Missing cash bounces back after mail woe

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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When cash sent by a community group went missing in the post, members feared they would never see the money again.

Bill McGrath, from the Ingol Community Association (ICA), sent £800 to a firm via Royal Mail’s Special Delivery tracker service to pay for a bouncy castle surround.

However, the parcel, which was insured for £1,000, never arrived at its destination in Devon in May last year and was deemed ‘lost’.

Worried Bill contacted Royal Mail but was told it could not be found and he would have to send a bank statement and a receipt showing the value of the parcel to be able to claim compensation under the Special Delivery service, designed for sending valuable items.

The request left Bill stumped as the £800 had come from the sale of two of ICA’s own bouncy castles - and the receipt had been lost and the money not deposited in an account before being sent to Devon.

After months of letters and phone calls to Royal Mail, he feared facing a trip to Preston County Court to try to prove the ICA’s case and began filling out the paperwork.

However, following one last-ditch phone call last week, the ICA was contacted by a Royal Mail investigator, who said she had resolved the matter and put a cheque for £800 compensation in the post.

Delighted Bill received the cheque at the weekend. Today, he praised the branch manager in Cullompton, Devon, and an investigator who helped get the ICA’s much-needed money back.

He said: “No-one said when we posted it, ‘Can you prove where it has come from?’

“I’d lost the receipt which was not helpful.

“Without these two sticking their neck out, our Association would have lost £800. I’d like to thank them.”

Royal Mail spokesman Heulyn Gwyn Davies said: “We would like to apologise for the fact that this particular item failed to reach its intended destination. Special Delivery does allow for compensation and so we are pleased that we were able to help Mr McGrath by resolving this matter.

[DGP1]

How does a Special go missing?? Because it is tracked the whole way through the system it should be easy to find where it got 'lost'

[unome]

How does a Special go missing?? Because it is supposed to be tracked the whole way through the system it should be easy to find where it got 'lost'

[DGP1]

How does a Special go missing?? Because it is supposed to be tracked the whole way through the system it should be easy to find where it got 'lost'

True but where it fails will be flagged up

[philh45]

I used to work in the head office of an employment agency (not Reed by the way)! Each week the branches would send timesheets,holiday request forms and other documents by Special Delivery to the payroll dept for processing. They would arrive every Tuesday On one occasion one of the packages was missing. Using the track and trace service we obtained a copy of the signature that had allegedly been used to take delivery of the package. It (the signature) did not match anybody employed at head office and furthermore the track and trace showed that it had been signed for at a different time from the time the postman called at our office,and also before our building was open for the day. It seems as though it was somehow put onto another route and delivered to the wrong address,we never found out where it went and the branch ended up having to forward copies of the missing documents again.