Royal Mail - No help for mail theft?

um5000

I've suspected something fishy has been going on with my mail for the past year or so, with items arriving late etc, dodgy delivery times etc.

Anyway six weeks ago a credit card never arrived.

Two weeks ago debit cards for a new joint current account failed to arrive.

So I called the card companies, and eventually they managed to cancel and send out new cards, pins etc - great hassle. (Don't get me started on Alliance and Leicester's customer service...)
Fortunately the pins etc hadn't managed to go missing along with the cards, or there'd have been real problems.

So today I called up the Royal Mail customer service line, and they tell me they can't go starting investigations unless I can tell them what service was used, what dates the items were sent and supposed to be delivered etc etc etc.!
If they never arrived, how am I supposed to know???
What else don't I know about that's gone missing?! How do they expect me to give them details of that?

Apparently without all the info, whatever I tell them is "non-information really". Thanks!

So unless I catch the postie fiddling with envelopes and give him a sound thrashing (which I'd get locked up for), there's no way of stopping it by reporting a general concern? I can't be the only person on the route to have stuff nicked!

What do I do?
I'm assuming the police would expect me to have got royal mail to deal with it?

jaxxy00

Ive got something similar going on but not all items go missing. Some of my mail i get has either been opened or tampered with, most of which is replacement credit/debit cards and pin numbers (talking of which one of me new pin numbers i never have received). Ive also over time had quite a few things go missing and like you say, they are things you are expecting so how would you ever know anything has gone that you wasnt expecting

After recently having my cards used fraudelently i reported the use and was sent replacements etc. One set got delivered together, yes card and pin on the same day (apparently this should never happen). Both envelopes were half open and first of all i phones the card company to say the condition i got them in but also how had they been sent out together as it is a security risk. They apologised and said it should never happen as they are sent about 3 days apart from their end.

Ive only just thought about that actually, maybe my mail was getting withheld somewhere by someone until the pins etc came together!! :eek:
Anyway to get to the point youre asking about, i also phoned Royal Mail and they took my details and said they would investigate. They didnt ask me for any particular details other than what was it e.g credit card and pins. I would ring back if i were you.

I have to say though i wouldnt hold your breath as to anything getting done as i had to phone Royal Mail the other day about 5 lost recordered delivery items getting lost (yes 5) and asked at the same time about the investigation into my mail. He said there was a note on the system but wasnt able to tell me anything as if anything was discovered and took to court i wouldnt be able to know.

Seems to me these days that were the ones who get conned and swindled and those that do it get protected. How do you work that one out. Same goes for when i reported the fraudelent use of my cards i was told that i would never be told if anyone was caught or who it was etc.

hjb123

Could it not be a police matter? After all its theft isnt it! Tell the RM if you dont hear anything further that you may escalate the matter further - isnt there a watchdog for the communications industry - OFCOM ?

I too have had card and pin arrive on the same day. In fact the other day I received 3 envelopes from teh same company. One contained my new card, one said that my new card was on its way and the thrid contained my pin! How bad is that!

deanos

Deffo speak to the Police they might be other reports of this happening in the area and it could help them build up a case.

bonnie_2

i rang royal mail today, as i haven't received any mail for 5 days and my neighbour found a load of mail dumped round the corner which she delivered as there were cheque books in the pile.
there answer was we will investigate and write to you, lol hope the letter dosen't get lost or mm dumped somewhere.

smcaul

Were the items actually sent? can you prove they were? If you are able to prove it then surly you know what service was used and the date it was sent!! I only say this becuse so far you have tried, hung and buried the postie, yet you have no evidence it is actually him. That item may go through various depots and sort ctr's b4 it gets to your postie so could have been tampered with by anyone along the way - the item may never in fact have been sent, I have seen companies computer systems make ghost consignments before, that then tell RM they have sent the item when infact it has never been sent and was still sat in their wharehouse - so don't shoot the postie just yet, he is just the man at the end of a long chain!!!!

CM86_2

I really hate the fact there's no alternative to Royal Mail.... You'd think the Queen would be bothered that her mail service was so lousy! While I think that postage is very reasonably priced, they must make more than enough money to vet their staff thoroughly... They should be forced to go through the same vetting procedures as people handling cash, because technically the docs that they handle are important!

I had a card go missing in the post, got my replacement card sent in a handwritten envelope containing few layers of card to disguise the contents!

smcaul

CM86 wrote:

I really hate the fact there's no alternative to Royal Mail....

Yes there is, there are lots of alternatives, what you mean is there are none that can do it for the same price. TNT, DHL, Parceline etc etc will all gladly take your letter and deliver it, but they will charge far higher rates then RM do. If your delivery is really that important then maybe you should use one of the others, but you might first want to note that RM and ParcelForce have no better or worse loss figures then any other courier in the market place.

CM86_2

What I mean is there isn't a choice for day to day delivery of daily post! Fair enough there's plenty of courier services, but why should the consumer have to pay extra when a company's too incompetent to do it's job properly?

um5000

Thanks guys

Going to get back to them again, do the legwork and get all the info I can first, just hope these big card companies etc have details of when individual items were sent - can't imagine they'd be able to be too specific.

I'm not jumping to blame the postie, I'm sure the majority are great - we used to have a really good one, but recently I've seen a few different people doing the route. It's possible they've replaced someone that wasn't doing the job right already, or maybe it's dodgy temps. Or as you say - could be at the sorting office etc.

As for PINs and cards and all that, I always used to get everything on the same day from my bank - shocking really!

humfer

bonnie wrote:

i rang royal mail today, as i haven't received any mail for 5 days and my neighbour found a load of mail dumped round the corner which she delivered as there were cheque books in the pile.
there answer was we will investigate and write to you, lol hope the letter dosen't get lost or mm dumped somewhere.

Am I being really stupid but don't the same postmen/women do the same rounds - isn't it really easy to pin down where the problems lie?