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Remembered Today:

Lost in post medal returned - e-bay sale.


Guest C729LEE

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Chaps

I'd love to see how our postal service treats our parcels & packages when we release them into their trust.

Some time ago, I placed a medal which did not fit with my collection on good old e-bay. A nice clean single BWM to a casualty Merchantile Marine chap from Hull, KIA in an action off the coast of Holland on 17/05/17, Robert Thornton was his name. I had lovingly given it a length of nice new, but original ribbon from Dixon's, framed it with a suitably coloured acid free card in the colours of the Merc. Mar.

I researched the medal with the help of the good chaps on this Forum, got together a crew list, a list of crew (12) lost on the day of the sinking of the Cito (Hull), incorporated the whole lot in a large captioned frame with a photo of the ship, and a small map of where the action took place. All large papers, photos, even a divers report, were neatly placed in a folder including some gear from the National Maritime Museum, labelled in my best caligraphy. A nice little piece of work, not worth a great deal, but looked after and into by me, since finding the medal in a pot in a junk shop in Hull. Forgotten and unloved, story untold.

A nice fellow wanted it for his collection - on the Forum. I sent him it all packed safe and secure. Then after weeks of waiting we declared it as lost in the post. I refunded his money as I could claim on the insurance.

Today, I got home after Christmas shopping to find a note saying that there was something for me to pick up at the P.O.

I could not think what it could be - nothing due in the post.

When I got to the office I was shown the parcel that I sent a few months earlier. Just a little flatter, darker in hue and somewhat niffier (deisel). Address gone, but my tag still under the wrapping tape.God knows what they had been doing with it. The medal was in fine fettle, however, the ribbon is ruined as is all the research, cards, photos, and frame.

Bloody marvellous.

My girlfriends ex-husband works in the same office block - just the sort of thing he'd do, too :angry:

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Well it's I guess sad to note that postal types are the same sorry arsed sods all around !. Though I have had good luck with US Mail , UPS and the former RPS really did me in a couple times with rifles literally vanished in transit , and some totally shattered. 600 pound gorilla syndrome of a cromagnon variety !.

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As a postman for 17 years I've got to stick up for my workmates.

Have you ever opened a post box after it has been set of fire, had dog sh*t or vomit put in it? Not to mention syringies and other nasty things stuffed in it.

Awhile back a bag full of dog mess got tipped into the sorting machine and ruined 10 000+ items of which some had to be destroyed.

Also I've seen mail vans burnt out , smashed up in road accidents and mail is also stolen from bikes and vans.

yeah add to that a minority of bad posties who give the rest of us a bad name but most of try and do the job properly.

cheers rant over.

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Gew98

I would not dare post a rifleover here, with my luck I'd be pulled in and roasted over the coals and jauled for supplying arms :D

Owen

Nice first post :P

Yeah, I have mates who do the posty bit, and I get the drift about the crap they have to deal with, particularly in the city. Even the country posties get some real sh**e to deal with.

I must say that I send quite a few parcels over the year and this is the first to come back from wherever as lost/stolen/found. The lady in the office thought it had been mislaid in a van in some nook or cranny near a fuel tank, then other gear piled on top.

I am not having a go at the poor old postie, out in all weathers, but it could have been better looked after, especially when it is posted with all manner of insurance and bits. I don't think (I have just looked at my e-bay and Speedbid accounts) that 121 perfect deliveries is bad out of 122 transactions.

It just had to be one medal that I did rather alot of work on and took alot of care over.

Lee

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In defence of British posties, I had 2 WW1 Belgian Medal certificates sent to be by a friend in Belgium. They were beautiful, and in original old frames. By the time they got to me they were smashed to bits, despite being carefully wrapped and labeled 'Glass - fragile'. Complaining to the post office they said it would have happened at the Belgian end when, more than likely, whoever was sorting the airmail would have just thrown them in the planes cargo hold, and probably pilled loads of other parcels on top of them too.

Duncan.

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I recently posted a watch to a repairman. The title of the shop was GOLD**** - I`ll not give the whole name.

The lady on the Post Office desk said "Do you have to use the name of the shop?" She explained that anything in the address that implied there was jewellery inside was an invitation for it to be interfered with. I duly informed the shopowner who said he`d never thought of that, but it would explain a lot! Phil B

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Chaps

Yes, I suppose I was lucky to get it back, I can do the work again, I was never happy with some of the lettering I had done, so I will be able to make a better job this time.

You never know what can happen to a parcel abroad, though. I always get a translation if an item is delicate or photographic, though I never gave much thought to the name and type of shop you were sending.

common sense for e jeweller, you would think.

LINL

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Two personal experiences.

1 I was waiting for a smallish parcel and was told when it was being posted and when I should expect it.

I duly got up early and sat in the lounge, about 6 feet from the front door. As I was heading for the toilet I spotted the card on the floor. The normal "as there was no reply the parcel has been returned to the sorting office and can be collected after x hours"

The postie had carted the parcel out with him and not even tried to deliver it (Bell OK, I checked) and then carted it back with him. Even the sorting office couldn't understand the logic.

2 A society I belong to has asked all members to leave "treasurer" off the envelopes when sending things to him as a number of letters have been "damaged in transit" and the contents mislaid.

Most posties go out of their way to be helpful and considerate but it is the odd bad apple which gets noticed. I wouldn't like their job, out at all hours in all weathers.

Nigel

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There was a story in today's newspaper about a FedEx employee who had to check out a package the was leaking some kind of fluid. When the lid was removed and a few packing "peanuts" brushed away, out slithered a "baby" boa constricter! Hope the employee gets hazardous duty pay.

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I was ripped off big time by the Post Office last year......I posted 9 parcels to various destinations one day in September.......none reached the buyers. As mail is sorted at our office, the only time all nine were together was there......I spoke with the manager & suggested they had been stolen by one of his team.......This was flatly refuted in a most indignant manner......he assured me all were 100% trustworthy. I claimed the standard compensation of £28 per pack I think it was, for uninsured mail. As the total value of items exceeded £500, I was by now £250+ out of pocket.

6 months later. I read in my local rag that a postmen has been jailed for stealing packages......arrested a week after I posted my items........after suspicions raised by his manager!!! As the PO had payed out the compensation limit, they were not interested. After numerous complaints from me, they agreed to look into it........I'm still waiting.

And, Bombadier.....I sympathise.......I often get a card thru my door when no attempt at delivery is made.

One postie put a card thru my door & I caught him........he admitted he didn't even have the parcel with him....didn't have room on his van!

I could go on & on.......I've never, in my life, got service as bad from anywhere as the Post Office. The sooner it is broken up to competition the better!

Aaaaah............... That's better! ChrisP.

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Chris, if you're going to send valuable items for God's sake use Special Delivery and get the right compensation level, thousands if needed.

Ok we have got some lazy *****s I admit it,the pee me off cos I got work with them.

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Chaps

The posties in our area really do a great job going out of their way to help people - and not just with the post. I remember an old girl in the village had a washing machine delivered by a large electrical company to be told they could not install the thing because the old one had not been disconnected. This chap not only took twenty minutes to get the old one out, the new one plumbed in, and have a cuppa, but offered to take the old one away in a trailer at the weekend. I know most of our lot as I went to school with them, and they are all honest and hard working.

Bad apples are occasionally found, but they are few and far between.

Lee in Lincs

(who has an e-bay 'alert' for a payment not yet received - even though it was sent on the day I won the auction 30/11/2005 - to Canada) :(

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I always prefer it when people send things via the Post Office - at least then if I am not in to receive it I only have to go a few hundred yards down the road.

Other delivery companies seem incapable of understanding that people actually have to go to work during the week and cannot always be in. I have had to go miles to pick up some things.

But, as witth any chain, the Post Office is only as good as the weakest link.

Neil

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A tendancy I have noticed of late is items being left with neighbours or in teh greenhouse or similar and no note saying they have been left - you then have to rely on people letting you know they have bits for you (I am lucky to have good neighbours) or by luck checking the greenhouse, a little back I had a parcle left on the back step that sat their for a couple of days because in the winter no one uses the back door. I know things have always been left with neighbours etc but their always used to be a card through the door saying where it had been left. Not long ago I also had a recorded delivery item left with a neighbour and it was signed for by teh postman which seems to defeat the purpose a bit.

Alistair

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A tendancy I have noticed of late is items being left with neighbours or in teh greenhouse or similar and no note saying they have been left - you then have to rely on people letting you know they have bits for you (I am lucky to have good neighbours)

Alistair

This must be a growing problem with the big increase in Internet shopping and people being out all day. Luckily I live in a semi-circular cul-de-sac of six houses, five of which are occupied by retired people, so there's usually someone around to take a parcel in. That didn't stop a relief postwoman leaving a packet containing a "collectable" document on my doorstep one weekend. This was at a time when I was away one weekend in four, so there was a chance that it could have languished there for several days.

We aren't too far off the time of year when new Yellow Pages and BT phone directories are delivered - one can walk the streets for several days spotting them outside front doors that haven't been opened for a while. The local Crime Prevention Officer wrote to Yellow Pages, who said it wasn't company policy to leave them outside doors, but it still happens.

Moonraker

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Other delivery companies seem incapable of understanding that people actually have to go to work during the week and cannot always be in. I have had to go miles to pick up some things.

Neil

My solution is to have things sent to me at the office. :)

Roy

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Other than being somewhat slow, I've never had a problem with the Post Office. I've had a Colt 1911 pistol and a Berthier Mle.16 rifle both delivered through the PO without any problems. On the other hand, RPS (no longer in business, I understand, good thing too) completely lost a rifle in transit. I hope some former RPS employee is happy with his 1893 Portuguese Mannlicher. Luckily, the company that sold me the rifle had another and made good on it.

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I too have always found Royal Mail OK. I guess it possibly depends where you live as to the service you get. From what I can gather, there are problems in some of the larger mail centres, particularly London where the quality of staff leaves, shall we say, a little to be desired.

By the way, I believe Royal Mail wanted to ban firearms from the system but the regulator told them they had to carry on handling them.

Rich.

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Chaps

I'd love to see how our postal service treats our parcels & packages when we release them into their trust.

Some time ago, I placed a medal which did not fit with my collection on good old e-bay. A nice clean single BWM to a casualty Merchantile Marine chap from Hull, KIA in an action off the coast of Holland on 17/05/17, Robert Thornton was his name. I had lovingly given it a length of nice new, but original ribbon from Dixon's, framed it with a suitably coloured acid free card in the colours of the Merc. Mar.

I researched the medal with the help of the good chaps on this Forum, got together a crew list, a list of crew (12) lost on the day of the sinking of the Cito (Hull), incorporated the whole lot in a large captioned frame with a photo of the ship, and a small map of where the action took place. All large papers, photos, even a divers report, were neatly placed in a folder including some gear from the National Maritime Museum, labelled in my best caligraphy. A nice little piece of work, not worth a great deal, but looked after and into by me, since finding the medal in a pot in a junk shop in Hull. Forgotten and unloved, story untold.

A nice fellow wanted it for his collection - on the Forum. I sent him it all packed safe and secure. Then after weeks of waiting we declared it as lost in the post. I refunded his money as I could claim on the insurance.

Today, I got home after Christmas shopping to find a note saying that there was something for me to pick up at the P.O.

I could not think what it could be - nothing due in the post.

When I got to the office I was shown the parcel that I sent a few months earlier. Just a little flatter, darker in hue and somewhat niffier (deisel). Address gone, but my tag still under the wrapping tape.God knows what they had been doing with it. The medal was in fine fettle, however, the ribbon is ruined as is all the research, cards, photos, and frame.

Bloody marvellous.

My girlfriends ex-husband works in the same office block - just the sort of thing he'd do, too :angry:

I'll put in my 2 cents worth about the $100 I've lost ... sent to a member of this forum :( .... lost to someone's postal carrier ... on which side of the Atlantic I don't know.

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I was ripped off big time by the Post Office last year......I posted 9 parcels to various destinations one day in September.......none reached the buyers. As mail is sorted at our office, the only time all nine were together was there......I spoke with the manager & suggested they had been stolen by one of his team.......This was flatly refuted in a most indignant manner......he assured me all were 100% trustworthy. I claimed the standard compensation of £28 per pack I think it was, for uninsured mail. As the total value of items exceeded £500, I was by now £250+ out of pocket.

6 months later. I read in my local rag that a postmen has been jailed for stealing packages......arrested a week after I posted my items........after suspicions raised by his manager!!! As the PO had payed out the compensation limit, they were not interested. After numerous complaints from me, they agreed to look into it........I'm still waiting.

A few months ago I had to edit and transfer some camcorder footage to DVD-R for a management consultancy I occasionally do bulk duplication for. There were 13 discs in total, all in individual jewel cases, so it was a fairly hefty package. It never arrived, so I had to reduplicate the discs from the master copies, send them again (this time by Special Delivery, as there was by then a time imperative). I then put in a claim to the Royal Mail for £15.40 for the discs and £5.40 for the postage, including both the till receipt and the Proof of Posting for the original package.

A fortnight later I got a form letter from the RM asking for the Proof of Posting, despite the fact that it (and the receipt) had been stapled to the claim form in the first place! It took half a dozen attempts to get through on the phone number quoted on the letter, each time having to sit through almost a minute of recorded waffle before being told that "all lines are busy" and being cut off. The disinterested young man I eventually spoke to simply said, "I'll reopen the enquiry," and when I started to ask - forcefully, but by no means aggressively (and certainly not abusively) - how they could possibly be asking me to supply a piece of dicumentation that had been stapled to the claim form they had obviously managed to start processing, he cut me off!

After another five or six attempts to ring back, I spoke to a young lady who, no, couldn't put me through to a supervisor, but would have someone call me back. Obviously no-one did, and after a few days I sent another letter outlining what had happened, my disgust at what seemed like an attempt to delay or even disuade me from pursuing the claim, and enclosing a photocopy of the Proof of Posting, which I'd obviously taken the precaution of making before sending the original. A week or so later I got a form letter and a cheque for £16.06, with no explanation of how this sum was arrived at, given the total claimed cost of £20.80!

And, Bombadier.....I sympathise.......I often get a card thru my door when no attempt at delivery is made.

One postie put a card thru my door & I caught him........he admitted he didn't even have the parcel with him....didn't have room on his van!

I could go on & on.......I've never, in my life, got service as bad from anywhere as the Post Office. The sooner it is broken up to competition the better!

Our regular postman is very good, but the problems seem to set in whenever someone else is covering, or if it's a van delivery of a larger item. If one comes home and finds a card left while we were out, then fine, one doesn't begrudge going to the delivery office to collect it, but far too many times we've been carded when I or my faltmate - and sometimes both of us - were in, or for packages that would have fitted through the letter box if they'd tried; have come home to find cards claiming an attempted delivery at a time before we went out in the first place, and which weren't there when we did; have been surcharged for letters or packages being a piddling amount overweight (on one occasion when it was 3 - THREE!!!! - grammes overweight and the postage being short by 4p!!!!!); or have suspsciously had no deliveries at all to a building with 15 flats in it, followed by a large delivery the following day. On one occasion, they even carded the separate entrance to the majority of the flats, rather than the separate one we share with just one other, thus proving that they hadn't even attempted to see if anyone was in. :angry::angry::angry:

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