ParcelForce lost my friends package

ParcelForce has no record of it ever being picked up from the Post Office it was sent from.

My mate is in the process of making a claim as he had the item insured for £500. The problem is they want proof of its value. He has no receipt for buying the item but had just sold it on ebay for over £400.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing?

How on Earth can they lose a TOOL?

 

Holy crap, are you kidding? I've just traded my PS2 Tool with a guy in Germany and we agreed to use ParcelForce International to ship :-(

On a similar note the Post Office lost £30 worth of postal orders and have refused to give me a refund. I guess our beloved RM is going through another "shit" patch, which is always what happens around public holidays as they draft in reserve <secondary> postal workers who neither know the job, care for it or have no interest in maintaining security irrespective of who the post if being delivered too.

Think I am joking?

The QUEEN'S post was found dumped!! That's the HEAD on the stamps used to post the bloody stuff. "Royal" Mail my arse!

 

It`s funny you always underestimate the ineptitude of RM/PF until something goes wrong with your post.

I`m afraid i`m not kidding, you would think they would accept the ebay reciept for the amount paid for it as proof of it`s worth. What was the point of enhancing the compensation to £500, which was an extra £10 in their pockets.

This was only going to fucking Gloucestershire too! Could`ve driven the thing.

 

Parcel force and royalmail have gone down hill so much in the past few years, i had a similar experience with parcelforce a couple of years ago, when i purchased a gamecube off ebay,

The seller used parcelforce as the courier, after 2 weeks of waiting for a response off the seller to give me the tracking number, they said that it was waiting at my local post office as they could not delivery it to me, which was strange as they would have posted a delivery notice through the door if i wasn't in, so of i trotted to the post office with the reference number, and that's when the fun started!

They had the parcel there, but refused to give it to me as they were saying that i wasn't the delivery address on the parcel, although it was my name, postcode, street etc, as when parcelforce collect it, instead of putting number 31, they put 21, and as that house was empty at the time then obviously there was no-one to sign for it!

So i argued a bit with the woman behind the counter, but no joy, she said that i needed proof that the parcel was meant for me, i explained that i didn't have the delivery notice as it had been posted to the wrong address and it was a vacant property, but she wasn't having any of it, so i went home, printed out a copy of the auction, and the email i had had from the seller, took that back down, and it wasn't enough proof for them, so i asked what would be proof that it belonged to me, they said they needed the delivery slip, which again i explained i didn't have etc. so they said if i had a *copy* of the original collection receipt

So again i came home, emailed the seller, waited a few days for them to get back to me, and the finally sent me a scanned in copy of the original collection receipt (which actually said my correct address on it!) printed it out, took that back down, and yet again they refused to give me the parcel, as they then said they needed the original receipt, not a copy!

At this point i was furious with them!, so again, came home, emailed the seller again, who was getting very pissed off with me, he said he would send the receipt as long as i covered postage, so i send him a couple of ££ to cover it, 2 weeks later, i actually receive it from him! as he ignored all my mails etc, even tried to contact him by phone with no success, as he had put a duff contact number on ebay.

Back down the post office again, bear in mind this was nearly 6 weeks since i purchased the gamecube! and they finally let me have the parcel!

So home i get with it, and low and behold, the address on the slip was the my correct address! 31, not 21 what the were telling me all along! best part was, the box was dented to crap, the games that came with it had come loose in the cases (which were cracked to crap) so the discs were ruined, the gamecube itself was damaged but only cosmetically

So i tried to make a claim with them for damages, took pics of everything, and all i got back from them was that it was over the 60 day limit to make a claim and they wouldn't do anything about it!

So rest assured your not the only one to have probs with parcel force, and dont get me started on royalmail, ive lost track on the amount of items ive sent or supposed to be delivered gone lost in the past couple of years, even recorded and special delivery items!

 

It`s just the proof of original purchase which shows its value being needed to claim back any money. There is no such receipt as he got the unit from me pretty much and it was cash. The price he bought at was half of what it sold for on ebay also.

 

Are you sure that your friends package was sent with Parcel Force and not Royal Mail Standard Parcels? Does he have a tracking number?

For a Proof of Value (POV) just get him to write out a receipt in pen, on paper, e.g. date, then something along the lines of "received £xxx from xxxx for xxxx" and then signed. I don't know about Parcel Farce but DHL accept this as a POV.

Did you write the postal orders out to a particular person and cross them? That way they can only be paid into the bank account of a named person. If you keep the counterfoils and receipt from when you purchased them, and they get lost in the post, you can then get the money back provided they haven't been cashed. Thats supposed to be one of the benefits of using them, of course if you didn't cross them, then they can be cashed by anyone that stole them.. and therefore the PO wouldn't refund..

The temporary staff are known as "casuals" and they are employed quite often at busy times like summer when a lot of posties are on hols and Christmas when theres a large amount of mail to deliver. I worked as one once, and yes, a lot of the people they employ are dossers, receive ZERO training and do make a lot of mistakes (I'd just like to point out I'm not a dosser though!) if you find a casual delivering your mail, then I'd probably recommend phoning your local sorting office and making a "strong complaint" particuarly if things have been going missing, or the post is late.

If your having big problems with Parcel Force I'd recommend getting the geographical number for customer services off saynoto0870.com (if you have a landline phone package or inclusive minutes on a mobile package then you could probably call for free) if the person that you speak to is a numpty then ask to speak to their supervisor, if they come out with excuses just persist and persist, the problems I've had with delivery companies can sometimes only be solved with the supervisors, most are ok and they will have a better understanding of the rules and regulations etc and advice as to what to do..

Take names and write down how long you've spent on the phone, then refer to this information when calling back etc.. it really does help.

I have had loads of problems with Parcel Force too which is why I call them "Parcel Farce" the past 3-4 parcels I've received with them they have cocked up, i.e. keeping a parcel for days, without telling me, can't find my house, losing them in the depot nearly EVERY time and having to do a depot search.. I think it just depends on what your local depot are like, and the Preston depot are grossly inept...

Sorry for the length, good luck getting things sorted fellas!

 

Can't he show them the auction as proof?

 

You'd be surprised how little value these people place on anything related to eBay or PayPal. They only accept their own proof of postage / insurance etc.

Reading through Diddydonn's experiences reminded me of a similar situation I had when I first moved to the new address. I had a redelivery note posted through the letter box. I took it to the local collections office (not 5mins from my front door) and they stated "Oh, you are too early it's on the van, come back tomorrow" (all the time I am thinking, why is it on the van 24hrs after I have received the card?).

I visited a further 3 times with various excuses before I finally asked for a postal manager. Thb he was really genuine and stated straight away "I won't beat about the bush....we have lost it".

Now, I was using eBay a hell of a lot last year and he simply said "Go back to your auctions and establish which of them has not turned up". The problem being that often people delay delivery, say they've sent stuff when they haven't and if you start emailing people with "Have you sent item X as something has gone missing in the post" a small number are going to think "Aha, yes it MUST be my item <cough!>!

Ergo, I never established what it was, I failed to receive a couple of items and when I sat with the claims form it requested that you KNEW what was inside the package that went missing, so heaven help anyone who receives a parcel out of the blue or has missing items around Christmas!

Suffice to say you really do need to be dealing with trustworthy eBayers / sellers in the first place and I was really pissed off by the whole experience.

How difficult is it to hold onto a parcel and try again?

Chaoticjelly:

I never crossed them as it was for a member of AG and I had dealt with him before. If I had crossed them he'd have had to place them in a bank account to clear, which as you know can take several days. It was a means of trying to get the money to him quicker. From now on I am crossing ALL postal orders. :-(

 

Rules of UK Post

Don't use Parcelfarce. End of. *IF* (and its a big if) you really have to then use one of their 24 or better services as it does get traced, it's locked in a cage and there is more hell to pay if it goes missing. Parcelfarce leave parcels laying around, the best story I heard (from a Parcelfarce worker) was someone walked into a depot, climbed into a truck and literally drove off with it, it contained about £250,000 worth of PCs...

If you need to use royal mail then use Special Delivery as it's more likely you'll get money from them if you complain.

Use a courier comapny instead.

If you need to send cash, try to do a bank transfer if possible. If the other person is being a prat then send postal orders via Special Delivery as you won't get any compensation otherwise. Write the persons name on the Postal Orders as most post offices will ask to see some ID before cashing them.

Parcelforce lost one of my parcels, by writing lots of letters and complaining to a lot of people I got my money back, plus postage costs plus some compensation.

Have friends who are lawyers (or at least can get headed notepaper), that normally gets Parcelfarce, Royal Fail to cough up sharpish.

 

One of the reasons I'd rather not buy anything off people in the UK anymore, I have lost a couple of things with time and I was never able to resolve it or get a refund, guess I lost about 150+ euro by now because of royal mail and parcel force while I never had any problems whatsoever with any other country in the world lol and besides that RM and PF are the most expensive as well, were you would expect some kind of decent service.... but no

 

Parcel was sent via ParcelForce 48hr delivery with proof of postage. When you say a piece of paper with a data and details are we talking backdated and trying to pass off as a recent already in his hands or one written now from the seller because he now needs proof. Either way I think my mate will try anything to get back his £400ish.

 

Man 400 is no joke, I would go ballistic and casualties would fall lol

 

All of this makes me just want to cry!

Yeah, the Postal Orders were made out in the recipients name. The really annoying thing (other than losing money - and not really being so flush I can laugh it off) is that it only needs something like this for either an AG member, someone on eBay, a reputable supplier or a good contact to think "this guys at it!" and that's it trust that may have taken months to build up is gone!

You are probably right, bank transfers are a lot better idea. However, DRussian's mate with the £400ish PS2 Tool is in a bit of a pickle. That's a LOT of hardware to be arguing over and I doubt RM will give a monkeys without cast iron evidence either way.

Port: That's just hellish, especially as you will tend to find that UK buyers / sellers are actually top guys! A couple of expensive issues can put you off a countries postal service however. Canada Post.... DON'T GET ME STARTED ON MOOOSSSEEE POST!

 

The thing I really hate about it is that UK sellers are usually top guys and the ones selling great items! the worst is on a clear day I can see the damn island from here and still it seems so hard to get a decent delivery for a nice price, the only alternatives inside europe for good stuff are usually Germany and France but then I have to deal with people unwilling or unable to speak English most of the time and the US stuff sometimes bites me in the ass with extra / hidden import costs when sellers state the real value of the item end of story I should find another hobby, collect cheese and wooden shoes or something lol

 

Yeah take up something totally outlandish in your part of the world like flood defence management prototypes or something lol

 

Fair doos man. I highly recommend bank transfer though.. its fast, free and efficient :nod: I have never used, and never will use, postal orders :thumbsup:

Its my belief that if any card left by Royal Mail states on the back "24 hours" before pickup, that the postie has taken the item home, which is completely and utterly illegal (queens post and all that).

As it happens, ironically, Parcel Force "delivered" a parcel to me this morning! h: but, wait for it, I didn't have to get out of bed, as I only "found" the parcel when I got up out of bed and saw it through the glass of the front door! Yes, the parcel had been left outside my front door in direct view of the street outside.. upon entering the tracking number into Parcel Farces website, what a surprise, it has been signed for.. by me! But wait.. I didn't get out of bed ! ergo the driver must of signed for it.. whether he felt I needed a lie in, or just wasn't doing his job properly, we'll never know.. I have the goods though so I'll let it slip this time..

If the thing that your sending in the UK is worth £34 or under you can fill out a "Certificate of Posting" (ask for a pad full from the Post Office) and you simply write the persons name, address, (and I also write the amount of postage paid) combined with a till receipt this should let you claim the items value back, and hopefully the postage too, in the event of loss or damage (fill out a claims form, which can also be obtained from the post office) the bad news is that for overseas items, they will refund item value up to £34, but the postage they will not (they lark on about something like the overseas postal service could have lost the item etc etc). Its a bit time consuming if you send a lot of packets, but FREE insurance and certainly something that Royal Mail do not advertise enough..

Yes, when I say with a date on, it would need to be a date from before the parcel was sent.. like I said, it seems to be adequate proof for DHL, so I don't see why Parcel Farce should be any much different..

 

Royal Mail has just lost two of my brothers parcels. They tried to deliver them but nobody was at home when they came so they took them back to the delivery office for picking up next day but when he went they were not there. They said the parcels must of been droped of at the local post office instead but they don't have them either. He gave the form that the postman leaves to say they have been while you was out to the delivery office because there is an area number on it which they can use to find the postman doing the rounds. When they asked him what he has done with them, he just said he left them in a black bag with other parcels back at the delivery office, but now that bag has gone missing and they can't find it. Royal Mail have now just said to file an insurance claim and to accept they are lost all because of the postman not taking and leaving the parcels back at the delivery office properly.

 

That's freaking nuts! make sure that guy gets fired! seriously, I myself am going to start a war with my local postal service as well, I once had the same problem you described and as I see them delivering more and more of my stuff at neighbours houses by accident, and I get lots of stuff that isn't ment for me as well.. nowadays to spare money they use 'bums' to deliver mail but these people don't give a rats ass about your stuff.. same for a package I received from the UK not too long ago, it was delivered by a guy with holes in his pants and a smashed up car looking like he lives in there too.. and then I ask myself why I lost all the stuff in the past.... extra note I never got a refund of anything lost!:crying: where are the good old days with cheap, good service and decent looking delivery cars/emplyees that actually do their work right?

@parris: I found a wooden shoe development tool!! maybe I should go for it lol: http://www.marcotte.nl/Resources/klomp1.jpeg

 

bwahahaha, thats quite an early revision.

 

Hmm, its' not as good as the XyF576542i version that came out in the 18th century... now that was a way cool clog dev kit. :lol:

I think we win a prize for the conversation that got the most "off topic" in the history of AG. From postal issues to wood turning development lol