The UK Civil Aviation Authority has (portable battery packs) as restricted goods, similar to lithium polymer batteries, according to eBay.
What this means is that Royal Mail will no longer carry them and you should seek an alternative courier for shipping this type of product.
In all likelihood, given that power banks are generally fairly light, this will result in a price increase as couriers will likely be more expensive. The difficulty for sellers will of course be that some competitors either won’t be aware of the Royal Mail restriction, will simply ignore the restriction, or will be shipping power banks from outside the UK in which case they may well get through regardless.
Of course the restrictions won’t just affect sellers on eBay, it will also impact sales on all other marketplaces and retailers own websites.
I’m probably asking too much, but it would be nice to see eBay simply block Royal Mail as a shipping option when listing in categories which we know shouldn’t go in the mail.
I did a test listing for a Power Bank this evening and eBay suggested “Mobile Phone & PDA Accessories Batteries” as a category and then under the “Select postage for me” tab promoted Royal Mail 2nd Class as the method similar items are posted as. Similarly changing to the “Select postage myself” tab, Royal Mail 2nd Class was still the default option.
2 Responses
While I stick to RM’s rules about particular types of battery when I’m sending out, I have NO problem receiving banned batteries when I order them on eBay.
RM made a big deal about X-Raying parcels when they introduced the new rules on banned items, but after a couple of months, they seemed to have lost their will to enforce the rules.
it wouldn’t work for one simple reason…. people will just use one of the generic delivery method options. To be honest i dont see the point in the long list of different people doing the same thing… the customer doesnt care who gets it to them in 2 days… just so long as it arrives! there should just be delivery days not who what where and when!