Special Delivery delay

[tony123456]

I work in customer services and sadly there are occasions when we have no idea what has happened to our premier service items! I did find a very expensive item yesterday after the customer was accusing us of theft and he was going to go the papers, mp, police etc. Its was at the NRC with a different barcode as the original one came of. Sometimes companies give out the wrong reference numbers to customers which is entertaining other times someone has put a similar but wrong address on the item and yes even sometimes they are delivered to the wrong address by accident. The best thing to do is to call us on 08457 740740 where we can get the info from you, look at the tracking and do a bit of phoning around, you never know, we might just be able to sort it out btw we have had a bit of a problem at the Romford MC so if items have gone through there you might have a bit of a wait as we're still investigating that little black hole!

Thanks gertdog. Be very interested to hear about what is happening at Romford as it's actually there that my 3 missing SDs (see start of thread) somehow appear not to have arrived at, while the 3 posted at the same time did! Any non technical elaboration on Romfords issues much appreciated as everything I send seems to go through there.

[tony123456]

Farce upon farce! Contact Royal Mail 'customer services' and they tell me, rather unsympathetically and with barely a hint of actual customer service, that before they can do anything I need to contact the sender and check with them that they have actually sent the item to the correct address (after all it is possible that this other random address they've mistakenly used might also have someone living there of my exact name). So I ring the sender, they have decent, polite and helpful customer service and confirm that the only address they have for me is the one I live at and that that is where it has been sent. Armed with this certain knowledge I ring Royal Mail (I'm no Royalist but not sure everyones favourite state dependents deserve the association) and tell them that yes, the package showing as having been delivered to 'MR' from the same DO as I receive my mail from and bearing the same tracking number that I was given was indeed addressed to me at my address. Their answer - we can't do anything until the sender contacts us and then we will investigate as the sender has information we need! This information presumably being the address it was sent to and the service used and the tracking number they have for it, none of which is exactly a mystery to me. The website is even better - there's a link that offers the potential enquiry line of 'it says delivered but it hasn't arrived' - click on that and you are taken to a page that promises the investigative riches of an 'enquiry form' (in red! Underlined and everything!!) But ultimately all this leads to is the loss, damage f*&k up form and talk of 15 day waits - hardly suitable for a situation that suggests baffling incompetence or worse....

Surely in a case like this it is simplicity itself for them to contact the DO (I have tried myself and it just rings and rings and rings but would have thought they'd have if not a Batphone style direct link at least some way of speaking to an actual person), find out who was entrusted with my delivery and then seek answers from said trustee as to where the bloody hell it is!! Why is this so difficult - underfunding or just plain old institutionalised incompetence and apathy?! Either way it's a bloody shambles.

[adb2aber]

First of all, calm down.

Really, calm down.


Right, that's better.

Now, the SENDER has to contact for a claim because THEY are the customer. You are not. Picture this situation (as an example only):

I live in a block of flats and I happen to see a parcel for a neighbour and I have time to note the Special Delivery barcode down and the box is branded with a company name. I ring up Customer Services and tell them the item with that barcode from the company whose brand I saw should have been delivered to me and wasn't. I ring off, trim my toenails, phone back and tell them I've checked with the sender and they sent it to my address so where is it, who signed for it etc. so where is my parcel?

Do note that this situation involves telling Customer Services exactly the same information as you have told them. This is why it has to be the SENDER. They are not you. They INDEPENDENTLY verify the address it was sent to.

That aside, have you considered checking with neighbours to see if they signed for it by mistake?

As to the phone ringing, we're in the time of year when parcels are being delivered to every Tom, Dick and Harry, many of which wont go through a letter box so the callers office at your local DO has probably got a queue out the door. No-one will be answering a phone when there are people waiting at the window.

Consider, once you've calmed down a bit more, going there in person. Whilst you're there do be polite, don't start screaming, ranting or hurling abuse at the busy staff. Consider other people too - if you've been stood there for 5min saying the same thing over and over and not listening to the repeated answers because they don't suit you - what you'd be thinking about someone else if every time you went there someone was making a scene in front of you in the queue when all you want to do is a 2min trip in and out to get your parcel.

[TeeferTiger]

I'm afraid, it would be up to the sender to sort the matter out, and not you. They are actually Royal Mail's customer as the sender paid RM for the "service", and you paid the sender.

So, once the sender has put in the claim, customer services may (and I'm not saying they definitely will or not) send a message to the DO concerned on an internal messaging thingy asking them for more info about the item and delivery.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

I live in a flat and as far as I am aware SDs have to be signed for by the recipient or at least someone at that address so who exactly could this 'MR' be?

Couple of bits of info for you

Firstly anyone at an address can sign for any item that royal mail deliver, we deliver to addresses not people,

Secondly you have mentioned you live in a flat, i could maybe envisage this problem, your address is say 2/2 25 high street, but parcel has 25 high street addressed on it, so technically it should have been sent back as it was a SD and the address was incomplete, but you might find that someone has delivered to one of the other flats in your block incorrectly

Thirdly, the pda that was used to deliver the item will have stored the gps location of exactly where the item was signed for, Customer services and your local delivery office do have access to this information, this may help especially if the gps locations is no where close to your building