Royal Mail lost Special Delivery

[authenticallyclara]

I posted my wedding and engagement band three weeks ago to be rhodium plated... they were sent back RM Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm. Two weeks later there's no sign of them, 0 tracking updates & all RM have told me to do is file a claim 😒 (in hindsight should have gone with a local jeweller but I thought RM was safe!) has this happened to anyone else recently? Do you think they'll show up eventually? AIBU to feel pissed off?

I have a little online retail business and RM put out a email recently apologising, they are overwhelmed and a lot of post is sitting in cages waiting to be distributed, this happened a few months ago and now again with Christmas and all missing parcels including special delivery ones did eventually turn up, they couldn’t be tracked because they were sitting in the cages, hope yours turns up.

I would be pissed off too. This is the jewellers responsibility to sort out though. They need to file a claim. They may ask to see evidence of the value of the rings. Do you have a receipt or recent valuation?

Valuables should be sent registered post , which is treated differently , or used to be .

Also, it is the jeweller’s responsibility to insure them for ample value. If they only sent them with £500 cover, then they should make up the rest of the value themselves. (Unless you had a prior agreement with them regarding the delivery).

I once found several envelopes - stamped but not postmarked - that had been ripped open and scattered, evidently by someone looking for cash.

I phoned the local PO but they didn’t seem interested.
Some had contained photos which I suppose might have felt like cash.
I pieced them all together and re-posted, with an explanation.

Having said that, our postman is brilliant and I’ve never had anything go astray.

Sorry, I think they were nicked rather than lost in the chaos. Happened to my daughters retainers I sent special delivery.

I have posted before about the loss of my daughters dental retainers - sounds silly but by the time they were acknowledged as lost, she got an Ortho appt and got compensated, her teeth had moved and she was no longer entitled to NHS treatment. Cost me £££.

I was advised by their staff to insure over the odds next time.

Do not trust the RM. items are stolen all the time and simply don't use them for irreplaceable items.

The post is very slow the last three weeks, I am an online seller and it’s taking 10+ days for second class parcels. I am only going to use couriers up to Christmas as if they’re this bad now god knows what it will be like in the next couple of weeks.

@StCharlotte my gran still does it! Every time I tell her not to!

@LoveMyKidsAndCats

I had a bday card arrive in total mail 'we are sorry something may be missing' bag, or whatever it said. Pink envelope wripped open and money missing. I rang the number on the clear bag it came in and they apologised but I never heard from them again.

This is the reason I never enclose anything of value with a card. I leave the envelope unsealed or write across the back 'card only, nothing valuable inside'.

Special Delivery items are targeted because they clearly contain something of value and it is the time of year that temporary postal staff have been hired which is when it seems to happen most.

Sometimes RM do undercover investigations if there are enough complaints.

Cash in a card is at senders risk, but Special Delivery is not.

What company did you send you're rings too? Is it a reputable one that you've used before or was it the first time you'd used them?

Isn't it up to the sender to sort this out?

I wouldn't give up hope just yet, as others have said the postal service is under strain

DH is a postie and Specials are treated like the crown jewels in his office - not delivering one before 1pm is more than their jobs are worth. He is crippled by the volume of parcels at the moment; he usually has one bag of parcels on his walk but at the moment they have so many they can barely close the van doors.

I hope it turns up.

Thank you so much everyone for your kind and helpful replies!

In hindsight definitely should have taken them to a local jewellers and obviously wish I had now! They jewellers were recommended to me by my mum, great reviews and no reason to think anything would go wrong.

The sender has filed for compensation and had things rings covered up to a value of £1,000 (they're worth just a little over this so not too bad).

I'm really hoping they're just ridiculously late! But not sure what to think really. The sender hasn't offered a refund but to be fair it isn't their fault as the item was clearly sent. I've attached the screenshot of what the track & trace looks like. No update since the 18th Nov as you can see.

Thanks again for such helpful replies ☺️

A year or so ago, I sold a used mobile back to one of the recycling companies. They quoted me £80 and would have paid that on delivery. I sent it via Special Delivery and as far as I could tell, it never actually left the Post Office that I dropped it off at. The tracking info just said it had been booked into the Post Office.

I raised a claim and luckily it was fairly easy and straightforward as I had the info from the mobile phone company to prove what the item was worth, and of course, all the receipts and tracking info from the Post Office.

As far as I'm aware, it never did turn up and my claim took a couple of months to be processed.

It's not the sender's fault that they were lost but it is their responsibility to put it right. They should be using a more secure method of delivery, IMHO.

Walmer Bridge sounds pretty small?

Hopefully the postie has had to self isolate so it’s been shut for two weeks, or something equally as resolvable.

When I posted SD you had to wait 20 days before filing for loss...

It's not the sender's fault that they were lost but it is their responsibility to put it right. They should be using a more secure method of delivery, IMHO

Royal Mail Special Delivery should be about as secure as you can get. It's sold as tracked at every step and properly insured and the loss rate probably is very low. I'd certainly trust it above the likes of My Hermes. The problem will be that its a busy time of year for them and they'll have lots of temps in, which is likely to increase the number of mistakes made plus covid fall out of course.

DP had a (non special delivery) package turn up after over 3 weeks recently, so hopefully the rings will resurface and are sat in a cage of parcels somewhere.

It's not Royal Mail but ... last year I ordered a gift around the last week of November.
Confirmation email comes - despatched with Hermes (fuckwit of a company, if ever there was one!)
Item never comes so I claim etc, get money back and all's fine. I reorder the gift from somewhere else, it arrives fine - happy days.
Original item eventually arrived at the end of January! Don't lose hope just yet

I've got to say, I've bought and sold a hell of a lot on eBay over the years and RM are by far the best, IMO. I've never had anything go missing, ever. *touches wood cos she's just sent a load of eBay parcels this week!

My mum keeps wanting to send money in cards. I had to tell her a little lie that our post is missing rather than just late. She did bank transfers for the first time e this week as she wants to send my brothers kids money (£200 in total) in cards. I told her she was mad and my brother gave her the bank details.

Looking at your tracking number and trying track and trace myself I would suggest that it may still be at walmer bridge post office. Post office and royal mail are separate companies. Once it had been collected and taken to mail centre it would have been scanned. The fact that there are no further scans makes it look like it was never collected. Maybe it fell down the back of the drawer or something... The sender should go back there and ask at the post office counter. As some one else said earlier, specials are treated like the holy grail in royal mail. They dont just disappear

I don't understand how something which has an address clearly written on it can go missing in the first place? Do they fall off a conveyor belt and get accidentally nudged underneath some machinery or something? I don't get it. It's the equivalent of losing a sock in the washing machine....did it vanish into thin air??? How??? Where??? Completely illogical.

Though, I do remember about ten years ago in the news a postman who was jailed after they found an absolute tonne of undelivered post stashed in his house because he couldn't be arsed to actually deliver it. So that's one way, but I suspect that's very rare. Or theft I guess could occur but I'd like to think not. My Grandad and uncle were posties so I have nothing but respect for how hard they work. The posties round my way are really up against it time-wise and work so hard.

I hope your parcel turns up OP, it must be devastating to lose such precious things.

@picklemewalnuts natural white gold is a warm white (slight yellowish tinge) rhodium plating makes it brilliant white. But the rhodium wears off and has to be replated.
Many high end jewellers no longer rhodium plate advising that if you want brilliant white you go for platinum. The warm white of white gold works really well with certain stones like green and yellow sapphires.

St Charlotte
People do still send cash in envelopes. It may not be the safest way of transferring money, but it does still happen

Royal Mail are hopeless. I would never use them for anything of value. I hope that you get your money back (or your rings).

@marydtf

Looking at your tracking number and trying track and trace myself I would suggest that it may still be at walmer bridge post office. Post office and royal mail are separate companies. Once it had been collected and taken to mail centre it would have been scanned. The fact that there are no further scans makes it look like it was never collected. Maybe it fell down the back of the drawer or something... The sender should go back there and ask at the post office counter. As some one else said earlier, specials are treated like the holy grail in royal mail. They dont just disappear

Heya, yes I would have thought this too. However the sender actually went to the post office and was given a report which shows that all the special delivery items that day were collected by a royal mail postman (my one is the one at the very bottom) and they were signed as collected...so not sure what to think really !