So scared, Special delivery item lost, p/port inc..

[MissGalovicova]

Hi,

First post here, need advice.

I have sent my passport, wage slips and P60 documents by special delivery on the 16/10, paid 5.50 and was told it would be delivered by 1pm on the 18th. today is the 27th and we entered the bar code ref into the tracker and it showed the item is still being processed through their system! We called customer services where the first person told us it must be lost, nothing he can do, when I asked for his name he hung up.
I re-dialled and got another guy who basically told me to complete a claim form and there was nothing he can do.
Is this true? Surely they can trace which sorting office it is in or was last seen at? Is it possible someone has realised the contents of my parcel were valuable and subsequently opened it?
I have to wait until monday for it to be officially lost by Royal mail terms, but before I go canceling my passport and I need to know if there's anything more royal mail can do for me? As i'm a foreign national replacing my passport will be far more costly than for a british citizen, it will also involve at least 2 trips to london and in addition the reason I sent it all away will be delayed even longer, potentially more cost to me, not to mention I am absolutely terrified that I am now going to be the victim of I.D fraud as everthing needed to take over my I.d was in that parcel...

Can anyone help?

[Stormproof]

Have you contacted the people you have sent the items to? They may of received it. The PDA that the postie uses to get signatures can sometimes not work correctly.

[MissGalovicova]

Hi Storm,

Thanks for your reply. It was to be delivered to the home office and they were closed yesterday. I'll be calling them this morning and I'm praying it is some admin mix up ...such as the broken PDA or maybe, as I sent it on the weekend that the system was being updated (previous post I saw on this website), it was never entered onto the tracking system....

I'll update this once i've spoken with them. If the worse happens, can royal mail track a special to a sorting office and update me on its last known location? the customer services guys didn't seem to be interested in checking for me yesterday and would rather I completed a claim form, but its the passport I want back.

[Stormproof]

As far as I know it should be scanned at all stages......Post Office.....Mail Centre......Delivery Office.....Destination. If I'm wrong no doubt someone will be along soon and correct me

[MissGalovicova]

Great news Storm, the home office have all my documents, they were actually delivered on the 18th as promised by RM, so a victory for the people on the ground, just a shame the system problems caused me all this worry!

I'm grateful for your responses, and if anyone else happens across this thread in a similar situation, just be mindful the tracker system isn't always 100% correct! Good job we didn't listen to the nameless cust service rep who suggested we report the passport as lost!

thanks again,

V

[taurus88]

I'd still try and blag a claim on top of that if they haven't updated the system. Worth a try . . .

[Lounge Lizard]

I'd still try and blag a claim on top of that if they haven't updated the system. Worth a try . . .

- surely that would be a fraudulant claim.

[taurus88]

No-one's fault but RM's though for not providing the full range of service. SD is meant to be trackable from A to Z, and at all the points between. In my mind, the service has not been delivered as promised.

[MissGalovicova]

I do agree with Taurus to a point as we do feel let down by RM's systems, but not enough to persue a claim in this case. We're so relieved the item was delivered safely and ultimately that's what we paid them for.
If I had taken the advice of the CS agent and cancelled my passport, then I believe we might of had grounds for a complaint..
Still worrying that RM didn't track the item from A - Z, how many more aren't tracked?

[Throgg]

taurus88 wrote:
I'd still try and blag a claim on top of that if they haven't updated the system. Worth a try . . .
- surely that would be a fraudulant claim.

Under Royal Mail's terms and conditions for Special Delivery items, you are entitled to a refund if they fail to update the system or obtain a signature when the item is delivered.

[IAN35772]

Yes but the home office must recieve hundreds if not thousands of special delivery items each day - its unrealistic to expect a signature to appear for each of those.

I've found that anytime I am sending special delivery to a large government department (passport office, dvla, home office etc) that the items always arrive safely but delivery tracking/signature information is not provided and assume it must be due to the large volumes involved.