What does First Class Recorded delivery mean?

catt_2

I bought a high value gift voucher on Ebay.

The seller was to send it by Royal Mail First Class Recorded Delivery. I paid £4.00 for this service.

It arrived today in the post box with all the other post and marked First Class £2.54 including a jiffy envelope. So the charge for P&P seems reasonable.

I thought I would have to sign for safe receipt. Am I wrong?

I also got an email from the seller with a tracker number for this post.

Can anyone explain the postal method and whether it was safe. I did receive it and on the day the seller said I would.

smartie1976

Yes - recorded means someone at your address should have signed for it.
I would take this up with your local PO as it's a failuire to delivery the promised service.
You can request to see "the signature" if they claim it was signed for, which you can then demonstrate is not yours (or anyone else living at your address) quite easily.

You are not, however, guaranteed any specific arrival date with recorded, Only Special.

Bromley86

You are correct - you should have been asked to sign for it.

I believe that you can waive this requirement permanently (possibly at your local post office or sorting office), but either way your postie would have to be 100% certain that you were okay with not signing.

That is presumably not the case here.

So, to determine if it was sent Recorded Signed for do a couple of things:

1. Look at the envelope. IIRC there will be a red label on it with a pull-off section.

2. Try that number at Royal Mail tracking:
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/track?catId=22700601&gear=authentication

If it was a failure (deliberate or otherwise) at the sellers end, then you would not have been covered by any postal insurance. If at the Royal Mail end then you'd have been fine, as they would not be able to produce your signature.

frivolous_fay

Was there a red sticker on the envelope? If not, then the seller's at fault and actually didn't send it recorded.

katiekittykat

I wouldn't have sent a gift voucher recorded delivery - i would have sent it special delivery. Recorder delivery only has compo up to £32!

£4.00 seems like a lot for that service. Yeah you should have signed for it.

frivolous_fay

Also, recorded delivery doesn't cover vouchers.

walwin

jan03 wrote: »

not sure why you are griping over £1.46, at least you were lucky enough to actually recieve the voucher!!!

OP wasn't griping


catt said:

It arrived today in the post box with all the other post and marked First Class £2.54 including a jiffy envelope. So the charge for P&P seems reasonable.

custardy

does it have a orange rd label?



not unknown for them to fall off certain packaging

catt_2

No, the envelope has a sticker stating:

1st Royal Mail.

There is no orange peel-off label that I would have expected with recorded.

I will ask at my local sorting office today, just how it was sent.

So Special Delivery would have been safer?

freddysmith

I would have thought is was unlikely that a Recorded label would have fallen off a flat surfaced letter. I always put a strip of clear tape either edge of my Recorded labels especially on jiffly packages as their never seems much sticky surface on the label.

This item should have been sent Special Delivery although it really only protects the seller not the buyer.

If the seller could not prove delivery he would be open to a chargeback for non delivery, so it would be of interest to the seller to ensure a trackable method.

MORPH3US

I have never known the orange recorded label to fall off.

If the sender gave you a reference number, check in on the royal mail website and see what it says.

It sounds like he didn't really send it recorded. With the postage for 1st class on its own being so high, I guess he just thought he wouldn't bother with recorded to save himself some cash. That is naughty, but then sending you a tracking number which presumably is for something he sent to someone else is deceitful.

BTW @ jan03 - where does the OP say its a "voucher" he says it was a high value item, but it must be the heaviest voucher in the world to cost £2.54 first class?!?!?

M