How to request a courier weight scan for a disputed parcel

When a buyer says a parcel arrived empty, or lighter than it should have been, almost every piece of evidence in the argument comes from one side or the other. Your packing photos are yours. The buyer's doorstep photos are theirs. The courier's recorded weight is the one number that comes from neither of you, which is exactly why it is worth asking for.

Couriers weigh parcels for their own reasons. A side effect is that somewhere in the courier's systems there may be a record of what your parcel weighed when it entered the network, and sometimes at points along the way. This guide covers how to ask for that record, what it can honestly show, and how to present it without overclaiming.

Which couriers hold weight data

No UK courier publishes a tidy statement of exactly where and when parcels are weighed, and it varies by service and by route. So do not build a case on an assumption about scanning infrastructure. The reliable move is to ask, in writing, what weights they hold for your tracking number.

• Royal Mail. A drop-off receipt from the counter often has the parcel's weight printed on it. Keep the receipt: it is a weight record you already hold, from the day the parcel left you.
• Evri. Evri weighs parcels through its network, and the sender's claim is the natural place to ask for the drop-off and in-transit figures.
• Any other courier. Ask the same question in the same words. “What recorded weights do you hold for this tracking number?” costs nothing, commits you to nothing, and the answer is useful whichever way it goes.

How to request the weights

1. 1

   Ask inside the claim, not in a separate thread

   The request belongs in the claim or enquiry you are already making as the sender. Evri's guidance is that the enquiry comes from the person who posted the parcel, and it recommends claiming within 28 days of the order for UK services. Royal Mail will not consider a loss claim until 10 working days after posting for most services, 5 for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm, but nothing stops you asking what weights are held while you wait.

2. 2

   Be specific about what you want

   Quote the tracking number and ask for the recorded weight at acceptance or drop-off, and at any later scan, each with its date and time. Ask in the first few days: weight and scan data are not kept indefinitely, and a record that has been purged cannot be un-purged by any amount of escalation.

3. 3

   If the claims route stalls, make it a data request

   Under UK data protection law you can ask an organisation for a copy of the data it holds about you. GOV.UK's guidance is that the organisation must respond as soon as possible and within one month at most, extendable by a further two months for complex requests if they tell you within the first month, and that requests are usually free. Write to the courier's data protection officer, or the company secretary if it does not name one, and give your name, the address on the label and the tracking number, and ask for the records held against them. Whether a particular scan record counts as your personal data is the courier's call to justify, but a written request starts a clock that an ignored chat message does not.

4. 4

   Weigh your own side of the argument

   Put the same item, or an identical one, in identical packaging on kitchen scales and note the figure. Dig out the drop-off receipt if it shows a weight. The courier's number only becomes evidence when there is something honest to compare it against.

What a weight can and cannot show

Be honest with yourself about this before presenting the number to anyone else, because whoever reviews the dispute will be.

• A recorded weight consistent with your item shows a parcel of the right weight entered the network. It does not prove your item was inside: a parcel of anything at 840g weighs the same as your 840g item. What it does do is contradict the specific claim that an empty bag was posted, which is usually the claim actually being made.
• A recorded weight well below the item's weight is a problem for you, not the buyer. Better to find that out before you build a case on it.
• A weight that drops between scans suggests something changed in transit. It does not say what or who, but it is the courier's own record placing the change inside the network rather than at your kitchen table.
• No weight at all is common. Not every parcel is weighed at every point, and a courier confirming it holds nothing is still an answer worth having in writing.

Presenting the weights in a dispute

Plain numbers, plainly sourced, beat adjectives. Three sentences in the dispute thread do the work:

• “The courier's recorded weight at drop-off on 4 March was 840g, confirmed to me in writing on 12 March.”
• “The item weighs 640g and the packaging 200g, 840g together.”
• Attach the courier's written reply rather than describing it.

Say where each figure comes from and let the reviewer do the arithmetic. Do not round in your own favour, and do not present a consistent weight as proof of contents. It is one fact from a neutral source, which in most empty-parcel disputes is one more than the other side has.

This guide describes how weight records are generally requested and weighed in parcel disputes. It is not legal advice, and no courier, marketplace or payment provider is bound by anything here.

Common questions