Another lost item!!

soolin

There is anedotal evidence to suggest that RM are more likely to refuse a claim for loss on a recorded item as they know that most of the time the item has arrived and a signature was obtained.

I think the threads on the community board discussing this are too old now to be found, as they are on here. I know at the time I thought it was a very odd situation that RM know thtat recorded doesn't work and yet won't pay out as they believe it is just the signature missing.

I'm sorry I have no practical advice for you OP, I have only had one claim refused in the past few years and that was for a recorded item as well. I have made one claim so far this year for a lost item and that was paid out within 2 weeks in full, and I supplied no more documentation that you have mentioend supplying already.

As an aside I wonder if there are plans to improve the signature requirements on recorded once the new lower limits for compensation come in on the 2nd April as I imagine the service will be used much more.

morganedge

soolin wrote: »

There is anedotal evidence to suggest that RM are more likely to refuse a claim for loss on a recorded item as they know that most of the time the item has arrived and a signature was obtained.

I think the threads on the community board discussing this are too old now to be found, as they are on here. I know at the time I thought it was a very odd situation that RM know thtat recorded doesn't work and yet won't pay out as they believe it is just the signature missing.

I'm sorry I have no practical advice for you OP, I have only had one claim refused in the past few years and that was for a recorded item as well. I have made one claim so far this year for a lost item and that was paid out within 2 weeks in full, and I supplied no more documentation that you have mentioend supplying already.

As an aside I wonder if there are plans to improve the signature requirements on recorded once the new lower limits for compensation come in on the 2nd April as I imagine the service will be used much more.

Hi soolin.
That's interesting.
I mentioned earlier that i've only been successful in claiming one time out of a number of times, and the one time where I got a compensation cheque with 2 weeks the item was just a standard small packet which I used to send a lipstick in! It was basically an envelope! Not recorded or anything.

It seemed so open to abuse that I thought I had been very lucky, and so always sent recorded after that, thinking i'd have more proof. Ironically, i'm yet to be successful with claiming for a recorded parcel¬!!

Is there a way that I can guarantee compensation for when things go missing with the royal mail? A the moment there seems to be about a 10% chance that my item will disappear.

Am I guaranteed compensation with special delivery as standard?
Do I have to specify that I want to pay for insurance or anything?

soolin

morganedge wrote: »

Hi soolin.
That's interesting.
I mentioned earlier that i've only been successful in claiming one time out of a number of times, and the one time where I got a compensation cheque with 2 weeks the item was just a standard small packet which I used to send a lipstick in! It was basically an envelope! Not recorded or anything.

It seemed so open to abuse that I thought I had been very lucky, and so always sent recorded after that, thinking i'd have more proof. Ironically, i'm yet to be successful with claiming for a recorded parcel¬!!

Is there a way that I can guarantee compensation for when things go missing with the royal mail? A the moment there seems to be about a 10% chance that my item will disappear.

Am I guaranteed compensation with special delivery as standard?
Do I have to specify that I want to pay for insurance or anything?

I think you have found a major issue with RM, they seem happy to pay out for standard mail as they don't know where it is either and it is not worth the argument. Recorded is an odd sort of service, we all know we don't sign for it when we get it (at least in many areas) and RM know that too so tend to assume their online message is wrong . How this gets tackled though I don't know.

I have always considered special delivery as a 100% guaranteed service, although I have had two minor issues myself with it with very late deliveries and one total loss to my mother which they paid out for (only in part) within a month. The trouble is it is not a service that we can afford to use for low cost items, we'll either alienate our buyers or just waste all our profits- so it is a catch 22 situation.

We all have our own comfort levels, mine is that I use standard 2nd class or standard airmail or parcel post for all items up to £46 and I lose very little. I am a shockingly small business, but have bene averaging 150 parcel a month since Christmas with one loss so far which was reinbursed within a few weeks.

Obviously my entire model will have to change from April , but that is another discussion altogether.

lovinituk

When I was able to claim, I sent an item via recorded delivery that supposedly went missing and the system never showed as delivered. I sent a replacement and put a claim in that was paid very quickly (full £46). The replacement, which was also sent recorded, supposedly went missing too and the system never showed as delivered again. Claim went in for the full £46 and was paid quickly without fuss or delay.

Before they stopped businesses being able to claim for compensation I must have put 50 or so claims in for lost items (some recorded, some standard) and every single one of them was paid without question. The only slight delay was on the first few as they asked for proof of my cost (as I couldn't claim the sale value).

drussmonkey

Incidentally, how do RM justify no compensation for business users? How is the business supposed to operate if it has no recourse against the courier for losing the item in transit?!

ballisticbrian

drussmonkey wrote: »

Incidentally, how do RM justify no compensation for business users? How is the business supposed to operate if it has no recourse against the courier for losing the item in transit?!

I think they must be talking about PPIs. I still get compensation on franked mail.

lovinituk

drussmonkey wrote: »

Incidentally, how do RM justify no compensation for business users? How is the business supposed to operate if it has no recourse against the courier for losing the item in transit?!

Its been like it for a year now. If you want compensation then you have to pay for the services that offer it such as Special Delivery or RM Tracked. I'm not too bothered we actually only see a handful of losses a year out of thousands sent.

ballisticbrian wrote: »

I think they must be talking about PPIs. I still get compensation on franked mail.

Yes, we're on PPI. Franking compensation will be changing in line with their retail changes though. Compensation for standard mail is reducing from £46 to £20 and for recorded is increasing from £46 to £50.

zerog

4 out of 5 items I have won recently have not arrived. 1 is a scammer who did not send, but that still makes it 3 out of 4. How do I make them investigate whether there is a dodgy postman?

theonlywayisup

drussmonkey wrote: »

Incidentally, how do RM justify no compensation for business users? How is the business supposed to operate if it has no recourse against the courier for losing the item in transit?!

They don't have to justify it.

Nor do they have to justify lowering the £46 current compensation for standard first and second class mail to £20.

I use Royal Mail Tracked, so I get £50 per parcel but PPI users just have to factor it in to their business model.

lovinituk

theonlywayisup wrote: »

I use Royal Mail Tracked, so I get £50 per parcel but PPI users just have to factor it in to their business model.

That's the downside to most of my items qualifying as Large Letter - Royal Mail Tracked would increase my postage costs too much