Special delivery gone missing

[Bigcloud]

Hello,
Please can someone give me some advice.
I had a parcel, containing very important documents, sent out to me last Friday by special delivery guaranteed to be delivered Saturday.
I didn't receive it and the sender scanned me a copy of the receipt with the tracking number. Online the tracking information stated that they were unable to deliver and the parcel was being returned to the sender. Now the problem is that the sender did not include a return address !
I went to the local delivery office this morning and was told the parcel was being sent to the national return centre in Belfast, the reason they gave was that there was no name on the parcel. However I showed the man the receipt which clearly had my house number and postcode. I was told to call customers service.
The first person i spoke with was not very helpful and just kept saying there was nothing that could be done as it had been sent to the return center.
I called back and a more helpful person advised i get the sender to go back to the post office to chase it up and if possible fill in a claim form.
Now this isn't about the claims compensation, its about getting back my documents which i need before next Friday.
The sender has gone back to the post office and has been told the same story, documents are on the way to Belfast and when it gets there , it will be opened and sent back to the sender. Again we have stressed that there is no sender's address within the parcel.
I have tweeted a message to the royal mail tweeter account and keep getting the same repetitive dialogue. I have also sent an email to the customers service team.
Please is there any way of getting across to the national return center ? I don't understand how a special delivery parcel which contains just documents and nothing prohibited , cant be straight forward. I have a tracking number and would assume it can easily be retraced to the right recipient.
This was the reason why it was sent out as special delivery, with the assumption it was safe.
I noticed in the last hour that the tracking information has been altered to say there is currently no information for my parcel as the item has not reached its center. What does this even mean?
Any help will be appreciated
Thanks

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

ok firstly the bad news, it is extremely unlikely you will get these documents back to you by friday, in fact i will go as far to say you will definately not get these documents back by friday

good news is, the documents will go back to the sender if he fills in the claim form, timescales for this is going to be several weeks all in unfortunately, the fact there is no returns address is what will delay it evem more, as he has the reciept that is all the proof he needs that he is the sender, the reciept will go in with the claim form and parcel should go back to the sender

there is no contact details for the returns center it is just customer services you can call, there is no way to call them and get them to go and look specially for this item and send it to you, only the sender can make the claim and get the item returned to him sorry thats just the way it is and nothing you can do to get the item sent on to you

as for the failed delivery there could be any number of reasons for the delivery failing, just because it had the correct number and post code on the reciept doesnt mean thats what was actually on the package, the street name could have been incorrect it could have had the completely wrong town, or have been missing a flat number etc, also it is slightly strange that they have said it doesnt have any name on it, for two reasons, 1 delivery would be attempted anyway if no name, and 2 the track and trace system doesnt have the option of "no name" as a reason for failed delivery, they have the option of "addressee unknown" but not no name, you will only find out the exact reason when the item is received by the sender, there will be a red sticker on the item with the reason that the delivery fail

Special Delivery is safe thats probably why this has happened, if there is anything iffy about an address or missing for example a street name, it goes back, better safe than sorry

[SpacePhoenix]

When you try the tracking number at http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; does it give a reason for the failed delivery?

[Bigcloud]

ok firstly the bad news, it is extremely unlikely you will get these documents back to you by friday, in fact i will go as far to say you will definately not get these documents back by friday

good news is, the documents will go back to the sender if he fills in the claim form, timescales for this is going to be several weeks all in unfortunately, the fact there is no returns address is what will delay it evem more, as he has the reciept that is all the proof he needs that he is the sender, the reciept will go in with the claim form and parcel should go back to the sender

there is no contact details for the returns center it is just customer services you can call, there is no way to call them and get them to go and look specially for this item and send it to you, only the sender can make the claim and get the item returned to him sorry thats just the way it is and nothing you can do to get the item sent on to you

as for the failed delivery there could be any number of reasons for the delivery failing, just because it had the correct number and post code on the reciept doesnt mean thats what was actually on the package, the street name could have been incorrect it could have had the completely wrong town, or have been missing a flat number etc, also it is slightly strange that they have said it doesnt have any name on it, for two reasons, 1 delivery would be attempted anyway if no name, and 2 the track and trace system doesnt have the option of "no name" as a reason for failed delivery, they have the option of "addressee unknown" but not no name, you will only find out the exact reason when the item is received by the sender, there will be a red sticker on the item with the reason that the delivery fail

Special Delivery is safe thats probably why this has happened, if there is anything iffy about an address or missing for example a street name, it goes back, better safe than sorry

thank you for your reply. I guess i'll have to get the sender to chase it up

[Bigcloud]

When you try the tracking number at http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; does it give a reason for the failed delivery?

no it doesn't give a reason. right now its just saying there is no information on the item.

[Bigcloud]

When you try the tracking number at http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; does it give a reason for the failed delivery?

no it doesn't give a reason. right now its just saying there is no information on the item.

this is what it states on the tracking link

08/11/14 16:04 DESPATCHABLE TONATIONAL RETURN CENTRE MANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE
08/11/14 14:17 COLLECTED MANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE
08/11/14 06:32 RETURNED TO CO CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:30 UNDELIVERED08/11/14 CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:27 DELIVERED08/11/14 CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:27 ON DELIVERY CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:01 RECEIVED AT PDOCHEADLE PDO (SK) CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 03:27 DESPATCHABLE TOCHEADLE PDO (SK) MANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE
08/11/14 01:57 RECEIVED ATMANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE MANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE
07/11/14 18:17 DESPATCHABLE TOMANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE LONDON CENTRAL MAIL CENTR
07/11/14 17:30 COLLECTED LONDON CENTRAL MAIL CENTR
07/11/14 13:18 ACCEPTED AT POL 5 Chancellor Pas E14 4PA

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

When you try the tracking number at http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; does it give a reason for the failed delivery?

no it doesn't give a reason. right now its just saying there is no information on the item.

this is what it states on the tracking link

08/11/14 16:04 DESPATCHABLE TONATIONAL RETURN CENTRE MANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE
08/11/14 14:17 COLLECTED MANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE
08/11/14 06:32 RETURNED TO CO CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:30 UNDELIVERED08/11/14 CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:27 DELIVERED08/11/14 CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:27 ON DELIVERY CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:01 RECEIVED AT PDOCHEADLE PDO (SK) CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 03:27 DESPATCHABLE TOCHEADLE PDO (SK) MANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE
08/11/14 01:57 RECEIVED ATMANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE MANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE
07/11/14 18:17 DESPATCHABLE TOMANCHESTER MAIL CENTRE LONDON CENTRAL MAIL CENTR
07/11/14 17:30 COLLECTED LONDON CENTRAL MAIL CENTR
07/11/14 13:18 ACCEPTED AT POL 5 Chancellor Pas E14 4PA

From that tracking info I would say the parcel never even left the office and was just sent back from there straight away.

[wannabeek]

Yeah, it looks like was never taken near your door according to that tracking. This is the relevant bit (it runs from the bottom up):

08/11/14 06:32 RETURNED TO CO CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:30 UNDELIVERED08/11/14 CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:27 DELIVERED08/11/14 CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:27 ON DELIVERY CHEADLE PDO (SK)
08/11/14 06:01 RECEIVED AT PDOCHEADLE PDO (SK) CHEADLE PDO (SK)

It arrived at the delivery office at 6am, was scanned by the office at 6:27 to be put on the correct delivery duty and within 3 minutes it was decided that it could not be deilvered, so was returned to sender immediately instead of being allocated to that duty.

In my experience, that is most likely to mean an illegible address with some vital delivery information missing. There's no way of knowing what that is until the package is returned to the sender.

[Bigcloud]

Yes that's what i thought as well, they never tried to deliver it.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

Yes that's what i thought as well, they never tried to deliver it.

thats what suggests there is a problem on the address label, with special delivery its only going to get attempted if its exactly right, if its missing a flat number but has street number etc its not going to get attempted

[Bigcloud]

Yes that's what i thought as well, they never tried to deliver it.

thats what suggests there is a problem on the address label, with special delivery its only going to get attempted if its exactly right, if its missing a flat number but has street number etc its not going to get attempted

thanks for your help