signed for 2nd class package sent to Home Office - thoughts?

[ovcovc]

Hi all,

I would really appreciate some therapeutic advice from those familiar with the inner workings of RM.

I sent a package to a PO box manned by one of the divisions of the Home Office's UKBA that deals with residence permit applications (DH99 postcode).
It contained my passports and residence permit, as well as a whole lot of other paperwork - at, at a weight of a kilo, it had to go 2nd class package as it was too heavy to be a letter.
It had a "signed for" sticker on it and was posted at a Post office in Belfast around 3 pm on Friday August 30th. The postage was the postage Post Office printed and stuck to it (golden thingkie with a date).
It tracked immediately -- like this --

Item KF*********GB was posted at 101 Donegal Park BT15 4FQ on 30/08/13 and is being progressed through our network for delivery.

and continues to do so today, 5 days later.

Now, the package contained all my original documents and a cheque for a large amount, and my application is somewhat time-sensitive too -- so I am quite worried about the whole thing, as Royal Mail tells me that it delivers 98% of those in three days (which would have been by yesterday).

Now, I didn't send it to just anyone who could have been not home or whatever.

I sent it to a PO box of a major government agency that gets thousands of pieces of mail every day. So, there is no chance that there was any problem delivering it.
I hear that Royal Mail has special arrangements with govt agencies and mail that goes there gets, I don't know, specially separated or handled in some special way. Obviously there is probably a very large volume of it, I doubt it fits in a Po box in a sense of it being a "box". There is probably some process.

I had doubts about sending a "signed for" item to a PO box but the post office person assured me it was perfectly normal in such a case.

But how likely is it that it was in fact delivered on Monday or yesterday or whatever, but the "signed for" sticker simply wasn't scanned into the system?
Who would even sign for it there at a PO box?
Would the tracking only update once a day, or would it be early morning?

Or shall I just assume that it was delayed / lost?

Like I said, again, Home office gets thousands of mail pieces and most contain passports and other original documents, and I am pretty sure some special process should be in place at least starting with the regional sorting office on receiving end.

Please tell me what you all think I should think. I am worried sick and especially so that I also need to watch my bank account to try and estimate when the cheque that the governmennt may or may not have received, will hit it (they tend to process payments the same day they receive them, so this could happen before any acknowledgemenet letter is delivered back to me).


Thanks

PS Some of you will be tempted to write "why haven't i sent first class". Well, I don't know, but generally on the same day and also from Belfast, I sent a 1st class letter letter AND a 2nd class package to the same address to someone in England -- and I duplicated the postage specifically because I wanted the letter to arrive sooner -- but they both arrived there on the same day, on Monday.

Therefore I am a little confused why would not have the Home Office package done the same.

[bigcol]

First off, you should have sent it Special Delivery, not Signed For. Signed For is not for sensitive documents. That's the ticking off over.

PO Box is a misnomer, it is not really a box. It is more of a 'secret' address. It is the address of the local Delivery Office who then know where to deliver it. Once it is posted it isn't any different to delivering to a 'normal' address.

I don't know the particulars of this PO Box, but potentially they could still be using a paper system to sign for it, which can take more than a week for the system to be updated. If it is being done electronically, the system should be updated near instantaneously.

[ovcovc]

First off, you should have sent it Special Delivery, not Signed For. Signed For is not for sensitive documents. That's the ticking off over.

PO Box is a misnomer, it is not really a box. It is more of a 'secret' address. It is the address of the local Delivery Office who then know where to deliver it. Once it is posted it isn't any different to delivering to a 'normal' address.

I don't know the particulars of this PO Box, but potentially they could still be using a paper system to sign for it, which can take more than a week for the system to be updated. If it is being done electronically, the system should be updated near instantaneously.

There was a legal reason I could not send it special delivery))

Ironically, in law we call it "Postal rule".

Special delivery is viewed from the legal perspective as a courier delivery, and application date is then considered to be a date of receipt.
I could not risk it being in September, as I needed to apply specifically by the last day of August.

However when something is sent via 1st class or 2nd class mail, the date of application is then the date of posting. Age-old rule of paperwork ))

for the same reasons, I assure you hundreds of people send their paperwork to the home office via regular mail.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

All the different Home Office "offices" get these queries regularly to be honest. I think mainly because of the number of bar coded items they get there are special processes in place. This seems to delay the updating quite a while, but in 98% of cases (or whatever RM said) all the items are delivered on time.

Your best bet is to contact whoever is dealing with your case, or the contact centre and see if they can confirm receipt.

[ovcovc]

what do you know, just changed at 3 pm. i thought i'd lose my mind here.

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Your item with reference KF*****GB was delivered from our DURHAM Delivery Office on 04/09/13 .
Thank you for using our Royal Mail Signed For™ service
The electronic Proof of Delivery may not be available for this item yet. Please allow up to 72 hours after delivery before checking.