Royal Mail Postman can't 'remember' where he delivered signed for parcel!! no one wants to help

[happycaravan]

Hi 

Apologies in advance for what may be a log post, but its quite a lengthy tale! 

 

I ordered some items online for my son (christmas gifts) which were due to be delivered on 13th Dec and

i had a text and email at 10.08am from Royal Mail confirming they had been delivered to my home address whilst i was at work, hubby was at home

when i spoke to him on my lunch i was surprised and concerned when he said there was no sign of the parcel!

 

As i had an email with the tracking i went online right away and checked the signature - which wasn't my hubbys!

No card had been left, the parcel was not with a neighbour - within 6 doors either side anyway.

 

I called the Customer service number for RM and they advised they could do nothing for at least 3 days as the parcel may turn up, they said the GPS was showing it was nearby but could not be any more specific and advised us to visit the delivery office.

 

My husband did so within the hour.

The guy there spoke to postman who had supposedly delivered that morning, and he 'couldn't remember where he had left the parcel'.

Now we aren't talking a small parcel here - its a large box of 2 huge mats/carpets so not easy to miss/forget! But he got nowhere.

 When i got home from work i went further afield to neighbours down the road but non had the parcel.. 

 

On Saturday 14th (next day) i myself visited the delivery office and spoke to the same person my hubby had the day previous,

this time the Postman said he couldn't even recall delivering to our road at all that day!

I think there is an issue with Postmans health personally! Grr!

 

But in the end i was getting annoyed - they said there was nothing they could do and advised me to contact Customer services which i did on my return home.

As 'somebody' had signed for the parcel and the postman had assigned it to my address I can't even  make a claim through Paypal, and why should I?

the seller would then lose out and they are not at fault here - RM are!

 

I spoke to a lovely lady who eventually advised that a cheque had been sent out the day before for £13 as way of compensation

- I pointed out that the parcel had actually cost 3 times this amount and that no one had asked me the cost...

 

so off she went and spoke to someone else before coming back again.

She said she had spoken to a Manager and a further cheque for £36 would be sent out that day to cover the parcel amount as they now considered the item 'lost',

 

due to the short time left before Christmas I had to re-order and have the second parcel delivered to my work address as i didn't trust RM to not screw up again  .

So now i was out of pocket to the tune of £72! 

 

The second parcel arrived to my work address safe and sound, the first one never materialised

just after Christmas I received an email from RM saying that they were continuing to investigate my case.

 

I called them when  I returned to work on December 30th only to discover that the cheque for £36 as promised had been 'rejected'

- the chap I spoke went through all the notes and practically begged me to make a formal complaint because he couldn't believe the way i'd been treated.

The cheque for £13 has to date still never arrived!

 

that day i fired off a formal complaint as advised, sending it first by email to the email address he advised

- I attached copies of the receipts of both purchases but within a few days received a complete fob off response that said 'my colleague followed all the correct procedures'.

the next step was to send another letter to the Customer Escalations team which i did straight away,

 

today i have received a reply much in the same manner but even more puzzling this one states that a cheque for compensation of £13.45 was cashed on the 10th January!!! I have never received a cheque let alone cashed one!

How do i prove that? 

 

Part of me thinks should i just give up but then i think why should I?

This postman could have just walked away with my sons gift for all we know?

And why the hell should RM not take responsibility?

Is there any other option for me? 

 

So sorry for the mammoth post but i wanted to explain it all.. 

H x

[BankFodder]

I understand that you bought these items from a trader. Normally speaking you would be proceeding against the trader and although it's very noble of you to say that it wasn't the trader's fault, at the end of the day they have a statutory obligation to get the goods to you. Can you tell us who the trader is.

Dealing with Royal mail can often be very difficult because they are protected by statute from various liabilities in return for providing a Universal Service Obligation which means that they are required to deliver around the whole country even if it's not economic to do so. And they have to charge a standard price. However, we have found that for low value items, the post office normally backs down rather than go through the expense of going to court.

 

Things seem to have got a little bit more complicated with you because you have got to the position where they have offered you compensation. On the other hand, it simplifies things to a certain extent because the issue now is not so much that they have lost your parcel but that they agreed to pay you some compensation which then they apparently said was rejected and also that they say that they actually paid you a cheque which has been cashed although you say you have received it.

You say that they offered you a cheque for £36 and that that has now been rejected. Can you tell us how the offer was made and how it was rejected?

I notice that you've been here since 2017 – which is great news because you have been doing this all on the telephone but you are well aware of the fact that you should record your calls and so therefore you have got all of this recorded and safely stored away so there is no problem about evidence. Bravo.

I think you should send an SAR to the Royal mail immediately.

[happycaravan]

Hi Bankfodder,

Firstly thank you for your response, and for not giving up reading that huge post! 
I honestly didn’t expect to have record a call to RM, so unfortunately I don’t have a recording of that initial call. The offer was made over the telephone, they have detailed notes of this however as the chap who ‘more or less begged’ me to take it further knew all about it, so an SAR should show this? 
When sending the SAR do I send that to the last address I’ve received communication from? i.e. the escalation team? 
Thank you 

H

[BankFodder]

Yes, that address for an SAR is fine.

However in terms of call recording – sorry but it's crazy simply to only record calls when you are expecting it. It's precisely when you're not expecting it that all the evidence slip through your fingers.

We try to give good advice here – but if people don't follow it then things get very tough for us and for them. I suppose you can take this as a bit of a slapped wrist but I think that you better sort out your call recording culture if you want to survive this kind of thing.
It's almost like saying "I didn't bother to look before I cross the road because I didn't expect to be hit by motorcar"

[happycaravan]

I totally get it, I think I just took them in good faith - and feel very stupid now! The thing is you’d end up recording every call you make if you treat everyone the same? For future reference can I ask what method you use for recording calls? Usually I do always communicate in writing... 

Thank you again. 
H x

[BankFodder]

Read our customer services guide. It's all there. We have referred you to this before

 

Yes. You do end up recording every call. So what. You delete most of them. It just becomes a little routine that you do. If you record even just one or two calls that count, you will realise that it's all worth it.

[BankFodder]

I think that people need to realise that this forum is not just another piece of social media. If people simply want to chat and moan about their experiences then they have Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram – et cetera et cetera.

This is a serious advice forum where we try to get people out of the holes that they find themselves in. The advice here is given seriously about serious matters and should be taken seriously.

[happycaravan]

Hi again,

I’m sorry if I’ve caused offence, I can assure you I take the forums and advice you all take time to give extremely seriously. Personally I find previous posts difficult to locate, i don’t know if I go about it the wrong way - and as I’ve said many times before I’m not the best with technology. So I apologise if asking for advice on something that maybe obvious to you, causes annoyance - it’s genuinely not a case of wanting to moan on the internet. Believe me, it took me almost an hour to type the original post as I struggle to type due to my health. I am always extremely grateful of your time when responding, the site has given me some invaluable advice in the past. 

Thank you again for your help.

H

[BankFodder]

Well thanks for that post. I'm afraid that my post which may be was a bit harsh – is addressed to everybody who come to this forum for help. I'm afraid it needs to be said from time to time because very often we help people – and they don't even bother to update us as to what the result was. We are very invested in what we do and so some feedback helps to keep our morale up.

Having said that – read our customer services guide – follow the customer services guide link

[AndyOrch]

Quote

Personally I find previous posts difficult to locate, i don’t know if I go about it the wrong way - 

 

Click your name top right in the banner...click profile...this will show all the topics and posts that you have made.Click the relevant topic which takes you to that topic and then post any update.

 

Andy