The Royal Mail

[Laurinha]

Hi, this will be quite a long question but I really hope someone can stick it out and offer me some advice..please?

About ten times over the last four years my mum has sent me birthday cards, christmas cards etc and the majority have not arrived!  The ones that have done have inevitably been torn open and the contents removed!  (I didn't have the heart to tell my mum the first few times) anyway.. along the same lines...

I recently posted a package to Ireland and paid �8 to have it registered and tracked, it was to arrive 2/3 working days after postage - the package went off the radar for two weeks!   So... I called Royal Mail customer service who were actually rude to me, said they would call me back and never did.  I took it upon myself to try and find out where my package went.

I spoke to a woman in the actual post office who said she remembers it getting put in the wrong mail bag and sent regular post! 
During this time I had to call International to Dublin on numerous occasions to a professional company continually asking them if my package had arrived!

I sent an email to Royal Mail customer service three weeks ago and received an automated reply to say that my message had been received.  I have heard nothing since and have emailed them twice again to say I am awaiting a response.

Is there someone outside the Royal Mail I can contact about the theft and ineptitude?  Can Trading Standards or even the police help?  The Royal Mail are ignoring me! 

[david.brand]

This is slightly off the subject but does relate to Royal Mail. I was recently made a big mistake with PayPal. I had an expensive mobile phone listed on Ebay at a fixed price of �520. I received some interest in the listing and a particular person who wanted me to dispatch the phone to Lithuania. I thought at the time it seems a bit odd, but I agreed and he promptly paid with PayPal. I had been seriously misled to believe PayPal was a safe way to trade online. BIG mistake... After receiving the payment I dispatched the phone (Royal Mail 'international signed-for' & Insured) to Lithuania. Now 2 days after the item has left the country and reached the over-seas postal service I receive an e-mail from PayPal; apparently the account used the make the payment had been hi-jacked. I logged in to PayPal to check any notes on my account and see that PayPal have simply reversed the payment without even any confirmation. I now owe PayPal the full amount which I had withdrawn to my bank account. So no phone call, no letter, just some automated e-mail and I am �520 out of pocket. Sickening, really sickening. As a last resort I try Royal-Mail and guess what "there is nothing they can do". Apparently not even in this country can they intercept a parcel and I am told that as long as the item arrives and is signed for I cannot claim any insurance. Feeling really gutted right now as one might expect. There was me thinking PayPal was a secure way to trade - forget it.