BFPO - item lost - but who does the tracking?
Hi, does anyone have experience of BFPO orders? We had one, took it to the post office, obtained and inputted into amazon the tracking reference number and thought no more about it. That is until the buyer opened an A-Z case for non-receipt of item, and saying the tracking didnt work. Although it was over the Christmas rush and in the middle of a global pandemic, rather than ask the customer to wait a few more days, Amazon kindly took the money from our account and refunded him, just 5 days later than it should have arrived! I checked the tracking and although it was a Royal Mail service it went by, Royal Mail have since said they dont track BFPO parcels. At no point were we told this at the post office and inputted the tracking info in good faith, having no reason whatsoever to assume it wouldnt work. So if RM dont track it, who does? I have emailed the BFPO website of gov.uk and have also raised the query with RM… As it stands no one is taking any responsibility and we are well out of pocket. Amazon closed in the buyers favour. So what can we do, is there any way we can claim for the items lost in transit? We even asked Amazon to show some compassion to small family businesses such as ours at the moment, as this has not only left us out of pocket to the tune of £120 but they have also put our account at risk of deactivation! Amazon, sadly but not surprisingly, showed us absolutely no compassion! If anyone has any advice, Id be really pleased to hear from you! thanks Julie
7 replies
Seller_zhjiy4JuMEuyF
My experience of BFPOs is that Royal Mail handle them up to the point where they hand them over to the MOD. After that it’s in the MOD’s internal mail system and there’s no way of tracking or knowing how long it will take.
Seller_lljyzgTxr5fgI
Could do with a bit more info here. Firstly, which Royal Mail service was used? Signed For, Special Delivery or standard post? Which then determines which type of tracking number was uploaded. Signed For is not a tracked service, it only offers confirmation of delivery with a signature (which is the postie delivering the item, not the recipient). We have never had an issue with any items sent to BFPO. They always go by Royal Mail, have always been marked as received by the MOD and then it is up to their internal post to ensure the item gets to the recipient, which can be anywhere in the world, literally.
Seller_UVOux9kAO3bCT
Hi thanks for the replies, the certificate of postage just says Signed For Small Parcel. From replies, it sounds like it maybe didnt get as far as the MOD, in which case shouldnt it still be the responsibility of the Royal Mail? But we were given a tracking number by the post office that appears to be useless if they dont track BFPO parcels, so what was the point of giving us it? Were frustrated that Amazon refunded them so quickly despite everything that`s going on at the moment. Thanks again Julie
Seller_UVOux9kAO3bCT
Does anyone know who / where to contact for tracking, to see if I can find out where the parcel is? Thanks Julie
