RMSD

[Goochie81]

Well, I'm just reporting the large increase in Royal Mail Special Delivery prices.

Insurance to £750 appears fine. Remember the extra £2.50 if you took the value up to £2500? It's a tenner extra now.

In my opinion it's still a great service but your typical £2500 of value package is now around the £20-£22 mark. I've never had an issue over 15+ years.

I got a shock the last watch I posted rspd asking for over 20 quid delivery. Then again eBay evri wanted 75 for same insurance value!


Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

[andy100]

I just had a look at their terms and conditions and its way too confusing, I think it is safe to assume that they will do everything in their power to give you as little compensation as they possible can.

For example, I bet thousands of people have fallen foul of this rule and been refused any compensation at all.

Evidence of posting : The item with envelope or packaging, showing the postage paid.

So does this mean you need a photo of the item inside the box with a label attached, or item along side the box with a label showing the postage paid.
Its just not clear and there are a bunch of these petty rules it would seem to trip people up.

It's always probably safest to take a couple of pictures, but I thought evidence of posting was covered if you kept your Certificate of Posting (printed receipt).

Thing is, a photo or even a video proves nothing...you could take a picture of you packaging up a watch and after the picture remove it and post some stones with the same weight.

I've always taken it as read that keeping a copy of the certificate of posting would provide enough evidence on that front. If sending an expensive watch I will take a picture of the packaged up parcel too, although as Christian says it's not exactly a foolproof way of evidencing the package (and I've never taken it as such, only as another piece of evidence sohuld I require it).

Equally from a couple of cases I've had to deal with Royal Mail over items going missing in transit to me as buyer, I've always suspected I'd have a fight on my hands if I was claiming for any item (especially something in the scenario I asked about). Fortunately in one of the cases I dealt with involving a relatively high value item (a pair of sunglasses being returned from repair) the manufacturer were very prompt and helpful in sending out a replacement almost immediately and without any sort of argument.

[walkerwek1958]

No point in carping about the increased cost, if you don't like it use an alternative.

In my experience, and I`ve received hundreds of RMSD packages containing watches, biggest mistake people make is failing to provide their return address clearly on the outside of the package, that's the safeguard against it going missing if they've made a mistake in addressing the item. A scribbled illegible postcode isn`t sufficient.

I would like to see an increase in the upper value limit for RMSD to accompany the increase in cost, but that hasn`t happened.

From a reliability standpoint RMSD is excellent, but folks need to help themselves. Address the item clearly, package it securely, and include your return name and address. I always use the grey plastic RMSD outer envelopes too.

Cost of sending watches back and forth has increased, can`t get away from it, but so have many other things over the past few years.

[andy100]

I would like to see an increase in the upper value limit for RMSD to accompany the increase in cost, but that hasn`t happened.

This would’ve been great to see and I think most people would definitely have been singing RM’s praises if this had been the case. Sadly not to be though.

It does all seem to have come as quite a shock to most (me included, although I’m not an avid news follower) so I wonder how well the price increases were advertised ahead of time?

[Kingstepper]

This would’ve been great to see and I think most people would definitely have been singing RM’s praises if this had been the case. Sadly not to be though.

It does all seem to have come as quite a shock to most (me included, although I’m not an avid news follower) so I wonder how well the price increases were advertised ahead of time?

Where and how should the price increases be advertised?

And what difference would it make - do you think many would be shopping around for alternatives?

[andy100]

Where and how should the price increases be advertised?

And what difference would it make - do you think many would be shopping around for alternatives?

I assumed there might have been a story on the BBC website (and by extension based on history I'd have thought that it would have been communicated on here if there had been one). At the very least I'd have expected there to be some signs up in the post office about it. I've been into my local one several times in the weeks preceding the increase and didn't see anything.

But you're right, not many will be shopping around elsewhere, certainly not me!

[huytonman]

As we all no doubt know, the Royal Mail is in a mess commercially and services like RMSD will get milked until the well dries up. For now I'll keep using but will switch to parcel pro for higher value cover keeping the RMSD value to the minimum. So far (and this is tempting fate) I havent had a package with RMSD go astray and as such for important documents its now the only service I'll use (first class signed for isnt worth the money and guarantees nothing in my experience) - things arrive late sometimes with RMSD but compared to the rest of RM thats a good result. By the way, on a similar subject I recently sent a £2k hifi amplifier with Parcel Force (a RM subsidiary) - fully insured, cost £80 for 48 hour delivery. Took them two weeks to deliver after the label (as applied by the driver) fell off and multiple calls from me eventually allowed them to find the box in their central hub. Compensation claimed for later delivery (the postal element was around £20) and success! They sent me a cheque for £3.79 as full and final settlement...of course I should have known better and wont use them again.
Keith