Another q for fellow HIBS - re: items lost in post!

Not sure they would count as jewellery ? I always send this way too and touch wood have never had anything go astray so cant really offer any help.

It must be very annoying though doing all that work and it vanishes ?

Good luck with royal mail x

I was wondering if they'd count as jewellery but knowing the Royal Mail if they can squirm their way out of paying you they will lol!

Thanks very much Starstruck that's very helpful. I must admit this has never happened before but I suppose it was only a matter of time. It doesn't sound very optimistic though does it? It's a pain in the backside it really is.

I must have sent around 2000 parcels by recorded delivery in the last 2 years and they have only lost ONE!!! Despite the fact that I constantly call them because they aren't good at putting on tracking info that parcels have been delivered I guess that's good going. they paid up quite readily for the one that was lost. I would put the description down as hairbands and I don't think you will have any problems. I wouldn't change to special delivery and would rather take the loss on those odds. Also last thursday isn't that long they could still turn up in the next few days. it is quite a long wait time before you can claim about 28 or something like that. My biggest problem has been when people have given me the wrong address and the parcel has come book after about a fortnight.

Thanks 3d. Yeah I suppose it is early days yet - you would expect first class recorded to get there a day or two at the latest after you posted it wouldn't you? I'll keep my finger's crossed it turns up tomorrow and if not like you say put it down as hairbands and hope for the best!

That's good going from your point of view though!

Have you tried DHL? I sent a 3kg box of invitations to Aberdeen and it was only £14 which I don't think is bad for a guaranteed service with a reasonable 'coverage for loss'. (either £100 or £200 - I can't remember).....

Worth looking into and you get a price before you book once you put in weight and dimensions ... I was very surprised at how reasonable it was. And no waiting in the post office queues!

Mrs SP x

I think I saw a poster recently advertising DHL points in WHSmiths stores? Not sure how widespread they are, but I guess that's almost as easy as going to your local post office!

We use Parcelforce for anything over 1kg and are covered up to £500 per parcel, we have a daily collection scheduled. They've only lost one parcel in the 4 years we've been using them and that was when the trailer was hi-jacked!

For anything less we use either Royal Mail or Special Delivery - depending on how much the parcel is worth - and have been reasonably lucky over the year - only lost maybe one or two.

You need to ensure that your returns policy also says that anything sent back should be signed for too - we are amazed at people that send returns back by second class post -which means they aren't insured.

Its not just the value of the products, its the heartache at the other end, its the work time lost while you re-produce the work, its that lack of customer confidence that you experience. For that reason we use special delivery or DHL

Potentially loosing a item in the post will cost you really dear when a bride goes (wrongfully) blabing how useless you lot are. For that reason, you need to figure out an alternative. The difficulty for you is the order value is so low, that the alternatives are priced out

I think RM are a right pain in the way they assist (not) you in these situations. They wanted to pay us (pence) for photographs, and wouldnt accept the real cost of getting professional prints done. We couldnt let our customer down so instantly re-did the job, and in the end lost money on it

RM have no idea what a "personalised" product is they just see (in our case) photo, and think £0.20 at tescos

Grr

I only use Recorded Delivery for one small item - for example if a Bride orders a buttonhole before booking so she can see the quality of the flower. This way, if it goes astray, it doesn't cost much to replace and send again although I haven't had anything lost using Recorded. For anything other than £5.00 in value, I always use Special Delivery. Recorded is really mainly for proof it has been delivered rather than for compensating as such. I have always had exceptional service using Special Delivery from Royal Mail/Parcelforce and in 7 years of sending mail order wedding flowers all over the country I only had one slight incident when I sent a Bride her flowers to the Shetland Isles and when they arrived up there, instead of the ferry man putting them on the ferry, he accidentally put them back on the parcelforce lorry and they went back to Coventry (the main depot). They were sent back up in the early hours of the following morning and got there the day after which they compensated me for because it arrived a day late.

Just a comment from an ex bride. I would have been happy to pay special delivery charges to guarantee the delivery of my things. I would have been heart broken if my wonderful table plan and guest book from sarahjane81 had gone missing 2 days before our wedding! I can't remember if she sent it by recorded or special delivery btw.

RM are a pain at times! but on the whole fairly good.

If you sent it just this Thurs gone then I would wait a few more days.

I am currently claiming for a Special Delivery item that went mising, which I thought would never happen!!

Thanks for the replies - like one of you said, even though it's through no fault of mine the customer won't look at it that way!

I am going to re-jig my site to force customers buying anything over £36.00 to take special delivery I think. I might lose orders this way because of the expense of SD but I don't see an alternative. The problem is if someone buys a couple of pairs of earrings that come to £30.00 they don't want to pay £6.50 for postage. The order in question was about £40.00. Normally even if a customer selects recorded, if it's over £50.00 I tend to send it special anyway - unfortunately I didn't with this one. Typical!

Again I would pay that. But maybe I'm the minority!

Very few select the special delivery option to be honest. I think most people assume that recorded delivery is very safe. To be honest i've never had a problem with it up until now.

I never send orders recorded now - I send samples this way but I have had loads of those go missing recently.

All of my tiara orders go special and although I say I will send jewellery items under £36, recently my customers have asked for it to be sent special and will pay the extra. The thing with recorded is all it does is provide a signature - it doesn't guarantee that it gets there faster (or at all!).

I just wish there was a viable alternative - I've looked at other carriers and to get the really good rates you need to be sending loads out a week - I send 2 or 3 parcels a week so it's not worth it for me yet. Then again the walk to the post office makes me lose weight so I guess some good must come from it!

I use Recorded Delivery for orders under £30 (or thereabouts) and Special Delivery for anything over that and especially for tiaras or something that has taken quite a while to make. Also I use SD if the order is urgent (say under 3 weeks away) regardless of the order value. I have not had anything go missing (touch wood). If a customer didn't want to pay for Special Delivery for an order over £30 I would use RD but explain to the customer if it goes missing then I can't be held responsible and won't pay to remake the item because Royal Mail wouldn't compensate.

I would be put off using a company that only uses Special Delivery so don't feel I can force this on my customers without an explanation and giving them the option.

I hope the order turns up soon.

Lx

I found this on ebay: alternatives to RM..

ANC Limited (trading as ANC Express)
Parkhouse East Industrial Estate, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 7RB. Tel: **** (customer service enquiries) or **** (sales enquiries). Fax: ****.

Challenger Security Services (Admin) Ltd
PO Box 8572, E3 3SE. Tel: 020 7537 3705 (Customer Service enquiries) or 020 7538 0141 (sales enquiries). Fax: 020 7515 2809.

Citipost AMP Limited (formerly Alternative Mail and Parcels Limited) .
16 Gunnery Terrace, Cornwallis Road, Royal Arsenal, London, SE18 6SW. Tel: 020 8301 8500 (head office & distribution). Fax: 020 8854 5309 (head office & distribution).

CMS (trading name of Royale Research Limited).
Record House, 236 Record Street, London, SE1 1TL. Tel: 020 7732 2000. Fax: 020 7732 2233.

DHL Global Mail (trading name of Deutsche Post Global Mail (UK) Limited) .
4-6 Queensway, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 4BD. Tel: **** (customer service) or **** (sales). Fax: ****.

DHL Global Mail (trading name of Speedmail International Limited).
Unit 4, Galleywall Trading Estate, Galleywall Road, London, SE1 3PB. Tel: 020 7394 9494. Fax: 020 7394 9493.

DX Network Services Limited .
DX House, Ridgeway, Iver, Bucks, SL0 9JQ. Tel: **** or **** (customer enquiries). Fax: ****.

Intercity Communications Limited .
64-70 Vyner Street, London, E2 9DQ. Tel: 020 8923 8080 (customer services) or 020 8981 2828 (sales enquiries). Fax: 020 8980 7222.

Lynx Mail (trading name of Red Star Parcels Ltd) .
St Davids Way, Bermuda Park, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV10 7SD. Tel: **** (customer services) or **** (sales enquiries). Fax: 02476 586646.

Mail Plus Limited .
Mail Plus, 28A Centurian Way, Meridien Business Park, Leicester, LE3 2WH. Tel: ****.

Racer Consultancy Management Services .
101 Legacy Centre, Hanworth Trading Estate, Hampton Road West, Feltham, TW13 6DH.

Secure Mail Services (formerly Special Mail Services Limited)
PO Box 390, Northampton, NN3 6YG. Tel: **** . Fax: ****.

Secured Mail Limited.
Unit 4A, Bechers Drive, Aintree Racecourse Business Park, Liverpool, L9 4AY. Tel: 0870 41 41 600. Fax: 0870 41 41 700.

Target Express Parcels .
Woodlands Park, Ashton Road, Newton Le Willows, Warrington, WA12 0HF. Tel: **** (customer service enquiries) or **** (sales enquiries). Fax: ****.

TNT Post UK Limited (formerly TNT Mail UK Limited) .
Unit 1, Globeside Business Park, Fieldhouse Lane, Marlow, Berkshire, SL7 1HY. Tel: ****. Fax: ****.

UK Mail .
Express House, Wolseley Drive, Heartlands, Birmingham, B8 2SQ. Tel: **** (sales) or **** (customer services).

Oh thanks - i'm sure that will be really helpful to me and a lot of the other HIBS.

As it happens it is now showing as being delivered - that's five days it has taken for a first class packet recorded delivery. Disgusting. It does make you wonder how long a second class packet would have taken. I'm relieved though as it would have been a lot of aggro to do make the items again for nothing.

That's good news.

I've had 2nd class letters arrive next day!!

Another point about Recorded Delivery is the postmen don't like taking them back to the depot so they do sometimes sign for them themselves and leave it on the doorstep or get a neighbour to sign and then forget about posting a card through to let you know the neighbour has it! This happens a lot with my postman when we get things off ebay which is another reason why I don't trust it! But glad all sorted in the end.

Hi i use fastway couriers for my larger items there prices are quite reasonable per delivery but the problem is they dont cover everywhere and you have to buy a book of labels in one go (i think the minimum is 20) so the initial outlay can be a lot but then when you want to post something, you stick one of the labels on, phone them up and the collect from you so its easy. They are a next day delivery company and have only let me down once but even then they went out of their way to help sort it out and opened their depot early one morning for my bride to go and collect from them as they had failed to deliver on the day so not ideal but at least she got the order! For samples and small orders i do usually use recorded delivery or standard 1st class but must admit i have had a few go missing the past couple of years, i think what i am going to do is give brides the option and have an explanation on my website that clearly states they will only be covered for replacements/refunds etc if they have selected a certain postal option, might be an idea you could use on your site. sarah x