I’m just deciding on the postage costs for some of my items, and wondered if anyone has experience with Royal Mail compensation and your own labour on a self employed basis
To make the numbers simple. If I were to make something, which cost me £5 in material costs (easily proven with receipts) and £15 in labour costs = £20 in total.
I sell the item for £25
If I were posting this, on the £20 compensation with proof of posting, I would claim the £20 total cost to “manufacture the item”. I can easily prove the £5 material costs. Does anyone have experience of proving your own labour cost when you’re self employed?
I would hate to sell it for £25, it get lost in the post, I claim for £20 from Royal Mail and then only get £5, but still have to refund £25 for a lost item
I want the onus to be on me to claim, and not my customer, as that is what I expect myself when purchasing goods. I wouldn’t mind waiting the required days as per Royal Mail terms, but I have no way of “proving” my labour cost, other than my spreadsheet which I use to calculate the time spent making an item, which provides me with my total cost including materials.
Bear in mind most of my work is artwork, so the paper can be just a few pounds, but my time is a few days to create it
I’ve had to claim once. All I had to include was the order showing the price and I received the full amount the I sold the item for plus postage. No quibble at all.
Thanks for that. I know I’m overthinking but the thought of sending a £50 or £100 piece of artwork which has taken me hours to complete, and then I only get the cost of the paper back…but have to create it again for a customer or refund it worries me
I’ve Never had to claim and have sold over 3000 pieces… Make sure your labels are very clear (mine are copy/pasted to avoid transciption errors), printed in black bold 26 size font and I sellotape over my labels in case of rain/damp. I have a return label on the back, not my full address but my business name, house number and post code… that is enough to get to me and inside my full contact details are always on my enclosed business card.
Fortunately I’ve not needed the return details either.
Don’t over think it. If push comes to shove you will fight your corner and win…pretty sure there are precedent examples to be found in the forum for claiming your work,
Hopefully you will never need to.
xx
Correction. I have made one claim in 10+ years… Paid up no problem at all
I’ve never had to claim for a missing Folksy sale item but have had a few missing and damaged 2nd hand items I’ve sold on the popular auctions site, including one a couple of days ago. It’s a pain filling in the claim form but can do it online and there’s generally no quibble (on rare occasion there has been, I’ve appealed it and won).
Had to provide details from the proof of posting, a screen shot of the transaction, screenshot off the Paypal payment (and in case of damaged items a photo of the damaged item and packaging obtained from purchaser).
Royal Mail generally give you the full sale price of the item and postage back - just need to make sure you use a postal option that covers the sale price (you’ll already have built all your costs into this).
I’ve had to claim quite a few times, including overseas items lost packages. All I do is include a copy of the sold item receipt page and certificate of posting. They have always refunded me the full amount or up to the compensation allowed (£20 or £50 depending on which service I have used) and they refund the postage costs too.
I think the fact that you’re selling it makes it easier to prove what compensation is due if it does go missing. You’ll have clear evidence of the item’s value from the order details, so you can show that that’s what the customer actually paid. Orders hardly ever go missing, but if they do it’s just a case of showing the order slip and you shouldn’t ever need to break down for them how much was time vs material costs.
(It would be more of a challenge if you were sending artwork to a friend or gallery where there’s no order slip as proof of value. In that situation it might make sense to pay for some insurance and I guess with that you state up front what the artwork is worth.)
