SD package - no tracking. Possily stolen?

Pigus · Post by **Pigus** » 26 May 2018, 14:23

How often are Special Delivery packages stolen or really lost? I am very worried about a package sent SD by my lawyer on May 17th 9am, to the Home Office. It is a citizenship application for an overseas relative in Asia, containing passports and birth certificates. It had not been signed for by Friday 25th and there are no tracking updates after the first entry to say SENT AT POST OFFICE.

We have been in touch with Royal Mail and Post Office a number of times since May18th. The post office are adamant that the driver picked it up and that the whole back office is cleared out and checked for stray packages at the end of every day - my lawyer uses them regularly and has a good relationship with them. Initially they and the RM said to wait 5 working days, until Friday 25th, to see if it gets delivered. However, we can not verify over the phone whether the Home Office has received it because ..... well it's the Home Office! We would only know in writing in due course, or when they cash a cheque included in the package.

After 5 days (yesterday) the Royal Mail said they would investigate urgently because of the nature of the contents and the lack of tracking updates. We may get an update next Weds apparently.

My dilema is as follows. Firstly, if it has been stolen or genuinely lost (dropped on thestreet??), then 1) I need to report to the police; 2) I need to report lost passports asap to UK and overseas, as well as lost birth certificates, etc. by law and wrt idenity theft; 3) I travel at end of June and will need to start process of getting a new passport very soon; 4) My relative will need to start the torturous process of re-possessing her identity. I am inclined to wait maybe one week to see. If found and delivered to Home Office a lot of hassle will be avoided. If however, this is unlikely, then we'd better get on with it.

How can a SD package no even get tracked to the intial mail office, or at other stages of the delivery process? I have read that sometimes packages can invisibly pass through the whole system and arrive ok - because of a dud bar code of non-matching SD reference number, etc. Is this common? How common is theft or real loss?

Any ideas as to what might have happened and what I should do next??

Thanks so much in advance - panicking here.

Post by **Snaggletooth** » 27 May 2018, 08:01

Actual loss of a Special Delivery item is very rare due to the audit trail on them. I regularly used to send hundreds of pounds in cash that way, without incident. More common than loss, but still rare, is an item being mis-routed or a sack being forgotten about in some corner of an office, but these always turn up eventually.

Your case has all the hallmarks of the occasional problem with the tracking system. Items get sent at Post Offices, and that registers on the system, but the data from all subsequent scans disappears into the ether. If that is the case then the item has almost certainly arrived but the tracking will never update. If this is the case then there is nothing that you can do, but your solicitor can send a claim form to RM.

Pigus · Post by **Pigus** » 31 May 2018, 12:55

Thanks for your response.

Bad news on this. The Home Office have no trace of it. Royal Mail 'Investigation' has not found it and suggest I claim as 'lost''.

Posted 2 weeks ago now and I am thinking it really is unlikely to turn up. Is there an increased likelihood of packages being stolen when addressed to the Home Office? I am now worried about identity theft. How long should I wait to see if they turn up?

Any further thoughts apprciated

A2B · Post by **A2B** » 31 May 2018, 14:04

Surely this department of the home office receive hundreds of SD items a day? My guess (not that it helps you much) is that it is at the intended address but has not been scanned correctly on delivery.

I doubt either RM or the home office will physically search for the item, if there's no tracking trail they will just say "sorry it's lost, put a claim in"

Pigus · Post by **Pigus** » 04 Jun 2018, 14:45

Yeah, it's definitely 'lost' .... or stolen. Royal Mail Escalations Team can find no trace of it and can not explain why it never entered the tracking system after receipt at the post office. Home office have not cashed a cheque which was in the package and the application is not in their system. It has, at this point 'disappeared'.

Only options left are: 1) It has been or will be delivered late to the HO, with no signature, because it was mistakenly treated as normal post at the post office, not SD/signed for. 2) It has been mislaid somewhere on route, under r a table, under a coat, God knows - presumably it would still turn up, but later, somewhere in RM system; 3) It's been stolen.

Options 1 and 2 would be worth waiting for in order to postpone hassle of cancelling/renewing passport/birth certificates. However, if really stolen, this process needs to be started asap.

What I can't understand is the RM's willingness to just write it off as stolen and recommend we 'make claim'. Are they never concerned that such packages are lot or stolen? Do they actually investigate how a package can get picked up at a post office and either never reach the local mail centre of never get scanned into the system? As someone who has audited operational control systems across many industrial sectors, I can say that in my experience, nearly all companies would track this down find out what happened - or call in the police on the assumption that one or more of their staff has stolen entrusted goods.

Pigus · Post by **Pigus** » 04 Jun 2018, 18:35

Regarding your conclusion that: "My guess (not that it helps you much) is that it is at the intended address but has not been scanned correctly on delivery." ..... ti hasn't been scanned since the post office accepted it. Srangely, just today, 2.5 weeks on, the trace and track updated to say 'sender preparing item' (previously it was simply 'Accepted at post Office'). But still nothing to suggest that it has been received at a Royal Mail mail office.

Pigus · Post by **Pigus** » 11 Jun 2018, 15:24

Probably my final post on this, unless package turns up.

Still nothing on track and trace after receipt at post office.
Still has not been received by Home Office
Royal Mail have 'investigated' and found nothing at that their returns office and nothing along the chain of mail/sorting centres that the package should have followed.
Royal Mail imply that it never left the Post Office - which they can not investigate, saying that is for the PO to do.
Post Office said they can not investigate until they have a case closed letter from the RM, which we can only get once we have made a claim! Which of course, would take months.
Eventually got PO to make enquiries at the PO branch which confirmed absolutely certain they have no mislaid packages and that on the day in question all SD packages handed over to driver.

So .... seems either the package has definitely vanished - OR been stolen OR someone soewhere has cocked up and does not want to admit it, so maybe destroyed the package weeks after it was sent.

All in all a depressing and unsatisfying result. I will never trust the RM again.