Royal Mail failed delivery for Christmas to buyer

hubb

I sent a book to a buyer which was picked up by RM from my door last Friday. The buyer tells me a week on that she hasn't received it (I also forgot to mark as despatched) I have the email confirmation from RM that it was picked up so where do I go from here ?

cymruchris

hubb said:

I sent a book to a buyer which was picked up by RM from my door last Friday. The buyer tells me a week on that she hasn't received it (I also forgot to mark as despatched) I have the email confirmation from RM that it was picked up so where do I go from here ?

What service did you use? Was there tracking? What does it say?

TimeLord1

You should have an email of the purchase to print the label open the label check QR code number in tracking if its not been scanned then if so you can open a claim with Royal Mail 

hubb

It was standard Royal Mail large letter at £2.60. When I put the code in it doesn't come up with any tracking details. 

cymruchris

Royal mail website says that you can claim for a lost item once ten working days have passed beyond the expected delivery date. So for now, there's not much you can do other than be patient. Being the time of year it is, I'd expect the service to be running slower. Although it would be reasonable to expect it to be there by now, there aren't any guarantees with this service, and if your buyer NEEDED it - then they might have asked for a premium delivery service.

You can link back the RM help pages to your buyer saying that if it's not received by the tenth day following expected delivery - you'll open a case of item lost and take it from there.

Realistically it'll likely turn up soon, albeit late, and possibly the wrong side of Christmas.

swingaloo

Are you sure that the book was small enough and light enough to fit into the 'large letter' price?

swingaloo

cymruchris said:

Royal mail website says that you can claim for a lost item once ten working days have passed beyond the expected delivery date. So for now, there's not much you can do other than be patient. Being the time of year it is, I'd expect the service to be running slower. Although it would be reasonable to expect it to be there by now, there aren't any guarantees with this service, and if your buyer NEEDED it - then they might have asked for a premium delivery service.

You can link back the RM help pages to your buyer saying that if it's not received by the tenth day following expected delivery - you'll open a case of item lost and take it from there.

Realistically it'll likely turn up soon, albeit late, and possibly the wrong side of Christmas.

At £2.60 it must have gone 2nd class.

cymruchris

swingaloo said:

cymruchris said:

Royal mail website says that you can claim for a lost item once ten working days have passed beyond the expected delivery date. So for now, there's not much you can do other than be patient. Being the time of year it is, I'd expect the service to be running slower. Although it would be reasonable to expect it to be there by now, there aren't any guarantees with this service, and if your buyer NEEDED it - then they might have asked for a premium delivery service.

You can link back the RM help pages to your buyer saying that if it's not received by the tenth day following expected delivery - you'll open a case of item lost and take it from there.

Realistically it'll likely turn up soon, albeit late, and possibly the wrong side of Christmas.

At £2.60 it must have gone 2nd class.

Then the advice is exactly same - ten working days beyond expected delivery date:

soolin

hubb said:

I sent a book to a buyer which was picked up by RM from my door last Friday. The buyer tells me a week on that she hasn't received it (I also forgot to mark as despatched) I have the email confirmation from RM that it was picked up so where do I go from here ?

Firstly if you haven’t marked it as despatched then you may well have a strike on your dashboard for not sending in time.

Buyer can open an INR once they reach the last estimated delivery date that will be based on your despatch time and service used (and eBay claim optimistically 2nd class is 2 days). If an claim is open the all the usual rules apply, watch the escalation date and if you can’t prove delivery (and most 2nd class does have delivery confirmation, but no tracking as such) then you will have to refund. 

At a later date, and I thought it was longer than 10 working days, but am happy to be corrected, you can claim from RM here https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19907/~/how-do-i-submit-a-claim-for-loss%2C-damage-or-delay-to-my-item%3F.

The worry is, and I’m facing the same issue with a parcel that doesn’t show as delivered but where buyer hasn’t yet opened a claim, is that the eBay claim can be opened and closed before you even reach the time frame to start an RM claim, so it is possible item could arrive before you open the claim but after you have had to refund. 

Edit, just noticed that in the post above a claim can be made 10 working days after it was due to arrive, so in reality about3 weeks. 

Rantband

Royal Mail 1st class large letter £2.60 states Great value fast delivery without tracking with free collection on RM click & drop website.

hubb

When I type in the tracking number on the RM site I get the error "An update will only be provided when we attempt to deliver your item"

Fortunately the buyer is being very reasonable with me but I feel my hands are tied. I have just offered a refund if they don't want to wait it out a bit longer.