Royal Mail refund policy

TheworstcompanyinBritain

I was told today that Royal Mail will not compensate or refund full claimed amounts unless you can prove the value of the lost or broken item before it was sent? For example if you sell on eBay an item for £5 and Royal Mail lose that item whilst been delivered, they will not refund the £5, only the value of the item before it was sold. They have to be the worst company in Britain!

swingaloo

That has really always been the case with Ebay items. 
Look at it this way, imagine you have an item worth £10 but some mad collector of junk is willing to pay you £200 for it.
If it gets lost you have lost the item which was worth £10, you have not lost £200.

If I buy an item at £10 and sell it for £30 and it goes missing then I would claim my losses which are actually £10. 

 Royal Mail will pay the lost items cost, why would they also pay you the profit you could have made.

Spoonie_Turtle

swingaloo said:

That has really always been the case with Ebay items. 
Look at it this way, imagine you have an item worth £10 but some mad collector of junk is willing to pay you £200 for it.
If it gets lost you have lost the item which was worth £10, you have not lost £200.

If I buy an item at £10 and sell it for £30 and it goes missing then I would claim my losses which are actually £10. 

 Royal Mail will pay the lost items cost, why would they also pay you the profit you could have made.

This has been the case for businesses, but not private sellers.  For private sellers they are supposed to pay out the actual sold value, which you would have to prove (obviously). 

No idea whether the OP is a private or business seller though, whether they have any basis for the complaint or not.  Regardless, if RM are the worst company they've ever experienced, they can count themselves extremely fortunate!

RedImp_2

In the very odd occasion I’ve claimed I got my EBay sold value although haven’t had to claim against the worse company in the world for some time.

soolin

I’ve not claimed anything for months and months now, but for my business sales I’ve always had to provide an invoice showing total cost. Although they have been very good at allowing me to provide a combined invoice (I buy in bulk mixed items usually) and giving a quick  back of an envelope calculation as to the cost for an individual item. For private sales they have taken eBay sale price but then I’m selling old items so almost certainly selling for a lot less than I paid. 

Other couriers also won’t pay out on business profit, only on actual loss. 

jon81uk

As a private seller on eBay the couple of times I had things go missing and I claimed on eBay I got the price I sold the item on eBay back, as for second hand goods that really is its value as the item is generally being sold for less than I paid.

But if you are a business then you would get the cost price you paid to buy the item, not the profit.