Royal Mail rant incoming...

SixTwoSix

SixTwoSix

SixTwoSix

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Having a fight with RM at the moment - well I say fight, they're just banging my head against a brick wall while I can't do much.

Sold a member here some ram 3 weeks ago, sent it RMSD, showed as signed and delivered the next day. Day after the member emails to ask when it should arrive. Hence conversation with RM on the phone, being told to enter a compensation claim. That almost immediately gets refused on the basis it's signed for, delivered with GPS tracking info at recipients address.

RM admit the postman has signed for it as it's covid/etc and wasn't signed by the recipient 'As your item was delivered during the period we weren't capturing signatures, due to the corona virus, the post person has entered XP1' in the signature box to record the delivery' they've not yet answered my question where the postman left the parcel despite emphasising this question multiple times. Too big to fit through a letterbox as i'm a bit overboard with my packing as anyone who's bought from me on MM over the years can attest to.

Escalate to next stage, get a reply the day after parroting what the first compensation claim said, signed, GPS data, etc - they suggest I escalate to Postal Review board if not happy, which I did last week. Awaiting their outcome now.

Buyer paid £195 so sent RMSD with the view that it's very robust and covers me, also before someone makes the obvious comment, I am taking the buyer at their word it wasn't delivered, have asked them to open a claim at their side as it's harder for RM to tell them as the recipient 'yes, you've had this parcel'

/rant - just hugely frustrated as RMSD has been bulletproof up until now and going to be £200 worse off shortly. I have little faith the Postal Review board will give a different outcome despite claiming to be 'ring fenced' and sitting outside of RM customer services.

UPDATE - 12/10/2021

Thank you for your e-mail to the Postal Review Panel, received on 28 September 2021, regarding an item of Royal Mail Special Delivery™ mail, reference VE*********GB. Please accept my apologies for any problems this matter has caused. I have thoroughly reviewed your complaint and I am now able to respond.

I am sorry that you feel the responses received from Royal Mail Customer Services have bene taken from a textbook and are generic. Whilst letters and e-mails are taken from a standard template, I would always expect them to be amended to take account of individual complaints.

Upon receipt of your complaint, I raised this matter directly with the manager at the relevant Delivery Office to investigate. The Delivery Office Manager formally interviewed the appropriate member of his team and, after checking all information available to him, including the Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking for the delivery scan, again stressed his belief that it had been delivered as addressed. The Delivery Office Manager could find no proof that it was delivered anywhere other than ***********

I do appreciate that you have disputed this, together with the ‘signature’ obtained at the time of delivery. Although Royal Mail are not taking signatures at present, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, details of how Royal Mail are delivering items requiring proof of delivery can be found at https://www.royalmail.com/d8/coronavirus-changes-service. Unfortunately, without confirmation from the relevant Delivery Office that this item had been misdelivered or left in an unsecure location, there is no payment I could offer.

Please let me apologise once again. I would like to give you my assurance that Royal Mail are not complacent about the quality of their service and are constantly striving to ensure that you receive the level of service you have every right to expect.
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Not really much point in paying RMSD if this is the case.

I had to a RMSD come at the weekend. Postman also signed for it. No pics taken. Usually couriers now take a pic
 
I've had similar with couriers and also the Royal Mail delivering our stuff to a wrong nearby address which has a similar road name. e.g. Our address is 123 FakeName Gardens and our stuff gets delivered to 123 FakeName Road which is adjacent to it. Luckily I now have a Ring doorbell and telling them I have video evidence that they didn't deliver has been very useful. I'd highly recommend a camera of some sort.

As mentioned above, couriers now tend to take a photo of it on your doorstep. But RM are archaic and don't bother. I really dislike the RM nowadays as they just don't seem to have kept pace with other companies.
 
Hades said:
I've had similar with couriers and also the Royal Mail delivering our stuff to a wrong nearby address which has a similar road name. e.g. Our address is 123 FakeName Gardens and our stuff gets delivered to 123 FakeName Road which is adjacent to it. Luckily I now have a Ring doorbell and telling them I have video evidence that they didn't deliver has been very useful. I'd highly recommend a camera of some sort.
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The recipient told me they have the same issue, there is a fakename close next to fakename road that often gets mis-delivered, they have checked with them with no luck sadly.
 
RM are terrible to deal with, i used RMSD to northern ireland before and it took about a week to get delivered.
I couldnt make a compensation claim until it was actually posted and they were zero help and couldnt tell me where it was even.
Then about 2 weeks later they send me a stupid cheque for £8 something that i had to waste time cashing and wait to clear.
So it took like a month and a load of timewaste to get my money back.
 
Had this exact thing in work with a phone i sent. I had to wait 3 weeks till filing a claim though but a few days after I had filed the claim it turned up back at the office despite being marked down as delivered. Hopefully it might be returned to you in the next week.
 
MikeTheNative said:
Had this exact thing in work with a phone i sent. I had to wait 3 weeks till filing a claim though but a few days after I had filed the claim it turned up back at the office despite being marked down as delivered. Hopefully it might be returned to you in the next week.
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I have some slim hope it might make it's way back to me, return address clearly labelled on the back. I had to wait 5 working days before submitting the original claim and got a reply in less than 24 hours back to decline it.
 
SixTwoSix said:
Buyer paid £195 so sent RMSD with the view that it's very robust and covers me, also before someone makes the obvious comment, I am taking the buyer at their word it wasn't delivered, have asked them to open a claim at their side as it's harder for RM to tell them as the recipient 'yes, you've had this parcel'
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The recipient's claim won't be processed.

The sender or the recipient of the item may both claim for a lost item but only one will be paid compensation. If both claim for the same item then Royal Mail will process only the sender’s claim unless compensation has already been paid to the recipient. The claimant is required to provide the same evidence regardless of whether they are the sender or recipient.
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Bug One said:
This is where doorbell cameras come in really handy. Video evidence is hard to refute.
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Problem is, while a camera is great for showing something did happen, it's not ideal for showing it didn't, all it will show is that the postman didn't come to the door and deliver the parcel during the specific time window of the video you provide.

Can you start small claims proceedings against RM if they don't cooperate?
 
I had this happen with a £60 order from china..... Was RM in the end and was either just left on doorstep and someone stole it, or postie nicked it or left it somewhere.

After several weeks of arguing i gave up in the end and did a CC chargeback.
 
This is why i don't use RM for any items above £25 or so. It's a hit and miss as to whether they manage to deliver on time, at all or even losing a parcel
 
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