Royal Mail and Recorded Delivery

consnmattsmom

I have sent approx 9 letters and sent them RD however 4 are showing as unsigned for.

2 posted 10 days ago to Barclaycard and Shop Direct (Catalogue Company) and 2 which were posted Friday to Virgin One and GE Money.

Has anyone esle had probs with letters not being signed for?

wish-i-was-rich

Yes - I've had the same problem. I posted 11 letters r/d on the 11th of January and 4 are still showing not signed for. I have posted the claim forms for these to the royal mail today. The funny thing is that I've received my statments from the Bank of Scotland today, which was one of the ones showing as not delivered!! I think it's the track and trace system that doesn't work properly!

carolannjo

I too have had problems with recorded. I sent a letter to cancel an insurance policy which had to be done within 14 days. After a week it was still showing as undelivered. I called their customer service (a misnomer if ever I heard one) and was told that some big clients sign for all their recorded mail in one batch and it takes a while for them to then enter each item in their system. I called the company I had sent the letter too and they confirmed the delivery. Frankly i would not use recorded again as you are paying for a service they cannot provide under some circumstances.

hjb123

I had one ages ago that was showing as no signiture or not yet delivered and yet I got a reply that meant I knew it had actually been delivered!

The only difference between recorded delivery and normal delivery is with recorded delivery a signature is obtained at the destination

dragonsoup

Yes many times.

I complain each time and now get compensation for each failure to get a signature. As far as I see it they are charging me for a service they are not providing and a few stamps is not enough. Last time I got £10. Complain complain and complain again.

Alfie_E

wish-i-was-rich wrote:

I think it's the track and trace system that doesn't work properly!

Yes, it’s an inherent problem with the system. Recorded items are treated exactly as ordinary non-Recorded post, until the point where they’re handed over at the delivery address. Then, the fact that they’re Recorded must be noticed and signatures obtained. This works fine when you’re posting to an individual. The problem arises when you post to somewhere that receives a lot of post on a daily basis. Where post arrives by the bundle or even by the sack, it’s quite easy for a Recorded item to just get lost and handed over in amongst the regular post. If you absolutely need to know that a large business received your letter, unfortunately you need to use Special Delivery.

Print_Screen

The same thing happened to me. With track and trace not showing as delivered. I sent off my compensation form and got a reply stating that they had writing to the intended recipient asking for confirmation of non delivery and the intended recipient had not replied.
Thus Royal mail considered that the item must have been delivered and my case would be closed in 5 working days if I couldn't make the intended recipient reply.

Needless to say I wrote back asking how Royal mail could considered an item 'delivered' when it was not showing as such on their own track and trace and what was the point of track and trace then? I also informed them that I couldn't 'force' the intended recipient to reply to them and that it was unfair they thought that I should be able to do so.

A few days later I got my £32 compensation cheque

Anthillmob

how do you track a RD letter? i sent one last week and i dont know if it has been received but presume it hasnt.

superburger

Anthillmob wrote:

how do you track a RD letter? i sent one last week and i dont know if it has been received but presume it hasnt.

Go to https://www.royalmail.com and there is a "track and trace" box to enter the number.

i have had problems with RD where things have just been shoved through my letterbox without the postman bothering to get a signature.

RD is still better than nothing, but like someone said if you absolutley 100% want to make sure it gets there send it special delivery, or had it into a branch (apart from court docs) and get a receipt from the manager.

RadoJo

To be honest, even special delivery to a company is not guaranteed - I used to work for a company where we received large numbers of SD items every day. This was signed for on a manifest which includes all the details of the parcels 'supposedly' included, but unless you find a particularly patient postie who doesn't mind hanging around while you check each item individually you aren't really getting any more service than you would with 1st class.

WHA

I frequently receive important documents and valuable goods through the letterbox which have the "signed for" label, but which have most definitately not been signed for. It's a good job I'm honest as I could easily claim that these are lost and claim compensation. Either the posties don't notice or they just can't be bothered to knock. I would never use recorded to send anything - a complete waste of money.