To assume this item has been stolen? Or to assume it would have been safe?

[TheRealAmandaClarke]

i am a bit cross this week. I sent a giftcard through the post last week and it did not arrive at its destination.
Some people have remarked that it was foolish to imagine it was safe in the post. Well, i wont be doing it again so they might have a point.

So am I unfairly judging an imaginary postal worker for stealing my niece's birthday present?
And if not, is this to be expected?

Hmmmm, someone I talk to on twitter had the exact same problem this week. The envelope had been slit open and the gift cards taken out. The card got there in one piece though.

I have sent gift cards many times and they have got there ok. But all it takes is for one person to be less than honest and you have a problem.

My DC have recieved various cards with the ends of the envelopes slit open. I warned family members not to put any cash/gift cards/vouchers in envelopes after the first time. Unfortunately, there is no way of finding out or proving who did it.

Did you put the correct postage on? A family member sent us a gift card in the post but it hadn't arrived after a week or so so we chalked it up to experience and assumed it had been lost or stolen. We then had an underpaid postage notice through the door, went to collect it and it was the missing gift card.

In future, I think they'll stick to e-vouchers

We had three items of post that didnt arrive about a month ago, coincidentally they were all cards. There was no money in any of them but obviously they were stolen because it looked like there might have been.

I have told everyone with ears about this in the hope that they dont send money through the post, or at least send it seperately in a non card looking envelope.

"Everyone with ears" brilliant bogeyface

I think the post office has a real problem with this but seems to do nothing at all about it.
Having said that, not sure what they could do?
I suspect they have so many people working for them the place must be so busy etc, it would be difficult to tackle the issue.
I wonder if any MN are post office staff or know people who are? It would be interesting to hear an insider's view.

I would imagine that the main security issue is the collection of letters from the post boxes. After that they are in the system and I would imagine is less easy to pinch them, but until they are in the system anything could happen to them. All it takes would be a few minutes to go through a bag and filch and likely looking envelopes, and I guess the same when delivering. Not sure how you could tackle that without have full time supervision of all collection and delivery staff.

I've never had a problem with gift cards sent through the post. But we have a problem with parcels going missing in the last 18 months. Our old postie was brilliant, but the new one seems to leave the parcels on the front door with no message through, so I'm not sure if it's him or someone passing picking them up.
The thing that I've noticed is when I get a replacement sent it's never gone missing, but it's about 30% of first time parcels (we don't get many) which makes me suspect that the person assesses the second one and decides they don't want a second. The one that gave that away was the book order I had from Amazon where the second one the seal had been broken and the books could have just slid out.

We never have anything expensive or particualrly great sent through the post, so hopefully they'll have decided it's not worth pinching shortly.

It's happened every time to us. Family no longer post money, gift cards etc.

Our post comes through the Peterborough area sorting office. It seems to be notorious for this.

I now send birthday cards either inside a brown boring looking envelope or I don't include anything inside and don't seal the envelope (so any thief can open it to check the is nothing worth stealing!)

Our Postie said complaints re items going missing have soared and coincided with the Post Office cutting back on permanent sorting staff and employing casual temporary staff who don't stay long - especially on the run up to Christmas.

I never, ever, ever, like, for 6 years, get any post on a Monday, nor do I ever see the postman. Have asked a friend who works there and she says this is impossible for a city1 postcode, but my postman is or appears to be over retirement age, so I tend to wonder whether he takes Mondays post and goes home for a kip but delivers them all on Tuesday? My point being, they're not all honest!

Oh and another possibility is that they were wrongly delivered. When I was little me and my siblings have birthdays very close together.

We had over the month of our birthdays almost no post one year. Dm went and talked to the local PO and found that a new worker had accidently put a lot of our post to the house with the identical road name in the next village.
So dm went to the house and asked. And they produced a pile and said "oh yes, we were planning on bringing them round." However most of the birthday cards were not there, which would have been roughly 20 cards. Dm reckoned that they had thought there was a possibility of gift cards/money in the cards (there would have been some, but not a huge amount, perhaps 50- 60 total over all our birthdays) so they'd opened them.

We dont get Monday post either.

dewee how bloody cheeky

Good idea wineoclock

About 10 years ago before chip and pin, my bank card was stolen and they signed the back of it and emptied my account for me.

Luckily I was working in Germany and all transactions had taken place in London...the bank refunded all my money but I've never trusted the posties since, I never send money/giftcards through the post.

Popcorn dreadful! Thank goodness the bank did the right thing.

Dave Gorman did a test for one of his shows where he posted cash in windowed envelopes so that it could be seen, to see if it arrived. He also wrote something like Test envelope : 63225 on each envelope. LO and behold, they all made it safely!! Perhaps that's a technique to adopt!

one birthday all my cards arrived about a week late and one was ripped into 4 pieces. I assume the postman was disappointed no one sent me any cash.

Ah, but was there a control lizzie?

likethshoes

Please remember that it's Royal Mail that deals with post. Yes, we buy stamps at the Post Office and leave parcels there but anything that's put into a pillar box is handled solely by Royal Mail. PO and RM are two separate entities.

I know they used to be one unified service.

Hopefully you're all complaining about these thefts? Who does one contact, police or post office?

I've often had cards and letters turn up in sealed plastic envelopes, as they had been 'found' with the envelope slit. I haven't sent money in he post for years. These days, it's easier to deposit money into people's accounts [or their parents accounts] direct from my bank account, and better than risking the postal service.

Once, they found thousands upon thousands of items of missing mail in someone's loft [around 12 years ago IIRC]. Loads of us in the town received old birthday cards and such, as they went through it all and delivered it. One of my good friends got a letter which had been sent about a week before the sender committed suicide but the letter inside had been taken out. She was devastated; that she thought she could have helped her friend and it was a cry for help. All very sad.

Oh funkyboldeibena that is dreadful.

What a shocking thread ! This has never happened to me. I hope you're reporting these thefts.