Ordered goods sent by Royal Mail - not arrived - what next?

barafear799

Hi,
I ordered some vouchers from High Street Vouchers. I made three separate orders on the same day - using three different visa 3V cards (I had received them as a gift, and did not want to pay to merge them to one account, so I made three separate transactions).
Next day, I received two envelopes - containing two of my orders - but no third envelope. I received an email (3 emails) from the company letting me know each order had been dispatched.
After a few more days, still no delivery.
I contacted the company - they seemed to blame me for not choosing a more secure method of delivery (which would have cost me an extra £4.50 or more for each order) - the individual orders were only £25 each.
They told me to wait a few more days - a few more days went past and still no delivery - they've now told me I have to wait 21 working days until I can "start a claim"- this is completely unacceptable in my eyes - and am tempted to just go ahead and try a chargeback ?

Did this work for other people? Am I correct in thinking that 21 working days is too long. Which? advice suggests that deliveries should be made in a "reasonable timeframe".

Any advice much appreciated.

System

How many more days is 21 working days? It seems like you have been waiting a lot of days already.

I think you would be best off just waiting for 21 working days to pass

wwfwilla

I think 21 days is the amount of time the Royal Mail asks someone to wait before making a claim for items lost in the post.

mije1983

Royal Mail class it as lost after 15 working days.

I imagine the retailer will reject the chargeback as you haven't waited the time they stated. From their T&Cs though it acn take up to 60 days to get a refund:

If after 60 days we are satisfied that the vouchers have been lost/stolen then we will refund the value of the order.

http://www.highstreetvouchers.com/gift-vouchers/terms-conditions.jsp

barafear799

Thanks for the help. As for the T&C, didn't I read in Martin's guide or was it the Which? advice that T&C are irrelevant if they are patently unreasonable?
The 21 days are up on 17th November (I think).