What Royal Mail asks a sender for when contents are missing

Royal Mail’s retail compensation policy asks a claimant for two distinct things. Sellers almost always have the first and almost never have the second.

• Evidence of posting. The certificate of posting, the postmark date, or the product documentation for Special Delivery and Signed For.
• Evidence of value. What the contents were actually worth: original receipts, bank or card statements, invoices, PayPal records, manufacturing costs, or an auctioneer’s valuation.

The waiting periods

Compensation for loss is not considered until a waiting period has passed from the date of posting:

• 10 working days for most services.
• 5 working days for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm.

Royal Mail then says it will come back with an outcome within 30 calendar days. Both numbers matter to a seller under pressure from a buyer: the marketplace clock and the courier clock run at different speeds, and the marketplace one is usually much shorter.

The two claim routes

There are two ways to put a claim in, plus a phone fallback if neither works for you.

• Online. Royal Mail’s claim form on royalmail.com.
• Paper. A paper claim form from your nearest Post Office, posted back to Royal Mail.
• Phone. If you cannot use either form, Royal Mail Customer Services on 03457 740 740 can help you make the claim.

The window is tighter than the waiting periods suggest. For items posted to a UK address, Citizens Advice puts the deadline for a loss or damage claim at 80 days from the date of posting. For items sent abroad it is 6 months. The waiting period opens the window and the 80 day limit closes it, so a seller stalling a difficult buyer is spending both clocks at once.

Citizens Advice also notes the response times: 30 days for UK items, up to 90 for international, and successful claims are paid by cheque. Claim in a name and at an address a cheque can actually reach.

Assembling the pack

1. 1

   Basic details, exactly as they appear

   Names and addresses of the sender, the addressee and the claimant. If you sell under a trading name, use the details actually on the label, not the ones on your bank account.

2. 2

   Evidence of posting

   The certificate of posting, or the postmark date, plus the product documentation if you used Special Delivery or Signed For. Free digital proof of posting counts here.

3. 3

   Evidence of value, in originals

   Original receipts, invoices, card or bank statements, PayPal records, or a valuation. This is the half that decides how much, and the half most claims are missing.

4. 4

   Keep the packaging and whatever arrived

   Royal Mail’s damage and part-loss policy expects the packaging and contents to be retained. Ask the buyer to keep the box and photograph it before anything is thrown away, including the seams and any seal.

5. 5

   Ask for the weight and scan history

   Not part of the standard form, and worth requesting in writing anyway. A recorded weight at acceptance is a fact from the carrier rather than from either side of the argument. See the evidence guide for why this is the most overlooked artefact available.

What each service actually pays

Compensation is capped by the service, not by the loss. The current ceilings for contents, per Citizens Advice’s guidance on claiming from Royal Mail:

• 1st and 2nd Class: up to £20.
• Signed For: up to £20, the same as an ordinary stamp.
• Tracked 24 and Tracked 48: up to £75, and only the sender can claim.
• Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm: up to £750.
• Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am: up to £50, or more where extra insurance is in place for the item.
• International Standard and Economy: up to £20. International Tracked and Signed: up to £50.

Evidence of value when there is no receipt

Most marketplace sellers post second-hand goods they bought years ago, so “original receipt” reads like a dead end. It is not. Citizens Advice lists the accepted forms of original proof of value as a receipt, a bank statement, repair quotations or PayPal records. Two of those survive any house move.

• The record of the sale. The buyer just paid a real price for this exact item. The PayPal, bank or card record of that payment is a dated document from a third party, and it is the most defensible number you have.
• The record of your own purchase. A bank or card statement line from when you bought it, however old, is still an original document.
• A repair quotation, for damage rather than loss.
• A valuation, for items genuinely worth the professional’s fee.

Sanity-check the effort against the ceiling first. If the item went 2nd Class, the maximum for contents is £20 however good the valuation is.

What this does not cover

Compensation is capped by the service used and by any additional cover bought at the counter, not by what the item was worth. Certain goods are excluded entirely under the prohibited and no-compensation lists. Check both before you build a case around an amount.

A courier claim and a marketplace case are also separate processes with separate deadlines. Losing one does not close the other, and refunding the buyer can close routes that were still open.

If the claim is refused

A refusal is not the end of the route. There are two named stages after it.

1. 1

   The Postal Review Panel

   Royal Mail’s own second-look stage. You contact it using the details on the latest letter or email about your complaint, and Citizens Advice says it should come back within 30 days. It sits inside Royal Mail, so give it something new to look at: the acceptance weight, the packing record, the value evidence the first decision said was missing. A repeat of the first submission gives it nothing to change its mind with.

2. 2

   POSTRS, the independent scheme

   If the Panel cannot resolve it, the usual referral is to the Postal Redress Service (POSTRS), an alternative dispute resolution scheme that is independent of Royal Mail. You can also go to POSTRS directly if Royal Mail has taken more than 90 days over the complaint or has not followed its own complaints procedure.

Escalation reviews a file. Neither stage collects new facts for you, so the record built at posting time is the record being judged. That is the honest case for making it before the argument starts, not after.

Common questions

Source: Royal Mail’s published retail compensation policies for loss and for damage and part loss. Policies change, so confirm the current wording on royalmail.com before relying on a deadline.