Royal Mail have lost my D300s!

SummerSound

SummerSound

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Tom
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On Saturday, I posted my beloved D300s to the Nikon Repair Centre. I sent it Royal Mail Special Delivery, so it should have been delivered on Tuesday at the very latest. However, the tracking information is still unavailable online today.

So, I called into my local PO and it's been confirmed - they've lost it!

It was tracked to the local sorting office (to the delivery address) and then it disappeared.

Thankfully, I took out the extended insurance (to £1000).

Does anyone have any experience in dealing with the Royal Mail over lost items? How did you find it? Any advice?

I've reported the item as lost with Royal Mail and they've "launched an investigation". This sounds like a lengthy process... Hopefully it isn't!
 
Have you ever used royal mail before? If you have there is no danger I'd use them to send a dslr if I wanted it in one piece or even at all. They might still find it but if they don't Then they will try and blame you and if you stick to your guns they will reimburse you. Hopefully it goes all well.
 
Any time they've lost a package of mine they've been fairly quick at settling - not sure what I'd do with a grand's worth of first class stamps though :lol:

They did lose a camera of mine a few years back that was only travelling across Glasgow, it turned up eventually hidden (their word) under a pile of mail sacks in a depot in a town about 30 miles away.....
 
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Flash In The Pan said:
They did lose a camera of mine a few years back that was only travelling across Glasgow, it turned up eventually hidden (their word) under a pile of mail sacks in a depot in a town about 30 miles away.....
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This is what I'm worried about! How long will they take to find it? (If they do!) And what state will it be in once it turns up?! :shake:

Dblock said:
Have you ever used royal mail before? If you have there is no danger I'd use them to send a dslr if I wanted it in one piece or even at all.
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I hear what you're saying and I'm aware of their poor reputation but what's the alternative? Is there anyone you would trust more? :shrug:

Miss Moo!! said:
Oh no :( I hope they find it :(
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Thanks Miss Moo!
 
Dblock said:
Have you ever used royal mail before? If you have there is no danger I'd use them to send a dslr if I wanted it in one piece or even at all. They might still find it but if they don't Then they will try and blame you and if you stick to your guns they will reimburse you. Hopefully it goes all well.
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ive sent the 120-300, a couple of 70-200 and a few bodies all by special delivery. all of which arrived in one piece.

i believe SD are handled by a separate division than usual RM also.

on the occasion that the other half had a damaged SD item arrive (very fragile orniment) they were pretty quick to issue compensation.
 
SummerSound said:
This is what I'm worried about! How long will they take to find it? (If they do!) And what state will it be in once it turns up?! :shake:
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Mine was fine, it took a couple of weeks to turn up, the box had been opened :suspect: but the contents were all there.

It's more likely in your case just to have been routed via the wrong depot or the address has become unreadable, something simple like that and delivery has been delayed.

Make sure to look out details of the serial number, proof of purchase etc just in case the worse does happen though...
 
Parcel monkey or any proper courier. Their online tracking is much better even shows you who signed for it. Cheaper too. I hope they find it keep bugging them until they do.
 
Interparcel.co.uk are good, like a price checker for the reputable couriers, DHL, UPS etc.
 
I hope they sort this out quickly and find the culprit (if it has been nicked) as being the local sorting office to Nikon might result in some future grief for other Nikon users who have to send stuff to the repair centre,:thumbsdown:
 
If it's anything like the experience I had when they lost my big bag of compression fittings, all they did was reimberse me with a book of first class stamps :(

not a good show IMHO, never did find out what happened to them, even though I had a tracking number
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Any time they've lost a package of mine they've been fairly quick at settling - not sure what I'd do with a grand's worth of first class stamps though :lol:
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lol they don't offer cash? :thinking:
 
They 'may' offer stamps, but complain and they'll turn it into cash. However, be prepared for a loooooong wait and be prepared to write a few letters before they sort it. They're useless, going through a dispute myself right now and it's tiresome.
 
ziggy©;3810520 said:
lol they don't offer cash? :thinking:
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I think they go by the value of the item, so for small items they offer stamps, still not acceptable though
 
We had a large amount of Tesco vouchers nicked (we know they where nicked as they got used) and some other stuff by some one within Royal Mail*. Even with the police involved we never heard anything more, hope you have better luck.

*yes we have very good evidence to believe that is the case and the police seemed to see it that way also.
 
Sent loads of lenses via Royal Mail (always Special delivery) and only had one problem which was sorted fairly quickly with no hassle.

I don't think they actually officially count an item as lost until something like 30 days has passed though.

If they do eventually find it and it gets to the destination don't forget to claim back your postage costs from them as they will refund if it is not delivered next day. :thumbs:
 
Thanks very much for all the comments guys.

It sounds like there have been some mixed experiences with Royal Mail!

I'll obviously update the post as soon as I hear anything. In the mean time, keep everything crossed for me!
 
Mike.P said:
I don't think they actually officially count an item as lost until something like 30 days has passed though.
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That rings a bell. They lost a 580EX flash that I'd sent to Canon for repair a few years ago.

The biggest single obstacle I faced was that, IIRC, it's the recipient who has to register that the item is lost, not the sender, and it took me quite a while to fathom my way round Canon's phone system and bureaucracy to get them to do that (with a few further kicks up the backside to Canon along the way).

Once it was done, I got a cheque for the full value of my claim from the Royal Mail within a couple of weeks.
 
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neil_g said:
um SD shows you the POD :thinking:

for price inc insurance SD does work out cheaper than most couriers i find.
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probably but honestly the online tracker is never working. :thumbsdown:

I have personally been let down too many times by royal fail but aslong as we keep using them they wont care.
 
Dblock said:
probably but honestly the online tracker is never working. :thumbsdown:

I have personally been let down too many times by royal fail but aslong as we keep using them they wont care.
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I use couriers 99% of the time now Royal Fail aren't worth the hasssle or the savings.
 
Tom

You may find it helpful to read what Royal Mail has to say about making a claim for a lost item - Link

Important things to note are that a Special Delivery item is not classed as lost until 10 working days after delivery was due and you must provide evidence of posting so make sure you hang on to your Certificate of Posting.

When I worked for Royal Mail a Special Delivery (or Registered as it was then) item going missing meant an interview with the last person to have it in his charge to find out what they had done with it: this means that there is still some hope that the item will be found.
 
Softshoe said:
Tom

You may find it helpful to read what Royal Mail has to say about making a claim for a lost item - Link

Important things to note are that a Special Delivery item is not classed as lost until 10 working days after delivery was due and you must provide evidence of posting so make sure you hang on to your Certificate of Posting.

When I worked for Royal Mail a Special Delivery (or Registered as it was then) item going missing meant an interview with the last person to have it in his charge to find out what they had done with it: this means that there is still some hope that the item will be found.
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Thanks Andy. This is a really helpful post. :thumbs:
 
ziggy©;3810520 said:
lol they don't offer cash? :thinking:
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I was joking, for anything 'high value' (the last package of mine they lost was about fifty quid) they issue the compensation by means of a cheque.
 
Used to work for RM too and an SD going missing is a pretty big deal (by RM standards) as it usually meant a large amount of compensation to be paid. If it had been recorded delivery or just 1st class I'd have said forget it, but an SD I'd hold out hope of finding again if it hasn't been nicked.

Hope you get it sorted asap, let us know how what happens either way.
 
Sent many things RMSD. Never had a problem and tracking always working.
 
Hope you get it sorted Tom. Mind you somebody else has had a Tripod lost in the post :thinking: Mods!! Beware of anybody joining TP who`s user name is Postman Pat :suspect:
 
SummerSound said:
.................It sounds like there have been some mixed experiences with Royal Mail!...................
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I send a lens to somebody here......it never arrived
the delivery address had the wrong house number.....:thumbsdown:

then my stick-on Return Address label had been torn off [ how?] and it was sent to Ireland {?] for investigation

the packet was opened and - as it contained no invoice or senders address - it was put on the shelf

KNOWING THIS - always put your return address inside the the box too

eventual my tracking nbr located the parcel and it was delivered
 
Good luck!

I've used RMSD for many years with no problems at all, and it's very convenient with our friendly local post office at the end of our road for dropping off (and collection, of course, if something was being delivered while we were out).

However, there's a fashion these days for many suppliers of all sorts of services (particularly insurance companies) not to pay out at first and to be slow and difficult, and then first to offer very low compensation. It's appalling customer service, but in these tough times...

Are we really sure the courier companies are actually any better?

You need to be firm, and never to give up. It can take quite a bit of time.
 
I remember the day when messing with the post was a very serious offence, now we talk about things gettin nicked as if it were commonplace.
 
ttheduck said:
I remember the day when messing with the post was a very serious offence, now we talk about things gettin nicked as if it were commonplace.
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"as if" ???
 
drmarkf said:
You need to be firm, and never to give up. It can take quite a bit of time.
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:thumbs:

I have a small business and we send most of our packets by Royal Mail signed for recorded.For the most part it's a 'reliable' service.
For the packets we send out about 0.5% get lost and are never seen again!:eek:
There must be a mountain of lost mail the size of the Himalayas every day !!
When we put in a claim for the loss, every time the RM send return with standard letters explaining they can't contact the recipient to
get confirmation of non-delivery..blah blah blah... and just make it an akward process, hoping you'll just give up with the claim.
But you've got to keep on at them and eventually every claim we've made have been paid.

I hope you get your camera sorted soon.
 
Royal mail make a load of money selling off 'lost' parcels in auctions. They don't really care that much.
 
Last year Royal Mail successfully returned 5.2 million items, leaving some 20 million undeliverable and unreturnable: these will have been kept for 4 months in the National Returned Letter Centre in Belfast. This employs 160 staff and costs over £4 million per year while last year it 'made' £824,000 from sales. Hardly not caring much or making a load of money.
 
RMSD is the only RM delivery service that I trust(ish). Even that goes wrong occasionally, a couple of weeks ago I bought a NIKON 16-85 on here which was sent RMSD next day delivery and did not arrive for two days which did not impress as you pay to GET the next day service. Seems my lens got 'lost' between the Preston and Coventry sorting office:thinking:
It arrived intact but the info they put on the online tracing is minimal at best.

RM these days though.....:razz:
 
Wow, some bad experiences here. The only problem I've ever had was with Parcelforce and a delivery that was scheduled 2 weeks before Christmas. Took over a week to get there when it was promised next day.

Couldn't contact the delivery centre as they didn't answer the phone. Eventually got the delivery persons phone number and after pestering the item suddenly got delivered.

Nightmare when things go wrong and you've got something worth around £1000 in limbo.
 
Hopefully they'll find the camera. Or at least pay for a replacement pretty quickly.

I read that they deliver about 84 million item per day. :eek: I think that it is unsurprising that some things go missing. Special Delivery should hopefully be safer, but with so many items floating about...:shrug:

Doesn't help if you've lost something I know, but the numbers are staggering. :eek:

Sadly, as time goes on and their business in diluted service may suffer. There may be alternatives, but you'll pay more for them.
 
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