First Class 'signed-for', item not received.

stone7

I sold some vouchers/tickets on e-bay and sent them by first class, 'signed for' on the 31/03/07. The buyer has contacted me telling me the item hasn't arrived. When I (and the buyer) try to track the item on the Royal Mail website, it says no info is available until the item is delivered. This obviously means the item has not been delivered. The buyer tells me that there has been somone home all week to take delivery....... but nothing. Not even an 'attempt to deliver' card. Shall I wave the item goodbye, or do you think they could still turn up at either the buyers or my address?

frivolous_fay

It's worth asking them to check at their local delivery office. Posties don't always leave cards.

FloFlo

Posties also don't always knock for a signature, I have had letters put through the letter box that should have been signed for. I would contact their local sorting office yourself to ask if the tickets are there. If not tell the buyer that you will be cancelling the tickets with the ticket company so that they can no longer be use.

pinkfluffybabe

To be honest, the 'signed for' service isn't worth the paper it is written on.

They don't give much extra coverage in the event of something going missing, and my postie seems to sign them himself as he puts the item through the door.

tylerboyo

To remind people, first class recorded, is kept in the same vans and sacks of mail, as normal, un recorded post, so the chances of it being lost are exactly the same. Anything over £32, send special delivery, as the name states, its special, and treated differently, and kept seperate from different mail.

stone7

tylerboyo wrote: »

To remind people, first class recorded, is kept in the same vans and sacks of mail, as normal, un recorded post, so the chances of it being lost are exactly the same. Anything over £32, send special delivery, as the name states, its special, and treated differently, and kept seperate from different mail.

How is this relevent to my initial post? If you wish to enlighten the board about Royal Mail postage costs and the cover thereof, kindly start your own thread. I don't find your wayward assumptions and patronising tone helpful.

To all the other contributors, many thanks and keep the helpful advice coming.............it's much appreciated.

pinkfluffybabe

stone7 wrote: »

How is this relevent to my initial post? If you wish to enlighten the board about Royal Mail postage costs and the cover thereof, kindly start your own thread. I don't find your wayward assumptions and patronising tone helpful.

To all the other contributors, many thanks and keep the helpful advice coming.............it's much appreciated.

It is relevant - they are telling you that valuable items such as tickets are only really looked after properly by RM if you send them special delivery. Hindsight is a marvellous thing however, so your best bet is to contact the delivery office. They could still appear, but if they don't and you come to claim, you will be limited in what you can claim.

soolin

stone7 wrote: »

How is this relevent to my initial post? If you wish to enlighten the board about Royal Mail postage costs and the cover thereof, kindly start your own thread. I don't find your wayward assumptions and patronising tone helpful.

To all the other contributors, many thanks and keep the helpful advice coming.............it's much appreciated.

I do find it useful to be reminded what postage services cover what as it may help you to decide how quickly you deal with this.

Obviously at some point if the item fails to arrive then you will have to refund the buyer in full. Knowing what you could technically claim back from the RM * (and it is £34 now as it went up last Monday) might encourage you to either refund quickly so the buyer can re-source these tickets, or maybe delay a week or so and even start phoning sorting office yourself to chase the parcel.

To answer the specific point though, yes the item could still turn up, it is early days and the Royal mail don't even consider an item lost until 15 working days has elapsed (which allowing for the bank holidays over Easter will be well over 3 weeks from posting). However, the buyer can start a claim for refund as early as day 7, so bear that in mind.

There is another complication here though, as per the * above, recorded does not cover vouchers and tickets so you will almost certainly have to bear the loss personally in order to refund the buyer. This information may be enough for you to decide to start getting details of sorting offices and lost propert departments at RM to see if you can track the item yourself.

tylerboyo

stone, i was merely stating, and i honestly dont see how this is patronising. I know alot of people, my friends, that sell on ebay, and send off items worth a few hundred pound, via recorded delivery, becuase they think it is safer than normal mail. I thought, as you were selling tickets, they may have been worth more than £32. And someone found what i said useful, and thanked me. So now, maybe that 1 person, will send items worth more than £32, via SD, not recorded. So all in all, I thought it was a helpful post.

Thanks to pinkfluffy and soolin for backign me up, i was trying to be helpful afterall.

stone7

pinkfluffybabe wrote: »

It is relevant - they are telling you that valuable items such as tickets are only really looked after properly by RM if you send them special delivery. Hindsight is a marvellous thing however, so your best bet is to contact the delivery office. They could still appear, but if they don't and you come to claim, you will be limited in what you can claim.

The tickets are not of great value, therefore I don't need to know which company is best suited to shipping bullion from one side of the country to the other.

Soolin made an interesting point about tickets/vouchers not being covered...I didn't know that. ..........In light of that, I'm starting to think that maybe they were more "memoribilia" than anything else.

computerwoman

I had 2 parcelled delivered last week from ebay
both had to be signed for
did anyone sign for them
no
so it could be that they were delivered to the wrong address
and said persons unknown have kept them
just a thought
cw