for e.g. £250, then if they do pay, they'll only pay the £10. It's best, in these cases, not to mention the eBay word if you can help it.

WHAT TO DO.

1) Use a courier for expensive stuff.

2) Hand deliver if it's convenient to do so, BUT DO NOT TAKE PAYPAL IN THIS CASE as, once again, it doesn't meet the need for an online signature. (Same with collections!)

3) Send by Special Delivery. Royal Mail take much more care of packages in the SD system and won't take risks such as electronic input (yet). In addition, if they do lose it, you're covered up to the level of insurance that you've paid for, no matter what you send. So in the event of a claim, if Royal Mail messed up, they pay, if they didn't mess up, PayPal should pay.

Until the system becomes reliable, I will continue to offer my buyers a subsidised rate on SD. It may cost me a bit more, but it does mean that I have peace of mind at all times.

[demon]

s/d is done electronically sorry

[DGP1]

The problem with the PDA is people not signing them properly, I have people who just can't sign them and others that sign them perfectly everytime.

Although, when we all get the new fancy PDAs this wont be a problem