Royal Mail - recorded signed for items lost

Hello everyone!

I hope you can help me out with a question (I also hope I've put this under the correct forum section!). I posted four recorded-signed for letters on 11/04/11, at the cost of £1.23 each. All four were sent to registered bank addresses. I've checked online, and by phone, and only two were confirmed delivered on 13/04/11.:( The other two have still not been delivered (this was confirmed last week by Royal Mail customer services). I've looked at claiming compensation for lost items, and it appears items sent by Recorded Signed For™ are not classed as lost until 15 working days after the due date. My question is;

Does anyone know what constitutes a Royal Mail working day? Is it Mon-Fri, or Mon-Sat? As you can imagine, the extra day (Sat) makes a difference to the timescale for claiming!

Many thanks!
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  • wealdroam
    wealdroam Posts: 19,181
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    edited 27 April 2011 at 9:23PM
    Took about 10 seconds on google to find...
    “working days”
    For Special Delivery™ Next Day (not posted on account), any day which is not a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday, unless Saturday guarantee has been purchased, in which case Saturday is a working day. For other retail services any day which is not a Sunday or a public holiday
    in this document.

    So in your situation Saturdays are working days.
    But think of all the bank holidays we are currently having.


    Do you actually know they weren't delivered, or are you just assuming RM is telling the truth?
  • Thank you wealdroam. I appreciate you finding the document for me - I'm not very intuitive when searching the web - "for other retail services (i.e. recorded signed for) any day which is not a Sunday or a public holiday" I have worked out the 15th day as 5th May.
  • asbokid
    asbokid Posts: 2,008 Forumite
    Hello everyone!

    I hope you can help me out with a question (I also hope I've put this under the correct forum section!). I posted four recorded-signed for letters on 11/04/11, at the cost of £1.23 each. All four were sent to registered bank addresses. I've checked online, and by phone, and only two were confirmed delivered on 13/04/11.:( The other two have still not been delivered (this was confirmed last week by Royal Mail customer services). I've looked at claiming compensation for lost items, and it appears items sent by Recorded Signed For™ are not classed as lost until 15 working days after the due date. My question is;

    Does anyone know what constitutes a Royal Mail working day? Is it Mon-Fri, or Mon-Sat? As you can imagine, the extra day (Sat) makes a difference to the timescale for claiming!

    Many thanks!

    I had to serve a formal notice, and to save any legal argument, I used Recorded Delivery to provide me with proof that the notice had been served.

    A month later, and I hadn't heard anything further from the recipient, which is the outcome I had been hoping, so I did nothing.

    However, my mistake was not visiting the Royal Mail website to check the delivery status of my letter.

    Six weeks later, my Recorded Delivery letter winged its way back to me, via Belfast of all places.

    For whatever reason, the recipient never signed for my letter, and he ignored subsequent notices from the Royal Mail calling on him to re-arrange delivery.

    That might explain what has happened to your Recorded Delivery item.

    The Royal Mail system does not record why a Recorded Delivery item has not been Signed For.

    The recipient may have refused to sign for it, or he have been away during the delivery period, or he may simply have forgotten to re-arrange delivery, etc..

    Did you put your return address on the outside of the envelope? If not, it will go to a special mail office in Belfast for processing.
  • Thanks asbokid - I'll check with Royal Mail and see what they say. I check the website daily and it's not been updated so far. Even the customer service advisors I spoke to had no idea where it was! Frustrating, but hey, it happens! Thanks again :)
  • wealdroam
    wealdroam Posts: 19,181
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    Thanks asbokid - I'll check with Royal Mail and see what they say. I check the website daily and it's not been updated so far. Even the customer service advisors I spoke to had no idea where it was! Frustrating, but hey, it happens! Thanks again :)
    But have you spoken to the intended recipient?

    My understanding is that many recorded delivery items get delivered without that delivery being recorded.
  • custardy
    custardy Posts: 38,365
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    asbokid wrote: »
    I had to serve a formal notice, and to save any legal argument, I used Recorded Delivery to provide me with proof that the notice had been served.

    A month later, and I hadn't heard anything further from the recipient, which is the outcome I had been hoping, so I did nothing.

    However, my mistake was not visiting the Royal Mail website to check the delivery status of my letter.

    Six weeks later, my Recorded Delivery letter winged its way back to me, via Belfast of all places.

    For whatever reason, the recipient never signed for my letter, and he ignored subsequent notices from the Royal Mail calling on him to re-arrange delivery.

    That might explain what has happened to your Recorded Delivery item.

    The Royal Mail system does not record why a Recorded Delivery item has not been Signed For.

    The recipient may have refused to sign for it, or he have been away during the delivery period, or he may simply have forgotten to re-arrange delivery, etc..

    Did you put your return address on the outside of the envelope? If not, it will go to a special mail office in Belfast for processing.

    it came via Belfast because you didnt put a return address on your letter,of all things
  • custardy
    custardy Posts: 38,365
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    Hello everyone!

    I hope you can help me out with a question (I also hope I've put this under the correct forum section!). I posted four recorded-signed for letters on 11/04/11, at the cost of £1.23 each. All four were sent to registered bank addresses. I've checked online, and by phone, and only two were confirmed delivered on 13/04/11.:( The other two have still not been delivered (this was confirmed last week by Royal Mail customer services). I've looked at claiming compensation for lost items, and it appears items sent by Recorded Signed For™ are not classed as lost until 15 working days after the due date. My question is;

    Does anyone know what constitutes a Royal Mail working day? Is it Mon-Fri, or Mon-Sat? As you can imagine, the extra day (Sat) makes a difference to the timescale for claiming!

    Many thanks!

    what compensation are you expecting?
    have you contacted the recipients?
  • Techhead_2
    Techhead_2 Posts: 1,769 Forumite
    wealdroam wrote: »
    But have you spoken to the intended recipient?

    My understanding is that many recorded delivery items get delivered without that delivery being recorded.

    This very true. I have had several items safely delivered which never showed as being signed for.

    I've been told that the recorded delivery system is manual and subject to human error.
  • asbokid
    asbokid Posts: 2,008 Forumite
    custardy wrote: »
    it came via Belfast because you didnt put a return address on your letter,of all things
    I do know. Don't blame me, blame the Government.

    If the Government doesn't tell us what to do in the simplest terms, it is obvious who is at fault when things go wrong.

    Granted, it should be a legal requirement to put a return address on all envelopes and parcels. But that said, none of our post should be routed via Belfast. There is the security risk for starters. I shouldn't have to sniff my parcels for Semtex.
  • custardy
    custardy Posts: 38,365
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    asbokid wrote: »
    I do know. Don't blame me, blame the Government.

    If the Government doesn't tell us what to do in the simplest terms, it is obvious who is at fault when things go wrong.

    Granted, it should be a legal requirement to put a return address on all envelopes and parcels. But that said, none of our post should be routed via Belfast. There is the security risk for starters. I shouldn't have to sniff my parcels for Semtex.

    so where would you like the office that has legal rights to open your mail?
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