Post Office not honouring recorded delivery

Welcome to the postcard.co.uk board, for discussion on all aspects of the hobby. You'll need to register to post but this only takes a few seconds and gives you access to more of the features and options available. Please read the the HOW to REGISTER article first. thanks

Moderator: MichaelDay

franbroom
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 10:31 am

Post Office not honouring recorded delivery

Post by franbroom »

Hi

I am new to this forum and would like to know if any members have had dealings with the Post Office which have left them out of pocket?
I am not a proper dealer, merely a disabled lady with a love of postcards. I only sell on ebay, putting on about 130 postcards a week. Should a postcard or postcards sell for over £10, I use Recorded Delivery Signed For. Up to now it has been okay, but recently a postcard was lost. I left it for the allotted time and submitted a claim, only to be told that I needed to have an original invoice for the original purchase of the postcard, as I was registered with eBay as a business seller, all they sent me was a book of six first class stamps to cover the postage costs!!!! Example, I sell a postcard from an album compiled over 100 years ago, how then can I provide an original invoice? Since when do you get an invoice for the purchase of a single picture postcard from anyone.

As I had an agreement with my buyer to sell this postcard at this price and had all the subsequent paperwork to confirm the selling price, I would have thought this was all the evidence I needed, indeed, I phoned first and confirmed what I should send. So basically Recorded Delivery Signed For is not worth the paper it is printed on from the point of view of a registered business seller on eBay or anywhere else.

I just wondered if anyone else has experience a similar problem!

Regards

Fran

User avatar
eastlondonpostcard
Posts: 613
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:10 pm
Location: https://www.ebid.net/uk/users/20sent06/all-about-me/
Contact:

Re: Post Office not honouring recorded delivery

Post by eastlondonpostcard »

Hello Fran - welcome !

I don't have any first hand experience of this problem, but I have heard tales of sellers sending the eBay invoice/payment record and being compensated in full. It seems this has been acceptable in the past, but I believe Royal Mail are now making it harder for sellers to prove an actual value of the item being sent. This is difficult when, as you say, the item comes from an whole album of postcards.

In my opinion, the final sale value should be what you are compensated for - especially when you can prove this.

As I understand it, Recorded delivery only guarantees comfirmed delivery with a signature to a UK address, with compensation set at maximun £50. Comfirmed delivery being the only advantage of using Recorded here.

Hmmm, well, I would persevere with Royal Mail if I were you.

Best wishes and luck!
~ send it on a Postcard please ~

User avatar
About Postcards
Posts: 84
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:28 pm
Contact:

Re: Post Office not honouring recorded delivery

Post by About Postcards »

Hello Fran,

It's rotten but, if you are operating as a business (buying to sell) then the Royal Mail will always try to limit their exposure to the sellers purchase price of the item. They will argue that your loss is your cost price plus fees and stamp cost. I have heard of sellers succeeding with compensation on the basis of the eBay sale value but they have had to persevere to achieve that.

As EastLondon mentions, when you pay for recorded all you get for the additional cost is a 'signed for' delivery. If the item doesn't arrive then they make token payment for the postage cost plus a bit (the book of stamps). If you were a private seller then they might also compensate for the value. Special delivery is the only service where a package value is noted at time of posting and can easily be compensated for.

If the card in question came from an album you purchased then you should have a purchase record that provides evidence of an average price per card but, as we all know, there are often just one or two cards in an album that have value and the average becomes meaningless.

Post Reply