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?

The trick is not to send birthday cards in a birthday card style envelope as they get targeted

My mum daftly sent some euros to my niece and nephew before their summer holiday. She put the money inside a card and then in a jiffy bag to disguise the contents.

The parcel didn't arrive.

On speaking to the post office she was told that Royal Mail staff have scanners which reveal the contents of packages and vouchers/money going missing in the post is absolutely rife.

There's no point complaining, their complaints service is worse than useless in my experience. The most you'll get out of them is some fine words and a book of stamps.

When ds was born, lots of people sent gifts. Most of them never arrived.
I live in an area where a lot of my post seems to make it here. I'm always pleasantly amazed.
I've worked sorting mail. It is very, very easy to steal. It's not really 'in the system' unless it's been recorded in some way.
In the time I worked there, I was never searched. I would not have dreamed of stealing mail. But ... Years later, I ran into a co-worker from that period. He was very drunk and was bragging loudly about how much he stole.

Mind you, given how much mail there is, and the necessarily porous nature of the system, it really does stand as a striking testament to ghe honesty of the majority of us.
Which is great.
Though little comfort if you are one of the unlucky ones with someone dishonest in the chain dealing with your area.
You should complain. However, it used to be the case that only the sender could complain - which is very rubbish.

I've had a card arrive from my very elderly Grandma with envelope slit and no money inside. I called G to politely ask if she'd sent money (she always does) and lo and behold, she had and it had been stolen. £20.

Phoned Royal Mail to alert them this had happened and got an absolute witch basically telling me my Grandma was stupid. I know you're not meant to send money by post but ffs she's almost 90 and they could have at least apologised for their staff stealing. But just rudeness and making it our fault for trusting them in the first place.

The thing that really got me is that the card the money was stolen from said 'granddaughter' so was obviously from someone elderly and my G's writing inside was very shaky. So the thief knew they were stealing from an elderly person. I found that very upsetting.

Didn't know it could happen with gift cards too. Big sigh

But Tiggytape, the recipient can provide that information.
Also, look at my example, the number of thefts occurring among the cohort of mail sent to me hugely pointed to an issue at my end.
And there was, too. I ended up being given a tour by the manager who complained ruefully about the embedded culture of dishonesty he was trying to deal with.
He was very nice.
But I didn't ever get any of the gifts.

RM are frankly shit, and always have been. A combination of appalling industrial relations, a closed culture and rock bottom morale.

The pp who mentioned Peterborough sorting office: I worked there alongside people I wouldn't have trusted to operate a light switch let alone a lorry. And they were the honest ones.

I get paid by cheque by some business's & I pick them up because if they post them in a ite DL envelope the corners get opened.

I come under Swadlincote sorting office.

I've found that recorded delivery is actually worse for things going missing than just the normal service is. Bizarre. It seems to send a signal that it's something worth stealing. And they never investigate or apologise.

I've had so many cards (sent by and to me) go missing or turn up ripped open. Always send any money or gift cards, etc in a separate envelope but it's still shit that my dd's sometimes don't get all their cards because of some thieving bumhole at the post office.

I've never reported it though...maybe i should in future.

it hadn't occurred to me about gift cards, but sadly with a huge organisation even 0.1% crooks will mean a lot of stolen post.

please report if it happens, and if you get someone saying 'stupid to send cash' the answer is 'yes, but that doesn't negate the fact that you have a thief working for yo'.

Have you got the receipt? If there's a serial number on it they could cancel or find out who used it if its been used as a part payment with a credit card/paypal etc.

I always post Birthday/Christmas cards with vouchers in by putting them inside a plain brown envelope or jiffy envelope to disguise the fact they are birthday cards. Birthday cards are prime targets for rogue postmen/women.

Always report to Royal Mail as it is the only way they can establish a pattern and raise further investigations. You probably won't get your money back but it may help catch a thief.

This is really awful. I'm a very trustworthy person and I hate to think that this happens.

I've only ever had one thing go missing (as far as I'm aware). This was during the period our regular postie was on holiday. He's either retired or moved to a different route now

*Trusting rather than trustworthy.

They do investigate and they do need to know (even if individual complaint handlers are useless), so do complain.

A Royal Mail worker (ex-BF) once told me (of the postcode) that if you put the postcode on its own line the machines can read it "... and believe me, you want the machine and not the alleged humans sorting your post".

I'm not saying that solves everything. What he told me echoes what others have said about temporary workers being most of (not all) the problem.

Going back 30 years to when my then boyfriend worked as a postman, certain of his colleagues had the parcels pretty much sewn up. He'd open anything he thought might be worth stealing.

These days complaining to RM is a joke. We have made numerous complaints about mail not being redirected but they want proof. Obviously we changed addresses on things we regularly get but a subscription I couldn't change until renewal was hardly ever redirected. Other things apparently can't be redirected but they don't tell you that.

The highlight was when they muddled up our redirection with a neighbours despite different surnames and road names!