Royal Mail shambles

lindabea

Hi, First time on this forum - I need some advise about a problem I'm having with Royal mail. I sent a letter by recorded delivery which according to the Royal mail website tracker, it has not yet been delivered. It still says that the letter is with the post office where I left it. However, the day after I took it to the post office, the letter was delivered to my home addres ie the return address I put on the letter!! I was extremely annoyed - I took the letter back to the same post office and all they could say is apologise and blaming the sorting office.

What I would like to know now is, what rights have I got to claim any compensation? I can't prove what was in the letter let alone it's value ( it was a voucher experience for an event from lastminute.com which my daughter gave me for my birthday - possibly worth around £100), I doubt if my daughter still has the receipt.

This is an very appalling service from royal mail, and I'm disgusted with it - I'm now dreading the time when I have to send my passport/ driving licence for renewal through the post. Sorry for the lengthy thread - any advise would be much appreciated.

Ivory_Tinkler

Sadly you won't be able to claim £100 - standard royal mail compensation (which applies to recorded delivery) is something like 10 times the value of a first class stamp. You will need to get a claims form, fill it in and send it off to Royal Mail for them to process the claim. Not sure what will happen about you not being able to prove what was in the envelope though. If you send anything of any value, it's best to use Special Delivery - it's more expensive but generally a better service than recorded.

custardy

lindabea wrote: »

Hi, First time on this forum - I need some advise about a problem I'm having with Royal mail. I sent a letter by recorded delivery which according to the Royal mail website tracker, it has not yet been delivered. It still says that the letter is with the post office where I left it. However, the day after I took it to the post office, the letter was delivered to my home addres ie the return address I put on the letter!! I was extremely annoyed - I took the letter back to the same post office and all they could say is apologise and blaming the sorting office.

What I would like to know now is, what rights have I got to claim any compensation? I can't prove what was in the letter let alone it's value ( it was a voucher experience for an event from lastminute.com which my daughter gave me for my birthday - possibly worth around £100), I doubt if my daughter still has the receipt.

This is an very appalling service from royal mail, and I'm disgusted with it - I'm now dreading the time when I have to send my passport/ driving licence for renewal through the post. Sorry for the lengthy thread - any advise would be much appreciated.

a few pointers for you

vouchers are not covered by any method than special delivery
even without it being a voucher the max value covered by RD is 100x the cost of a 1st class stamp.

soolin

I assume the vouchers are still in the envelope and you are just looking to claim for inconvenience?

In that case writie a formal letetr of complaint to RM, send a photo or scanned image of both sides of the envelope to prove how difficult it is to mix up the post to address and the return address. They usually send out a book of stamps and an apology if they feel they were in the wrong.

Like the others have said as well, special delivery only for tickets and vouchers.

custardy

soolin wrote: »

I assume the vouchers are still in the envelope and you are just looking to claim for inconvenience?

In that case writie a formal letetr of complaint to RM, send a photo or scanned image of both sides of the envelope to prove how difficult it is to mix up the post to address and the return address. They usually send out a book of stamps and an apology if they feel they were in the wrong.

Like the others have said as well, special delivery only for tickets and vouchers.

not saying the OP did,but you would be surprised how many people put the RD labels on the back of items

prudenttadpole

The post office do like to play things by the rules.

Would be nice for some discretion sometimes though.