Royal mail losing parcels, packages and mail
We regularly sell on Ebay and Amazon and some other sites as well. Whatever we can, we ship with parcel couriers rather than Royal Mail because they are cheaper and fast.
The other day however I was at Royal Mail sending a couple of packages (small packet- they call it) with signatures. (signed for- they call it). The reason you send it requiring a signature is to make sure the parcel or whatever you are sending gets there for sure. The post office charge extra for this service, thus they would have to run a separate ledger to record and check to make sure these parcels are where they are supposed to be.
In reality this is not so. At the post office the girl was almost insisting I send my parcels “special delivery” (cost even more money). I asked her why? She said because if they get lost, the post office won’t give me a penny because they can’t trace them. Hmmm It’s a bummer isn’t it? You pay extra to require a signature when delivered, yet they don’t guarantee it’s arrival.
On the other hand, special delivery cost an extra 4 0r 5 pounds and they guarantee it’s arrival. Interesting no?
Anyway. I also own a package forwarding service here in the UK and companies (including Ebay and Amazon sellers) send here hundreds of packages every week. Guess what? Some of those are not for us. And even more disappointing is, that some of those require a signature.
They put mine in royal mail sacks so I only see them when I am sorting them in my storage facility. They make me sign an electronic scanner that I had received all the parcels requiring a signature.
Now those parcels are totally lost. It’s up to me to be honest and return them, or not to be honest and keep them. If I decide to keep them, they are lost forever. They would have no idea where the parcel is. They would have no idea who had signed for them, Why? Because the electronic scanner only shows it was signed for and by post office standards that means it was delivered and since those scanners have some sort of plastic window where we have to sign it, it’s really hard to have a legible signature. If the sender of the lost parcel ask the post office to see the signature, they would only be able to say “some sort of scrible”.
Right! The only difference, it was delivered to the wrong recipient. This is happening every single week.
Now, I am only one person they deal with. How many more have the same experience with them? How many more people are advised by the teller at the post office to send it by Special Delivery otherwise they don’t guarantee it’s safe arrival regardless of requiring a signature upon delivery?
Out of the tens of millions of mails and parcels going through every day, how many millions are lost forever?
They have a lost parcel claim system in place that doesn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Why? Because here is what had happened on the few occasions we had tried to claim and find lost parcels.
You have to fill out the form and include your ORIGINAL postal receipt, send it to the lost claim department. That’s it. You will never hear from them. If you make an inquiry at the post office, no one have any idea and they’ll call you if they hear something. If you call them on the phone, it’s endless push this and that button at per minute phone charge and on the end you still can’t talk to anyone. If you happen to complain, you don’t have your original receipt to show, because you had to post it to them along with your lost parcel claim form.
So, eventually you just give up and start to use courier companies that delivers it the next day and for the same price as royal mail or much much cheaper, depending on it’s size and weight. A 2 kg parcel cost as much with the post office as a 20 kg parcel with a courier company.
I am not talking about how much this cost Ebay, Amazon or other online sellers in refunds. Literally millions per year.
Draw your own conclusion and use them at your own risk for anything that is important, because you now know about Royal Mail is losing parcels.