Who banned PPI labels, eBay or Royal Mail?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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eBay appear to have cancelled all listings for pre-printed Printed Post Impression (PPI) labels.

Up until now professional printing companies have been saving Royal Mail PacketPost users the trouble of printing their own PPI labels and selling pre-printed PPI labels, with the customer’s own license number, on eBay.

PPI labels (which can also be printed directly onto envelopes) are technically worthless as they should be weighed, counted and then collected by Royal Mail, although doubtless they cause Royal Mail Revenue Protection Officers a nightmare to administrate. What should happen is when items are posted the weights and number of items are tallied up and the user then pays Royal Mail for the number of items sent. What’s all too easy is to slip an extra couple of parcels in, or to under declare the total weight thus reducing your overall bill.

That’s why recently Post Offices have started to reject PPI mail and Royal Mail are asking for paperwork with each collection, not just a total at the end of the day.

Regardless how much some users might play the system to reduce their bill, PPI mail always needs a PPI label. Just as it’s not economically viable for a business to print their own letterhead paper, it makes sense to pay a printer to produce your PPI labels. Most of the time they can print them for less than you could purchase the blank labels due to the larger numbers that they process. In fact Royal Mail recognise this and offer “download files to provide to your designer or printer“. Solutions such as Packing Partner from Aimco can also incorporate your PPI impression into their label printing.

So why are eBay banning PPI printing services? If someone is on the fiddle it certainly won’t stop them ripping off Royal Mail. However honest online retailers still need PPI labels for every parcel they legitimately send and pay for and someone somewhere has to print them.

I spoke to PPI Labels who have been granted permission to reproduce the Royal Mail Cruciform by the Royal Mail Group and who’s employees have been trained and authorised to print PPI labels. All of their eBay listings have been cancelled cutting off their income stream. Fortunately they have a website so if you need labels you can still purchase direct from PPI-Labels.co.uk, rather than eBay getting a slice of fees on the transaction.

There are rumours that there’s a new three year deal signed between eBay and Royal Mail, but we’ve no confirmation of this. Nor do we have any idea why a deal should include a ban on printing services. One would expect Royal Mail to approve of professional printing to ensure PPI labels are acceptable quality and machine readable. No one wants to return to the days of applying PPI via a hand stamp and ink pad, but that’s just what some Royal Mail customers may resort to.

If you have any more information on why the listings for PPI printing services have been removed by eBay we’d love to hear from you. In the mean time as mentioned earlier – you can use ANY printing service in the country to print your PPI Impressions with your license number and PPI-Labels.co.uk are standing by and more than happy to assist.

[subbie]

Post Offices wont accept PPI mail cos we dont get paid for handling it, nor do many of us have room to store it either.

These PPI folk should stick their hand in their pocket and pay RM the collection fee!!!!

Subbie

[argyllflyer]

Post Offices wont accept PPI mail cos we dont get paid for handling it, nor do many of us have room to store it either.

These PPI folk should stick their hand in their pocket and pay RM the collection fee!!!!

Subbie

are they allowed to actually refuse it? i didnt think they could actually do that

[brown owl]

My guess is that Ebay banned a particular PPI Labels seller because, alongside perfectly acceptable ppi labels, they were also flogging spoof recorded delivery labels with false barcodes. The idea is that you 'enhance' your mail with the spoof labels to kid customers that the mail has been tracked. This is said to significantly reduce the number of 'item not received' claims. A lot of Ebay sellers don't want to pay extra for genuine recorded delivery postage.

[subbie]

Hi Argy

Show me where in the contract that says Postmasters must accept mail items for no remuneration.

This is what happens when you do not keep contracts up to date with negotiated amendments.

Subbie

[MGB]

My guess is that Ebay banned a particular PPI Labels seller because, alongside perfectly acceptable ppi labels, they were also flogging spoof recorded delivery labels with false barcodes. The idea is that you 'enhance' your mail with the spoof labels to kid customers that the mail has been tracked. This is said to significantly reduce the number of 'item not received' claims. A lot of Ebay sellers don't want to pay extra for genuine recorded delivery postage.

Just use a real recorded delivery label then? I have about 6 rolls in a cupboard, and you can order as many as you like off RMs site...

[POSTMAN]

From a 'customers' point of view,a PO not accepting 'mail' is just plain dumb.

[POSTMAN]

The idea is that you 'enhance' your mail with the spoof labels to kid customers that the mail has been tracked.

Mail like this goes through our system all the time,usually from the big boys.

[MGB]

From a 'customers' point of view,a PO not accepting 'mail' is just plain dumb.

Yes, but it depends if the 'customer' has read these forums so gets it from the Postmasters POV.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

From a 'customers' point of view,a PO not accepting 'mail' is just plain dumb.

Yes, but it depends if the 'customer' has read these forums so gets it from the Postmasters POV.

I agree with Postman but I also agree with subbie

Perhaps it should be "From a Business POV - accepting items that create costs but gather no revenue is Dumb" But thats exactly what POL are doing with Post Offices at the moment and seem to be doing with PO Local even more.

[subbie]

Hi Postman

From a customer POV, the sooner they realise that RM is separate from POL, and that they took on a direct service from RM, the better.

PPI was developed for volume items and was supposed to be collected by RM direct from the customers premises. Sub Offices were not set up to take in "commercial" mail, particularly volume. All too often the collection Postie overloads their vans due to this kind of mail.

This is all being done to assist PPI contract holders from not having to pay for a dedicated collection, depriving RM of revenue, POL of revenue, and adversely impacting on the Subbie, and the Postman grades.

The moment the customer goes to contract mail, they cease to be customers of Postmasters, they should take their own mail direct to the sorting office.

Subbie

[MGB]

Hi Postman

From a customer POV, the sooner they realise that RM is separate from POL, and that they took on a direct service from RM, the better.

PPI was developed for volume items and was supposed to be collected by RM direct from the customers premises. Sub Offices were not set up to take in "commercial" mail, particularly volume. All too often the collection Postie overloads their vans due to this kind of mail.

This is all being done to assist PPI contract holders from not having to pay for a dedicated collection, depriving RM of revenue, POL of revenue, and adversely impacting on the Subbie, and the Postman grades.

The moment the customer goes to contract mail, they cease to be customers of Postmasters, they should take their own mail direct to the sorting office.

Subbie

But from the customers point of view, they can get a saving on their postage through PPI, but it's daft money for a collection from a small business POV, it's OK if you're some multinational firm, but not a local shop running a website sending maybe 25 - 50 items a day. RM need to make it clear you need to have a collection or take to the DO/MC direct, at the moment there is nothing to say that on the RM site.

I think RM is going to have to start doing free collections anyway to compete - I can send a packet up to 1kg with up to 5 day delivery, full tracking and a signature for £3.30 by courier, and they'll come and pick it up. Compare that to RM 2nd Recorded, it's only 15p less, it only goes up to 750g for that price, it doesn't have tracking and I have to take it to a PO (which is a looong way since they shut the local one 5 years ago)... Luckily I know the postie who empties the post box at the end of the road quite well, and he's happy to take a sack or so of none Recorded/Specials each day, but Recorded/SDs still have to go to the PO, and anything paid with PayPal (most of my items), has to go recorded at least...

[arnold cheshire]

Post Offices wont accept PPI mail cos we dont get paid for handling it, nor do many of us have room to store it either.

These PPI folk should stick their hand in their pocket and pay RM the collection fee!!!!

Subbie

i didnt think post offices could refuse mail because they have a contract with royal mail

[newsubbie]

Post Offices wont accept PPI mail cos we dont get paid for handling it, nor do many of us have room to store it either.

These PPI folk should stick their hand in their pocket and pay RM the collection fee!!!!

Subbie

i didnt think post offices could refuse mail because they have a contract with royal mail

Any post office can refuse mail on health and safety grounds. There is nothing in our contract about PPI post (it does list other types of post we must accept). Given that we are paid nothing for handling it, and it directly takes money away from our businesses most offices refuse it. I wont accept it anymore - what started as one bag out of goodwill soon became 20+ sacks from different people. It intefered with people who actually wanted to buy postage with us and ended up being stacked in our personal living space. No thanks.

[argyllflyer]

Hi Argy

Show me where in the contract that says Postmasters must accept mail items for no remuneration.

This is what happens when you do not keep contracts up to date with negotiated amendments.

Subbie

Hi subbie, I honestly don't know, I was asking a genuine question, I didn't realise that post offices could refuse mail of any sort,