Royal Mail change of returns policy

Trying to make it impossible to claim losses it seems

[simonuk]

I've had a ecommerce site for a number of years and I've always used Royal Mail (mostly 1st class recorded). Until this year if a parcel was lost it was easy to claim the loss.... not anymore!

I've had two go missing in the last 4 weeks and in both cases this was what happened...

(You have to wait 15 working days before you can claim)

1. They send me a letter asking for proof of dispatch. If I don't reply in 5 working days the case is closed.

2. They send a letter to the buyer asking if they have received the parcel they've already reported as lost. (why? ahh, the next sentance I think explains it..). If the buyer doesn't reply in 5 working days the case is closed.

IF they do send the letter back you'll get another letter from Royal Mail asking for proof of the trade price for the goods and you have 5 days or the case closes.

I've had to change my policy on lost items because not a single buyer was sending the letter back to Royal Mail so the case got closed and I lost my goods and money.

My terms now are I will only send a second parcel after they have sent the letter back to Royal Mail within the time frame set and I get the letter from Royal Mail confirming this and asking for my trade price list. I now warn the process can take 30 days or more.

Considering I spend several thousand pounds a year with Royal Mail on 1st class and special delivery the customer service has now hit rock bottom.

Anyone know of any other firm I could use instead of Royal Mail (small letter size parcels for the most part)?

[johnafrid]

I am not sure if this would help but I ship quite a bit from Japan almost everywhere. I think the Royal Mail of the UK is the biggest loser for my items. I feel its run by a bunch of l.........rs. I despise them and I hate them. As I type this, I am dealing with a claim for broken package delivery even even thought it was insured. They have lost my packages, they have broken my packages and they have returned my packages all the way back to Japan with prohibitive shipping costs. They didnt have the common sense to contact the customer twice/three times instead of returning it back to Tokyo. If you find a way around it, please let me know. Its unfortunate that we cannot get around these big Post offices.

[ytswy]

Do you have any links to this? I've had a look around on royalmail.com and they don't mention it as far as I can see - just links to compensation forms.

We send a lot of stuff 1st class recorded, and having compensation depend on the customer replying is not acceptable.

[Essex_boy]

I suspect this is done on purpose the govt would like to run down the royal mail and sell it off, this 'proves' its incapable of operating as a letter delivery business.

Another problem that I have come across, only in London, is where the are not vetting sorting office staff due to political correctness, this is of course being exploited by those with a criminal leaning.

[PCInk]

We have experienced the same problems and now they are trying to put prices up.

Some courier services are becoming cheaper than the RM. I used to send about 99% through the RM, now it is getting closer to 50%, so they will soon be our minor delivery service company if they put prices up by what they are suggesting.

[ytswy]

They still have the big advantage of (in general) knowledgeable postmen, and many local post offices where items can be collected from much more easily than from a distant courier depot.

If they had a bit better tracking, better pricing for special delivery in the 2 - 5kg range, and didn't pull stunts like this with compensation, I'd much rather use them than a courier. As it is we use them for cheap, light stuff. But even for that we do need a reasonable compensation framework..

[simonuk]

ytswy - I can find no mention of it on their site either but the last two lost parcels both went the route above. Anyone else claimed in the last month?

On a side note I have just had a third item go missing (1st class recorded) and when I checked the tracking number it now shows an image of the name and signature of the person signing for the parcel.

[ytswy]

On a side note I have just had a third item go missing (1st class recorded) and when I checked the tracking number it now shows an image of the name and signature of the person signing for the parcel.

I saw something about that when checking the site before - see here [royalmail.com] and here [royalmail.com]. That's good, since the prior method of getting a pod was a complete pain.

I'm going to give them a call about their compensation I think.

[Joff]

Hi Simon,

It's of no help to yourself but I've used Royal Mail myself through a number of businesses and found their service terrible on all counts.

There are a number of alternatives springing up since Royal Mail went private, TNT Post (http://www.tntpost.co.uk) being one I've considered. I'm sure there's going to be hundreds of these in the next 12 months...