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Royal Mail Industrial Action

 

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) at Royal Mail and Parcelforce have called on their members who collect, sort and deliver to take strike action. 

We are doing everything we can to support our sellers who use Royal Mail to send parcels. The vast majority of the businesses trading on eBay are small independent businesses, so we would ask for your patience and understanding while they work hard during the strikes to ensure that you get your items as soon as possible.

Find out more about the strike action here.

To support your sales and minimise disruption over the peak trading period, both Evri and DPD are also offering discounted rates when you buy labels on eBay.

New EVRI reduced rates:

  • 0-1 Kg Postable: £2.67
  • 0-1 Kg: £2.75
  • 1-2 Kg: £3.58
  • 2-15Kg: £4.99

New DPD reduced rate:

  • £5.93 from £8.37

Information for buyers

What can you do if your item hasn’t arrived by the estimated delivery date?

  • Refer to the tracking details of your item if available.
  • Please be patient before you open an “item not received” request. There are likely to be delays across the strike period. Please message your seller if you have any queries.
  • If you have chosen to click and collect, you will receive a text or email to tell you when your parcel is ready to be collected in store.

Returns

  • If you would like to return your order for a refund, you can open a return request. You'll need to send it back within 10 business days of opening the returns request, using tracked postage. Adding tracking details to your return helps protect against delays or issues in the refund process.

Information for all sellers

Seller Protections

eBay will automatically protect your performance on orders placed from Sunday 12 February to Monday 20 February 2023, covering:

  • Your late delivery rate, which will be removed for orders placed from Sunday 12 February to Monday 20 February 2023.
  • Your “item not received” count in your Service Metrics dashboard will be automatically removed.
  • We will also remove any negative and neutral feedback relating to or arising from late or non delivery during this period.
  • As always, please upload tracking details when you dispatch an item. This helps to keep your buyers informed, and adding tracking details gives you additional protection

All sellers who drop off parcels at Post Office, Royal Mail/Parcelforce parcel points and postboxes:

  • There will be very limited collections on the listed strike days. Post Offices, parcel post boxes and post boxes will still be available for drop offs.
  • There will be no Parcel Collect available on the listed strike days.
  • Items posted before, during and after the strike days will be subject to delay.
  • You may experience longer than usual waiting times for Royal Mail Customer Service.

Top Tips for Managing your Delivery on eBay

Over this period we want to ensure that you are supported in delivering a great experience for your buyers:

  • We are working very closely with carriers to regularly monitor delivery service levels.
  • We will notify buyers of potential delays using messaging across their experience to keep them informed and help reduce contacts.

To ensure you are setting yourself up for success and your buyers receive a great delivery experience, we recommend the following:

  • Set an accurate dispatch time that you can consistently meet. You do not need to adjust your dispatch time as delays will already be accounted for in buyer facing delivery estimates.
  • List with the carrier service you are using where possible, to build trust and ensure the delivery estimates shown to your buyers are accurate.
  • You can set your working days using the working day calendar, which applies to all dispatch time settings. The default setting is Monday to Friday, please update this to reflect your business’s working days by clicking here
  • We only use the working days you have selected when calculating the delivery estimates shown to your buyer.
  • If you offer same day dispatch, you can also set your cut-off times. The default is set to 2PM, however, you can offer it up to 10:45PM. To update your settings click here.
  • The Time Away setting gives you options when planning ahead to take a break from your eBay business should you need to or give you time to catch up on customer queries. Click here to learn more or here to switch it on.
  • Use a carrier service that provides tracking for items over £20. This gives greater protection to you and reduces requests for “where’s my item?” and “item not received”.
  • Please remember to upload your tracking number when you dispatch an item. This will be done automatically if you have purchased a postage label on our platform.
  • You must state the actual carrier name only when uploading tracking. Please find the full list of carrier names here.

What can you do?

  • If you already use other carriers, continue using them to send your items during this time & ensure you update your forecast volumes. Please also ensure you use the carrier you specified on the listing.
  • If you currently only use Royal Mail to send your items, please consider switching to an alternative carrier during the strike period. Please see below for alternative carriers to use.
  • If you buy and print your Royal Mail labels on eBay, you can easily switch to send with Evri, UPS, DPD and DHL on eBay delivery powered by Packlink.
  • If you buy your delivery labels elsewhere, remember to upload tracking numbers to your transactions to allow your buyers to see where their items are. By doing this you’ll also be better protected in the event of delays.

What are other delivery carriers could I use?

Returns

Please be aware that returns may be subject to delays. Please check the tracking number and consider the delays before asking eBay to step in to help.

Click and Collect

Click and Collect orders sent with Royal Mail will also be subject to delays. Buyers will receive a text or email to tell them when their parcel is ready to be collected in store.

Global Shipping Programme (GSP)

GSP orders that are sent to the UK shipping centre using Royal Mail will also be subject to delay. All GSP orders are fully tracked for the international buyer once they reach the shipping centre so buyers will be informed of any delays.

Authenticity Guarantee

Authenticity Guarantee orders that are sent to the UK authentication centre using Royal Mail will also be subject to delay. Please consider switching to an alternative courier (accessed via the eBay label platform described above) or upgrading to a Royal Mail Special Delivery so that your buyer can be informed of any delays.

Additional information for business sellers

Business sellers who have a pre-arranged collection from Royal Mail/Parcelforce:

  • There will be no Royal Mail/Parcelforce collections from businesses on the listed strike days.
  • If you use alternative carriers, please check with them beforehand to see if the carriers can take on additional volume.

If you don't already have alternative carriers set up:

  • Try to use a tracked service where possible, and remember to upload your tracking details at dispatch.
  • Consider setting up alternative carriers where you can, to minimise disruptions in the future, and to give your buyers more choices.
  • You can also send with Evri, UPS, DPD and DHL on eBay delivery powered by Packlink

Thank you for for taking the time to read this update. We’re proud of the community we’ve built together and want to reassure you that the wellbeing of our buyers, sellers, partners and our team is our number one priority. We’ll continue to update this page as the situation develops. In the meantime we’d like to thank you again for your patience and understanding ahead of any possible disruption. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Your eBay team.