Royal Mail Damage Claim

thewrongtrousers

Not sure if I have put this in the right place, it was here or ebay thread and others seem to be putting similar thread on this one.

Sold something on eBay a few months ago and sent it special delivery with extra compensation. Unfortunately it arrived broken, box quite obviously damaged in transit. I sent all details that I had including the now broken item (RM specifically asked for it) off to RM but the problem is, I don't have a purchase reciept for the item. This is because the item was given to me by my grandmother several years ago. She has now died and there would be no way for me to get evidence of the items value. It was probably bought 30+ years ago anyway so unlikey she would still have it anyway. RM have said they need this as evidence of the actual loss - i.e. what it cost me to buy, which was technically nothing. However they also say;

"Evidence of the actual loss must be provided to enable Royal Mail to determine the value of the contents of a packet. Such evidence might be original receipts, bank or credit card statements, details of age, catalogue price, paypal record, invoices, manufacturing costs, auctioneers valuation, and repair costs in the case of damage claims. This list is not exhaustive and is for illustrative purposes only."

I have sent them the copy of the eBay sale, printouts from other places that have the same item for sale showing there sale price and a photocopy from a catalogue which shows estimated value and age. They are still refusing to pay out, any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

custardy

tell them it was a private sale(given it was your property) and as such have no proof of purchase
so your loss is the eBay sale value

gordikin

Your loss is what it sold for on ebay. What it originally cost is irrelevant ie if it originally cost £500 and you sold it for £50 RM aint gonna pay £500.

thewrongtrousers

@custardy

Thanks - we have done though, three times, just recieved reply from them today saying that we need to send a reciept or they won't pay out. Its just a generic letter and doesn't answer any of the points we raised in our last letter. Problem is you can't ring them to ask anything as they don't include a phone number and RM customer services won't put you through. We've had lost/ damaged items before with RM and we wouldn't bother claiming as its such a pain, its just this time it is quite a lot of money. They shouldn't really have sold us the insurance if they weren't going to honour it.

@gordikin

They say they will only repay what you paid for it so they would have to repay the £500 if you had proof thats what you paid. They refuse to go off what we sold it for. We actually sold it for less than market value and a lot less than what my gran would have paid for it. My Dad says she would have paid by cheque but who keeps their bank statements for 30+ years and why would we keep them now she has died. RM just being RM if it wasn't a lot of money I wouldn't be bothering.