Royal mail lost tracked mail car key

becca5391

Last friday I posted a spare car key back home (which I had forgotten to return) for my lease car.

Royal mail asked what was in it and I said a car key and that I wanted it tracked, so they put it on tracked mail.

The package was sent in error to the international delivery centre and is still showing on the royal mail website as being at the international delivery centre.

When I look back at the receipt they have tried to send it to USA in error.

Despite many phone calls to royal mail they advised me that it was an error made by the post office so to go back there. I went back, they did not apologise and said there was nothing they could do apart from giving me a claim form to claim up to £20 back. They also said there is no way anyone can phone the international delivery centre.

This has cost me £130 to replace the lost key and taken a lot of time to sort out.

Surely this is an obvious error made on the post office's part - they had selected to send the key to the USA in error when it was going to England from Scotland. The address is correct on the receipt.

Anyone got any advice for what I can do?

bris

Did you insure it for £130?

photome

As Bris says did you pay the extra to insure the extra value, standard tracking only insures up to £20

Would have cost another couple of pounds to insure up to £250

becca5391

I didn't insure it - no! :-(

theonlywayisup

Have you tried speaking to someone in authority at the Post Office you attended? If you only have £20 compensation then it sounds like it's been sent standard mail. Signed For* has £50 of compensation and Special Delivery (the only RM tracked service over the counter) has a minimum of £500 and allows additional purchase of consequential loss. To be blunt it sounds like you've been sold the wrong product.

* Neither standard mail nor Signed For are 'tracked'. Signed For is a signature on receipt. Standard has nothing other than £20 compensation.

photome

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Have you tried speaking to someone in authority at the Post Office you attended? If you only have £20 compensation then it sounds like it's been sent standard mail. Signed For* has £50 of compensation and Special Delivery (the only RM tracked service over the counter) has a minimum of £500 and allows additional purchase of consequential loss. To be blunt it sounds like you've been sold the wrong product.

* Neither standard mail nor Signed For are 'tracked'. Signed For is a signature on receipt. Standard has nothing other than £20 compensation.

Isn't the standard 24 hr tracked parcel service with £20 compo available over the counter

theonlywayisup

photome wrote: »

Isn't the standard 24 hr tracked parcel service with £20 compo available over the counter

What Royal Mail over-the-counter service is that?

If you mean Royal Mail Tracked 24/48 then these are business services and not over-the-counter services. They both carry £50 compensation.

OP what service did you actually use?

photome

theonlywayisup wrote: »

What Royal Mail over-the-counter service is that?

If you mean Royal Mail Tracked 24/48 then these are business services and not over-the-counter services. They both carry £50 compensation.

OP what service did you actually use?

I was indeed looking at business services.

After looking at the correct services available,it does need the OP to come back and say xactly what service she used

theonlywayisup

photome wrote: »

I was indeed looking at business services.

After looking at the correct services available,it does need the OP to come back and say xactly what service she used

Yes, if she/he asked for tracked, at the very least they should have been given Signed For, which would be £50. But as they've only been told they can claim £20 it sounds like standard mail.

shaun_from_Africa

theonlywayisup wrote: »

But as they've only been told they can claim £20 it sounds like standard mail.

Something doesn't quite add up.
As you say, standard mail gives up to £20 compo but provides no tracking yet the OP has stated that the package is "still showing on the royal mail website as being at the international delivery centre", something that they couldn't know unless they had a tracking number of some sort.

usefulmale

Maybe someone at the post office put an international tracked sticker on it by mistake and the machine at the mail centre has put it in the bag for the international delivery centre?