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The postman came a few moments ago and put a letter through my letterbox with a 'recorded delivery' sticker on it, with another sticker over the top saying 'signed for' when I did no such thing, he just posted it like normal mail. Now AFAIK, recorded delivery is legally binding so are they committing an offence by claiming the letter was signed for when it most certainly was not?
STONEISLAND
16-12-2004, 11:32
Sounds well dodgy just sums up the post Office of today. Recorded delivery means it does need to be signed and recorded as delivered. Is it possible he forged your sig?
Take it to the top and see if you can get compo
The postman came a few moments ago and put a letter through my letterbox with a 'recorded delivery' sticker on it, with another sticker over the top saying 'signed for' when I did no such thing, he just posted it like normal mail. Now AFAIK, recorded delivery is legally binding so are they committing an offence by claiming the letter was signed for when it most certainly was not?I don't know about the legalities, but something similar happened to me, I was waiting for my emmigration papers for a long time so rang the embassy, they said that i had signed for them already, what a job i had to convince them otherwise. I had to fax a copy of my signature off to them before they would cancel the papers and resend some new ones :mad:
Postmen :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: looks like he went to the wrong addy and someone just signed.
Also the other day i had a recorded delivery for 'next door' as they weren't in. When the guy had gone I checked the addy only to find it wasn't next doors but 2 streets away :shocked: I delivered it anyway
Sorry for going off topic a bit, it's just posties ??? and i have a mate who's one and the stories would make you cringe.
I don't think he would have forged my signature (if he had then someone WILL be in trouble) but I just phoned my sorting office and when I asked if they'd broken the law, the guy went all coy and said 'my supervisor would know about that but he's not here right now" and seemed to want to get me off the phone.
I don't think he would have forged my signature (if he had then someone WILL be in trouble) but I just phoned my sorting office and when I asked if they'd broken the law, the guy went all coy and said 'my supervisor would know about that but he's not here right now" and seemed to want to get me off the phone.It'll be interesting to see what names been signed on the delivery note !!!!
I don't think he would have forged my signature (if he had then someone WILL be in trouble) but I just phoned my sorting office and when I asked if they'd broken the law, the guy went all coy and said 'my supervisor would know about that but he's not here right now" and seemed to want to get me off the phone.
Forget your local sorting office, there's a complaints number listed on the Post Office web site, I rang them with a problem I had with a late delivery of a Special Delivery item, they sorted it out almost immediately and couldn't apologise enough. Give them a ring instead.
STONEISLAND
16-12-2004, 11:43
I don't think he would have forged my signature (if he had then someone WILL be in trouble) but I just phoned my sorting office and when I asked if they'd broken the law, the guy went all coy and said 'my supervisor would know about that but he's not here right now" and seemed to want to get me off the phone.
Keep us posted on this one :shocking:
Keep us posted on this one :shocking:
Too right ... :rofl:
Seriously Russ, the postie has acted in well dodgy fashion. Pursue this one, they must not be allowed to think they can get away with being lazy (which is all this will come down to). People pay extra for recorded delivery because they want proof and peace of mind that something has been delivered. It's not on for a lazy postman to shortcut the system like that.
Who was the letter from? They will have a claim to get their money back.
Not sure who the letter is from, I'm not paranoid enough to be weary of recorded delivery letters but I don't want to open it in case it affects the complaint I've just made.
I spoke to the people Bifta reccommended and the woman sounded concerned at this and assured me she'll look in to it. I've been given an enquiry reference number and they'll get back to me as soon as it's been investigated.
SMHarman
16-12-2004, 11:56
Have they not put the return address sticker on the back? You need to for recorded delivery as if it is not collected in 7 days it is returned to sender. Difficult if no return address exists.
Strangely for "Next Day" Special Delivery they will keep the item at the sorting office for 21 days.
There's no return address but if it was undelivered, I'm sure they'd just use the recorded delivery reference number on the sticker. I'm not really bothered who it's from to be honest.
Thinking about it though, I could just open the letter as normal, after all there's no proof I recieved it. When I called the complaints line they said there was no electronic record of it being delivered, so irregardless of what happens, legally it was not signed for/delivered.
Whoever accepted the letter at the post office was also sloppy in that case. The slip you fill in includes a return address sticker that should be put on the back of the envelope. What a mess!
There's no return address but if it was undelivered, I'm sure they'd just use the recorded delivery reference number on the sticker. .
The reference number doesn't hold any personal data attached to it for the sender, its just there for tracking. :(
Thinking about it though, I could just open the letter as normal, after all there's no proof I recieved it. When I called the complaints line they said there was no electronic record of it being delivered, so irregardless of what happens, legally it was not signed for/delivered.
To be fair I'll be surprised if you get a call back regarding this, I've got a "sorry you were out" card that I picked up from our front garden a week ago that I reported to them and they haven't bothered to get back to me. The poor woman ten streets away will have her item returned to sender at this rate :(
As for opening the letter, if its in your name go ahead, the issue now is will the PO do anything about the postie?
Oh and like Chris said the sender can claim their cost of postage back in these circumstances, not an easy job but almost worth it for the book of 12 first class stamps they send. :rolleye: :)
ian@huth
16-12-2004, 12:30
The postman came a few moments ago and put a letter through my letterbox with a 'recorded delivery' sticker on it, with another sticker over the top saying 'signed for' when I did no such thing, he just posted it like normal mail. Now AFAIK, recorded delivery is legally binding so are they committing an offence by claiming the letter was signed for when it most certainly was not?
The "signed for" sticker over the top of the "recorded delivery" sticker sounds rather suss as Royal Mail would have no need for such a sticker. Sounds to me like some kind of junk mail that is being made to look more important than it is. Probably entry details for a free draw.
I got a package from play.com last month which was recorded delivery. It was there waiting for me when I got home. It must have been signed for by the postie as there was no one else at home.
Well it saved me the trouble of having to pick it up/re-delivered though :)
The "signed for" sticker over the top of the "recorded delivery" sticker sounds rather suss as Royal Mail would have no need for such a sticker. Sounds to me like some kind of junk mail that is being made to look more important than it is. Probably entry details for a free draw.
Think you might be on to something here Ian ...
Who's to say the postie signed for it himself, now we come to think of it? The signature goes on a pad of documents that he carries with him, you don't get to keep it. This could be designed to look like recorded delivery in order to make you open it, while in fact being junk.
Don't s'pose you could scan and post this sticker for us, so we can see if it is genuine or a clever copy designed to fool you?
Does Russ not mean the sticker, I think it's a barcode not too sure, which the postie keeps? Because all the recorded delivery packages that I've had, like from Play/Amazon, had those stickers on.
I think that the sticker is stuck next to your signature if I remember correctly. (It's been a while and my memory is bad)
Think you might be on to something here Ian ...
Who's to say the postie signed for it himself, now we come to think of it? The signature goes on a pad of documents that he carries with him, you don't get to keep it. This could be designed to look like recorded delivery in order to make you open it, while in fact being junk.
Don't s'pose you could scan and post this sticker for us, so we can see if it is genuine or a clever copy designed to fool you?
I don't think anyone checks them as once we found a sheet with the barcodes and stickers on them in the street and the signatures all looked made up, one said "Boo Hoo".
dilli-theclaw
16-12-2004, 12:53
Does Russ not mean the sticker, I think it's a barcode not too sure, which the postie keeps? Because all the recorded delivery packages that I've had, like from Play/Amazon, had those stickers on.
I think that the sticker is stuck next to your signature if I remember correctly. (It's been a while and my memory is bad)
Indeed when the postie delivired my medal of honor game this morning he peeled off a barcode sticker and stuck it on his sheet for me to sign.
Yes, the sticker has a barcode on it.
I know what the letter is about anyway, it's from my local council regarding planning permission. I still want to follow this through though.
andygrif
16-12-2004, 14:15
There's no return address but if it was undelivered, I'm sure they'd just use the recorded delivery reference number on the sticker. I'm not really bothered who it's from to be honest.
If it was recorded delivery then the sender has to put the sticker with their name and address (which is part of the same sticker as the tracking number) on the rear of the envelope. By the way, Signed For and Recorded Delivery are the same service. I'm looking at a Recorded Delivery Sticker now and Signed For is in big letters across the front and Recorded in smaller print.
I got a package from play.com last month which was recorded delivery. It was there waiting for me when I got home. It must have been signed for by the postie as there was no one else at home.
Well it saved me the trouble of having to pick it up/re-delivered though :)
I've had the same thing too. No doubt it's just postie thinking that they're being helpful (or too lazy to take it back to the office) but the point is that people don't send Recorded letters unless they need to know it was delivered, so at the very least the sender is entitled to a refund of the extra 65p, but I would also suggest that you report it to PostWatch who keep a track of such issues.
Yes, the sticker has a barcode on it.
I know what the letter is about anyway, it's from my local council regarding planning permission. I still want to follow this through though.
http://www.postwatch.co.uk/complaints.asp
paulyoung666
16-12-2004, 14:31
i wonder if it was a xmas special postie that did it , someone who was getting extra money for xmas and couldnt really give a **** :( , still wrong though :mad:
SMHarman
16-12-2004, 14:41
You only have to use the sticker if your address is not on the box. Mrs H's shipping labels have the return address on the top left corner so we don't have to fill out the one on the red label.
Recorded delivery tracking is only tracked once delivered, if you do a search on an intransit item it is not shown on the system, so once delivered the bar code comes back to the sorting office (on the signature sheet) and these are zapped into the tracking system.
Special Delivery has more tracking.
I got sent a notification about a speeding ticket recorded delivery once which the postman didn't get me to sign for either. I very nearly decided to ignore it and say that it had never arrived ;) Played safe and owned up to it but VERY tempting.
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