Increase in INR Cases with Lettermail anyone else?

[epsilon-collectibles.store]

Hi all,

I've been selling trading cards for around two years and have always used Canada Post Lettermail when shipping low-valued cards and packs domestically. Over the past few months, there has been around around a 500% increase in INR cases opened from items that were shipped with Lettermail. I'm really only losing a 2$-6$ per case, but it does add up fast. Is it Canada Post that's losing all these parcels, or scamming buyers claiming that they didn't receive the item so they can get it for free?

I've thought about going to Canada Post Expedited Lite, but I would have to charge around 10$ for shipping (to cover the cost of the label, supplies, then eBay fees) which most people won't pay for a card or pack that costs half, if not less than, half that. 

Has anyone else noticed this increase in INR cases? What do you all think about using only the Canada Post Expedited Lite from now on?

Thanks for your time!

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

How many sales do you have per month on average?

What was your previous average for INRs?

A 500 percent increase sounds large on paper, but you might be dealing with such a small sample size that I wouldn't consider it reliable until it is sustained for a longer period of time. 

For example, if you previously had 1 INRs for every 250 orders and this quarter it is up to 5 INRs every 250 orders, it's such a small sample size that some bad luck could skew it.

Looking at your listings, the biggest problem you have is that you are using the Canada Post Lettermail shipping option when setting up your shipping policies. Most people who use Canada Post Lettermail to ship will choose the generic Economy shipping option. The reason for this is because eBay quotes Canada Post Lettermail at something like 7 business days.

While this is accurate most of the time, Lettermail shipping times are not guaranted by Canada Post. What I suspect is happening in your case is that the buyer is given a delivery date at checkout. Given that the package is untracked, they assume that the package should have arrived by that date. When it didn't, they open a claim, then you're forced to refund.

The simple fix is to change your shipping method to the generic Economy Shipping. For example, with the change if someone buys something from you today that means they will see an approx. November 10th latest possible delivery date instead of October 30th with lettermail. That extra 10 days makes a huge difference in providing a realistic delivery window to customers who might be in rural areas or provinces on the other side of the country. You may still see INRs from time to time, but you should see a huge drop if you make this small change. 

[ct-v]

I have definitely seen an increase of lost lettermail packages this year. Also there are a lot more lettermail packages that are being delivered very late (over a month). This is the worst year I have seen from Canada Post apart from the Covid lockdown year.

I see on one of your listing that you selected the Economy Shipping (Canada Post Lettermail) service. Change that to plain Economy Shipping. This will put a longer delivery estimate on your listings so therefore your buyers will have to wait longer before opening an INR case. For example the estimated delivery time on your listings is between Tue, Oct 24 and Mon, Oct 30. On mine it's between Mon, Oct 23 and Fri, Nov 10.

[mrdutch1001]

Nope, no problems whatsoever with shipping via lettermail within Canada...but I also don't sell ANYTHING on eBay in the high risk categories...

scammers are everywhere...and especially prevalent in those high risk categories...

 I don't believe these reported cases of increased missing/lost domestic letter mail is the fault of Canada Post...more likely attributed to the countless "iffy" buyers and all those scammy buyers that work the system to the fullest.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

I don't think it is the buyers. The OP has their shipping policies set to use the lettermail category, which causes this problem for a lot of sellers who ship lettermail because eBay goes by Canada Post's quoted time for lettermail, which is not guaranteed. 

It's likely that combined with a small sample size. Especially going into the holiday season when Canada Post experiences an increase in volume and more delays, I would advise them to edit their shipping policies and use the slightly longer generic economy option. 

Which isn't to say people who abuse INRs don't exist, but it isn't the problem that people make it out to be. You're more likely to have a problem with a tracked order than an INR, because items sent untracked are usually so cheap that the incentive for fraud is very low. 

[mrdutch1001]

I list and sell crochet,knitting patterns & craft booklets,magazines,etc. whereby I have been using "standard shipping" for the 2 years, but even prior to that when I used "lettermail" as the designated method for shipping domestically, I never had problems  with delivery times within Canada not even up to and during the holiday season...I also apply a 3 day handling time even though I generally ship within 1- 2 days. However, I have used a 5 day handling time during the holiday season in years past...

yes, I agree experiement with either increasing handling time and/or designate an economy shipping method to see if that aleviates the problem...

[ct-v]

For sure there are always some scammers trying to take advantage of the system but I don't think they account for the majority of the lost parcels. I also sell on some groups on Marketplace and I've had to deal with more items not received/late packages there this year than on Ebay even if I sell less on Marketplace compared to Ebay. Also, the buyers on Marketplace don't have any buyer protection, they can't be refunded when they feel like it at the push of a button...

[mrdutch1001]

I have been using Canada Post for over 60 years and albeit CP has become very expensive, I still find CP to be very trustworthy, reliable and for the most part good delivery times..

Of course being of the old timers era, I also am not of the "instant"/"must have yesterday" expectation that has become the mindset of today's society. I still believe in this thing called "patience".

[ct-v]

For sure with Amazon nowadays, some expect everything to arrive "now". On Ebay I think a lot of people rely closely on the estimated delivery date.

When I'm talking about late lettermail packages, I'm talking about 5-6 weeks minimum. Unfortunately it seems to be happening a lot more this year, especially on packages going through the Montreal distribution center.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

I think the reason you didn't have trouble was that you extended your handling time. Extended handling times may hurt your rankings in 'Best Match', so I would rather go with the economy shipping method. It adds a few extra days to the estimate the buyers are shown, which is a more realistic estimate. 

I think this is something eBay should fix with the lettermail estimate, because it results in lower customer satisfaction as well as a huge amount of wasted productivity between the buyer and seller. Both sides have to deal with the INR case. When the item does eventually arrive, eBay instructs buyers to contact the seller to arrange a repayment. This requires additional wasted productivity in the form a work around to exchange info because eBay does not have a repayment function built in. 

Most importantly to eBay the company, it would not surprise me if eBay loses a considerable amount of money in refunded fees to INRs that would never be opened if lettermail had a more accurate estimate. Your average casual seller doesn't know about this problem. eBay loses fees when an INR is refunded. Given how prevalent untracked shipping is with Canadian sellers, there are likely thousands of INRs a year that wouldn't be opened if eBay added another 5 or so business days to the lettermail estimate. 

Or, they should keep the estimate but add a 1 week buffer for the buyer to open an INR for an order that was marked as shipped within the specified handling time. For example, someone who ordered something today that was supposed to arrive on OCT 30th might see a message saying, "We sincerely apologize for the delay in receiving your item, which has exceeded the originally anticipated delivery date. Please be informed that you are fully covered by eBay's Money Back Guarantee program. To accommodate potential shipping delays, we kindly request you to revisit this page on November 7th if your order has not been received by that time."

The only argument against that might be that people would buy less if the shipping time shown to them at checkout is worse, but in the example I used earlier, a buyer shown a worst case scenario of OCT 30th and NOV 10th are both very slow shipping estimates by the standards of today.  

[mrdutch1001]

Yes, I still use a 3 day handling time but by applying the "standard shipping" designation for domestic, no need for additional handling time. This 3 day/"standard" for domestic has worked well for the past 18 months, and my lettermail envelopes do not take any more time to reach their destination than before...none of this 5-6 weeks as indicated by some sellers...so there is still something else at play here for those sellers and I still don't believe this can all be designated as the fault of Canada Post. There is more to this than just the fact it involves a major hub like Montreal,etc..That much of a delay in mail delivery by CP would be noticeable by more than just eBay sellers...

[regs43]

I sell in Sports cards, 2 day handling time, and I use Economy shipping. No INR claims in like 6 months. Most of mine used to be from the USA but I use small packet and tracked packet to the USA these days and no issues with that either.

[femmefan1946]

a buyer shown a worst case scenario of OCT 30th and NOV 10th are both very slow shipping estimates by the standards of today.

And for the same reason $19.99 feels cheaper than $20.00, the buyer tends to "see" the Oct.30th date and get impatient, although the estimate says delivery may be Nov. 10th.

It's a question of underpromising and overdelivering.