Royal Mail

[RhubarbRhubarb23]

After a hellish time at my local post office ( very long queue, exceptionally rude staff who made me cry) I decided to invest in a printer so I wouldn't have to endure the queue or staff again. I bought some postage online to post my DC's old and current (other country) passport to the passport office for his passport renewal.

The postie came to pick up the item, and it was all great - except now I think about it the postie said it was his first time collecting something from someone's door. Eeeek. He did scan it though and I got a confirmation email that it had been picked up. I posted it Signed for 1st Class and when I go to tracking on the website it says 'unable to confirm the status of your item' and then when I click on this it says 'Sorry we haven't tried to deliver this yet, so we haven't got an update. Please try again later.'

I 'posted' it with the postie 4 days ago. I've checked the passport app tracking too and it's not showing up there.
Have they lost it? What do I do? I tried calling them yesterday but the queue to speak to someone was apparently 60 minutes so I didn't stay the course. What if they've lost it - will my kid's passport app still be able to go through and can I claim for the cost of the current foreign passport replacement?

Post office is terrible at the mo, in my area anyway

I've never had anything collected but I guess the postie posts it to the Passport Office address?

They are very behind so the signed for first class will take a few days.

Then the Home Office will take a while to acknowledge it.

I have a tracked item under 48h postage that was meant to be delivered to me on Thursday. Still hasn't arrived.
Last week Dh got something that had been sent in October, with first class postage on it.

Couple of things - you dont need a printer as the postie will bring your labels (free) when you buy online. And 1st Class 'signed for' is not a tracked service so you can't locate your item until its delivered.

These days, 1st class is lower priority than than Tracked 24 so if you posted it in Wednesday I wouldn't worry yet. My postie collects dozens of small parcels from me each week, I always use Tracked 24 and it's a brilliant service!

The mail is delivered to the passport office in bulk. It's not always signed for. It's highly unlikely it's lost.

@EmmaEmerald the Post office and Royal mail are two completely separate companies.

Thanks everyone for your knowledge and thoughts. I'm feeling less worried about it now thanks to your reassurances.