Personal Docs Lost By Post Office

Rharni

:mad: One month ago my son sent a package by recorded post. It as the latest application for his wife's leave to remain Visa.

In the package he had his UK passport and her Thai passport and all filled in forms with lots of personal financial information. Also their wedding documents, birth certs...etc..etc..

The Post Office are just not bothered. He is in the Navy so needs his Passport so was trying to contact the office he was applyng to for the visa to get it back quickly...and they informed him it was not received. We don't even know how Nong can get her passport renewed..she can't go back to Thailand to do it as now she has no documents for anywhere!

Post Office was contacted this morning. He finally got through to a call centre who offhandedly informed him over 13 days it was classed as stolen and they could send him a compensation claim form!!! No offer to try and track this letter because of the information it contained!!

So...where is the best place to complain...we need to big style however but it has to be to the right places and although they aren't wanting to look for the info...something has got to be done. Their whole lives were in that package, sending it first class recorded you would think that it would be looked after and deliverd next day.NO!!:mad:

Tozer

I don't think you have much protection with recorded delivery. I think it should have gone by special delivery.

Rharni

I realise that..now. My complaint is that so much is lost and the Post Office just doesn't care at all. Even recorded you expect the package to be tracked and delivered. For some reason they say the can't track the package, which I don't understand???

SmallEnglish

I believe that only Royal Mail Special Delivery and Royal Mail Tracked options are trackable. Recorded Delivery just has proof of posting and a signature upon delivery. So that would be why they've said they can't track it.

soolin

Rharni wrote: »

I realise that..now. My complaint is that so much is lost and the Post Office just doesn't care at all. Even recorded you expect the package to be tracked and delivered. For some reason they say the can't track the package, which I don't understand???

Sorry but recorded is not tracked at all. All it is is standard mail that (occasionally) they get a signature for at the receipient's end. After 15 working days you can claim loss up to £36 for basic value of items. However there is also no compensation for loss unless the items lost had a proper identifiable value , so basically documents etc are treated as paper and not insured when sent recorded.

As you have already realised only special is suitable for documents and even then to be covered against loss you would need to have taken out consequential loss insurance which I believe is an additional £1.

Becles

Rharni wrote: »

I realise that..now. My complaint is that so much is lost and the Post Office just doesn't care at all. Even recorded you expect the package to be tracked and delivered. For some reason they say the can't track the package, which I don't understand???

Recorded delivery is not a tracked service. You get proof of posting and then the item just gets chucked in with the regular first and second class mail. When it arrives at it's destination, the delivery postman gets a signiture as proof of delivery. You are just paying for proof of posting and proof of delivery.

For important documents, you should have sent it special delivery as they are tracked at each point through the system.

Did you ask for advice before you sent the item? If you said it was valuable documents, the Post Office counter staff should have told you to send it special delivery.

savemoney

Recorded mail is treated different to registered mail. Recorded is sent in normal mail and signed at other end or is suppose to be. The signature just proves it was signed for

Registered is signed every time it changes hands so a record is always kept

Well this was the case when I worked for RM

woohoo_postingid

Just a thought, have you checked the local sorting office? Maybe it was too big to go through the letterbox and they didn't leave a card?

penrhyn

Stupid question but is there no record of it being delivered?
I've used recorded a few times recently and have been able to type in the reference number and get the delivery information.
http://www.parcelforce.com/portal/pw/track?catId=7500082

Sorry if this has already been done.

dacouch

Do a search of forums for "Custardy" he works for royal mail and will be able to help you out. I'm sure he won't mind if you pm him as long as your polite

moppet_217

Is she applying for indefinte leave to remain or just leave to remain? If she is applying for indefinte they need to get onto the IND (Immigration and nationaility directorate) to find out where she stands as you only have a 28 day period in which to apply.

Are you also 100% sure it has not been recived by the IND and not signed for therefore not deleviered.

As far as getting a new passport she would be able to get this through the thai embassy in London am pretty sure you have to have a crime refrence number from the police saying the passport has been stolen. She can than can get her old visa (if appropiate) transfered into the new pasport there is a form for this on the IND website.

Here is the thai ebassy website with contact details http://www.thaiembassyuk.org.uk/

I have found when sending anything to the IND I send it Special delivery, photcopy every single bit of paper in there including passports and visas.

HTH