Postage compensation - How?

Here's the story:
My son sent something valuable by Parcel Force back to his digs at uni. In his misguided wisdom he didn't insure it (It had been sent home a few weeks earlier with no issue whatsoever). He took it to a post office and collected it from a post office so the entire time it was in reciept of the delivering company who at some point had opened the parcel, removed the contents and carefully resealed it. It was not weighed for the entirety of the journey so it cannot be established where this happened or proven (they say) that there was anything in there to start with. When it was handed to him by an employee he immediately pointed out how light it was and in their presence opened the parcel - which was empty. The matter has been in the hands of the local police and Parcel Force local sorting office and nothing has been heard from them for several weeks. I have suggested to him it should be looked at from a central office to cover the whole journey.

Can anyone here suggest a route into Parcel Force investigation that is likely to resove this? I have done some online investigation and come up with two departments, locations and phone numbers which doesn't suggest a very thorough or watertight approach to me.
Cheers

valuable
didn't insure it

It's basically going to be the entire PF workforce vs. you guys. Erm, good luck.

Looks that way. Our argument is that insurance is an unneccessary add-on in this case. You shouldn't have to pay extra to ensure against blatent theft by an employee. That is covered by your right to be provided with a service that, in purchasing the postage stamps, you have already paid for.

Sorting offices are well known for picking out stuff that isn't insured/tracked... Many years ago I used to drink with a guy who was mates with the boss of my local office... Very, very well-to-do area, stuff would disappear all the time and wind up for sale in local boozers...

You may have to put this one down to experience and move on...

wouldnt it have been weighed initially in order to establish some sort of cost band? i.e. upto 500G =£X uptto 1KG =£X

Apparently they don't do that if the form is filled out online.

That's probably the most expensive £10 he never spent. Airport baggage handlers and postal workers are usually renowned for their collective honesty. I don't think you'll get any compensation back except the standard £30 or so. There is an online claims system a P38 http://claims.royalmail.com/ which may do something unless you've already filled it out.
Do not lose all hope as it is clearly a theft and not a lost parcel so I would have thought Royal Mail are liable though I am by no means an expert.

Ahhh pity. I've claimed when something went entirely missing, the limit was based on a multiple of 1st class postage but that's very different to this. Sorry no ideas but good luck.

It might be of some help to contact your local solicitor. Is there a receipt for that thing that was sent?

You may have to put this one down to experience and move on...

So much this. The whole point of postal insurance is that you shouldn't send anything without insuring its full value unless you're not that bothered about losing it.

I don't know the law but I suspect you'd be onto a loser with legal action as natural justice would suggest your son should have insured it if it was valuable.

Making mistakes is part of growing up unfortunately...

Should it not be Parcelforce's insurers that should be covering this? This is not a lost package, or damage to goods. This is package being opened en-route, goods removed and package taped up again.

It's like ordering a Tesco food delivery, but the driver polished off a pack of your Chicken & Thyme Sensations crisps en-route, but "tough-luck" should have been insured.

I guess it's tricky to prove something was in there at the start as it wasn't weighed.

Open to fraud then if the parcel isn't weighed when dropped off at the PO?

Order consignment online, Insure for £500, pack an empty box, drop off at PO, item gets 'lost in the post', insurance claim, profit...

brb. Just going to the post office.

@Pifko I'd assume that "lost in the post" and not weighed at the PO items booked on line are limited, even with insurance, to lower insurance limit?

It seems the Post Office trust customers who use online payment to pay for the correct weight of parcel. It is almost inviting fraud in so much as you could pay a lot less for a delivery and/or claim something was removed en-route when in fact the parcel was empty when it left your hands. He handed it to a Post office employee. How difficult or time consuming is it to look at the price on the label and see if it roughly matches the weight as they are holding it? In the case of this package it would have been blindingly obvious if he was pulling a fast one.
As far as I am concerned, even without insurance, he has paid for a service which he hasn't recieved. That came about not because of an accidental loss or damage to the item but because an employee of the courier has stolen the contents of the parcel and resealed the package to hide the evidence. That's devious and criminal and Parcel Force should admit fault, compensate the customer first and investigate afterwards or accept that their system is flawed and payouts, legitimate or otherwise, are inevitable.

No help with the post office, but might be worth checking your home contents insurance.

Certainly when I was at college, I was covered by my parents' insurance, because I was only temporarily resident away from their house (and that even extended to a payout for a lost watch a couple of months after I graduated).

polished off a pack of your Chicken & Thyme Sensations crisps en-route

Serious stuff, but it would pale into insignificance next to a missing pack of Waitrose Ham and Mustard.

I seriously doubt home insurance would cover something that you posted.

Is it possible that the either the item punched it's way out of the parcel or that the parcel got damaged, the item fell out, became separated from the parcel and the parcel was then identified as damaged and taped up?

I'd imagine it's quite probable that if you try to pursue a claim of theft against Parcelforce they might be likely to claim something like that happened and reimburse you for the insured cost of the parcel.

@Constable_Savage You're probably right, but I reckon it's still worth asking.

Having just looked at my own policy (under the all risks/contents outside the home extension), it does exclude "items not in the care, custody or control of you, or your family." On the face of it, though, that excludes checked airline baggage, which I would expect to be covered. Might give them a call and check up on that one.

On the face of it, though, that excludes checked airline baggage, which I would expect to be covered.

That's what Travel Insurance is for.

It's possible I suppose but surely that would be reported to a senior in the company and recorded - if not on the parcel, then somewhere? If not it's inviting staff to 'happen upon' this on a regular basis would you not say?

Yeah, I would really expect some sort of notification to be attached to the parcel, I've had torn envelopes delivered in a plastic baggy that explained the item had been damaged in transit and stuff. That's Royal Mail though, not PF. Different companies, different policies.

As for reporting and recording it, that assumes it being a rare enough scenario that the carrier considers it deserves the attention. Perhaps they only record such things for parcels with an insured value as no insured value = no possibility of a claim.

Similar to TS's story, my own experience as a regular parcel poster suggests that uninsured parcels are 'lost' waaaaay more often than than those with insurance.

Different companies, different policies.

Finacially maybe but 'hand in glove' in reality