Why Your Royal Mail Parcel Hasn't Arrived At Its Destination?
There are not many things worse for business organisations than finding their Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination. It is especially true when they are sending costly items or important documents.
Healthcare organisations sending urgent medical reports or financial institutions sending collection letters can’t afford to have their mailer missing. Similarly, any business organisation that wants to send crucial documents do not want their mail getting lost or undelivered.
Nonetheless, it does happen from time to time. Here, we discuss why your item or document got lost in the mail. In addition to that, we will explain the steps you can take when your Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination.
Reasons Why Your Royal Mail Parcel Hasn’t Arrived
There are several reasons why your Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at your address. And believe it or not, it is not always the fault of the postal service provider. There are mainly two reasons why your mailer hasn’t reached its destination.
Delayed Mail Delivery
The first and the most common reason your mailpiece hasn’t reached its destination is that it got delayed. There are several reasons which can cause Royal Mail to postpone the delivery of your mailer. Maybe Royal Mail accidentally sent it to the wrong location, or perhaps the address you provided was inaccurate.
Lost Mail
Another reason why your Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived is that the postal service provider lost it. Royal Mail considers a mailpiece lost if it has not delivered the mailer to its destination by the end of the tenth working day. The time gap reduces to five working days for Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1 pm.
Why Does it Show "Delivered" When my Royal Mail Parcel Hasn't Arrived?
Sometimes, you may see that Royal Mail shows your mail as delivered even though the Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived. In such cases, the package likely got delivered to the address, but someone else residing at the same address signed for it.
The other person who received the parcel could be a roommate, a colleague, a family member, etc. Hence, you must first check with their family if you send a mailer to a residential address, but the addressee says they have not received it.
If the family or someone else residing with the addressee has not signed for the parcel, you can take up the issue with Royal Mail. And suppose Royal Mail has indeed made the delivery to someone. In that case, they will provide you with an electronic Proof of Delivery (ePOD) on items.
What is electronic Proof of Delivery (ePOD)?
The ePOD or electronic Proof of Delivery is an extension of the Track & Trace service offered by Royal Mail. You could say that ePOD is a way of proving whether the Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination.
However, the ePOD facility is not available for all postal mail services from Royal Mail. You can get ePOD for the following Royal Mail postal services.
- Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am
- Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1 pm
- Royal Mail Signed For
The ePOD lets Royal Mail confirm when they delivered your mailer to the address. In addition to that, it shows you an electronic image of the actual card that the recipient had to sign to receive the mailer.
Things to Check When my Royal Mail Parcel Hasn’t Arrived, But Royal Mail Shows It Is “Delivered.”
Sometimes the postal service provider says your mailer got delivered, but the addressee claims they did not receive it. Here is what you can do in this situation.
Check The Address
One of the most common reasons why a Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination is because the address is wrong. Suppose you are using a manual process for sending business mailers to your company. In that case, it is possible to write or print the incorrect address.
Maybe the postcode and the rest of the address didn’t match up, or perhaps there is a typo error in the postal address. There are numerous ways you can compromise the accuracy of a postal address. Hence, it is crucial to employ an automated direct mail system like PostGrid.
It is advisable to use address verification software to clean your address database and standardise your addresses. However, suppose you are confident about the quality of the address database. In that case, you can use a print and mail solution like PostGrid. In addition to printing and mailing personalised mailers, PostGrid also standardises addresses as per the guidelines from the Royal Mail.
Check Whether The Delivery Requires a Signature
When a Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination, check whether you used a signed service. By signed service, we mean any Royal Mail postal service that requires a signature from the person receiving the mailer.
If there is a signature, you can get the document from Royal Mail and check who signed for your parcel. You can find the name and signature of the person that received your mailer. It can explain who has your mailer and why your Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived.
Check With The Neighbours
If you can’t recognise the name or signature of the recipient, then you might want to check around with your neighbours. A neighbour may have received the mailer instead of the actual addressee. The critical point here is that the person on the address label is not always the one that gets the mail.
Talking to a neighbour can help you determine whether they saw the item getting left in a designated safe place. And if worse comes to worst, someone may have stolen your package, which is why your Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived. Hence, it is good to talk to your neighbour as they might have also seen someone else receive your mail.
Check With Your Colleagues And The Post Room
You can’t check what happened to your mailer if you sent it to a business address. As you check with your neighbours for mailers, you can also check with your colleagues. Ask around whether anyone at your office saw your mailer lying around anywhere.
If you still don’t have any luck finding your mailer, then there is only one place left for you to check. Yes, we are talking about the postroom. It is not uncommon to find missing postal mail lying on the corner of a business’s postroom.
Check When The Mailer Was Scanned As Delivered
One last thing you can check if your Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination is when it was scanned and delivered. Sometimes Royal Mail shows “delivered today” for a postal mail even if it has not reached the addressee.
It could be an error from the side of the postal service provider caused by a rare scanning error. However, such errors are occasional, and the chances of it happening to your specific mailer is scarce to none. Nonetheless, you might want to wait an extra day for Royal Mail to make the delivery before contacting them.
If you are lucky enough, you can find the whereabouts of your missing mailer on one of the “checks” we’ve listed above. And if not, you can always get in touch with Royal Mail to check why your Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination.
What Can You Do When Your Royal Mail Parcel Hasn't Arrived At Its Destination?
At this point, you have checked every possible place for your postal mail. Suppose the reason why your Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination continues to be a mystery. In that case, there is only one thing left to do. Yes, we are talking about getting compensation from the Royal Mail for losing your parcel. Here is what you need to do after ensuring that your package is not found.
Step 1: Check Whether You Are Eligible For Compensation
Naturally, the first thing to do before you can get compensation is to check whether it is eligible for it. Remember, you are only entitled to compensation from Royal Mail if you used a Royal Mail postal service for sending an item within the UK.
You can’t file for compensation if your Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination yet because of some delay. Here are some more scenarios when you are ineligible for compensation from the Royal Mail.
- You sent the mail to a destination outside the UK
- You used a special delivery, and it had to be redirected
- You used Tracked 24 or Tracked 48 service for sending the mail
Step 2: Check Who Can Make The Claim
One question people have about claiming compensation for lost mail is who gets to make a claim. Is it the sender or the recipient entitled to receive the payment compensation? Both the person who sends the mail and the person who receives it can file for compensation.
But, if you used the Tracked 24 or Tracked 48 service, only you or the sender can claim compensation. Generally, it is always easier for the sender to file a compensation claim when the Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination. Why? Because the sender already has all the evidence you need.
For the recipient to claim the compensation, they need to get this evidence from the sender.
Step 3: Check If You Have All The Evidence You Need
As you can imagine claiming compensation from Royal Mail requires you to provide all the necessary proof for the services rendered. You can use the receipt or certificate of posting as proof for sending something via Royal Mail.
However, the recipient can use the postmark on the mailer as proof in case they receive a damaged item. It also means a recipient can’t claim compensation if the item was sent to the post box or lost in the post because they wouldn’t have any proof.
Here are the details you must include in the compensation claim when a Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination.
- The name and address of the sender and the recipient
- The postage amount for sending the mail
- The type of postage you use for sending the mail
- The destination of the postal mail and when you sent it
- The reference number or barcode number (found on the mailer)
- The content of your mailer
If you want to claim for damage or loss, you would have to provide a description of the packaging and explain the item’s condition. It would also help to include pictures of the item with the claim. Apart from this, you need to have original proof that proves the item’s value, like a receipt or bank statement.
Step 4: Check The Time You Have For Claiming Compensation
As you know, rules and conditions apply to every compensation claim. The most important rule that you need to pay attention to is the time limit for claiming compensation from Royal Mail.
It is also important to note that this time limit can vary depending on the type of coverage you are looking for. For example, if a Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination or is lost, you have 80 days to make a claim. However, this can vary based on the postal service you use.
Conclusion
Every once in a while, businesses will have situations where their Royal Mail parcel hasn’t arrived at its destination. Such a situation is not always avoidable as it greatly depends on the postal service provider. However, you can minimise the risk of lost mail by using a direct mail automation tool like PostGrid.
Advanced tools like PostGrid fully automate the direct mail process to avoid manual errors. It also ensures that your addresses are printed in the standard format Royal Mail defines. As a result, you can ensure that there are no typos or errors that could compromise the deliverability of your mail.
Furthermore, you can also use PostGrid’s address verification system to check the validity of your addresses. Of course, if everything fails, you always have the option to claim compensation. However, companies would rather have accurate communication than spend hours filing for compensation.
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