Special Delivery (Recorded) Unpaid Mistake

[Auberne]

On sending a phone to an online trade in company on Saturday 28/09 (AM), I affixed one of their Special Delivery labels thinking that it was pre-paid and put it in a regular post box. Since realizing my mistake (the options were to use the Free packet post label, or go to the Post Office and pay the £5.90 for insured shipping) I'm, or should I say my phone appears to be in Limbo as after 5 days, it's not arrived. Given that there were no return instructions inside the package (just the addressee, an order number relating to the trade in and what appeared to be a bar code and a serial number on the label affixed to the packet), what do you think has happened to my phone?

Will Royal Mail default to sending it free post (2nd class) as the recorded delivery has not been paid for and therefore it will be there in the next 24 hours? (4th working day?)
Is it now filed away as "unpaid" and as they can't return it because they don't have a returns address? (actually they would be able to get it if they called the retailer)
Will Royal Mail be able to find the item with what little information I have?
What administrative charges if any will be levied as a result?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

If you kept a record of the bar code it will still be trackable.

If you haven't then the most likely case is the receiver has been sent a card explaining that an item sent to them has Postage due. They can then pay the postage plus £1 admin if they want. If they don't and refuse the item it will go (if needed) to Belfast on the day they refuse (or 18 days later if they do nothing) to be investigated and where possible returned to sender.

Your probably best contacting the sender and offering to pay the postage and fee, or calling Customer Services and explaining the situation they may be able to put a trace on it, though without a bar code number it may be difficult to locate and return.

[Auberne]

Thanks for your reply. I have the bar code, or at least can reprint it from the companies website so that's not a problem. I was hoping that it would just default to free post and therefore not be insured or turn up after 4-5 working days, but nothing yet. If it ends up in Belfast, I'm not sure how they can return it without contacting the vendor I was sending the phone to in the first place, as they can look up my address details from the order number on the label.

I'll try customer services tomorrow and see if they can help. Thanks

[harry84]

What label was on the parcel? Was it just the address or was it a RM prepaid Returns label?

[Auberne]

Well its been another 2 days (6 in total) and it's still not arrived. Having spoken to the mobile phone trade in company, they say its happened before and in most (but not all) cases, the phone gets to them eventually, but it takes much much longer. In the mean time, they have extended my quote for another week.

I've tried every Royal Mail customer services number and every option (press 2, press 1 ext..) and still I have not been able to speak to a human being. Is there a number or option I can use to actually speak to someone?

As for the label, it has the destination address, my order number, a bar code and a SORT/CC/QTY line, with a long 15+ digit number above it which starts 811Y0 etc... That's it. I believe it did say Royal Mail Special Delivery on it, but I may be wrong.

[SpacePhoenix]

with a long 15+ digit number above it which starts 811Y0 etc... That's it. I believe it did say Royal Mail Special Delivery on it, but I may be wrong.

That doesn't sound like a special delivery item. Any RM barcodes for trackable mail start with two letters, then there is a nine digit number, finally they all end with GB. The barcode that you describe might be for the mobile company's own use which they might scan.

[Auberne]

Which leads me to believe my only hope is that it defaults to 2nd class or whatever and it eventually gets there so they can scan it in.

My own stupid fault

[TeeferTiger]

It will default to the cheapest postage and they'll probably end up with a surcharge for the item. It can be delayed by up to a couple of weeks sometimes depending upon the back log in revenue protection (usually at very busy times of year though as you can imagine!).