Sue royal mail rather than claiming compensation.

heldenbrau

Today I am in the same situation that I have been in many times before:  An expensive item about £150 was sent tracked and signed to Germany.  Over a month later the customer claimed item not received and I checked the tracking, it was lost so I refunded them.  So I have filled out the claim form from royal mail and added the photos they asked for to prove the value of the goods.  This took AGES!!!!!! I had to go through all my invoices to find the value of each item in the order, I had to screenshot each invoice and highlight the items on the invoices with paint shop pro.  I thought it was still worth doing for the £53 I could get in compensation.   I had to fill it out twice because the form reset after about 5 minutes.
So now a month later after filling out the form I have received an email saying:

We’ve now resolved your claim(s) and a summary of the outcome is as follows:

Customer Reference	Tracking Reference	RMG Reference	Resolution	Amount Claimed (£)	Amount Credited (£)
			Further Information Required	53.44	0.00

So now I have to phone them and wait in a massive que, and the phone line isn't even open anyway because of coronavirus, so have to email and wait.  The whole process takes too long and I believe it is deliberately set up to put people off claiming.  I don't even bother unless the order is tracked and worth over £50 and I can easily find the invoice to prove the value.   In the last 3 years I have had about £1000 worth of goods lost in the post and not 1 penny paid in compensation by royal mail, because either they reject the claim, or it has not been worth my time because of things like the form resetting or I can't find purchase invoices from years ago.

I think the value should mean the amount the customer paid me and that is what all the other couriers consider to be the value except royal mail.  But I would accept just getting what is owed to me in their definition of what value means, but they get away without paying a penny due to their deliberate tactics of making it hard to claim.  So I was thinking it would be easier to get a few bits of proof each time something gets lost and then at the end of the year, take it to a solicitor and sue royal mail for the price of the items I sold, plus the legal fees. 

Also wondering there must be thousands of other sellers having the same experience where they don't bother to claim, all this post is getting lost, but it is not even getting recorded as a statistic because I suspect that they only record something as lost if the claim is successful.  So thinking that this must have been tried before?

custardy

I note theres no tracking reference.
What service did you use?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Court would probably not be impressed with you not attempting to follow their claims procedure first, if it got that far.

You are correct that Royal Mail do their very best to ensure the claims process is as difficult, long winded and painful as possible to put you off claiming, it's an extremely poor practice.

For £50 I'd press on with the claim by email if possible.

martindow

heldenbrau said:
I think the value should mean the amount the customer paid me and that is what all the other couriers consider to be the value except royal mail.

I'm not sure this is so.  Most carriers cover your loss - if you have bought to sell on they will give you the purchase cost and not your additional profit. 

If you employ a solicitor their expenses will not be claimable as the small claims system is designed to be used without legal help being necessary.  As has been mentioned, judges take a dim view of people opening claims when you have not exhausted the complaints process. 

I think you need to provide the further information that RM want.  Someone here may be able to suggest better times of day to phone.  Is there a live chat option on the site as that may be easier.  Good luck.

swingaloo2

Im amazed you have had over £1000 worth of stuff go missing in 3 years. I post dozens of items a week and have had nothing go missing during the last 2 years.  If you are making multiple claims with Royal Mail then they are going to be asking for extra information. As bad as they can be Royal Mail are no more likely to lose a parcel than any other courier. 

hermante

RM has always paid me the selling price of my items when I sent them the ebay page. Although I've only had to claim twice in 8 years.

soolin

hermante said:

RM has always paid me the selling price of my items when I sent them the ebay page. Although I've only had to claim twice in 8 years.

That’s correct for a private seller, but business sellers only get the initial price back. 

forgotmyname

I assumed the seller was a business, possibly not a bad one selling £53 products for £150. If they were
private and under insuring then that would be silly.

Imagine wasting all that money going to court where they say we have a claim system in place and
already offered a refund of £53.44.  You get awarded the £53.44 but wasted how much money
to get that?

What other sellers claim for or not has no bearing on your claim.

If your not happy with the service choose another one, plenty of options.

mattyprice4004

Paying you cost and not the sale price is fair - you can send another to the buyer at no cost to yourself then. 
If they paid out on the sale price, you'd be getting 2 'sales' rather than just your costs covered.

The process is appalling, though. I don't even bother claiming these days.

emmbrook

I recently had an item I sold on eBay disappear sent 2nd class with proof of posting. Value £19 plus the postage. Much to my surprise a few days after applying online with my evidence I received a cheque for the full amount.  So sometimes it is fine! First time I’ve claimed, not that I’ve had many losses.

RFW

martindow said:

If you employ a solicitor their expenses will not be claimable as the small claims system is designed to be used without legal help being necessary.  As has been mentioned, judges take a dim view of people opening claims when you have not exhausted the complaints process. 

While I agree with much of what you have written, legal costs can always be claimed if a case is won. As far as I'm aware it's up to the judge to decide what and how much gets paid. Sensible legal fees will be rewarded.