Missing Package

[anaxcrosswords]

A package sent to me via Ebay, due to arrive 1st June, didn’t. The seller has a faultless Ebay history, trading since 2004, and is being 100% helpful. Royal Mail will declare the item lost if not received by 18th June, but the seller is going to send a replacement – via a much more secure service – if I’ve not got the item by 10th June, so no worries there. My question is about how items can go missing. I don’t know the inner workings of Royal Mail so can only rely on my own logic. The item was sent 1st Class, with tracking number, for signature on receipt.
Logic tells me the item is either within the Royal Mail system or not.
If not, that can only mean one of two things; it’s been ‘acquired’ by a Royal Mail employee, or has been delivered to the wrong address. But the latter would require a signature, and there isn’t one.
If it is still within the system, then this is where I get really puzzled. I’d imagine every piece of mail is part of a fluid process – surely there can’t be a repository of ‘things we are not going to touch’? Given the long experience of the Ebay seller, it seems extremely unlikely an address label has fallen off, and there would be a separate return address anyway. OK, maybe a standard letter can get wedged in a crevice somewhere, but this parcel would be about the size of a large dictionary.
Can somebody with experience in these things tell me how a comparatively large item can effectively disappear within the postal system?

[Kathyan]

I don't have an answer but I agree with you.

[grasscarp]

who knows! I received back from Australia a missing parcel I sent last year. Royal mail refunded the postal charges. Many more weeks went by and then I got it back. Where did it go in the meantime? There are things in life we will never know or understand.

[mikey4444]

anaxcrosswords.....I am in exactly the same position as you are. I bought a Cross Rolled Gold Pencil on ebay, and it still hasn't arrived after 2 weeks.

I have been in communication with the seller and we are both waiting another few days, to see if it arrives. But I am not hopeful and the seller has already said that she will refund my money without any further delay.

This pencil I bought for £15:00 is worth £85:00 new ! My mistake was not paying for a signed-for delivery, which would have been very much safer.

Due to having worked for a company, for many years, that had close links with Royal Mail, I should have known better. Theft is widespread in Royal Mail. I have seen things that would make your hair stand on end !

If a signed-for delivery is not used and the item is valuable, then there is a high chance that it will "get lost" Your item and mine hasn't disappeared...they have been stolen.

In my case, as I won the pencil at a very cheap price, I should have used a signed-for delivery, and it was a false and silly economy on my part not to do so. Its a mistake that I won't make again. If the pencil ad been make of steel or plastic, then I would have had it by now. Sticky fingers and gold are a dodgy combination !

[RASPUTINS-DOG]

Hello...
I'm a eBay seller too and also work for Royal Mail....
My job is delivery, posting letters as to sorting at mail centres..unfortunately theft happens in this business as it does elsewhere..there are security checks, van checks and bags quite often..recorded items which have a orange sticker are supposed to be scanned by a pda and a signature required which is viewed on the RM website...otherwise a card is pOsted...special delivery which are silver are required to be signed for before 1pm or even 9am and the process is the same...some posties post these through doors as favours for regular customers on delivery...If they choose to claim they've never received it then that's their con...

[anaxcrosswords]

Many thanks Rasputin. Yes, theft occurs in all sorts of industries and it’s only the cynical side of me that suspects it here. What I’d still like to know, though, is how a large(ish) item can go missing if it isn’t stolen?