royal mail proof of posting but no delivery

[RedPutty]

I bought a small piece of hardware (worth £20) and the company (a small one man shop it seems) have been giving me the runaround, taking ages to dispatch my order, ignoring my emails and then saying its despatched.
It never arrives.
Finally they send me a scan of some royal mail page where it shows they posted it and say i have to take it up with the post office in my area. I spoke to the P.O and then went to the sorting office and showed it them but they said it wasnt any use in tracking down the delivery. I think it was a "standard parcel" delivery. I told the company this and they said they often have trouble with royal mail. I order loads of stuff online and have never had this problem before. The company are well dodgy almost claiming i am trying to defraud them yet i have all my emails etc and made numerous phone calls each time a different excuse.
So does anyone know what I can do legally. I paid for it by paypal (using credit card i think). I cant do anything more at my end if run around as much as i'm willing to with a piece of paper thats useless for tracking a parcel.
Thanks.

[Dougal]

Well the company doesn't have a leg to stand on.

The proof os postage is just that, they have noty ensured to a reasonable extent that you have recieved the package. If you need to you should be able to contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

But you do have full invoices don't you? with the dates matching your Statements, just to make sure everything is clear on your side.

[Knoxville]

Standard Parcel Delivery can't be tracked and iirc doesn't offer any form of insurance so it is all down to the company, having said that the post office should have a record of the parcel getting to the sorting office if the company actually posted it.

[Swafe]

I think all items sent royal mail have a minimum insurance of 30 for first and 20 quid for second, with a proof of posting

The problem is just that, proof, unless its sent recorded or special and theres a record of whether it has been recieved or not, so you could probably claim (think you have to fill a form in at the post office and send it off) but nothing may come of it, as thers no hard evidence it didnt show up, just your word against theres.

Chances are the ebayer will fob you off, might be worth chasing it yourself, but Im pretty sure it is the responsibility of the seller to chase up, as he sent, and paid for the postage.

[RedPutty]

Thanks for the input. A friend of mine said it was the companies responsibility but I wasnt sure so thought i would ask. I will chase up further with the seller and then go through paypals and then the CC companies procedures. I am still fuming about how the company has been claiming they sent it "within hours" yet they didnt send it until days later after a number of calls. Their web site didnt even register my order despite happily taking my payment so i kept trying to get in touch with them. Emails werent answered and the phone number was an answering machine night and day. Then the posting slip they sent shows they didnt send it until days after they claimed.

They actually blamed me at one point for not "completing my order properly" on the website (the site was broken) yet in the same email later say they fixed the problem with the site "within hours", so was it broken or not
lol sorry for the rant.

[Swafe]

Did you pay by paypal ? If he has paypal and ebay seller protection if you get onto them I think they can reverse it somehow, and give you your money back if the goods are not recieved, then they leave it solely to the trader to cover the cost, by form of claiming the compensation for themselves

[Speed]

Royal Mail Standard Parcels is a 3-5 day service with a standard insurance of £28.00 for loss or damage. It also doesn't have any tracking as far as I'm aware, not even proof of delivery.

As a company they should simply refund you or resend another item, they won't be losing out as they can reclaim the cost up of a replacement item up to £28.00 from Royal Mail(more if they paid for extra compensation). You have to wait two weeks before claiming, but it is still down to the company to sort your problem out first.

[Speed]

Did you pay by paypal ? If he has paypal and ebay seller protection if you get onto them I think they can reverse it somehow, and give you your money back if the goods are not recieved, then they leave it solely to the trader to cover the cost, by form of claiming the compensation for themselves

If he did pay by PayPal I think he has 45 days from the date of the transaction to claim it back. PayPal are pretty good, just login into your account and file a claim. If sucessful then you'll be refunded completely, try not to over complicate things though. Giving PayPal and essay on what happened down to the last detail will likely slow your claim down.

If you have a credit card attached to PayPal and that is what you used, then contact the credit card company first. They will jump through hoops to get your money back (one of the only good things about owning credit cards).

[jonjayal]

Royal mail have stuffed me out of 100.00GBP for not delivering an item. I took out insurance too, but they claim that that means absolutely nothing!!!

What a waste of time IT all comes from Microdirect sending me the wrong case when I ordered it and having to send it back.

[Speed]

How did you make the claim? form?

I used to do that but I found it easier to just call their complaints department and they sort it over the phone. At least they did with my two late special delivery items.

[jonjayal]

I've filled in two claim forms and phoned customer services countless times... The last letter back from them arrived friday (3 months after the loss...!)

So the war begins again tomorrow I guess!

[jonjayal]

Well... called them today and they've reopened the case. I have sooo much confidence its all sorted now

No doubt cheque and additional compensation in the post box tomorrow?

[Nox]

hmmm, my wife had a bag not delivered, sent last week too - company also had a proof of postage. We took a look into it, and we have to wait 15 days before its officially lost - the company who sent it said they would give her a refund after 3 weeks no probs, but we replied saying all we wanted was a bag!!

Guess its down to individual companies. Oh, buying things with a credit card means you're safe - I always make sure I buy all online purchases with credit card.

Nox

[jonjayal]

@Nox

Great point about the credit card... I did pay for it with a VISA actually. I'll try to claim on that!

Thanks for the help guys

[Speed]

If he did pay by PayPal I think he has 45 days from the date of the transaction to claim it back. PayPal are pretty good, just login into your account and file a claim. If sucessful then you'll be refunded completely, try not to over complicate things though. Giving PayPal and essay on what happened down to the last detail will likely slow your claim down.

If you have a credit card attached to PayPal and that is what you used, then contact the credit card company first. They will jump through hoops to get your money back (one of the only good things about owning credit cards).

*Cough*