The Royal Mail business account claims process has been updated with a new online submission form for claims of 50 items or less. This will replace the existing Microsoft Excel form you may have used to claim in the past.
The new online form allows you to submit up to ten claims per form. You’ll also receive an email confirmation with a unique reference number. You may also receive weekly email updates from Royal Mail as they progress with your claims. Royal Mail will continue to send you ‘final outcome’ emails with a summary of each item you’ve made a claim for and any credit adjustments made to your account.
However, it’s worth noting that you’ll no longer be able to use the Royal Mail business account claims process claim form to report a disputed delivery. For more information on reporting denial of receipt/disputed delivery, visit Royal Mail’s Business Helpcentre or get in touch through their Contact Us page.
It’s worth noting that as a business you can only claim for actual loss. Actual loss is what the item cost you to acquire, purchase or manufacture (or repair in the case of damage) and does not include any profits or other fees you may have paid to acquire the sale. For instance if an item cost you a tenner, you sold it for £100 and paid eBay fees of £10 and PayPal fees of £3.45, all you can claim from Royal Mail is the £10 the item cost you.
For items posted within the UK, you can’t claim until 10 working days or more have passed since the item was due to be delivered (7 working days Royal Mail Tracked items and 5 working days for Special Delivery Guaranteed). Working days are Monday to Saturday excluding Public and Bank Holidays (Monday – Friday for Special Delivery Guaranteed).
Claims must be made within 80 days of the date they were posted and Royal Mail usually provide a full response to claims within 30 days of receiving.
16 Responses
It’s also worth noting, unless I have missed something, that as a business, I cannot claim for RM48 or RM24.
IE Standard first or second class, even though the delivery confirmation does not show “Delivered”.
Which to me means that Royal Mail know that posties don’t bother scanning or miss some.
As a retailer, you know that if there’s no delivery confirmation and a customer claims non delivery, you are paying out.
I do all our labelling myself, to ensure the “label was creased” excuse doesn’t happen. I started doing that when Amazon began sending automated emails to buyers where their systems couldn’t pick up a delivery confirmation from Royal Mail.
Does anyone know of a software package for Royal Mail similar to the ones available for Fedex etc, where it’s possible to import all the tacking numbers and get back a report of the times and dates of delivery ? More importantly, it would be nice to identify those where there is no proof of delivery and maybe even automatically initiate claims for them.
Hi
I am a little confused!
If any item delivered by RM with RM48 or RM24 is not solely handled by RM. Other parties could be liable for this item, but you want RM to refund everything just by word of mouth.
At the same instance, I feel very sorry for those who do suffer a loss to there business when an item due for delivery goes wrong. No MATTER who the delivery company are.
I wish that RM could create a line of communication between everyone via the 2d barcode.
@Front Liner
not sure who the message is directed at, but for us when we post RM24 or RM48, it is solely handled by Royal Mail. 2D barcode on them indicate that it was never scanned at the point of delivery.
If a customer says to us “It wasn’t delivered” , we have to refund as there is no proof of delivery.
If we were to go to Royal Mail and say the same “It wasn’t delivered”, they tell us, “That’s tough, it’s part of your contract”.
It’s not “word of mouth” because there is “proof”, if you want to call it that.
The 2d delivery conformation is fantastic and has drastically reduced the INR claims, of course.
The losses are built in to pricing but it would be nice if RM held up their hands and said, “OK we gave a poor service and lost the packet or what appears to be lost, so we will refund you or compensate you”
Maybe I am asking too much from the lowest price level delivery service, but there you go. Most of the time everything is pretty good and WAY better than it used to be, so I definitely grateful of that.
The issue with RM is not everything is simple they make things such hard work.
A buyer in Lithuania purchased an item then did not go to pick it up. The item took ages to return to the UK and then it shows its at our local delivery office. It then said retained as it was a Saturday and they know we are not open on a Saturday.
On the Monday the postie said i was sure i saw an overseas return the other day but it was not there this morning.
I have since called in and they cannot find it. How wierd is that ?
or naughty?
I can fully understand the frustration when it comes to missing, lost or even stolen items. From what I have read you all take every precauction when it comes to your customers and you wish the same level of service from RM. But not everyone is like that.
Let me explain!
Not so long ago someone sent 5litres of cleaning fluid through the RM parcel system, the item was very poorly packed just so they could save a few pence. This item then leeked other hundreds of other parcels. This caused quite a bit of damage to a lot of other customers items and took a lot of Work and time to sort out.
I am not lying when I Say that this happens often, this is just one reason of many when it comes to other parties affecting the delivery of customers products. Sometimes the damage is so bad the items cannot be scanned.
I also believe that RM have a part to play in missing items but a lot of the figures are stacked against them.
RM’s refusal to pay compo means I don’t use them anymore. Brilliant move RM!
You’re all blaming royal mail and want compensation from them but as you said, you’re using the cheapest possible method of postage and forgetting that there are so many dishonest customers out there.. I guarantee that more half of the items you’ve received compensation for from royal mail were actually delivered.
There was a thread on Reddit where someone was telling people how they scam the system and explaining how others can do the same. Maybe you should pay a little more so the thieving idiots don’t have such an easy ride.
@jim
Sorry I don’t know how the returns department handles there items.
But if I had an item missing maybe I would contact them with a more detailed description of my packaging.
I am not sure, but I think they are not authorized to tamper with any sealed items for a period of time.
But plz don’t take my word on this.
@Jim & Front Liner
Years ago they used to all be sent to Belfast, items were opened and sorted to see if returns could be made but I think it was decided that it was no longer possible / financially viable to do that with the shear number of parcels going through the system.
Now I believe they are put into containers and sold off in bulk, a friend of mine used to buy lost property from Heathrow in the same way.
If an item is not damaged and has a return address then it is returned. Due to a problem / change with the C&D system, my return address was not correct and I still got my parcels returned with just my company name and postcode.
Chris – you failed to mention that you are also able to claim for the postage costs you paid to send the item. E.g. if you sent the item to the USA with the Tracked & Signed service. and paid £12 shipping based on the average weight of the item, you will also be able to claim that back at the same time.