DVLA/Post office lost my partners international Visa card, could cost up to £1500 in lost trip.

Madotom

At the start of January my partner submitted her Hong Kong driving license and Biometric identity card to the DVLA in order to get a UK drivers license. She received the UK license around the 25th of January but as of 16th of February has not received her Hong Kong driving license and Biometric identity card back. When we called the DVLA they said it had been shipped second class and should have arrived three weeks ago at the latest and to contact the post office. 

The post office then responded with "yeah its probably lost, sorry" and we are now having to pay £200 for a replacement visa. we also have a holiday booked for 20th march (around 6 weeks) and the wait time for a new visa is up to 8 weeks. We have requested a faster visa (another £150) but there is apparently no guarantee it will arrive any sooner. 

Should she not receive the visa in time for the holiday we will lose a further £1100 of non refundable flights, car rental and hotels.

Can anyone advise or help with what we can do? The DVLA seem to claim no responsibility and the post office website said we can only claim £20 back for the cost of lost items.

Penguin_

Do you have insurance? Would it cover this?

noitsnotme

You need to be talking to Royal Mail, not the Post Office.  Royal Mail are the ones who would have handled the mail from DVLA.  Post Office are a completely separate company and have nothing to do with it in this case.

I assume you did actually mean Royal Mail but thought I would point it out just in case.

With regards to DVLA returning documents it does say on the .GOV website that items will be returned by 2nd class post.  It also says if you want them returned by a tracked method you should include a stamped and self addressed Special Delivery envelope with your application.  As your documents were so important you should have done this.  I doubt DVLA can be held responsible for the consequential losses of you choosing to have them returned by 2nd class.

[Deleted User]

Wouldn't it be the DVLA that you would want to claim from? Royal Mail will say that second class mail isn't guaranteed and if documents are valuable they should be sent via a more expensive service.

It's the DVLA's fault for not taking reasonable steps.

sheramber

[Deleted User] said:

Wouldn't it be the DVLA that you would want to claim from? Royal Mail will say that second class mail isn't guaranteed and if documents are valuable they should be sent via a more expensive service.

It's the DVLA's fault for not taking reasonable steps.

Did you miss 

 it does say on the .GOV website that items will be returned by 2nd class post.  It also says if you want them returned by a tracked method you should include a stamped and self addressed Special Delivery envelope with your application