flaming post office

[somersethedge]

on the 13 August I sent a package off to croatia and used "international signed for" at a higher rate which cost me £7...
the Croatian post office failed to deliver it to the buyer but sent in back to the UK and then back to me....

I now need to repost it back to Croatia again costing me £7.00

so I rang the post office to ask where I stand re the postage as it was not delivered the first time dispite me paying for it to be so....

their answer is I will have to pay again as it was not thier fault and that they fullfulled their contract by getting it to croatia.

my arguement is that I paid for it to be delivered and it was not delivered, so they did not fullfill their contract.

think its a no win situation but it annoys that I paid for something I didn't get

[RonOne]

Maybe if the buyer had paid the postage, it may have been delivered.

[MagnetsAndHangers]

Hmmmmm.....

Is this all a ploy by the post office to get us to pay more?

This week, I have had 3 packages returned - all were going to various parts of the country.
1 in scotland, 1 in newcastle, and one in norwich.

One was sent out last Friday, the other 2 sent out on Monday.

They are all flat envelopes A5 size, and go through any letterbox.

They all had the red-sticker on them - 1 was marked ''no answer'', 1 was marked ''address has gone away'' and the other saying ''refused''. The one marked ''refused'' was particularly surprised, as she lives alone and is at work all day!!!

I have spoken to all 3 addressees on the phone. All 3 say they were at work, but all other mail was delivered, and no card had been left.
The red 'non-delivery' label was dated 14/9/2010 in all cases.
Envelopes were not re-useable - post office made sure of that.

Now have to be re-packaged, and paid for again.

Hope this isnt going to be a regular thing by the postal services to get us to pay twice for packages.

[ChameleonSystems]

Surely royal mail sub contract the Croatian postal services to finish the job in Croatia, so royal mail are still liable and they have to claim from the foreign postal services ... not you. Its royal mail's problem I would have thought (and would have argued). Depends on why they say it wasn't delivered, if the address wasn't right or the recipient wasn't in, then thats different.

[RonOne]

Touch wood, I've never had this problem....yet.

[somersethedge]

have to admit the Croatian postal tracking system leaves ours in the dust.... in the UK all I got was... left post office...left country.

My buyer sent the full report from the Croatian post office to me...

Arrived in Croatia on flight No. xxxxx arrived at central sorting office on xx xxx xxxx and so on until left local sorting office at xx:xx hrs unable to deliver at xx:xx hours arrived back at soring office xx:xx hrs (and the same the next day).... then the same all the way back to the airport and the flight No. it was sent back to the UK on.......

Now thats what you call TRACKING a package

[RonOne]

So why didn't the buyer pick it up from the Croation sorting office after the first attempt,
I presume a note was put through the door after the first time round.

[madelaine]

The situation with regards to international deliveries is governed by the Universal Postal Union. Once it arrives in Croatia, it's their postal system's business. I can assure you that the Post Office are no happier with the situation than you are, Somer. That doesn't make it any less irritating but it is not a simple matter of contract law.

[somersethedge]

So why didn't the buyer pick it up from the Croation sorting office after the first attempt,
I presume a note was put through the door after the first time round.

well as it was sent to the guys office, which was open, with a receptoinist sitting by the entrance.... enough said me thinks lol

[astral276]

I have the following in my T&Cs:

If an item is returned by the carrier as undeliverable to the address supplied by you, or is returned after your failure to collect the item from the carrier's depot or sorting office, then you may either have a refund of the cost of the item (i.e. less the outward shipping costs) or may, within 30 days of the item's return, pay for the item to be sent again; after 30 days the item may no longer be available.

Mind you I don't know how that would work out if the postage was more than the value of the item.