Who's the best person to complain to within Royal Mail

lateandlive

If it were me, and it's not a massive help at the moment, I'd consider starting to send parcels by DHL or private couriers.

A lot of WH Smith branches will send DHL for you, and although it's more expensive I'd think a lot of brides would pay the extra few pounds for piece of mind.

arcon5

As far as reliability is concerned i'd personally always recommend ParcelForce. I would though have them collected from my address rather than dropping them off at a depot. See ParcelMonkey or Parcel2Go for these services. CityLink@ParcelMonkey (24hr service) is also very good in my experience -- however, it's an unguaranteed service.

Also ensure your terms and conditions are fine tuned to protect you when situations like this arrise.

Steve_Kiev

Complaints about the Royal Mail losing post have risen by more than a third amid claims that more than 120,000 items went missing in just three months.
The national postal service received 120,884 complaints from angry customers in the first three months of the year – up 37 per cent on the same period in 2010.


The figure represents the highest level of dissatisfaction among customers in the last three years.


Royal Mail blamed the increase in missing mail on disruption to Britain’s roads, railways and airports at the beginning of the year, caused by snow and icy weather conditions.


The company was forced to pay out £5.1 million in compensation to customers for lost items in the last year – the equivalent of almost £100,000 every week.


The disclosure comes amid the threat of 20,000 job losses at Royal Mail after the service posted losses of £258 million and admitted it is technically insolvent.

Steve_Kiev

As online shopping booms, have you ever wondered what happens to those valuable items sent in the post which can't be delivered?

Freedom of information research shows that the Royal Mail is making an increasing sum of money by selling these goods at auction, amounting to nearly £1m last year.

Over the past six years the postal service has more than doubled the income it generates in this way, from £432,000 in 2005/06 to £933,000 in 2010/11.
The items are undeliverable because the address is inadequate or the recipient has moved, and there is no return address.

Valuable goods which cannot be delivered or returned are stored for up to four months. If they are not claimed, they are then sold at auction. The company insists this is always a last resort, where the sender cannot be traced.

Although the sums involved are very small in terms of its annual turnover, the Royal Mail says the proceeds are used to recoup part of the cost of its National Return Letter Centre based in Belfast, which aims to return undeliverable items to the sender wherever possible.

This centre processes a total of around 20 million items a year, mainly business mail, at a cost of over £4m.

While the quantity of letters sent is falling, the number of parcels being mailed is growing due to the rapid spread of online shopping and sites like eBay.

This suggests that the increasing auction income could well be linked to the popularity of online commerce, if more items of higher value are now being sent through the post.

The figures were obtained from the Royal Mail by the BBC through a Freedom of Information request.

custardy

Steve,get out and enjoy those sales.........