Special Delivery Signed for but not delivered

[quotemy]

Hopefully someone on here can help.

We dispatched an iPad2 to a client on the 29th of October using special delivery by 1pm.

We checked the tracking the next day and it stated it was delivered and a copy of the signature was displayed, with a delivery time of 12:33, all good so far you would think.

This iPad was a marketing promotion to a client who subsequently cancelled the insurance policy stating they did not get the ipad and that is not my signature, fast forward to January 6th and we submitted form P58 to the royal mail, we have still jot heard anything and it is next to impossible to speak to anyone.

the client is now stating that they could not have signed for it as they were out of the country and can provide proof by way of boarding cards and stamped passports for all of their family proving they were in Turkey.

How is it possible for a special delivery to show as being delivered with a signature, we have checked our receipt and it is the correct address, is the fact that the Royal mail even refuses to acknowledge our claim proof that they know they have a big problem?

What can we do?

Thanks

[Sidley]

Perfectly possible that there were friends, family of the owners, staying at the property, house sitting for them.

[coxie]

I had this once, it turned out that the person who posted the special put the wrong door number on the package, you'd be surprised how often that happens and you think you'd never do it but trust me it happens. I'm not saying you've done that but could it be a possibility? My one was supposed to be for 22 but they put 23 on the package.

[arnold cheshire]

Perfectly possible that there were friends, family of the owners, staying at the property, house sitting for them.

well said

[quotemy]

Perfectly possible that there were friends, family of the owners, staying at the property, house sitting for them.

well said

My clients have assured me 100% that no one was house sitting or had access to the property!

[quotemy]

I had this once, it turned out that the person who posted the special put the wrong door number on the package, you'd be surprised how often that happens and you think you'd never do it but trust me it happens. I'm not saying you've done that but could it be a possibility? My one was supposed to be for 22 but they put 23 on the package.

As per original post. The address on the parcel was 100% correct and it is the correct house number on our receipt

[vanman90]

if it was delivered using the pda Royal Mail can track the point it was delivered, to check what house it was delivered to.

[steve1873]

Not only that, but the postman is meant to ask the recipient for their name and input that on the PDA. Not simply input the name on the delivery. So it should state on track and trace who signed for it. If the recipient is claiming that this is not his signature despite track & trace stating it is, then this becomes a potential criminal investigstion as someone has fraudulently signed for the delivery on the recipients behalf.

[quotemy]

Not only that, but the postman is meant to ask the recipient for their name and input that on the PDA. Not simply input the name on the delivery. So it should state on track and trace who signed for it. If the recipient is claiming that this is not his signature despite track & trace stating it is, then this becomes a potential criminal investigstion as someone has fraudulently signed for the delivery on the recipients behalf.

thank you for the reply, it states on the track and trace it was the client who signed and the signature has the same surname, Royal mail refuse to even acknowledge my complaint so its difficult to sort this out.

[steve1873]

If Royal Mail customer service are not being helpful, then the next step is the police as a theft has taken place, either by the customer, or another party.

[steve1873]

This does highlight a big failing of the current PDA's though. I have used them both as a postman and as a customer and my signature on the PDA looks nothing like my actual signature - so it would be fairly easy to claim I never received an item and that the signature upladed on track and trace was not my own.

Perhaps a better system, although maybe not as practical would be to scan items in to a PDA type device equipped with a photographic scanner - get a signature from the recipient on paper and then scan the signature on to the device to be uploaded to the track and trace system. Obviously somebody could still deny a signature was theirs, but if it went as far as a police investigation then hand writing comparisons could be taken - that certainly can't be done using the current system.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Police probably wouldn't be interested however a customer can always escalate it beyond a normal complaint to 3 further stages

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[billysboots1]

Hopefully someone on here can help.

We dispatched an iPad2 to a client on the 29th of October using special delivery by 1pm.

We checked the tracking the next day and it stated it was delivered and a copy of the signature was displayed, with a delivery time of 12:33, all good so far you would think.

This iPad was a marketing promotion to a client who subsequently cancelled the insurance policy stating they did not get the ipad and that is not my signature, fast forward to January 6th and we submitted form P58 to the royal mail, we have still jot heard anything and it is next to impossible to speak to anyone.

the client is now stating that they could not have signed for it as they were out of the country and can provide proof by way of boarding cards and stamped passports for all of their family proving they were in Turkey.

How is it possible for a special delivery to show as being delivered with a signature, we have checked our receipt and it is the correct address, is the fact that the Royal mail even refuses to acknowledge our claim proof that they know they have a big problem?

What can we do?

Thanks

what you can do is find the office that the i pad was delivered from and get the postman to show you the house he delivered to no doubt the customer is trying to pull a fast one free extra ipad plus compensation from royal mail when faced with you and the postman job done

[vanman90]

I don't be leave Royal Mail will pay as it's been delivered , I could be wrong though!

[standanddeliver]

Not only that, but the postman is meant to ask the recipient for their name and input that on the PDA. Not simply input the name on the delivery.

We were trained by our office coach to input the name on the package/letter into our PDA regardless of who signs for it.