Royal Mail Proof of Value?

[KDave]

I have recently claimed a couple of late next day guaranteed deliveries from Royal Mail. When on the last page of the process, I was asked to upload proof that the parcel was late - a screen shot of their own tracking has been sufficient in the past. All sorted. 

After uploading the screen shot, I noticed that if you are claiming for a lost parcel, you are then asked to also upload proof of value of the item sent.

It made wonder, so I looked into how this process works. They want evidence of value, which is basically only ever going to be what you paid for the item. So if I post an ounce of gold bought in 2015 and Royal Mail lose the parcel, they will only pay me whatever my invoice from 2015 says it cost? 

If I send something that isn't gold, say something I sell on eBay for £100, but it cost me £10 back in the day, as an example, they will only pay me £10 as that is all I can prove it is worth?

What happens if I send something valuable that I have no proof of buying? Tough luck? 

All this time I have been sending packages via special delivery up to £2500 compensation and without proof of value the insurance does not exist! Are there any other couriers who will honour an agreement that, if they loose a package that I say is worth £2500, they will compensate me for what we agreed the parcel was worth? 

[collector301]

 Royal Mail insurance is not worth the paper it written on. Make a claim and they may just sent you some stamps if your lucky..

[sovereignsteve]

I have never had or heard of a special delivey item being lost.

[collector301]

To be fair RM do deliver most items  without any issues and special delivery is excellent.  But claiming is a different ball game and the try not to pay out.

[collector301]

Check Trustpilot for a vast number of complaints  https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.royalmail.com  . yes they deliver billions of items but the tiny percentage of lost items is still a lot. I send a lot of recorded delivery items and many are never signed for even though they do deliver  them.

[KDave]

I have had a good experience of claims from royal mail but they have all been refunds for late delivery. They have given money back every time, so free 2 day special delivery on several items over the years. I have also not yet had any guaranteed deliveries go missing.

That said, it is good to be aware, that if an item is lost, you would have to get clever to prove the value of the item you have sent, and that simply insuring it to the maximum does not mean it is actually insured at all. 

Other courier services can insure the parcel to a certain value and will honour that value if they fail to deliver the item (as they should), but it costs more. If I insure a parcel to the sum of £2500 with royal mail, should they lose the item, they don't take any responsibility for that £2500 insurance, but instead want to know what was in the package and how much I paid for it. If I can't prove how much it was worth then tough luck sunshine no compensation for you. 

It is a total different ball game to what I understood and not the honest system I thought it was. Now that I know how the game they want to play works, it just takes a bit of thinking to deal with and even take advantage of, if by some slim chance I do lose a package.

[shawy2510]

Yeah I was thinking the same, keep a few receipts of high value items so if it does go awol then you can claim for the item. Just make sure your item was smaller than the box

[collector301]

I agree if a Special delivery item is late no problem getting  a refund and the service is very reliable. What they don't tell you  as above when you insure any item at the post office is that it will be the invoice price you paid for it not price you sold it for. So the question is when you post an item out that and you don't have receipt for why pay insurance when you have no chance of being paid out. No mention of this when you pay at the Post Office this will be the case..

[sovereignsteve]

2 hours ago, KDave said:

That said, it is good to be aware, that if an item is lost, you would have to get clever to prove the value of the item you have sent,

 it just takes a bit of thinking to deal with and even take advantage of, if by some slim chance I do lose a package.

There are ways and means.

[fehk2001]

On 30/04/2017 at 13:36, sovereignsteve said:

I have never had or heard of a special delivey item being lost.

SE080423178GB

here you go , return the queen jubilee coin back to post office shop 

i paid 7.25 for special delivery , item disappeared for two days and recovered 

I end up with 7.25 back and compensation 

[sovereignsteve]

4 minutes ago, fehk2001 said:

SE080423178GB

here you go , return the queen jubilee coin back to post office shop 

i paid 7.25 for special delivery , item disappeared for two days and recovered 

I end up with 7.25 back and compensation 

I meant permanently

[morezone]

I've had one that was supposed to have been delivered to me.  I never received it and it had someone else's signature.  Got paid out for it but never found out where it went.

Never send cash via Special Delivery unless you have a withdrawal receipt of some sort as they want this as proof of contents.

[morezone]

I should add.  

From what I've heard, retail customers can use eBay/Amazon selling receipts as proof of value and they will pay out.  For items sold via other routes then the purchase receipt is required.

For business customers you must provide your purchase receipt.  

[collector301]

Apart form Royal Mail International Tracked and Signed which only covers you up to £250 what other Courier services are worth trying. Last item I sent via RM International Tracked and signed it had zero tracking once it arrived and Heathrow and appeared stuck their, did eventually arrive, took 27 days to arrive at its destination.  I did call Royal mail a couple of time and got different story on each occasion.

[KDave]

To be honest there isn't a need to try other couriers. A package can be lost by any courier.

At least with Royal Mail the way the system is set up its easy to get your compensation if you have the correct materials, ie. a receipt to the value of what you insured the package too. If you know how the system works in advance of a package going missing and prepare for the event, then there isn't the need to use anyone else. 

[Pete]

On 30/04/2017 at 12:27, KDave said:

After uploading the screen shot, I noticed that if you are claiming for a lost parcel, you are then asked to also upload proof of value of the item sent.

It made wonder, so I looked into how this process works. They want evidence of value, which is basically only ever going to be what you paid for the item. So if I post an ounce of gold bought in 2015 and Royal Mail lose the parcel, they will only pay me whatever my invoice from 2015 says it cost? 

If you are selling something then surely the "value" is the price the buyer is paying you or the cost or replacing the item at present day values.
Produce evidence of payment or an eBay invoice.
Your parcel is insured for loss and that is what you calculate and what is reasonable.

If you made a piece of jewellery using materials that cost you £100 but you took 10 hours to make it at say £20 per hour then surely its value would be at least £300.
Replacing the item would cost £300 and therefore that is your loss and claim.

If you are sending a sovereign bought 10 years ago for £150 then its value will be the current value, say that advertised by Atkinsons, BullioinbyPost or HGM and not the £150 you paid. Showing current value I assume would be enough. If you bought this coin and paid £400 then you would need to show evidence of its value, if £400, otherwise a receipt of sorts or you will only get £250 or whatever a bullion sovereign's market value is today.

An insurer or Post Office would not be ready to pay out £1000 ( assuming you took that level of insurance ) for a lost package that contained a plastic milk bottle top.
An ounce of gold will always be valued at minimum at spot irrespective of when you bought it but if you bought it at a much higher price then insurance would cover your full loss if you had proof of the price paid otherwise it drops to current value.

My experience dealing with any insurer is they start with a check list of how not to pay out then how to pay the minimum.
If you stick to your guns and produce a credible argument then you should be able to get a fair settlement but don't give in at the first hurdle.

[KDave]

@Pete You would think so, but that is not how Royal Mail see it. I have copied and pasted the following from their website below;

"Below is an example of actual loss:

Mrs Smith (the end purchaser) bought a pair of jeans from a shop and paid £25 for them. If she posts them on and they go missing she can claim what it cost her to purchase the jeans, i.e. £25.

The Shop (the retailer) that sells the jeans buys them from the manufacturer for £15. If they post them and they go missing they can claim what it cost them to acquire the jeans, i.e. £15.

The Factory (the manufacturer) that supplies the shop makes the jeans for £10. If they post them and they go missing they can claim what the item cost them to manufacture, i.e. £10."

So that is their stance on it, hence we must take measures to ensure we do get the 'value' of the item we are posting by means of a receipt with an equivalent value. Once a parcel is lost, then what was in the lost package was definitely absolutely 100% the item on the receipt you are using as evidence isn't it? 

[collector301]

My local post office told me if the item you are sending is above the compensation level you are not covered which they didn't know themselves until recently. Actually I still don't know if they mean this applies to the cost of the item or the sold price. 

[Pete]

15 minutes ago, collector301 said:

My local post office told me if the item you are sending is above the compensation level you are not covered which they didn't know themselves until recently. Actually I still don't know if they mean this applies to the cost of the item or the sold price. 

That means if you are shipping a load of gold coins to HGM valued at £5,000 and only take insurance for £2,000 you stand to loose £3,000.
In such a situation you have to split the consignment into smaller amounts to ensure adequate cover.
The fact that you might have inherited the coins from a great Aunt, meaning you paid nothing, doesn't mean they are worth nothing.

[collector301]

Where can you read the terms and conditions of Royal Mail insurance cover

[collector301]

Just out of curiosity has anybody had a substantial claim against Royal Mail and actually got paid.

[KDave]

48 minutes ago, Pete said:

The fact that you might have inherited the coins from a great Aunt, meaning you paid nothing, doesn't mean they are worth nothing.

According to the Royal Mail they are worth nothing unless you can prove how much you paid from them.

47 minutes ago, collector301 said:

Where can you read the terms and conditions of Royal Mail insurance cover

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/319

 

[collector301]

Thanks for link.

Proof of value would probably eliminate a large number of claims. 

Seems to me postal insurance is being miss sold without informing the buyer that to make a claim they have to prove the value. 

[sovereignsteve]

3 hours ago, KDave said:

@Pete You would think so, but that is not how Royal Mail see it. I have copied and pasted the following from their website below;

"Below is an example of actual loss:

Mrs Smith (the end purchaser) bought a pair of jeans from a shop and paid £25 for them. If she posts them on and they go missing she can claim what it cost her to purchase the jeans, i.e. £25.

The Shop (the retailer) that sells the jeans buys them from the manufacturer for £15. If they post them and they go missing they can claim what it cost them to acquire the jeans, i.e. £15.

The Factory (the manufacturer) that supplies the shop makes the jeans for £10. If they post them and they go missing they can claim what the item cost them to manufacture, i.e. £10."

But they are looking at it in a simplistic way with everyday consumer items from the viewpoint of manufacturer, retailer and customer. It is fair enough for the manufacturer and retailer but from the customer's perspective, debatable.
The one example they give is for something that is never going to be worth more than the customer paid. It is a consumer item. The RM insist that you use SD for items of value including antiques, collectable, coins and bullion. The value of all these things can and will rise (or fall) with time. The specific question needs to be asked as to how the value of these items.especially coins and bullion is decided.

The terms quoted above do not cover it.

 

[Pete]

Copied from the Post Office terms and conditions - with some text enhanced.

 

9.2  We aim to deliver a Special Delivery item by 1pm the next working day after it has been posted. Please note that exemptions do apply in certain circumstances. All Special Delivery items are priced by service and by weight. Compensation for loss or damage is available on the basis of actual loss of up to the maximum of the market value of the item or £500 (whichever is the lower) comes as standard. Special Delivery is available with enhanced compensation options.