Postal compensation changes - This affects you.

baffcat

Just had notification from Royal Mail about significant changes to their compensation policies from 9th January 2012. Link to details

For businesses using contract services, the loss of any compensation on lost or damaged untracked post. Unchanged for stamped mail (well, until they can point to this in future).

Insurance for Tracked Services increases to £50.

Claims to be made within 80 days (down from 12 months).

Three month time limit on proof of posting requests.

All non-delivered post held for 18 days.

pianeet

just had a leaflet through at work and it seems like as from the 9th of january you will no longer be able to claim for lost or damage items sent proof of posting..you will now need to send all items tracked if you want compensation.

soolin

pianeet wrote: »

just had a leaflet through at work and it seems like as from the 9th of january you will no longer be able to claim for lost or damage items sent proof of posting..you will now need to send all items tracked if you want compensation.

I'll try and find the other threads on this to merge them. However, please go and read the info again as you are not accurate for the vast majority of sellers using standard mail.

soolin

I can't find the main thread, but this is also mentioned (incorrectly) in the sticky postage thread.

wileycat

The key line is the last one

Compensation for loss or damage of untracked contract items

We will no longer pay compensation for the loss or damage of items sent using contract services that do not include a tracking element. This includes both domestic and international services, and is in line with industry standards. Compensation is still available for loss or damage of stamped and franked items, and tracked services (Special Delivery, Royal Mail Tracked, International Signed For and Airsure). The range of packet services we offer gives you a choice of delivery speeds, tracking capability and levels of compensation. This change does not affect stamped and franked services.

The change does not affect non business sellers.

baffcat

wileycat wrote: »

The change does not affect non business sellers.

Yet. Once they've opened the door for one set of users, it'll only be a matter of time until it's rolled out across the board.

Oliver14

pianeet wrote: »

just had a leaflet through at work and it seems like as from the 9th of january you will no longer be able to claim for lost or damage items sent proof of posting..you will now need to send all items tracked if you want compensation.

Sorry that is wrong for most people. Suggest you read it again.

wileycat

baffcat wrote: »

Yet. Once they've opened the door for one set of users, it'll only be a matter of time until it's rolled out across the board.

As a business user you have a larger set of different priced options available to track items to delivery, as a private sellers you only have Proof of posting, recorded, and SD.

theonlywayisup

soolin wrote: »

I can't find the main thread, but this is also mentioned (incorrectly) in the sticky postage thread.

Do I need to update it?

soolin

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Do I need to update it?

I responded to the post about these updates- hopefully it looks OK. The original post is still fine so it wasn't you that placed incorrect info.

kevinyork

We had the same leaflet. We are business sellers and have an account with RM. We use standard large letter or packetpost for our mail. Its mainly small value items and many fit through letterboxes. Our customers would not take to paying for an increase in our prices to cover sending everything recorded delivery and many would prefer it not to be sent that way as someone needs to be in to receive the item instead of it being posted through the letterbox whilst they are out.

Last year we claimed £600 from Royal Mail for lost items. This wasfor those of a reasonable value as it is too time intensive to claim for very low value losses. From January we cannot do this anymore so this becomes a cost to our business.

Also, as contract customers send the most mail, and on percentage terms suffer a larger volume of losses, Royal Mail will no longer be notified where a customer has reported non receipt of an item we sent. We were always led to believe they monitored addresses for lost item claims to spot patterns where individuals have an unusually high number of items they say have not reached them. We were also under the belief RM used this information to identify areas where unusually high amounts of mail fails to reach its intended recipient and could possibly identify 'dodgy' postmen by doing so.

As RM will no longer be provided with information on losses by high volume contract customers surely this could lead to repeat claiments for none receipt increasing as they know Royal Mail wont be notifed. Also, how will RM produce accurate figures for losses over a given period if volume senders dont report such info to them anymore? Will RM suddenly look like they have stopped loosing so much mail?

Finally, would this change not form a change to the terms and conditions of a business customers contract with Royal Mail and therefore require each of them to be formally written to rather than a mention on the back of a multipurpose leaflet drop?