Royal Mail Tracking Snafu Snarls Shipments For UK Marketplace Sellers

UPDATE 8-5-25

While neither Royal Mail nor the Post Office have made any official public statements, shippers posting on Reddit say they were informed a fix was being put in place late yesterday that should have been deployed in the overnight system update.

Update as of 15:55 - spoke to a chap at Royal Mail - his boss informed him at 15:30 that a fix has been found and the software to fix the issue will be rolled out to all PO’s tonight so touch wood all services should be running as normal tomorrow.

For those debating trying again tonight I would edge on the side of caution and go in the morning instead. Not a win at all for RM as it should not take this long to fix, but thought the worried ones of us out there would be glad to know a fix is sorted and is being rolled out overnight!

Others posted today confirming that they have finally been able to successfully complete drop off of their Tracked 48 packages in the last few hours.

ISSUE has been resolved. Sent two items as of typing this message

One of my labels has finally shown up as ‘item received’ after 2 days so it maybe its working again?

Just at the PO now, all working again fine this morning

Let us know in the comments below if you're still experiencing problems when shipping Royal Mail Tracked 48 packages.

eBay UK has now officially posted an announcement declaring the issue resolved and promising to provide protection for affected sellers:

No word yet on what protections, if any, other marketplaces will be extending to their sellers.

UPDATE 8-4-25

Both eBay and Royal Mail are replying to customers on X acknowledging the issue and advising that Post Offices have been told to accept packages despite the scanning errors.

However, that does not address the number one concern that most eBay sellers have expressed which is what will happen if a buyer files an Item Not Received claim for one of these packages where the tracking is not updating and showing proper in transit or delivery scans?

Many sellers who were concerned about this issue also held onto the packages instead of risking dropping them off with tracking that wouldn't update properly, which means they may receive defects for late shipments - and eBay has yet to public announce if they will be providing seller protection for those defects as well.

Etsy sellers are reportedly still experiencing this issue as well and there has been no acknowledgement or response from the platform about how/if they will be protected on these shipments either.

Whatnot also confirms that Royal Mail has advised all branches to skip the error and accept packages any way.

Online sellers in the UK are at a loss as Royal Mail tracking changes prevent dropping off some packages at Post Offices

The issues appears to have started on August 2 with reports on Down Detector indicating Tracked 48 package labels are being printed with a new prefix beginning with "YA" and that those labels are unable to be scanned in as accepted when tracking to a drop off point.

Tracked 48 giving tracking numbers that aren't valid at Post Office, starting with YA and not TQ. Tried buying on Click & Drop and on ebay both having the same issue.

Couldn't send tracked 48 Click and Drop this morning as Post Office worker said barcode unacceptable.

I did some digging and I think the problem is a) nationwide b) it's for Royal Mail Tracked 48 only c) Royal Mail introduced a new Prefix i.e. 'YA' onto their Royal Mail 48 tracking codes today 2nd Aug

A post in the Royal Mail subreddit on the issue included a reply from a user who says they are a postmaster, revealing it is a nationwide problem due to a delay in updating internal databases after the update to include a new tracking prefix.

Postmaster here:

This is a national issue affecting YA tracking numbers purchased through simple delivery marketplaces, eBay vinted ect...

...From my understanding of the issue, royal mail have started using these YA tracking numbers this weekend, but didn't update the database they supply to post office to include these numbers as valid.

Over the weekend this database should get updated, meaning that early next week they should all show as valid again, no need for new labels or codes

The issue is impacting sellers across a variety of marketplaces, including Vinted, Whatnot, and eBay - but private sellers on eBay are in a particular pickle due to the way Simple Delivery refunds work.

Sellers report being told by support if their pre-paid Simple Delivery labels aren't working, they should purchase a new label outside of eBay to make sure the package can still ship on time and then request a refund of Simple Delivery label.

Simple Delivery Labels Not Scanning At Post Office

Just taken some parcels to the Post Office, posted with simple delivery and they wouldn’t scan. Post Office staff got the message “2D barcode not recognised, not valid for tracked 48”

Has anyone else had this? Thanks

I've had the same experience this morning. I spoke with eBay Support on the phone and was eventually advised to create another label outside of eBay.

I bought a label from the Royal Mail website, updated the order's tracking number to that, and requested a refund for my Simple Delivery label at https://www.ebay.co.uk/claims/simple-delivery/refund/seller.

The problem is that if the buyer paid for the Simple Delivery label, the funds for that label went to eBay, not the seller, and will be refund by eBay back to the buyer - leaving the seller out the money for any external label they may purchase to try to correct this issue.

eBay UK Updates Simple Delivery Terms For Shipping Label Refunds

eBay UK Simple Delivery update provides new details for how buyers & sellers can get refunds for unused postage labels.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

Sellers also report being told by eBay support that they will be protected from any late shipping defects which may occur due to this Royal Mail problem, but so far there has been no public acknowledged of the issue, let alone confirmation that seller protections will be applied.

Stay tuned for updates and let us know in the comments below how this Royal Mail tracking and scanning issue is impacting your online business!