Post office recorded delivery lost receipt

alexb123

We sent an item back to an amazon supplier in June. We didn't hear from them for month and now they are asking for a copy of the recorded delivery receipt and we can't find it. According to the post office we sent it from and the post office website they are unable to trace an item if the receipt is lost. We paid buy credit card so we can see the time and date of the transaction. So with this in mind I have two questions:
1: Can the credit card statement act as proof of sending?
2: Can the post office really claim the item can't be traced? I know the exact time and date the item was sent, there can be no doubt this will be sitting on a computer system somewhere. Is there anything I can do about it?
The item is worth £500 so its a lot of money.

Thanks

Keep_pedalling

1. No

2. Yes.

For an item worth £500 You should have used special delivery, even if you do find the reference and it shows as not delivered the most you can claim for is £50.

Aylesbury_Duck

I agree with Keep_pedalling.  Presumably your card statement shows a transaction at the PO, but not exactly what was bought.  Otherwise it's an easy fraud for anyone to undertake: Anyone can buy a book of stamps or similar, then claim the resulting credit card transaction is evidence of registered delivery for which they have lost the receipt.

Sandtree

Recorded delivery is not a tracked service, they only record when someone at the other end signs to say they have it but given you are sending it to a business then its never really signed for anyway as there will be a sack of special and recorded delivery and a depot guy will just initial the whole page.

It is undoubtably sitting on a computer somewhere but no one who hasnt seen the data structure can honestly say if it would be possible or not to identify your transaction... especially if its a large post office where multiple RDs could have gone through within a few seconds of each other. Then we have the fun of GDPR/data privacy and they won't want to accidentally give you the wrong reference.

alexb123

Thanks for the replies. We send it insured for £500. So I'm not sure what service that would have been? And its a tiny local post office.

Aylesbury_Duck

alexb123 said:

Thanks for the replies. We send it insured for £500. So I'm not sure what service that would have been? And its a tiny local post office.

Without evidence of posting, that's irrelevant I'm afraid.  As it's a tiny local PO, have you tried asking them if they have a record of your transaction?

Spank

It says in the OP that they tried the post office we sent it from.

Who doesn't keep a receipt for a £500 safe until the money is back in your account?

noitsnotme

alexb123 said:

Thanks for the replies. We send it insured for £500. So I'm not sure what service that would have been? And its a tiny local post office.

£500 cover would have been Special Delivery.  That’s a fully tracked service and don’t go missing very often.  Unfortunately now useless if you don’t have the receipt/tracking number.

Takmon

Spank said:

It says in the OP that they tried the post office we sent it from.

Who doesn't keep a receipt for a £500 safe until the money is back in your account?

I always take a picture of the receipt on my mobile and I'm always surprised at how many people send an item like this and don't even note down the tracking number somewhere safe never mind keep the receipt in a safe place. 

George_Michael

It's a long shot but at any time since you sent the item, have you been on the Royal Mail tracking website and entered the details on there?
https://www3.royalmail.com/track-your-item#/
If so, there is a slight possibility that if you go back to it and click in the box for putting in the number, the previously entered information will show up.
I've just done this for something I sent in early August and the details were still stored on my computer and populated the box when I clicked in it.

Housewife2020

Or searching history