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Useful Components Main Contents Page
Useful
Components Dispatch and Post
Updated 26th March 2017
Sending standard airmail to Italy was truly dismal in November
and December 2016, with the postal service reverting to old
habits of exceptional delays and a 50% loss rate last seen in
2013-14. Whatever the problem is, I am unable to send
anything to Italy until the situation improves.
Furthermore, a four-year ongoing ebay failure in their
underlying systems relating to international postage rate
tables also
prevents me from offering just tracked postage to Italy, and I
have the recordings of the many calls to ebay customer support
over the years to prove it. Isn't the wonderful
technological world of the 21st century just all fine and dandy
eh? Anyway...
General.
Packaging
All packets containing small items are standard letterbox size,
so you should never have to go and collect your packet from the
sorting office unless you have requested a signed-for
delivery. The packets are not waterproof, but waterproof
thermally printed stickers are used for the address. The
boxes are made from recycled cardboard, and very small items are
sent in padded envelopes with additional protection.
Larger orders might be in a larger packet. Your address
will appear exactly as you type it in your Ebay address fields,
so it needs to be correct to avoid delays. You don't need
to write or select 'default' in empty fields.
UK Mail
Dispatch Time, UK Mail
During Monday to Thursday items paid for before 13:00 are
usually packed and marked as sent by the evening of the same
day, but will always be packed and marked as sent within one
working day of payment unless the shop notices or item
descriptions state otherwise. You should receive an
automatic email note when the item is marked as sent, but I've
found that these frequently get blocked or ebay systems fail to
send them. If a UK item is marked as sent, it has
definitely been packed, it is in the post bag and it will always
be posted within 24 hours.
Postal Charges, UK Mail
Within the UK you will only ever be charged one postage charge,
and that starts at £1.29 for 2nd class post for
everything. You can add any number of the same or
different items with no additional postage charge. You need to use the shopping
basket on ebay.co.uk to pay for them altogether for this to
work. If it goes wrong, let me know and I will
refund the excess.
UK Post Method and Late Packets
Economy post within the UK is sent by second class Royal
Mail. Standard post within the UK is sent by first class
Royal Mail. These are more than 99% reliable and packets
generally arrive in good time. You can select signed-for
delivery but this does not improve the delivery speed, and my
experience of receiving mail is that this actually increases the
chance of suffering a rare lost packet.
If your UK packet has not arrived within 10 working days of it
being marked as sent, I will always resend it or refund your
money at your choice. This is my responsibility under
consumer law and there is no reason to purchase extra
insurance. On these rare occasions you will never lose
out, but you may have to wait a little.
If you need something the next
working day Monday to Thursday, then before 13:00 on the
previous day, I may well be able to send it next day special
delivery by special arrangement. This will cost £9.80, but
it isn't an option on the listings due to me being unable to
guarantee availability. The best way is to send a site
message before buying to see if I'll be able to reach a Post
Office by the collection deadline that afternoon.
Economy International
Airmail
Dispatch Time, Economy
International Airmail
International mail is sent at least twice a week Monday
to Thursday and often more frequently. Unless the shop notices or item descriptions state
otherwise, orders will always be sent in this
time-frame.
You should receive an automatic email note when any item is
marked as sent, but I've found that these frequently get blocked
or are not sent by ebay systems, especially for overseas
customers. If an international mail item is marked as
sent, it has definitely been packed, it is in the post bag and
it will always be shipped on the following international
dispatch.
Postal
Charges, Economy International Airmail
The price for international dispatch of any number of items is a
standard, and reasonably low £3.95 for all destinations.
This will calculate automatically but you need to use the shopping basket
on ebay.co.uk and pay for them altogether for this to work.
If in doubt, you may always use the "request a final total" option
during the payment process, but ebay systems may stop you doing
this if you can't already see 'shopping basket/cart.' If it
goes wrong, let me know and I will refund the excess. The
need to use ebay.co.uk for shopping basket to work is a
long-standing and very annoying ebay failure. During one
call to customer support, they estimated the time to fix this as
being "Between two and three Years!"
Economy International
Airmail Post
Method and Late Packets
All economy international airmail now ships by
DPD-Geopost / La Poste International Priority Airmail. This service is an untracked airmail service
which has proved to be very reliable. Your packet should
arrive via the standard national post carrier in your
country. The stated delivery time is ten business days,
but please be aware that it will be much longer than this for
about 10% of packets. This is the same for all standard
airmail carriers. I don't know why this should be, and I
assume that there are random samples taken for security checking
for which there is a queue of varying length depending on the
season and security alert state.
Packets sent within the EU are not subject to any import or VAT
charges, and any customs checking will be for security purposes
only.
Packets sent outside the EU will be marked with a CN22 customs
sticker indicating the contents and the approximate value.
Depending on your country, sales tax-like charges might be
incurred for higher value items. Most countries operate a
system where there is no charge below a certain value, and many
small items will pass below this value unhindered. If
there is a charge, you will always be notified by some system
operated by the national post carrier, and the packet will not
be lost because of this.
If your packet has not arrived after 20 working days in the EU
or 25 working days in the rest of the world, I will always
re-send it or refund at your choice. This is my
responsibility under consumer law and there is no reason to
purchase extra insurance. On these rare occasions you will
never lose out, but you may have to wait a little.
I may not be able to send at all to
some countries, but I am generally willing to give it a try if
it is actually possible.
International Tracked Airmail Service
"Royal Mail Tracked" is available to almost all countries and
claims a 3 to 5 working day transit time. This is fully
tracked only within the UK. The service claims some degree
of expedited passage through customs but this is not guaranteed.
I may not be able to send at all to some countries, but I am
generally willing to give it a try if it is actually possible.
Dispatch by Courier Service
I only use courier services such as DHL by special
arrangement. Be prepared to pay an extraordinary amount,
in the region of £50 GBP for any item.
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