DHL package worth £20K wrongly collected by Royal Mail - where is it??

[Sperciv]

Hi,

I dropped a DHL package worth £20K which took three months to make into a DHL service point in Egham, Surrey. Recently viewed CCTV footage shows the package was wrongly collected by Royal Mail. Royal Mail depot in Egham confirmed this. The package was intended for an address in Galway Ireland. It was dropped off on 2nd August and wrongly collected by Royal Mail on the 3rd of August.

So I have a very important package somewhere in the Royal Mail system with a DHL label which means it can neither be tracked by Royal Mail or by DHL.

I have been told it likely would have been taken to Jubilee sorting office in London where the recipient address would have been scanned much like any other parcel or letter going through sorting. At this point two things may have happened. One, it may have continued on and handed to An Post in Ireland to a depot near the recipient waiting for the recipient to pay the postage or, Two, when the recipient address was identified as overseas it would have been marked as return to sender (my address as the sender is shown on the DHL label)

So I assume it is on a shelf somewhere in Jubilee Sorting Office waiting to be returned. The problem is I have no way to contact Jubilee Sorting office to find out. The contents of the package are intended to be used in the manufacture of automotive components for major OEMs. If those OEMs do not receive this product in time they will fine my customer for missing their production schedules to the tune of 100's of thousands of Euros. I am a small business making these bespoke items - If it cannot be returned I would be unable to remake them and my business would fail. In addition to that it would cause irreparable damage to my reputation with my customer for further work.

Is there any way to find out where my package is in the Royal Mail system?? Even the manager at the Egham Royal Mail Depot doesn't have a number for Jubilee Sorting Office and is therefore not making any headway in finding the package.

So please if anybody could help id be eternally grateful!

Thanks in advance

[SpacePhoenix]

Another possibility is that it's stuck in Irish customs

[Sperciv]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply - I spoke to An Post Customer Care in Dublin this morning - the lady looked up the recipient address and could not find anything currently in Customs or gone through customs recently.

[Snaggletooth]

I don't know what you mean by "wrongly collected". When I worked for the Post Office we had collections from both Royal Mail and Parcelforce, it was up to the PO to make sure that the right items went to the right driver. So other things being equal, it is hard to see how RM is at fault here?

So I have a very important package somewhere in the Royal Mail system with a DHL label which means it can neither be tracked by Royal Mail or by DHL...Is there any way to find out where my package is in the Royal Mail system??

I think you have answered your own question there.

[Sperciv]

The service point should not have handed the package to the Royal Mail worker but my intention in posting on here is not to assign blame - that will not help me - people make mistakes - it is what it is.

I was hoping somebody might know of a way or process of how to establish communication with Jubilee Sorting Office?

Its quite likely it will be sent back to sender - in this case would anybody be able to tell me how long this process might take? - if you said three weeks to a month at least that would set my expectations its the not knowing that's keeping me awake at night.

Thanks

[Stinkycat22]

If you have CCTV proof of the mistake, that isn't your mistake, get the post office or Royal Mail to fork out the money to refund the item. I would first address the matter in writing with both companies and if they don't wanna help then take them to the small claims court. That amount of money isn't a joke. Can you also prove the value of the contents? I don't even understand how they would scan it into the mail centre.
I had once a Fedex parcel collected by mistake by TNT, but by then the two companies had merged and both could scan each other's labels. Still, TNT could not actually process the item so parcel seemed stuck and I thought it was lost. Anyway once I contacted both companies and explained what had happened, a TNT courier brought it back to me. Surely Royal Mail can locate your very expensive package if they want to.