arphethean

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I think the re-assuring thing about the last couple of posts like this i've seen is that people have got their payouts in the end, so whilst the prospect of it being a massive pain in the posterior to get a payout exists, it isnt terminal.
The cynic in me guesses they self insure and its budgeted for so creating friction against claims is part of reducing the cost to them - hard to see how someone could effectively set out to fraud the system though as its down to them to mess up before a claim is made.  So its only after that failure that someone can take advantage of the insurance in a dishonest way.
 

I'd like to share my experience claiming for Special Delivery as a warning to other members and in the hope that people can use the service in the knowledge of what may ensue if the dreaded situation comes to pass and the item does not arrive. We all use SD when sending our precious metals in the expectation that the extra price we pay and the extra insurance is in place to cover for the loss of the item. It gives us peace of mind. Unfortunately a potentially false sense of security...
I share the full story as it has a few concerning aspects which potentially point to the existence of some underlying tactics used by Royal Mail to avoid honouring their Special Delivery insurance.
I sent a parcel on 17th August containing a tube of silver ounce coins (how many in a tube, I hear you ask! 20 this time) to a member of TSF worth £480, and it didn't arrive, so I refunded the buyer and started the claims process on the RM website on 25th August, sending them a bank statement showing the transfer made to me for the item.
I received a letter back from RM about on 11th September (17 days later) with a cheque for £8.95. It said 
Note use of "in the future", a underhand implication that my case is closed and I will not be able to claim for the loss this time. The whole process is designed in such a way to discourage you to persevere with the claim. 
I responded to this letter by including a statement showing my payment to the original seller of the goods in the "submit additional evidence for a claim" form on the website, which unhelpfully only allows you to attach one file. I had to do this 3 times to attach all the evidence they had asked for.
I received this letter on 16th September.

I picked up the phone and got through to customer service to explain that having purchased the goods from an individual and not a business, I did not have an invoice, but said that I could ask the seller to knock one up for me. He said that would suffice.
I proceeded to get back in contact with the seller, provided him with an invoice template to fill in with the details of the transaction and sent that along in the same manner.
8 days later on 24th I received this rather cobbled up bit of waffle

It continued to invite me to escalate the claim with the "Escalated customer resolutions" team.
I picked up the phone to RM again and what ensued was the most bizarre and enraging telephone call I have ever had.
The man was able to see the invoice from the seller that I had provided and noted that it had come from an individual and not from a business, which I of course conceded was the case. He proceeded to put forward the argument that any Tom **** or Harry could cobble together an invoice on MS Word to fraudulently claim compensation for a lost item. I explained that I had responded to every request for evidence made in the claims process and that was the only option for an item supplied by an individual and that together with multiple bank statements I'd supplied with a clear paper trail showing funds transferred from seller to me, buyer to me for the purchase, and me back to the buyer for the refund, this, surely constituted pretty conclusive evidence of a genuine transaction. He maintained this was not sufficient and he needed an original purchase invoice from an established business. 
So I explained that goods are transferred between individuals all the time, not only from dealers. As a business I purchase items from individuals without original purchase invoices all the time. The conclusion is that SD is not fit for purpose for sending anything of value, despite the fact that this is the very basis of the selling point of Special Delivery - the only service that is suitable for sending items of value. It additionally does not state in any of the terms and conditions (which I have read closely), nor have I read anywhere or been told by anyone, that SD does not cover items sent between his individuals. 
His response? He actually told me on the phone that Royal Mail does not need to state that in their terms!
I responded with the argument that I have been mis-sold the SD service hundreds of times since it is not fit for the purpose it is advertised for. This would mean that rather than claiming for the £480 for the lost item, I should rather be claiming for the £1000s spent over years on mis-sold services by the Royal Mail when I could have saved the money spent on SD and just stuck to 1st class standard! 
I was pretty dumbstruck at this point, and getting pretty worked up, so I thanked the rep for his time, informed him that I would take my case to the CEO and ended the call. (I think I remained polite throughout, and put forward my case in a respectful way. These poor folk are doing their job and sticking to the company line. They do not deserve any abuse, but if I had continued the call I may have lost my rag as I could not believe what I was hearing!)
The story concludes happily, in that the CEO office responded very quickly to my email (which I kept brief and attached all evidence supplied) and returned the original purchase price for the goods to my bank account very promptly. Further, the goods arrived at the buyers two weeks later with a bizarre label :
 
Anyway. A long tale (and thank you for reading!) with the following morals to the story:
If you use SD and pay for extra insurance, be prepared for a long, time consuming and stressful claim for any loss. Between sending item and receiving refund was 47 days! I could cope without £500 for a few weeks. But had that been £2500 that would be challenging. Additionally I spent over 4 hours working on the claim, in time spent compiling and uploading evidence, speaking to people on the phone and sending emails. The stress of the whole thing was rather a bore to put it Englishly. At Royal Mail the left hand does not know what the right is doing. At so many junctures in the process it is clear that nothing is joined up. Every stage I dealt with someone else and the messages all conflicted with each other. There appear to be unwritten policies and procedures to avoid giving compensation for SD and nudge tactics to dissuade pursuing claims. It would be easier, if a little lacking in integrity, to just find an old invoice from a dealer for something vaguely resembling the lost item in weight and value and send that in instead of being honest and saying what it actually was and who it was from. Royal Mail SD may not, after all, be suitable for sending valuables between individuals. I can only imagine what would have been the response if I'd told them it was cash!! (How would one prove how much it was?) Keep all evidence. Never throw away any PM invoices, keep all receipts, take photos. The more you have available the more likely for a successful claim. If the claims process bears no fruit, waste no time and escalate directly to the CEO office. Don't lose hope. Persevere. It may turn up after all!

Something that doesn't seem to have been yelled about in this thread yet, apologies if I've got the wrong end of this particular stick, is the fact that the Royal Mail will only pay out compensation for the "purchase price" not the "sale price". Excuse me? That is not acceptable in the slightest. If you keep inventory for an amount of time and the cash value of that stock goes up you should expect any insurance claim to cover the value of the sales transaction. If I bought a Ford Capri in 1994 it may have cost me £500, that same car in comparable condition would be £thousands today. If the car is stolen/written off/damaged in transit I would be receiving the market value of the vehicle at the date of claim. The same goes for sales, a Ming dynasty vase that was lost/stolen in transit would garner the insurance value relevant to the sale amount/contemporary value. Why are Royal Mail trying to alter reality for personal sales of precious metals? I can't see this argument standing up in court, but then even approaching the idea of legal action is costly for the applicant so we'll probably never find out 🤷🏼‍♂️

Im In with this Vintage 1 oz Round 

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

£34 is a sickening blow for such a coin.
To prove the merit of the forum and its uses and hopefully reignite your interest and you can get a refund on that coin ( probably unlikely being bullion) 
I'm happy to supply a 2022 britannia for £25 or a 2023 for £26 plus post of choice ( postage on a single coin may kill the deal though) I will guarantee you as perfect a coin that's possible ( unless I open the tubes are they are all growing mushrooms lol)
 

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm sorry to hear of this situation. I have not encountered this particular problem before but have had success receiving compensation for a lost SD item after a deeply frustrating and exasperating battle. 
My attempts to get any success via normal channels, phoning customer service and using the online claim forms were fruitless but after emailing the chief executive office I received a reply on the same day and had the money in my bank account the day after. 
Email ceo.office@royalmail.com
Wishing you luck getting a swift and full resolution. 
I'm sorry to say the organisation is in a sad way. 😔 

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour

I'm in. On offer here is a 1oz Christmas TD round and a 27g Liquid Metals skull pour