First class cheek! Royal Mail is accused of dishonesty as it emerges it sells items 'lost' in the post

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -post.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

~Issue came to light following problems suffered by online trader Gary Cannell
~He sold a collection of nine cars made in Spain under the Scaleauto brand
~Package failed to arrive and he formally reported items missing on September 6
~He later found that eight of the ‘lost’ cars had been put up for sale on eBay

Royal Mail was yesterday accused of dishonesty after it was revealed to be auctioning off valuable items ‘lost’ in the post.

To add insult to injury, some customers whose goods have disappeared are offered derisory compensation of little more than £1.

The issue came to light following problems suffered by online trader Gary Cannell, who sells model racing cars to British enthusiasts.

He sold a collection of nine cars made in Spain under the Scaleauto brand, which can be used on Scalextric tracks, to a British customer for a total of £403.66 including VAT and delivery.

The package included several highly sought after Porsche and Spyker sports car models.

Mr Cannell has a Royal Mail business account. He sent the parcel first class with recorded delivery, which includes tracking, last August. But the package failed to arrive and he formally reported the items missing on September 6.

A little over two months later, he found that eight of the ‘lost’ cars had been put up for sale on eBay.

Mr Cannell, from Milton Keynes, alerted fraud investigators at Royal Mail, suspecting they had been stolen by a postman and sold on. He also reported it to police.

However when officers visited the eBay seller, she produced a receipt to show she bought the cars legitimately from an auction house. As a result, she was allowed to keep them.

The firm, Simon Charles Auctioneers, based in Stockport, subsequently confirmed to police that it has a contract with Royal Mail to sell items lost in the post. It runs live and online auctions selling more than 5,000 items a week from a range of sources.

Mr Cannell said he had hit a brick wall with Royal Mail after making a series of complaints and demands for compensation.

He said: ‘Royal Mail admit the parcel was “lost” but they refuse to pay any compensation for the parcel contents.

‘After several attempts they offered and paid £1.10 to me which does not even cover the cost of the postage.

‘We know that Royal Mail sold the items to an auction house but it has made no offer of compensation despite being provided with my purchase receipts and the buyer’s invoice.

‘We have a loss of over £400. My customer is very annoyed because we have no legal recourse against the eBay seller or auction house as their transactions are legal.

‘In our opinion Royal Mail is acting dishonestly and making a profit from selling customers parcels that they are responsible for. They give a receipt when taking parcels into their care, but won’t accept responsibility for losing them.’

In fact, Royal Mail has been selling lost, or what it calls ‘undeliverable’ parcels, for decades.

It insisted it makes great efforts to make sure items are delivered to correct addresses as expected. It refused to say how many parcels are sold to auction houses or how much it makes as a result.

It said: ‘On the rare occasion where we are not able to locate a return address, items are held for a period of time awaiting contact from the sender or intended recipient.

‘Once all other options have been exhausted, we auction valuable items that cannot be returned in order to partially pay the considerable cost involved in seeking to re-unite customers with their items.’

[Lounge Lizard]

"Online trader Gary Cannell, who sells model racing cars to British enthusiasts" and "has a Royal Mail business account" must surely know that a "parcel first class with recorded delivery" is for items valued up to £50 yet he sends items allegedly worth "over £400" and then whinges when things go wrong.
In future he should use Special Delivery at not much more cost.

[Godric]

"Online trader Gary Cannell, who sells model racing cars to British enthusiasts" and "has a Royal Mail business account" must surely know that a "parcel first class with recorded delivery" is for items valued up to £50 yet he sends items allegedly worth "over £400" and then whinges when things go wrong.
In future he should use Special Delivery at not much more cost.

the point is Royal Mail sold the contents of a parcel they claim has gone missing... what Royal mail done was theft

[Lounge Lizard]

"Online trader Gary Cannell, who sells model racing cars to British enthusiasts" and "has a Royal Mail business account" must surely know that a "parcel first class with recorded delivery" is for items valued up to £50 yet he sends items allegedly worth "over £400" and then whinges when things go wrong.
In future he should use Special Delivery at not much more cost.

the point is Royal Mail sold the contents of a parcel they claim has gone missing... what Royal mail done was theft

No, For Cannell to have something of a legitimate complaint we need to know whether he packed and addressed the parcel correctly and, more importantly, whether his return address was shown on, or in, the parcel.
Royal Mail's National Returns Centre in Belfast deals with a vast number of undeliverable packages and I'm sure they make an effort to link them to claims of missing items before resorting to having them auctioned, or would you prefer such items to be destroyed rather than auctioned ?
I doubt if you could justify your "theft" allegation against Royal Mail.
Cannell would justifiably get the compensation he expects had he paid the proper Special Delivery postage but using just Signed For was tantamount to him paying insufficient postage.

[SpacePhoenix]

Mr Cannell has a Royal Mail business account. He sent the parcel first class with recorded delivery, which includes tracking, last August. But the package failed to arrive and he formally reported the items missing on September 6.

Unless it's sent via Tracked 24 or SD, there's no chance of tracking all the way through the system. Like has already been said, for the value of the items, it should have been sent via SD. Does the software that business account customers use ask them the value of an item? if it does, does it flag up where SD should be used instead of Tracked or 1st class?

[skodamanpat]

I think the point that weighs most heavily against RM is the fact that he can proove the items were his and RM still refuse to even hand over the proceeds they made from their sale let alone compo. Wiyh so many parcel delivery firms bad press like this does nothing for RM.

[Tman]

It's the mail, FFS.
Last week they campaigned to over-ride H&S for the people working on Big Ben, now they're giving half-a-story to someone who apparently didn't follow guidelines when sending valuable items through the post.
Given that there's many people working in the RLB in Belfast to sort out such issues, to accuse RM of theft is just typical Daily Mail nonsense.

[clashcityrocker]

This isn't news.
The practice of selling undelivered items has been going on for years.
Wasn't there a story about some bloke and his bagpipes some time back?

[Lounge Lizard]

It's a bit like if Mr Cannell went on a train journey with a standard ticket, sat in first class and then moaned that he wasn't given the complimentary refreshments.

[POSTMAN]

As said, old news...
http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 18&t=36200" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Very old news...
http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 18&t=17021" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;