Missing Mail - Letterbox Security

[msemma]

I live in a shared apartment block and our letterboxes are outside. It is pretty easy to take items from the letterbox if you have an average sized hand (I've actually pulled stuff out myself when I've not had the key with me) and there is no secure entry and exit gate, just one that closes to so anyone could walk in off the street, plus there are circa 35 flats in the development. We've recently had post go missing - DVDs by post mainly, which means the company now thinks we're stealing them and have frozen our account - and I was wondering where is the best place to start with investigating this. Should we complain to Royal Mail first? Will they just tell us that it could be due to the not very secure letterboxes and try to fob us off? Does our landlord have a duty to us to ensure that our letterboxes are secure enough to prevent theft and should we contact them first? The flats were built in later 2004 and they are modern and secure in every other way.

[Postdog]

I'm a postman. I cannot give you any official answer, but to my mind this would not be Royal Mails problem. I deliver to a couple of boxes that are insecure (not boxes in doors, but on the street) and as such they are technically vulnerable, but as that's the only option for a delivery point given, that's where it goes.

I would suggest this is down more to your Landlord failing to provide a suitable means. As a modern block of flats, I would assume you have some sort of keycode entry - has it not got a trades button where entry can be gained to actually deliver?

Failing all else, all I can suggest is that you arrange to collect your mail from the sorting office, which you can do without charge.

[brachiopod]

I'd go along with postdog - a friend of mine lived in one of those 'luxury' (aren't they all these days?) apartment blocks and had a similar problem. The boxes were not secure from either the outside or the inside. Pressure from the residents as a collective, eventually forced the landlord to change the whole lot to a more secure arrangement.

Is there any way you can get people / residents together to present a case for improving security with the mail boxes? (and site access while you are about it!)

When you think about it - it's not really the Royal Mail's fault is it? You (directly or indirectly) have presented them with a perfectly servicable / legitimate 'post box' - and no alternative means of delivery. They have fulfilled their part of the bargain. If it is not secure, that is not really their problem.

[willowman]

Sorry to have to say this, but having been a postie for a few years I know that there will always be a few crooks working as postmen (actually had a guy in my sorting office who nicked birthday and christmas cards hoping to get cash from them).

So it may be a good idea to have a very discrete word with the manager of the sorting office where your deliveries come from. Don't go in with all guns blazing, but just explain the problem that mail, esp expensive items such as DVDs, is going missing. He/she will take your comments seriously, and will have a very good idea if your mail is "getting lost" before it reaches your premises. If the manager says that the postie is absolutely trustworthy then obviously the mail is being nicked from the box and you should consider what previous ABers said.