Claiming from Royal Mail.

humph_2

In reply to the person who lost the wristband in the post - I wonder if the policies that limit claims to retail value belongs to the Royal Mail's insurance company. If your house got burgled and a box of 100 wristbands was taken you could not claim £900. If my car gets stolen I get the basic book price regardless of what I could have sold it for.

There is also the separate issue of selling charity awareness wristbands that cost £1 but thats for another thread.

I have only once had to claim for a package going missing and was paid out in full within 3 weeks. I have no problems with the Royal Mail. I must admit that I sometimes wonder if the amount of claimed failed deliveries is a true figure and whether in many cases the recipient (or the sender) are just blagging the system. I am not suggesting that is happening in any of the cases being discussed here.

dollywops

To Reverie - I would like to say thank you for taking the time and trouble to speak with a friend who is a supervisor with Royal Mail.

It seems to me that you went round and round in circles with your friend in the same way that I did with the Supervisor to whom I spoke.

As far as I am aware, the market value is what someone is prepared to pay for an item. I proved to Royal Mail, by sending a copy of the paypal receipt, how much the item was sold for and that is how much should have been refunded. Having sent me a book of 1st class stamps in compensation, they have accepted their liability, I believe.

I am sure that the Post Office's stand on only compensating for retail value is unique to these Nike Anti Racism wristbands. I have been both buying and selling on ebay for 6 years now, and this is only the 2nd time that an item I have sent has gone missing. The previous time I made a claim, also using a certificate of posting, I attached a paypal receipt for £3.99 and this is what I was reimbursed. The fact that the item had cost me less, was obviously unknown to the Post Office.

I will wait to see what the Post Office have to say in reply to the communication from Postwatch.

WHA

The post office takes this attitude with everything I'm afraid. I've lost count of the number of times I have had the same conversation with the RM staff.

Example 1 - sent a single page bank statement through the normal post. RM lost it. The bank charged £10 to replace the lost statement. RM wouldn't pay anything other than reimburse the postage - in their view the only loss was the paper and a bit of ink - negligible cost.

Example 2 - numberous documents which had taken a few hours to prepare by hand. RM again wouldn't compensate - same grounds, paper and ink cost negligible - had to spend hours filling them in again for no compensation (recipient wouldn't accept photocopies).

It seems the only way to get proper compensation is to pay extra for consequential loss. Be warned!!

1jim

If they do this and the item is lost, whats to stop (other than peoples own conscience) someone saying they had posted a t shirt etc (these can be light and often same price as first and second class stamp) send invoice generated from word with total amt as that they are claiming for the original item?
hey presto full amt refunded, no problem!

penrith

Yet another of my parcels that i had posted has "gone missing". I sent it recorded delivery. Royal mail didn't get a signature and the company i sent it to has written to say they have not recieved it.

I've been having hassle getting royal mail to accept they have lost it. The parcel was sent in november 2004. It has taken until now for royal mail to tell me they have lost the item and have no signature showing delivery. I rang up to claim for the item last month (march 2005). When i had posted it the PO worker had put that it was worth approx £5. It contained a number of photo copied sheets - around 70. They said they could authorise that amount over the phone as it was relatively small. I gave them my name and address. After this they said they would not issue the refund because i had made 'a number of claims for lost items previously' The truth is I had - BECAUSE THEY HAD LOST MY RECORDED MAIL ITEMS. This is so unfair - they lost my items, they did not get a signature and yet they are taking this to mean they should not refund yet another lost item. I explained that if they didn;t lose my items, then i wouldn't make a claim. I asked how i could get a refund for the photocopied sheets that i had sent. I was told to produce a receipt from the photocopying i did in November 2004. I did not get a receipt from the shop so i asked them what i should do. Their response was that i should go back to the newsagents and ask them for a receipt for the photocopying i had done in their shop 5 months earlier. I asked them if they were seriously telling me to do this. They put me onto a supervisor who reiterated this (i got their name). I told him he was a joke. I'd never heard such stupid advice.

I actually am not bothered about the £5 - but i wanted my refund of at least the recorded delivery cost as they had not given me the service i had paid for as they had not got a signature. It is the principle.

Royal mail is a joke.

1jim

It might be worth telling them you are going to take them to the small claims court, sometimes just the threat settles things with large companies (i would write to the cheif exec oultining your problems with the company ie keeps loosing your post then refuses to refund, giving him 14days to refund before you instigate legal procedings against him and his company)
you might be suprised with the responce, otherwise the BBC show working lunch is pretty good for this kind of thing
jim