How do you make a claim for an item lost in the post?

[gossi the dog]

A game that I sent to a person in France has gone missing in the post. It was sent via standard airmail and I have a proof of posting so according to the Royal Mail website I can make a claim for compensation. However, on the website it doesn't tell you where to make the claim. Do you email them? Send a letter? Or simply go into your local post office branch?

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Sion

[buster_broon]

A game that I sent to a person in France has gone missing in the post. It was sent via standard airmail and I have a proof of posting so according to the Royal Mail website I can make a claim for compensation. However, on the website it doesn't tell you where to make the claim. Do you email them? Send a letter? Or simply go into your local post office branch?

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Sion

go to the post office and get a claims form and fill it in to the best of your ability

also show proof that the buyer did indeed pay for something, like print an ebay page or paypal page

just sent off 2 claim forms for ebay items that went missing

with UK stuff Royal mail claim off themselves with international mail it takes a wee bit longer as they are claiming off the foreign mail company

A friend sent me a parcel from Canada and it went missing and it too him 8 months to get a refund

[Salsa Party Animal]

How long was it missing - just interested to know.

[gossi the dog]

Cheers Buster

I sent the game just over four weeks ago.

[ascender]

So does this mean that as long as you keep proof of posting, there's no real benefit to be had by sending it recorded delivery? Apart from the obvious proof of recipt.

[gossi the dog]

I'd say that there's less chance of something sent by recorded going missing and you can track your item but to be honest it's not really worth the extra money.

[MattyD]

You could either:

• Try calling Royal Mail Customer Services on 08457 740740
• Go to your local delivery office (i.e. your local sorting office, not the Post Office) and ask for a claim form at the front desk
• Visiting Royal Mail Customer Services online.
• Tracking the item with Royal Mail's online tracking service. This will let you know if the item left the country or not, but may not provide any details beyond that.

Hope that helps for now!


PS check out this similar thread to see how postmen see Recorded Delivery - in your case, since you were the sender, it IS worth the money because it will allow you to claim compensation and to back yourself up with the buyer for the item not arriving. It doesn't help much for the sender though, and it doesn't make it any less likely to go missing (though I will point out that less than 0.001% of all mail handled in the UK goes missing.).

[MattyD]

MODS - if you'd consider making a sticky thread or adding a page on the main site regarding postal problems, PM me!

[RetroRevival]

Just to add to this...

If something is paid for via PAYPAL and it goes lost or missing, PAYPAL will only refund the money to the buyer if it has been sent Recorded or Special delivery, or other means that can be checked with by signature.

So basically if I buy something for ?400, paying via Paypal, and you send it standard parcels, it would be pretty easy for me to claim that it never arrived and then claim a refund from Paypal. The refund would be granted as you could not prove it was received.

HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART.

Paypal only grant refunds on lost items IF the seller cannot prove that it has been recieved. They are in the buyers favour 100% in this respect.

Of course finding out this the hard way means that I now always send and request recorded or special delivery with everything over a value that I can afford to lose. Of course this is only in my experiences although a call to Paypal recently confirmed this to me too.

Also it seems that it is a lot quicker claiming compensation from recorded or special delivery items than those sent through standard mail, in my few experiences I was only waiting 10 days max for the cheque to arrive through my letterbox after sending the claim form in.

Just a little warning to you all. Hope it helps someone at some point.

Regards
Simon