Royal Mail rejecting lost item claims
Hello there guys,
I’ve got a small retail online business and I’ve started using Royal Mail services since around April/2020. I don’t have OBA account, though I have applied and never got a response.
Initially I would be buying individual labels via the send.royalmail.com and later I found out about click&drop and I’ve been using it since then. I always buy the labels and drop the items in postboxes.
For items that get lost, I’ve been opening claims and been having a very high success rate while receiving compensation for them. However, from December/2020 onwards, I’ve been getting rejected for pretty much every claim I put through. The reason for rejecting them is very vague (“lack of evidence” - the response comes via post). I’m sure I’m providing the labels bought on their website, plus the proof of cost for the items. I’ve never changed the way I put through these claims, trust me.
I am quite frustrated with the rejections, mainly the lack of clarity on the reason for rejection and with the fact that there isn’t a telephone number that I can call and understand exactly what is going on. I’ve tried calling the customer services helpline, but they can’t do much about it.
If they don’t make this clear to me, I’ll be wasting my time for any future claims that I submit.
It is really frustrating to be seeing such a volume of items getting lost and myself not being financially compensated for them and having to compensate my customer on the other side. For a small business like mine, every penny makes a difference and these have been hard days to everyone, we all know that
Is anyone facing a similar issue with them at the moment
Thank you
88 replies
Seller_lljyzgTxr5fgI
There’s your answer, in black and white. You have no proof of posting. Proof of label purchase it not proof of posting. I am very surprised RM has honoured any claims. I am also very surprised you haven’t had any A-Z claims, which would automatically be awarded to the customer because you have no proof of postage or tracking.
My tip to you here is to do the same as we do; buy your Royal Mail shipping through Amazon. In the event of INR, Amazon have an internal record of the Postage ID (if not sent tracked). If sent tracked, the number appears on the order page. All of our RM claims (and there have been about a dozen in 2020) have all been dealt with and cheque sent within 10 days, no hassle, no worries.
Seller_y7wlA8Npjq1Or
It depends which postal service you use Standard 1st or 2nd ie equivalent to stamps. (no vat)
They will allow claims.
If you use standard business services (vat charged) they don’t allow claims.
Seller_2Zn4LKv3YOnlV
Yes! In between Christmas and New Year, and in the first week of January I was having to drop my click and drop parcels at a main sorting office as my local PO was closed (due to all of the staff having Covid).
We had very high Covid infection rates in late Dec and early January in my area and I know that two of the main sorting offices for the area were running with 30% staff levels, so I imagine that my parcels are sitting somewhere in a big pile waiting for someone to get round to doing something with them.
Of 150 parcels sent, 40 have gone missing. I have either replaced or refunded every missing order and have filed claims for the lost parcels - every single claim has been rejected for the same grounds. All were sent on a 1st class signed for service and none has a delivery update or scan of any sort online. Some purchased through Amazon Buy Shipping and some through my own Click and Drop account,
I am working my way through putting together a letter with supporting documentation (including order information and tracking numbers for replacements or proof of refunds) to send as a single claim against Royal Mail, which I will send via snail mail (Special delivery) and hope that when they see the volume involved they will act more reasonably.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
It sounds like a lot of your mail is getting lost.
Are you posting out a high volume of parcels?
Can you say roughly what percentage of your orders go missing?
For me, it’s always been well below 1%. Probably closer to 0.1%
Seller_3u63TG7fpfnG6
on the marketplace, you have to send it tracked and buy through amazon the extra cost means fewer losses, so instead of offering free postage, I charge, they can pay, too many buyers play the system or are drop shippers, it was a big eye-opener to me during lockdown how things have changed, as I usually just send fba
Seller_L3E8iknKXqZNV
Since it takes 20 minutes to file a claim - paperwork etc
ask if it is worth it.
I stopped claiming years ago - not an economical way to spend your time.
Seller_EZsl5LkDXrPbV
RM allow themselves 90 days for international claims. I wish it really happened in 4 weeks. Tracked a £250 parcel to USA which we had sent addressed to France. Sent tracked and signed for with full insurance. All paperwork attached to claim form online but initially rejected on grounds that they needed proof of posting which they already had. Not the first time they have used this one. Resent claim. Nothing since. Hopefully they will turn up the parcel itself. It takes some incompetence to send a parcel to another continent. As I am still shielding, I use the RM collect service @72p a throw which yields an immediate proof of posting via email. Only allowed 5 parcels per collection which is a pain at times. Can’t praise the posties enough. It’s the system which stinks. Like most insurance systems, the default first response in our experience is to reject to test the resilience of the customer-as in the plot of a John Grisham novel. Have encountered the same with car and house insurance.
That parcel was sent in the second week of October by the way.
Seller_ovMH8VuyV3OaR
Hi
As someone said the best thing to get is a Proof of Postage from the Post Office , also i bet not many of you are aware that Royal Mail only pay out on your original item cost and not your profit.
This is a truthful question i asked , i said hypothetically what if i had bought the Mona LIsa for £1 , sold it for £1 million pound and insured it with them for that ammount , then if it went missing or was damaged how much would i get back - they said £1 as they dont pay for profit, which to me makes there insurance invalid and false.
Please spread the word about this as i am trying to bring the Royal Mail to account , the Post Office isnt even aware of this and i bet most of you arent aware of this.
Seller_J2H5GprhaORbt
Making claims we sent out 27000 parcels with royal mail last qtr all were tracked alll delivered bar 1 which had incorrect postcode on and it was returned o us
No items not received
No a-z claims
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
I was told by them that all compensation was paid on the cost to replace (ie the cost I paid my wholesaler). But in reality it seems they’re paying in full.
Really should get a system in place to claim these I keep forgetting to haha
