I recently started a small online business that sends out packages of £25-£50 retail value to customers.
Out of 50 orders Royal Mail have lost 3, is this percentage to be expected?
The size is borderline large letter / small parcel, after some ‘discussion’ with the post office we moved to small parcel which costs us twice as much yet all the missing deliveries were via small parcel. Perhaps it’s coincidence or do large letter and small parcel go via different systems (don’t know why they would).

I’ve not had to deal with this for a few years now, but whilst some deliveries did go missing, not 6% of them. Could the recipients be “at it”? We used to use a mix of couriers, signed for mail, and ordinary mail and all had their issues. For that price point I would be going for something traceable, but if it fits through a letter box and is going to consumers then I would use registered (rather than recorded) so you have a record without giving them the inconvenience of picking it up if not in.

Thanks, in 2 of the cases I’m sure that its not recipient ‘at it’. Will consider registered though.

Dont know but i bought a nice pen from a jeweller last week, cost 120 gbp, it was not a signed for delivery. Couldnt believe it, postie and everyone in the chain mist be v honest.

When I first started sending small parcels with Royal Mail I was loosing a few, perhaps a larger percentage than you. I switched to their signed for service and haven’t lost one in over 2 years. Unfortunately it’s £1.10 more than their standard service but it keeps my customers happy.

We have sent around 3000 parcels and have lost none.

We send with signed for next day thing that isn’t next day and is £4.40 for up to 1kg insured to £50.

Dont know but i bought a nice pen from a jeweller last week, cost 120 gbp, it was not a signed for delivery. Couldnt believe it, postie and everyone in the chain mist be v honest.

Makes me wonder what the margin on a pen is.

No point sending signed for if you haven’t got a pen.

Does the cost to you of the items warrant the extra cost of signed-for delivery? Or is it justified by a better customer experience?

I send a lot of low value small parcels and nothing goes missing, FWIW.

FWIW I use myhermes for almost everything now. Despite all the criticisms, they’ve now delivered 1100 parcels for me and failed to deliver I think 2, and damaged 1, I got a quick refund in 2 cases and a more drawn out one in teh 3rd, partly my fault. No doubt a lot of moderately late deliveries, they claim 2 days for my service but I think realistically it’s 3.

MyHermes are terrible. Only about half the stuff I order from Amazon actually comes next day because the driver can’t be bothered to deliver it. Tracking shows a random 24 hour delay. I don’t mind too much because my Prime membership is extended by a month each time it happens…

Sure, but while their delivery’s slower than the 2 days claimed, the actual delivery time is still mostly in the 2-3 days of royal mail second class so I can’t get too worked up about that.

Never send anything Royal mail unless it’s signed for and even then it’s unreliable, we’ve lost a couple this year shipping to the states is particularly unreliable. Wherever possible if the value and postage warrants we tend to use UPS who have been very good.

Even receiving stuff inbound from the German carrier GLS, they partner with Parcel Force who are a complete joke operation (and who Royal Mail default to over 2kgs) at least three times this year we’ve had to collect from the depot and one time their excuse was they couldn’t get past the local school due to traffic hold ups by parent collecting kids so the van had to turn back, seriously that was their reason.

I find RM more reliable than Hermes or Collect Plus.

Have stopped using Hermes for other reasons anyway.

I run a post office. And yes 3outof50 is definitely more than I would expect to have go missing personally. Like your Post office has suggested, if it’s boarder line large letter / small parcel you are better upping the size. Alternatively you can buy specific large letter boxes online (good for things like tshirts) maybe try one out?

The advantage (and justification of additional cost) of small parcels now provide a ‘proof of delivery’ free of charge on your proof of postage…. Is a long code you can stick in the royal mail Web site. This gives proof that the postie has dropped of the parcel, but not to whom – so if there are multiple persons at one address we always advise spending the extra £1 for signed for.

There also is £20 worth of ‘insurance’ with standard small parcels and £50 with signed for. From personal experience its a bit convoluted claiming and can take months.

we’ve lost a couple this year shipping to the states

We have more go missing when abroad than domestic – not many in the US though, usually Mexico, Solomon islands etc…. It seems lots of other postal services like to deliver parcels either in bushes or to themselves…..

Thanks for the replies
Interestingly about 50% of our order a shipped to the US, none have gone missing. 2 missing to the UK and 1 to Germany.
To start with we’re going to get proof of postage (at the moment the postage is done online an then dropped in to the postbox). This means that in theory we can get up to £20 compensation from RM.
Signed for (what was recorded) adds a lot of cost when we offer free delivery, it’s marginal to whether it would be worth it.

Like your Post office has suggested, if it’s boarder line large letter / small parcel you are better upping the size.

That sounds like the system is broken to me. It either is, or isn’t the bigger size.

I think 2nd class signed for has a insurance of £50 and has been quite reliable when I have been sending stuff

Op – drop them off at your local office, they don’t get any fee from the PO for processing them and providing proof of postage but….
It makes them look busier – we are a small rural office and do this for several small companies so that we increase the amount of post going through the office

Alternatively you can pay royal mail for a daily collection, but generally only companies with large amounts of post (or lazy staff) do this.

It either is, or isn’t the bigger size.

Thing is flexible things like clothes can go through the large letter slot, but only if you force them. Also some postage bags have alot of air in them. We’ve been told that when the post goes through the sorting offices they are checked automatically if the postage matches the size. If it doesn’t then it goes for manual checking. So one man’s large letter could be different to anothers.

Thanks for the advice monkeyboyjc
Regarding large letter it the item is rigid but in a postage bag, to get it through the slot it needs to be jiggled a bit. I believe the post office gets fined if they let things through that fail the sorting office test which may explain why the pushed us down the small parcel route. We’re going to look at seeing if we can change the product packaging to make it fit through the slot better.

Under £20 2nd class unsigned as all packages now have a tracking number to show delivery.
Over £20 signed for.
Over 2kg or outside dimensions goes hermes, first parcel was damaged this week, they paid withing 12 hrs.

2 packages gone missing ever, I find more often my item hasnt arrived is just trying it on. Informing them you’ll report the loss to the police and the PO usually means it turns up with a neighbour.