Royal Mail.......lost items!!!!!

[dancestationdirect]

Hi, has anyone noticed an increase in UK Royal Mail packages going "missing" recently. In the last 2 days I have had 3 different buyers claiming item has not arrived. One looks genuine as it is Recorded Delivery which has not arrived. The other 2 are fairly low value First Class items and of course I have no way of knowing if  this is genuine or not.

Prior to this (I have "lost" a few international parcels) but only 1 UK parcel last year went astray and never turned up.

Anyone else having problems with this?

[veloduocycles]

I called CS in Ireland to appeal the case. Very sympathetic, but took the view if we received the item back (which we did yesterday), then no problem! of course no problem that we paid for the postage! If we receive a defect then we can appeal that. How much time do they think I have?

Also mentioned the case where we were left neutral feedback because they werent in when the postie called. Well there's not much they can do about neutral as it isnt bad...

Another one today. UK signed for. Not in again and claim there was no card left - unlikely I think. Anyway they want me to sort it out for them! I have told them the address of the PDo tel number and opening hours. They now know exactly where the parcel is. Will they go and collect it? I doubt it too damned lazy. It will come back here eventually and they will be refunded and blocked. And we will have lost the postage ££ again.

If buyers know they are likely to be out, why dont they choose click and collect?

Never get this on other channels or our website. Just eBay.

[iqraenterpriselimited]

We have now had 3 items lost in the last week.

We haven't had anything returned to us.

We had to refund our customers but really frustrating as losing quite a few items regularly.

Royal Mail not investigating but happy to take people's money.

Something seriously wrong is happening at this company as items can't be lost frequently.

[maisuk-2016]

Past 6 months I have been manually arraging re-deliveries myself, wether claim was genuine or not no way of checking but most claiments do not follow up.

https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redelivery/book

[veloduocycles]

Thanks for that. Wasn't aware we could re-book delivery.

[maisuk-2016]

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@veloduocycles wrote:

Thanks for that. Wasn't aware we could re-book delivery.

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Yes its quite handy and apparently solved many of my INR cases. when platform asks for date on card I enter a date after estimated for postage service used. For customer reasurrance you also get a case number. I'm curently bundling all case numbers for RM self investigation.

Keep up the good fight! 😄

[iqraenterpriselimited]

How would you you this for large letters and how would you know the item just isn't lost?

[veloduocycles]

Large letter would normally go through the letter box?

[maisuk-2016]

I use same process for large letters

open with an apology to customer for royal mail forgeting to leave missed calling card then arrange redelivery.

A few of my suposed item not recieved have been 1st LL 100g stamp .... definately indicates customers are trying it on

[iqraenterpriselimited]

But the card would obviously not be left where the large letter has been delivered and the customer is lying they have not received it or where the large letter is genuinely lost?

[veloduocycles]

In my experience, if the parcel letter is clearly marked with a return address, the Royal Mail do not lose them. They come back eventually. I can only think of 2.

[iqraenterpriselimited]

Been nearly 2 weeks since these items have been "lost" and we have had nothing returned to us.

Guess who ever was handling the item has a nice free Christmas present.

[veloduocycles]

If they are undelivered they are held at the local delivery office for 2 weeks then sent to Belfast, where they are repackaged and returned to sender. If there is no return address then they are auctioned. occasionally someone takes the initiative and crosses out the address with a blue pencil and circles the return address, then they come straight back, but that isnt the official procedure. I guess it's an old school postie that still does it the old way. Dont think that ever happens with a tracked service though as it has to be scanned We just had one back from 6th Sep

[iqraenterpriselimited]

We are not sure why items are being lost more frequently. Never has happened to us before and it's costing is quite a bit on losses.

May have to look to a different company which may be for reliable for delivering our items.

[firkinspares]

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@iqraenterpriselimited wrote:
We have now had 3 items lost in the last week.

We haven't had anything returned to us.

We had to refund our customers but really frustrating as losing quite a few items regularly.

Royal Mail not investigating but happy to take people's money.

Something seriously wrong is happening at this company as items can't be lost frequently.

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I dont believe that the post is getting lost. I believe that your customers are using the free ebay items logic. I used to blame Royal Mail, but always thought it strange that in my personal life I had never had a parcel ever go missing, but when I started business selling it started. BUT the new QR code has provided an answer...

each QR code emits a special chemical into the air when a buyer contacts the ebay seller when their parcel is 'missing'. The chemical enters the customer through their bottom and straight into the brain. The chemical triggers a part of the brain that allows them to easily locate the parcel in their house. I have had a lot of QR code successes recently and no parcels have gone missing when the chemical has been activated. Its genius. An innovation award for Royal Mail

[asto9055]

Hi, Yes I am having the same problem now with a tracked parcel through Royal Male. Said it was delivered and signed for, but not by me as I was miles away. Trying to find out who the postman was to find out where he left it. Tracking site is a was of time if it does not give you full details. FRAUD.

ARS

[cholmes1060]

Hi, sorry to hear you are having problems & yes i have noticed it too, over the past few weeks i have had 3 parcels go missing, all sent recorded but when you check the tracking all you get on the site is "we've got it" .. i have also had 4 parcels damaged & the items are missing when they arrive at their destination, only today i have had one parcel arrive damaged with the brooch missing & replaced with some large metal bolts! also another which is now overdue!
I would really like to change delivery service now & will be looking into it.

[asto9055]

Hi, It turns out my parcel was delivered down the road to another address. I recovered it today only to find it came from Amazon on their Prime delivery (but I purchased on eBay !) and the address label was missing the first colum of charaters of my address. Printer could not be set up correctly. PayPal and eBay make you feel so bad as if you are trying to rip the seller off. And all the time it's the sellers fault. Still I managed to recover my parcel this time. But how many other customers are losing their goods.

Sounds like you have a bad postman in your area. I was advised to report it to my local head Post Office so they can see what is going on. 

[veloduocycles]

The QR code has worked in the UK in enabling customers who have lost items to find them more quickly. Unfortunately we are seeing an increase in "lost" parcels sent abroad. Interestingly they are all in the band I would classify as "expensive enough to be worth trying to get for free, but not so expensive as to be sent tracked". These lost parcels never come back, although some (genuinely) lost parcels come back safely from as far away as Russia (tbh we never expected to see that one again!).

We have now reduced our Tracked/Signed threshold to about £10, whch means that we will probably see a drop in sales in that price range. This is  because it always seemed to be one product line that disappeared which sells at £10.49

We have also blocked Mexico and India as destinations.

[iqraenterpriselimited]

It is bad enough our items are being lost, but having damaged items returned back to us takes the cake.

The amount of damaged items we have received back in the lat couple of weeks is ridiculous.

Not sure how RM are handling items through the network but they are clearly now handling them with care.

[cholmes1060]

Hi, pleased you managed to track you're parcel down, i am a seller & would never intentionally make any of my buyers feel like it was their fault, the parcels that have gone mising or have been damaged are parcels i have posted, 2 of these parcels were to be delivered to the same buyer but both have gone missing the space of 3 weeks! which does make you feel a little cynical, its nothing to do with the postie in my area as i have never had any problems with deliveries coming to me.