To complain about postie forging my signature for important document delivery?

[Speccytwit]

I was not home when I received a text informing me that my large letter had been delivered and signed for.

The photograph showed my front door and a signature ( not mine)

i arrived home about an hour later and the letter was in my mailbox on the wall next to the door ( we don’t have letterbox)

There were original birth certificates which were being returned - the sender had paid £8.35 in order that they be safely delivered to my own hands.

Obviously I was happy to not have to go and collect the letter from the sorting office - but not too pleased knowing that my valuable docs weren’t taken care of

Not at the same time.

Bank card gets sent. PIN gets sent a day or 2 later. They are never sent together.

OP, no harm has actually been done, no harm was intended (quite the opposite, this was intended to be helpful) and you have been saved a trip to the sorting office. I think it would be awful to complain about this and I can't imagine why you would.

Are you seriously trying to compare one person's birth certificate being safely delivered, signed for by the postie, with a hypothetical scenario involving a bus load of people not crashing and concluding the risk involved is the same? What disaster could happen from a lost and readily replaceable birth certificate being misdelivered? How many people might have died? What was the actual risk?

YANBU @Speccytwit the postie hasn’t followed the correct / expected process. Ok, maybe they were trying to be helpful (or maybe it was just easier for them), but it was presumptuous, and not the service that the sender paid for.

I had similar after ordering a gift last year. When I got the email from Royal Mail to say which day it would be delivered, I knew I would be in work, so filled out the online form for it to be re-directed to the post office, where I was happy to collect it. My ‘helpful’ postie delivered it to my parents’ house instead (small village). Surprise ruined. Not the end of the world, but frustrating and avoidable.

Obviously I was happy to not have to go and collect the letter from the sorting office - but not too pleased knowing that my valuable docs weren’t taken care of

Which is it? You're pleased that you don't have to go pick them up and the reason you don't have to pick them up is because the postie did you a "favour" but you're going to complain about it?

Just tell them you'd prefer they didn't do this in future and that you'd rather go pick things up from the sorting office.

A delivery person can’t sign for something that they are delivering. The signature is proof of delivery to the householder. A postie’s signature is proof of fuck all.

If the item was meant to be signed for then the mailbox on the wall is completely irrelevant. Even if she had a locked box or a letter box or whatever, the item had to be signed for, therefore it shouldn't be just posted through the door or put in the locked box or (as in this case) put in the mailbox on the wall.
The point of it being signed for is that it is to be handed over to someone in the property and signed for by them. Not shoved in a letter box (of any description) and then the signature is forged by the postie.
If there was no one in it should have been taken back to the depot.

The postie should not have been trying to "do her a favour" or whatever. He should have been doing what he is supposed to do - get a signature from someone inside the property or return it to the depot.

I would report it OP because he really shouldn't be doing that. It could have all kinds of consequences - what if the items were stolen?
Can't believe how dismissive some people are being and saying things like "Anyone can order anyone's original birth certificates". Why should they have to go to that hassle and pay for new birth certificates (or whatever documents they happen to be) because someone isn't doing their job properly.

I would really consider why they felt the need to do that. Perhaps they felt you couldn't be trusted to sign for it yourself.

My postie sometimes opens my mail for me to make sure there's nothing which could trigger my CFK and I'm okay with that.

It's not up to them to feel that the OP couldn't be trusted to sign for it herself.
What on earth do you mean?

It's very simple. The sender paid for the letter to be delivered to the OP and signed for. That means it has to be handed personally to the OP or someone in the house and be signed for by OP or another person in the house.
It's not the postie's place to be decided whether the OP can be trusted to sign for it or not.

I'd only complain if the birth certificates were missing.

What on earth?

Definitely the twilight zone on here. So many people going out of their way to defend the indefensible. Despite good intentions, the postie faked a signature and didn’t fulfill the contract the sender had paid for. It was wrong. Would I report it? Probably not. But the OP’s point still stands.

He or she was probably trying to be helpful, but yes, the procedure is surely to take it to the sorting office if a signature is required, and this is the reason the OP chose that service, because they wanted to pick up the delivery rather than risk it going astray being left poking out of the letter box while they were out.

My dad was a postman and he'd definitely have followed the correct procedure.

The signature is to mark the safe delivery. It was safely delivered.

If anyone nicks your post from the box that's on you.

How can it be large if it went into the box?

You using the word large doesn't make it anymore important.

A postman took my dds passports to a random house on my road and said they had been delivered. That pissed me off.

I do feel sorry for this postie. Just trying to help

It's not really indefensible given the OP is happy she hasn't got to go to the sorting office for it. It would be completely hypocritical to report it.

OP you still haven't clarified whether the postie actually forged your signature/wrote your name or just made a mark/scribble. The latter is NOT forging your signature.

If a neighbour had signed for it, would they have been doing you a favour, or forging your signature?

The bonus of complaining is that you won't have to worry about this happening again as you'll be collecting everything you order from the sorting office 😄

Signed for a couldn't make a fuss about
Special delivery (which this sounds like), absolutely wrong of the postie. You only pay for that if high value, something critical for a legal reason, or irreplaceable. I sent my son's birth certificate special, he had the hassle of going to the sorting office. But I needed to guarantee he got it.

Ha, I didn't even mention the name and it was deleted! 😂

And no, the name I was thinking of was Penelope. The OP is being a real Penelope about this.