Royal Mail Click & Drop - Claiming for lost item

[tsutton]

Hey all,

I need guidance on Royal Mail Click & Drop and was hoping anyone could help me.

I sent an item to someone using 2nd class post. I used the Click & Drop service. I printed off the postage and dropped it off using the Parcel PostBoxes. This was on 26th Feb.

Customer has not received it yet. Based on Royal Mail's guidance, I should make a claim as this is more than 10 working days.

So I went to Claims Centre on the Royal Mail website and I picked “Online Postage”. I filled it in but got stuck at “Please enter a track reference number” – why would it ask for it when I picked 2nd class from the drop down listing? Then it asked if I can “provide proof of posting” – how does this work when they offered me the service of Click and Drop? I clicked on ‘No’ and it says I cannot make a claim.

Does it mean I have sent a £15 item that is lost that is not my fault and the best Royal Mail can do is to refund me the cost of 2nd class postage I paid for?

Or am I misunderstanding this?

Please advise, thanks.

 

[Mr D]

Sounds like you can't claim. Factor the loss into your pricing. Not your fault but the method used means its also not subject to being able to claim.
Cheaper postage, easier post handling, no claim.

Now if you were able to claim, your £15 wholesale item would be worth claiming on. How much did the buyer pay? Was it worth sending by tracked method?

 

[tsutton]

Thanks for the reply.

Anything under £20, I offer 1st or 2nd class post, alongside with 24h and 48h tracking so they had choices of which service to go for. This customer picked 2nd class.

Over £20, my store only offers 24h or 48h Tracking. Many of their purchases are over £20 so I might let this go. But it does make me think how RM can get away with this - offering Click & Drop and then asking for proof of posting...

Maybe I should drop 2nd class, keeping 1st class, 24h & 48h Tracking.

 

[Mr D]

Thanks for the reply.

Anything under £20, I offer 1st or 2nd class post, alongside with 24h and 48h tracking so they had choices of which service to go for. This customer picked 2nd class.

Over £20, my store only offers 24h or 48h Tracking. Many of their purchases are over £20 so I might let this go. But it does make me think how RM can get away with this - offering Click & Drop and then asking for proof of posting...

Maybe I should drop 2nd class, keeping 1st class, 24h & 48h Tracking.

Some people do get proof of posting.

Back when I used to do franked mail I always got it. Even when started doing printing on the computer instead using OBA we initially did proof of posting.
However it gets to be too big a job and for the need, a waste of time.
Think of say 5 hours a year doing proof of postage to claim a couple of quid. Not cost effective.

We do tracked for higher value goods, tracked and signed for on some - has to be worth it though.

Seriously, claim on what you can claim on, for stuff you can't just factor the losses into the business.
Should be low level of losses overall. The official stats used to be 1 in 1000, have not checked what they are more recently.


We do mostly 2nd class, fair amount of that in normal times gets there next day. Even these days there are always a few that get delivered quickly. Particular dates we'll send everything relevant 1st class - Mother's day today so anything 'Mum' related in the few days prior we send 1st class whether buyer pays for it or not.

Your click & drop should give delivery confirmation to cut down on fraudulant claims - the customer on being told date and time delivered finds someone took it in and put it on a shelf... and withdraws the claim.

 

[tsutton]

To be honest, this is the first time this *MAY* be considered as a lost post for a while, so I might refund the customer and move on by early next week if it has not turned up - his postman said their local sorting office has piles of mails to be sorted.

He is a regular returning customer anyway and has been happy with deliveries so far apart from this one.

I've looked back in the history of orders and the 2nd class comes up now and then so I think I might remove it, leaving just 1st class, 24h and 48h tracked as options for peace of mind.

 

[Mr D]

To be honest, this is the first time this *MAY* be considered as a lost post for a while, so I might refund the customer and move on by early next week if it has not turned up - his postman said their local sorting office has piles of mails to be sorted.

He is a regular returning customer anyway and has been happy with deliveries so far apart from this one.

I've looked back in the history of orders and the 2nd class comes up now and then so I think I might remove it, leaving just 1st class, 24h and 48h tracked as options for peace of mind.

Then keeping the customer happy is probably worth more than wholesale cost plus postage.
You can market your change of postage as a benefit to customers to ensure they get the goods quickly.

 

[tsutton]

You can market your change of postage as a benefit to customers to ensure they get the goods quickly.

Good tip, thank you.

 

[nilega]

I use click and drop have successfully made lots of claims for undelivered post. I go into it via the online claim and your manifest is your proof of posting.

 

[apricot]

If you posted via Click and Drop, you have the date of the posting, address, product details(maybe) + tracking. You have all the information that you need. Not sure why you selected 'No' for ' proof of posting'?

I recommend you to try again. Give them the batch number, manifest number which you have in Click and Drop, and the other details they ask for .. they should send you the cheque for your claim.

 

[Trapbarn]

When Covid was running rife in 2020, I started dropping my C&D parcels at a Parcel Post box. after a couple of weeks I got a very stern letter from RM "Revenue Protection" about fraud. It turned out that the parcel post box nearest to me was one which was not covered by their depot. My account is linked by my SE22 post code o the Croydon depot whereas the post box was in SE21 which was handled by the depot in inner London. They thought I must be cheating the system somehow as the parcels didnt pass through Croydon. They wouldnt listen about Covid so I would not recommend using C&D woth a parcel post box.