Signed For - But Not Delivered to Customer

[OhSoCherished]

Just a quickie...

We sent out a parcel to a customer using 'Royal Mail Signed For' a signature was taken on arrival (a squiggle!! so unclear as anything). Customers is now saying it wasn't signed by them and they want their products...NOW!!!???

Does anyone have a quick answer where the retailer stands on this??
it was a £70 order.

This is actually the first time this has come up for us!! Funnily enough we use to get it all the time when we didn't send as signed for.

Cheers

Sarah

 

[Mister B]

Recorded or Special?

We had the same happen to us last month, and ended up sending out a new parcel to the customer and claiming from the RM.

Typically so, because the parcel was "signed for," the RM refused our claim and we lost our money. The irony is that if we had sent by an unsigned service, we could have claimed from the RM.

I think that you need to either bite the bullet and send the parcel or lock horns with the punter. If it was me, I would just put it down to experience and move on. It sounds like you've been ripped off by the RM and not by the customer.

Only my thoughts early on a Friday morning though!

Mister B

 

[Williams lester]

Complain to Royal Mail? Though if they agree to compensate you I believe this service only offers compensation up to £39.

 

[OhSoCherished]

It's so annoying isn't it!!
What gets me is probably 50% of signed for orders which we send out are signed for with a bad squiggle!! Royal mail should make people print names only as we have no proper proof of who signed for the package.

Royal Mail make claims so difficult as well!

 

[stugster]

Don't use Royal Fail in future? Hit them where it hurts if they don't provide the service you pay for?

 

[JayLondon]

We had this happen to us one too many times, along with the other issues we decided to use an alternative company for parcel deliveries.

 

[british steve]

We had this happen to us one too many times, along with the other issues we decided to use an alternative company for parcel deliveries.

I had this happen once - turned out the postie had nicked it ! Post office gave me the fastest refund in history in case I called the police.

 

[JayLondon]

Some of the chaps at our local post office actually said on numerous occasions that the posties sign for deliveries, I guess I shouldn't blame them we do after all make pretty tasty chocolates!!

 

[av2019]

Some of the chaps at our local post office actually said on numerous occasions that the posties sign for deliveries, I guess I shouldn't blame them we do after all make pretty tasty chocolates!!

This happens so much more near Christmas, I suppose they think "well there is so many parcels, no one will notice."

 

[DaveSUK]

I get a lot of signed for post which I have never signed. Every now and then the post man will knock on to get a signature, other times he just posts it.

It could be the postman pinching it, or the customer wanting a freebie. How you deal with it is up to you. You can resend the item and hope that royal mail compensates you, or you can tell them they need to wait until royal mail has investigated. I personally would send the item again and stop using Royal Mail, they are so unreliable its untrue. Even parcel force who are part of royal mail are so much better than regular post.

I am sure there are people on here to regularly send parcels and they will be able to recommend a trusted carrier.

 

[deadgoodundies]

Personally I think Royal Mail do a great job. Yes very occasionally something will go missing but we are talking about 1 in thousands of parcels we send over X amount of months.

We've had the same situation where something was shown as signed for but hasn't been delivered and chances are it is the postman but it's just a case of a few bad apples not doing their job properly.

You can try and claim but chances are they will just say it was signed for and that's that. If we ever have lost post we always claim for it and get the wholesale price back but in the event of a signed but not delivered we just have to bite the bullet.

 

[DaveSUK]

I have just read a story about a theiving postman in the Manchester Reporter, a postman in Macclesfiled has been stealing the post he was suppose to be delivering to Envirofone.

After compalints the post office started to watch the postman and caught him opening 2 parcels and taking the phones, the police went around to his house and found a load more.

The court case has been adjourned for presentance reports.

 

[seasonsonline]

Customer is always right (??) so next stop would be to inform Royal Mail that the customer states the signature is not his/hers. - Then it's up to them, but if you did use recorded delivery then it will only be £39 compensation at most.

We have a policy that means the customer should await the result from Royal Mail. If Royal Mail admit liability then that is something at least, and if they don't then you must do the honourable thing and refund/re-send

Of course, you can then make your own decision as to whether or not to scrap that customers account or black list them

 

[Christiane]

Why not stand your grounds and tell your customer to claim from Royal Mail themselves. I did this with a customer, surprisingly they got their money back! In this case I didn't lose out as I got paid for the order I sent, didn't have to refund or send it again.
If I had sent the parcel again and put in a claim with RM I would have never got my money back!

 

[deadgoodundies]

I wouldn't see many customers going for that as it's not up to them to sort it out (no disrespect to you as it obviously worked out for you) as their contract is with you and your contract is with Royal Mail so the onus is on the retailer to sort any problems out.

 

[liquidauctions]

I had this happen once, i sent a phone to my brother in london and a few days he got the phone without signing. Just out of curiosity i asked royal mail to send a copy of the signiture and it was a scribble. Most likely they have gt the package and want to try it on to get another as they havent signed.

 

[m31]

One of my customers had her parcel signed for by her postie who then put it in a recycling box without telling anyone. The parcel was found after one week luckily didn't get recycled!

 

[FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper]

You can't do much else other than refund or replace the order, the customer has told you they didn't recieve the item so the dispute is between you and the Royal Mail.

Make it sound very serious to the customer, tell them since the item was signed for it must've been stolen by someone at RM therefore you have informed the police and Royal Mail. Ask for a contact phone number in case the RM or police need to confirm any details. It might just turn up out of nowhere, found in the shed, was with a neighbour excuse.

Never suggest the customer has done anything wrong, your really sorry this has happened and are pursuing this legally for their benefit as much as your own.

If genuine, I wouldn't have any problem answering questions from the police if an item has been signed for clearly not by me. I would want them prosecuted.

Note: You don't actually need to take any action, contact the RM in the normal way. Just ensure the customer thinks this could become very serious if you doubt their claim. You might be suprised that a few people suddenly remember the dog for signed for it and buried it in the garden.

 

[internetspaceships]

We use Royal Mail as little as possible.

They are jobsworths at our local office, always trying to change the type of delivery we need (usually recorded) so they don't have to fill out the paperwork even when one of our staff is in front of them asking for that particular service!

Anything of any value at all we send via courier, many many parcels per day. Naturally we charge the customer for the postage so it's no problem for us, but you do seem to get what you pay for.

Incidentally, didn't it used to be a hanging offence to steal from the Royal Mail? There's certainly something particularly vile about a**holes that do this. There's no need for stealing in a society where there is a benefit or top up tax credit for everyone earning below a certain level. It's just theft for greed.

Back on track though, if your items are around the £70 mark I would consider a good courier service, and I think you're most likely going to have to take a hit on this parcel.

Kind Regards

Jon

 

[Pap_sak]

You can't do much else other than refund or replace the order, the customer has told you they didn't recieve the item so the dispute is between you and the Royal Mail.

Make it sound very serious to the customer, tell them since the item was signed for it must've been stolen by someone at RM therefore you have informed the police and Royal Mail. Ask for a contact phone number in case the RM or police need to confirm any details. It might just turn up out of nowhere, found in the shed, was with a neighbour excuse.

Never suggest the customer has done anything wrong, your really sorry this has happened and are pursuing this legally for their benefit as much as your own.

If genuine, I wouldn't have any problem answering questions from the police if an item has been signed for clearly not by me. I would want them prosecuted.

Note: You don't actually need to take any action, contact the RM in the normal way. Just ensure the customer thinks this could become very serious if you doubt their claim. You might be suprised that a few people suddenly remember the dog for signed for it and buried it in the garden.

spot on, great way to deal with it

 

[lss]

half the time when I have signed for parcels from RM delivered to me, they just leave it on the door step for the whole world to see, they dont even knock, so its a complete surprise to me when theres parcels looking lonely on the door step! really really bad! pay for a service and not get it!

 

[twinks]

I had a similar experience mine was signed for, not by me and the parcel was found dumped in a bush down the road. only a kind passer by found it and brought it round to my home she could of taken it I would never have known but she was a nice lady so I got my package and the post office didn't want to know!