eBay UK Extends Seller Protections Again As Royal Mail Strike Continues to Delay Parcel Deliveries

eBay UK announced today it is extending seller protections from late deliveries until 7 January 2023 as a result of the Royal Mail strike, which also includes its Parcelpost division.

The company also maintains a Royal Mail Industrial Action information page where it provides updates to sellers about the situation and offers alternative solutions for shipping packages while this strike situation persists.

Royal Mail Strike – The Mail Backlog is Massive

This strike action has caused significant backlogs of mail and packages at Royal Mail facilities with the Daily Express claiming that in a test claiming that 6 out of 10 letters were still not delivered after two weeks.

Royal Mail had previously said it was trying to prioritize deliveries during the strike actions, with Special Delivery and Tracked 24 parcels being the most important.

But it’s hard to imagine with images like these, that any mail is arriving within any reasonable time, even with Royal Mail’s appeal to managers to get help from friends and family to reduce the backlog.

Additionally, with the Communication Workers Union (CWU), confirming that its members will go on strike on Thursday and Friday this week, Royal Mail issued a new advisory for customers that have received “Something for you” cards.

“Our Customer Service Points will be closed on strike days (Friday 23 and Saturday 24 December) for collecting or dropping off items.

“If you have received a ‘Something for you’ card and need your item before Christmas, please visit your Customer Service Point before Friday 23 December to collect the item.

“Please only visit the Customer Service Point if you have received a ‘Something for you’ card, advising we’re holding an item there for you.

For the latest opening times of your local office visit Services Near You.

“Royal Mail has well-developed contingency plans, but we cannot fully replace the daily efforts of our frontline workforce. We’ll be doing what we can to keep services running, but we are sorry this planned strike action is likely to cause you some disruption.”

As this Royal Mail strike continues to become more bitter, eBay sellers should expect additional strike days to be announced by the CWU soon. There just doesn’t seem to be much of an end to this situation.

Richard Meldner

Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.

To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.