myhermes bring back 0-1 KG and change prices

[cerealmunkee]

Hermes aren't always easy to apply a delivery time to. Sometimes they can be the equal of Royal mail 2nd class, and as you've found ....somewhat slower. Collectplus on the other hand are a different matter and will deliver in some cases in under 24 hrs, or 3 days depending on the service chosen.
When using Hermes the important thing to take account of is that they have allowed many larger items to still remain viable to sell....this is in contrast to Royal Mail's high charges for anything of a decent size.

Hermes use individual agents to deliver their packages at the end of the line and ultimately delivery times can be at the mercy of the commitments and time constraints experienced by these people.

[pastime]

There is no catch 22...at least when you view the Republic of Ireland in context of what it is in reality....namely an overseas destination and not part of the UK. when calculating the shipping costs to the Irish Republic you need to cost it as "Europe".

Its worth carefully considering "do i need to need to charge for international signed for" delivery which only offers tracking to the UK border and no further beyond on. But its no silver bullet....the point is a lost/stolen package is a lost/stolen no matter which way you post it.

Hi Cerealmunkee,
My Catch 22 is: If I were to sell a CD/DVD, to the UK or abroad, to the value of £15 I would be able to claim compensation if the package is lost or stolen - using my proof of postage as evidence of postage. If I post an item of costume jewellery (not gold, rubies or diamonds) just base metal with, say, glass stones, that had also sold for £15 - and that item is lost or stolen I would not be able to claim compensation with proof of postage: any claim will not be accepted because it is jewellery. I will only be covered for if lost/stolen if I send it via RM Special Delivery (UK) starting at £6+ (UK signed for would also not count - I wouldn't covered by that service, either. Outside the UK, signed for would be £3/3.50 + ISF at £5/5.40 = a total of £8/8.50 (and if on TOS) 10% needs to be added to those figures. Not many buyers would pay £6 - 8.50 postage for Costume jewellery - I would never get any sales (and to be honest - I'm not even sure if ISF would cover costume jewellery).
Royal Mail needs to automatically track items (as Hermes does) as standard. Not penalise sellers who have no other service to use and are left without any help if lost or stolen.

[cerealmunkee]

I believe that if you were to sell a DVD/CD to the UK or abroad i think that the level of compensation that you could expect to obtain from Royal Mail would be £20 when using their standard UK or Airmail service. While RM may not offer compensation for the loss of costume jewellery....are you certain that a carrier such as Hermes will?.

As you've clearly proven by the inclusion of your provided figures, there is no point in sending items of the value under discussion via a signed for service.....and certainly, RM special delivery is out of the question. No buyers are going to pay anything over the cost of Royal Mail standard delivery to receive lowish value items of costume jewellery or anything else for that matter, and as postal costs increase the prospect of sales for these items will became a distant memory.

As you realise , if you add a signed for service to the already annually increasing postal costs then , you're unfortunately correct in that you'll achieve no sales..

As i mentioned at an earlier point, if a package is lost or stolen, then this will be the case even when it has been posted using a signed for service. Royal mail treat Recorded delivery mail in exactly the same way as they do standard mail.....And this gets lost too.
Oddly.....postal loss rates can differ all depending on which auction sites that you sell on ....and i hear that there is one auction site where losses are higher than elsewhere....but this will again be open variation, and depend largely on what type of products that you sell. Apparently costume jewellery can be a higher risk category ....along with cosmetics, and designer clothing, and popular mobile phones.

Your best insurance to combat loss could be to include 3 return addresses on your packages....one inside, one on the outside , and one on the outer of the wrapping assuming that you use this. Also....i've found that paper envelopes ....both padded and none padded seem to go missing more often than inflexible boxes, so if you've been using the former to post your items then maybe a change of packaging may help to reduce your postal losses?.

[pastime]

Hi Cerealmunkee,
You are quite right - packaging is important. I never post using jewellery boxes - too much of a giveaway. Tend to use CD type boxes, that way it's not so obvious as to content. If I do use a padded envelope I sandwich item between cardboard to obscure shape. I also fudge description & price on custom labels.

As far as I know, Hermes/Collect + won't cover jewellery, ceramics, glass etc, but if used they do allow to use as much packing as you can, to give greater protection, and it's tracked through the system and delivery, which offers some cover from dishonest buyers. Pleased to see the new band because at least it offers another option which might be useful in some situations.

Interesting comment about one auction site showing more losses - would that be one that insists on the use of Paypal?

[cerealmunkee]

Yes....there is an auction that insists on paypal be used at all times. However, due to recent policy changes, the average postal scammer is aided and abetted by the site itself and paypal no longer involve themselves.
Getting back to the subject of your costume jewellery...at least i believe that these were the items causing you the most concern. It appears to be clear that if you feel pressurised to opt for a signed for service by default when needing to ship these then i fear that you'll essentially bring any selling activity to an abrupt end as the shipping charges will make the items very over priced. So, with this in mind the alternative is to stop selling costume jewellery. But, this is extreme to my mind.
Maybe, give it a last try using standard delivery and hope for the best?...as or overseas sales?....i'd advise due to your nervousness regarding your packages failing to arrive at their destinations......your only option?....is to exclude certain countries on the balance of probability that they could prove troublesome....i believe that you underrstand which are the highest risk countries?.

[pastime]

Like all online sellers you just have to cross your fingers and hope - otherwise there is no point in listing if you don't.

I, like many others, I suspect, find the general decline in feedback (thanks TOS for ruining a system that you devised, that helped both buyers and sellers, and that worked reasonably well):- by banning negative feedback for all buyers and encouraging Business accounts to leave feedback before the buyer had even received and acknowledged the transaction, it is now a bit like waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was always a relief to get positive feedback and know that the item had arrived and that the buyer was happy with it.

[derbypub2565]

I used to sell on ebay a lot a few year ago and was selling Christmas trees, hermes was a god send not having to trail up town with a heap of trees, well so I thought. I was selling about 15 - 20 a day and more on sunday evenings they used to collect the following day if you got your order in before 10pm which was great especially for the customer, then getting nearer to Christmas everything went seriously wrong, trees going missing (7 in total over this period) and 20% were damaged and that was a lot when your selling over 100 a week, I swore I wouldn't use them again and I havnt, there terrible. Sorry but my thoughts