Present potentially stolen by Royal Mail?

[Lemonyfuckit]

This isn't an AIBU as such but wondering whether this has happened to anyone else. I sent a present to a friend - inside the Jiffy bag was a card and the present. When it arrived (taped up with lots of tape apparently) only the card was inside - I can only assume the parcel was opened, present taken, and then re-taped up and delivered. Has anything like this happened to anyone else? I just sent it first class, not recorded so can't imagine I'm going to get much out of Royal Mail, albeit it was a rather nice (and expensive) birthday present. I guess I should have sent it tracked but my god, the bare-facedness of it!

It's happened once or twice to me, although not been delivered at all, my sis has had it happen more. Then Royal Mail say they have 'looked everywhere' (yeah RIGHT) and you'll have to come up with receipts etc..
During the strikes, solicitor's letters & sympathy cards from our Mum's death never made it to my sister's address. I don't know whether they are just thrown away or what.. people just seem to be using RM less & less, & I can see why..

I've never had this with Royal Mail, but it's happened to me with another delivery service. Incredibly annoying.

It might have got torn or damaged in the sorting process and the item fallen out. This happens every day. I've not had this exact scenario happen to me but had an online delivery that had been torn open and taped up. One of the items was inside, the other was missing. Also included was a box of charity Christmas cards which is not the something the retailer I bought from even sold. What had clearly happened is that the package got damaged and someone in the sorting office had just put back what they assumed had been in it.

I’ve had this with a present I sent to my son
its a long story but I was on the phone to him when his dog was hit by a car-he saw it and I heard it
to make him smile after the shock,I ordered him a keyring,fridge magnet and a card
wrapped it all up really well and sent it
he got an empty envelope in a bag,with a sticker saying ‘sorry,this may have been damaged’
it was torn in a way that it was clear someone had used scissors to make the first cut and then torn it to get to the contents
we complained but Royal Mail didn’t care and he got nowhere
I’m still angry about it

Sending an expensive present via normal mail is just foolish.

@phishy That's helpful..

Omg this is so horrible! I'm so sorry 😢

Not with Royal Mail but this happend with something I bought on Vinted that was delivered by Inpost.

I sent a large birthday card to a relative. They phoned later and asked whether I’d included money or a gift card, because the card had arrived with the envelope ripped apart. Obviously, RM had opened it to see if there was something inside the card.

I had a birthday card with the envelope and card ripped, which was a shame because the card was a limited edition print. In my experience RM as an organisation, don’t care, don’t respond to formal complaints and couldn’t give a toss. Our postie is lovely, but every time there’s been an issue and I’ve followed the complaints procedure, there’s been no response.

I sent my friend a couple of Jamie Oliver books for her birthday. They were well wrapped, and obviously not the sort of shape to have odd bits sticking out to get caught up in machinery or anything. What arrived was a plastic bag containing the remnants of the wrapping and a couple of old stamp albums. I got nowhere either with trying to get any satisfactory answer - complete indifference from Royal Mail.

RM are a nightmare for nicking presents and vouchers out of post. If you complain they just say that it got ripped by a machine. Funny how the machines only rip cards with vouchers/cash in!! I send vouchers by email now as I can't trust the thieving RM😡

Going back years now. I remember hearing about a postman who got caught opening envelops that were clearly cards (and removing the cash) and parcels. There were a lot of complaints from his area of sorting and they then did some kind of surveillance and caught him with enough evidence he was prosecuted.
I'd assume there is plenty of opportunities should someone wish to exploit it. Shame. Because it's those ones who will give the good ones a bad name too.

Standard first class only covers up to £20 value, £50 if it's sent signed for so depending on the value you may struggle to get the full value refunded.

https://www.royalmail.com/retail-compensation-policy-damage

When I used to live In Harlesden years ago, if anything looked like a card -coloured envelope or anything like that - it would never arrive.

I lost flight tickets, cards etc and when I complained and claimed they said they’d look into it. I saw in the press that 2 people were fired from the sorting office for theft, so there is sometimes a point to complaining.

Thanks for your contribution
I obviously shan't be doing that again but it was securely wrapped so it shouldn't be entirely foolish to trust Royal Mail to deliver it safely and honestly.

This was my error, but at least I'll hopefully get something back. I didn't want to send it signed for as it would hopefully have fitted through her letterbox and likely be delivered whilst she was at work, but tracked would have been the better option.

Yep. My local post office were notorious for stealing stuff. They even pretended a delivery attempt (I was in all day, postman never came and no card was left) then the local office claimed I’d picked it up, they even forged my signature as ‘proof’. Unfortunately for them, they put a date and time stamp on their ‘receipt’ so when I was able to prove I was elsewhere and that the signature was forged, they sulkily gave me a refund for the contents.

A friend used to temp there and she said the theft level by staff was shameless 😔

If the item you've sent is on their restricted list, you won't get anyhing. You'll need to show proof of purchase of te item you sent and you may only get a book of stamps as compensation if there's a large value difference between the cost and the cover you had (£20)