Lost in post - Claiming from Royal Mail

[ejralph]

This is a FYI post really - just passing on what I have learned

For those of your selling your work - if your beads should not arrive with the customer, you CAN claim the full price from Royal Mail providing you were adequately insured.

However, RM make it as hard and as scary as they can in the hope that you will just not bother.

Well DO bother.

I have had two packages go missing (not bad in selling mail order for nearly 10 years!). In both cases I have claimed for the full value I sold the beads at and they have paid up. I have learned what info you need to state in order to cut through the red tape it seems, because the last claim went through very easily and quickly.

Anyway. I have a template covering letter you can send in with any claim, plus details of what you need to include to hopefully get you your full refund if it is necessary.

If anyone would like a copy of this, just PM me and I will send it along to you. Or if there is enough interest, I can copy and paste it here in this thread.

I just urge any of you that do have anything go missing - DO CLAIM. Don't let them intimidate you out of what is rightfully yours!

Emma

[handmadeheaven.biz]

sounds great info emma. maybe a copy and paste would be helpful here. will save u sending out the same information all over the place too

[julieHB]

I would love to have that information, however posted. Thanks for taking the trouble, Emma!

[Lush!]

Yes please  

[Caroline]

i'd love it too please, you never know when you might need it

[ejralph]

Okey dokey

Probably is easiest.

Ok - Step by Step

1. Fill out and print the claim form from Royal Mail website. This is HARD to find.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content2?catId=69800733&mediaId=80300735

2. Collate the following to send with your claim form:


- Your certificate of posting / receipt (you may want to keep photocopy of this for your own records, but send RM the original)

- Copy of your invoice to the customer

- print out of product pages from your website, showing the items that went missing with their price. This isn't always possible, but it helps validate your claim

- Covering letter - see below - signed by you. It is important to sign it



Below is the template of the letter I have sucessfully used both times. If you have a certificate of posting or till receipt, you can claim up to a max of £36 on first class post. If you sent it Special Delivery you are insured much higher. If the value of your beads are higher than this, claim the maximum of £36, but include the sales invoice showing their true, higher value.

Do note one thing though - they made the cheque payable to my business name one time and me personally another time. So if you do not have a bank account set up with your business name make sure you add a note that any cheques payable must be to you personally.

Also remember you can only claim for the actual postage paid, not your full P&P price if it is different. But for your own handmade beads there is no reason to ask for anything less than the full amount.

Letter template (just change the details as appropriate):

Dear Sir / Madam

Please find enclosed a claim form for items lost whilst in the care of Royal Mail.

The items lost were handmade beads, sent to my customer together in one package via First Class post.

These beads are handmade by me. As such, the price I sell them for is their wholesale price – i.e. the lowest I can afford to sell at.  This wholesale price breaks down into two components – the raw materials used and my labour costs in making them. Both of which are indeed true costs of their manufacture.  (I do not feel it appropriate to disclose further how those costs break down, since that is personal information beyond the scope of your enquiry.)

So the price shown on the enclosed invoice is indeed the actual cost price for these items. I have signed this letter below as testimony to this statement.

I wish to claim back the full invoice amount against this loss, as is my entitlement under the terms and conditions of Royal Mail first class postage.

The amount I wish to claim is £**.** which covers my loss for the missing items plus actual postage paid. I enclose my certificate of posting, claim form, evidence of value for the individual items lost and commercial invoice for the sale. I trust this is all you will need to complete your enquiry promptly. However if you have any other queries relating to this matter, please contact me.

With Best Regards,

And this all needs to be sent to their customer services centre - the address can be found on the claim form I think.

Hope that helps should anyone end up with missing items.

Emma

[June]

Thanks for this info, Emma.  Very useful    I have tended to use Recorded Delivery up to now, but doesn't mean to say it won't get lost !

[Dragonfire Glass]

That's great Emma - thank you 

Abbey set my business account up as me trading as so either my personal name or my business name can be paid into the account. Apparently the inland revenue are good at making business cheques to personal names!

[julieHB]

Thanks, Emma, I've made sure I copied and printed this immediately - knowing me I wouldn't be able to find the post again  

[ejralph]

Thanks for this info, Emma.  Very useful    I have tended to use Recorded Delivery up to now, but doesn't mean to say it won't get lost !

Debate rages about the point of recorded delivery.

In theory, it should tell you if the customer has received it. So you can get peace of mind that the customer will not pretend it has got lost when in fact they have it.

However, this depends on two things - that you don't trust your customers and you DO trust the delivering postman.

In my experience, the reverse is true. My customers are nearly all darlings who wouldn't dream of making baby Jesus weep with porkie pies. Whereas I have lost count of the times I have heard of postmen faking the signatures on Recorded Delivery items.

So, if a postie fakes the signature but the item is in fact damaged or lost, you are not able to claim.

In one of my claims, the item was recorded delivery and the ladies cleaner signed for it, not seeing that the Jiffy had been ripped open and was empty. Luckily it arrived in one of the Royal Mail see-through baggies, proving the damage occured with them. But the point is the same.

Recorded delivery offers you no more protection or compensation than normal first class post. It is handled the same way, all it "prooves" is that the package has been signed for as delivered, although that is not always trustworthy if the postie is dodgy!

I have mixed feelings therefore about Recorded. I do use it sometimes. If I am sending to a persons work address for instance it can be useful. It also allows your shipment to qualify for seller protection through Paypal should the buyer make a claim. But all in all, I have come to discover that out of the customers, paypal and royal mail - it is the customers who are the most trustworthy!

Emma

[julieHB]

This is very interesting information, which I have never thought through before. Thanks again!!

[June]

Hmm, I see what you mean !  I think my reasons for going with recorded were a few instances of missing items being reported on here, however, I do see what you are saying.  So far, most of my purchases have been via eBay using PayPal, but it isn't easy to know which way to go !  Still, if you can claim back from the Post Office, may be worth taking the chance?

[Soozintheshed]

I don't even bother claiming anymore, because I am a business they will only give me 40% of the value, and no postage.

And this was after a lot of negotiation, they wanted copies off all my reciepts, I would have spent more hours rooting them out than the claim was worth !

Sometimes I stock them up and send them in in bulk, just so I can let them know just how many go missing.  I would estimate around 10 parcels a month, and I send about 25 out a day !  that's just crap in my opinion.

[ejralph]

Sooz, that is a hell of a lot of missing packages.

I send out pretty much the same amount of parcels a day - monday to saturday. In the last 8 years of doing that only had 3 or 4 things fail to arrive in total. Having worked in lots of mail order places before this I can also say I have never seen such a high loss rate.

Something is going really wrong with the post in your area. Sounds like someone at the post office is swiping your stuff. Can you not ask RM to investigate this because it seems way above the norm to me.

I agree though that it is hardly worth claiming for regular retail supplies. Just too much work.

But with people's handmade beads, I think it is worth claiming. The paperwork is less and being the actual manufacturer of the item, means we can claim back its full sale price, since that was essentially our trade price.

They just bank on people not bothering though, don't they.

Emma

[Magpie]

I don't even bother claiming anymore, because I am a business they will only give me 40% of the value, and no postage.

And this was after a lot of negotiation, they wanted copies off all my reciepts, I would have spent more hours rooting them out than the claim was worth !

Sometimes I stock them up and send them in in bulk, just so I can let them know just how many go missing.  I would estimate around 10 parcels a month, and I send about 25 out a day !  that's just crap in my opinion.

This does seem a high amount to go missing as RM reckon they deliver 99.9% of stuff on time etc. I'm sure when I first came here (only a few months ago) someone was saying they were going to stop putting their business name on the outside of parcels as lots seemed to go missing. Try that for a month and see if it makes any difference. Keep records and if there is a difference get RM to investigate.