Royal Mail flogs 75,000 'lost in the post' items

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail has admitted selling off thousands of items that got 'lost in the post' to help meet its running costs.

The troubled company sells the contents of about 75,000 undelivered packages every year, at the risk of enraging hordes of customers already frustrated that their post has gone astray.

Even customers who paid over the odds for premium 'secure' services to cover valuable items have been shocked to find their goods put up for auction, in an operation that could be netting the postal giant millions of pounds a year.

The scandal was exposed by retired teacher John Beattie after he discovered that a set of antique bagpipes, which Royal Mail had lost, were for sale on internet auction site eBay.

He had originally sold the rare 1910 Henderson bagpipes to a fellow collector in Belgium for £1,500 last July, and despatched them using the Royal Mail's Airsure premium airmail service, described as 'fast, secure and reliable'.

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Although the package was correctly labelled, it vanished without trace. However, in March this year a friend spotted the bagpipes online.

It turned out that the package had spent three months languishing in the national undelivered mail centre in Belfast, before the Royal Mail sent it to Surrey auctioneers Wellers.

In turn, they sold the bagpipes to an online bidder for £60. The instrument then turned up on eBay, advertised by a man in the Glasgow area.

Wellers has an exclusive contract to sell Royal Mail's undelivered post, but senior auctioneer Glen Snelgar refused to comment on their arrangement. He said: "We are bound by a confidentiality agreement."

A Royal Mail spokeswoman admitted: "About 500,000 undeliverable parcels are sent to Royal Mail's return letter centre every year.

"They are kept for up to six months, after which a proportion - about 15 per cent - are sent to auction, with the proceeds making a contribution to the centre's annual £10million running costs."

She said some of the money was given to charity, but would not disclose how much.

Fifty-five-year-old Mr Beattie, of Northwich, Cheshire, is furious at how he has been treated.

"I've spent a year trying to sort this out," he said. "I did everything I should have. I clearly addressed the box containing the bagpipes, and Royal Mail labelled it with its own stickers, too.

"It even had an online tracking tag attached to it, and this was supposed to enable Royal Mail to follow the progress of the package.

"After months of phone calls and countless letters, I've lost my bagpipes, lost money and I am worried this is happening to plenty of other people, too.

"Royal Mail does not answer to anybody. If something goes missing, it is not interested in returning it."

Royal Mail has paid Mr Beattie the maximum £500 compensation offered under its Airsure scheme, but he is still £1,000 out of pocket.

Watchdogs Postwatch said: "We are asking Royal Mail to explain its process. It would be good news if it paid Mr Beattie the money he is out of pocket by."

Meanwhile, Strathclyde police are holding the pipes advertised on eBay until they determine the rightful owner.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1770

[IWW Fellow Worker]

I wonder if The Daily Mail will be printing any stories about the millions of items incorrectly addressed but which still find their way to their intended destination due to the hosesty and local knowledge of postmen/women? I doubt it.

[DirtyHarry]

No way , IWW. The Daily Wail's just a poor brand of sh e paper.

[IWW Fellow Worker]

No way , IWW. The Daily Wail's just a poor brand of sh e paper.

Yes indeed. The paper which supported the fascists in the 1930s.

[mdtomuk]

TORY WOMEN'S DAILY!!!

[mdtomuk]

I MEAN, WHAT DO I KNOW. BUT THE BAGPIPE MAN WAS RIGHTFULLY CONVINCED THE RECIPIENTS ADDRESS WAS CORRECT, BUT I COULDN'T HAVE BEEN, I GUESS. . . . SO THEN IT COMES BACK, AND THE QUESTION THAT HAS NOT BEEN ANSWERED IS - WAS THERE A RETURN ADDRESS!!!! NOW I'VE NEVER BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS 'TRACKING' STUFF, SO IF THE RETURN ADDRESS IS ON 'PUTER THEN, GULP, IT'S RM'S FAULT.

THESE 75K OF MISSING PARCELS ARE (I HOPE?) ONES THAT JOE PUBLIC HAVE REALLY STUPIDLY NOT PUT A RETURN ADDRESS ON. I EMPTY MY PACKET BAG(S) AND 50% OF PERSONAL TO PERSONAL PACKETS HAVE NO RETURN ADDRESSES!

BUT Y'KNOW, WHO KNOW'S?

[dvbuk55]

Most of the mail that is returned/destroyed in useless but in the case highlighted, which was an unusual and rare item, then it would benefit customers to have an online list, newspaper advert, list in Post offices of "LOST" items of a certain value and give them a chance of recovering items - alternatively all "Found" items should be handed to the local Police Station - lets give it to them to deal with!

[larsson1971]

i am sure that the Daily Mail publish the courier as well . because that is full of bull. :cfo :lfo

[ROCKY]

i wonder if my improved pay and conditions are in there somewhere remind me to check e bay later maybe someone is selling them cheap

[POSTMAN]

i wonder if my improved pay and conditions are in there somewhere remind me to check e bay later maybe someone is selling them cheap

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ka f***ing ching

[exbrighton]

To be honest, if he has underinsured it that's his problem.

However, would anyone like to take a guess at how much 'we' are making off all these 'nondeliverables'? I wouldn't mind betting there's a hidden agenda with targets and such like - none of which are very likely to help the public believe that RM are very honest at all......

[kinmad4it]

Surely if they were that valuable he would've made sure he put the return address on the package.
Anyway, it's Royal Fail that's at fault here, not us posties. One thing that hasn't been asked is.... this was sent abroad to another country. What if it did get to that country then their inefficiency caused it to not get delivered. Returning it to Royal Fail who could do nothing with it as there was no return address.
As usual with the press, quick to criticise regardless of the truth or facts.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

That is what's wrong with today's news media - they never let facts get in the way of a good story.

[Alwayswillb1690]

For those people that don't know. All undeliverable mail is sent to the National Return Centre in Belfast. Earlier this year this centre was investigated internally due to auctioned items. The centre's Community Action Team was auctioning items off internally to fellow colleagues with the permission and under the nose of managment. In my mind this is legally and morally wrong! If they were doing nothing wrong then how come these internal auctions were stopped with immnediate effect. The news of the world and local northern ireland papers ran stories on them and believe me management were running scared. This is not rumour, this is fact!!!!

[johnnyp]

For those people that don't know. All undeliverable mail is sent to the National Return Centre in Belfast. Earlier this year this centre was investigated internally due to auctioned items. The centre's Community Action Team was auctioning items off internally to fellow colleagues with the permission and under the nose of managment. In my mind this is legally and morally wrong! If they were doing nothing wrong then how come these internal auctions were stopped with immnediate effect. The news of the world and local northern ireland papers ran stories on them and believe me management were running scared. This is not rumour, this is fact!!!!