Birthday

[Baldhead]

Today my grandson is 3, his gran (my mother-in-law) sent him a card with a crisp £10 inside, the card was delivered yesterday inside another envelope with an apology from the post office as the envelope was open and guess what, the card is undamaged but the £10 note is missing.
My mother-in-law is 98, she won't be at the party because she can't manage the three steps up to the front door of my daughters house plus there is no downstairs toilet for her to use, the £10 was put in the card by my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law lives about 5 miles from my daughter, it hasn't rained here since my sister-in-law posted the card and it being delivered to my daughters house, yet the envelope looks as if it's been partially submerged in water, no I'm not sure what to make of this, but if anyone has taken the cash from the card, I hope you suffer from a long term agonising and fatal illness.

Baldhead

P.S. I know people will say you shouldn't put money in an envelope, I don't, but may I add that my sister-in-law and her mother both come from an era when the word honest actually meant something.

 

[Spindle]

Hi

You have my sympathy - a similar thing happened to a card and it's contents sent to my daughter by her Grandmother.

I fully endorse your sentiment towards these low lives - I'd like to meet them on a dark night and re-arrange their fingers

Regards Mick

 

[Naxie]

It happens to us a fair bit, we have lost birthday money from cards and often the cards dont even make it. Our regular postie is a great chap, he even delivers any packages straight to our friends opposite if we are out. The problem happens whenever he is on holiday.

We have complained to the sorting office on a few occasions but nobody seems interested. We have even had a succession of important forms which haven't turned up, one of which has ended up costing us money. :x

Royal mail are not on our Christmas card list at the moment, not sure if we are on thiers because the card probably wouldn't arrive anyway. :evil:

 

[Harbo]

My mother used to send our kids money in envelopes until they started to disappear. We then started giving the kids our money and settling up later when we met up.

Rod

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you must send cash, use an A5 brown envelope for the card - it's far less likely to be "investigated".

 

[Racers]

Well my wife worked at Royal Mail and they are covered in camera and monitored constantly, while she was there someone got sacked for stealing.
But most of the problem is badly packed/sealed letters they are fed through big machines at high speed, lots of coins from envelopes get collected and handed in. The ratio of good to bad people is probably the same any where so stealing does goes on, but security is tight.

Pete

 

[wizard]

Small post offices often get caught out in Cornwall i have now found a very good one but i would not trust the others

 

[Baldhead]

Well my wife worked at Royal Mail and they are covered in camera and monitored constantly, while she was there someone got sacked for stealing.
But most of the problem is badly packed/sealed letters they are fed through big machines at high speed, lots of coins from envelopes get collected and handed in. The ratio of good to bad people is probably the same any where so stealing does goes on, but security is tight.

Pete

I've calmed down now, Pete please don't think I am tarring everyone with the same brush, as you say there are good and bad in all walks of life, we have a brilliant postman, and the staff I've come into contract with at our local sorting office have been very nice, your comment has got me thinking though, what happens to the cash that is handed in?

Baldhead

 

[rafezetter]

Well my wife worked at Royal Mail and they are covered in camera and monitored constantly, while she was there someone got sacked for stealing.
But most of the problem is badly packed/sealed letters they are fed through big machines at high speed, lots of coins from envelopes get collected and handed in. The ratio of good to bad people is probably the same any where so stealing does goes on, but security is tight.

Pete

How was he able to steal in the first place? In casino's all pockets are sewn shut, you have to wipe your hands together open palm to show there's nothing in them when you leave the table and can be inspected at any time. It's well known people send extremely valuable items through the mailing system, frankly security should be as tight and stringent as a gem dealers.

security in the building may be tight, but who's to say they don't carry spares of those "oops we broke it" bags just in case.

Cards and their like are an obviously different shape, and the envelopes are different paper too. It would be obvious to separate them.

Sorry but why is it that letters and documents and all sorts of normal cards get through in their millions but it's often only the ones with money that get waylaid. I've had all sorts go missing, even when very well disguised.

I only use RM as I have no other choice.

 

[Racers]

I believe he wasn't handing in the money that falls out of the badly sealed mail.

All I am saying is they try to stamp out stealing, but some people are dishonest so they will never stamp it out completely.
How come the card was delivered? wouldn't it be best just to pocket it and no one would be the wiser?

Are you saying all royal mail staff including my wife are under suspicion?

Pete

 

[Baldhead]

I believe he wasn't handing in the money that falls out of the badly sealed mail.

All I am saying is they try to stamp out stealing, but some people are dishonest so they will never stamp it out completely.
How come the card was delivered? wouldn't it be best just to pocket it and no one would be the wiser?

Are you saying all royal mail staff including my wife are under suspicion?

Pete

Pete I am saying the exact opposite, there will always be a minority who are bad, but that doesn't mean they are all bad, you shouldn't, and I am not tarring everyone with the same brush, you will notice in my original post I said"....but if anyone has taken the cash from the card....."I never actually accused anyone of theft.
Hope that clears up any misunderstanding.

Baldhead

 

[Racers]

No problem Baldhead, I was replying to rafezetter.

Pete

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I believe he wasn't handing in the money that falls out of the badly sealed mail.

All I am saying is they try to stamp out stealing, but some people are dishonest so they will never stamp it out completely.
How come the card was delivered? wouldn't it be best just to pocket it and no one would be the wiser?

Are you saying all royal mail staff including my wife are under suspicion?

Pete

Unfortunately while these thefts happen all Royal Mail staff including your wife ARE under suspicion. That's what happens.

 

[rafezetter]

No I am not saying everyone and your wife are under suspicion, OR guilty by association. Apologies if you thought that is what I was implying.

I am saying though, as you say, there are those who will take advantage, and because the majority of the mail that goes through their system is anonymous - no recorded / signed for / tracked, etc etc - simply mailed and *hope* it arrives, it's even simpler.

The biggest problem as I see it, is RM customers rely on trust that it will get delivered in the same condition it left, with no way to claim if it does not, because the cost of paying for recorded / tracked etc delivery for EVERY item of mail is prohibitive. So people only do it for the really important stuff - and sometimes not even then; for which they must take some responsibility.

Stamping out theft is the right direction, but in reality they need to make it as hard as possible, just as they do for gem clearing houses etc etc, that way a great portion of human tampering suspicion would be removed. Then it's just the machines, and they usually - eventually get spat out in some form or another and delivered.

The fact is even RM do not trust their employees and systems 100%. Because if they did the need for tracking / recorded (both of which are used to make sure the item in question MAKES IT THROUGH THE SYSTEM intact and in a timely manner) would not be required within UK. Signed for is also used to prove it got to it's destination, as the recipient is often NOT the one doing the signing.

Why else would they say when sending important documents to use one of these additional services?

Pete, It's very hard not to be a cynic, when you've financially lost out many hundreds of pounds (sending ebay items within the UK) and their claim service is outright disgusting, even when presented with photographic evidence of how it arrived, with words like "we cannot satisfactorily ascertain whether this damage was caused during transit or after delivery" - basically they called my customer a liar (who by the way refused to claim a refund from me, as he knew damn well it was RM's fault).

Stuff sent to me by ebay sellers too - on one occasion it took 3 normals and 1 recorded / tracked / signed to get it to me, so he was out the cost of 4 sets of assorted grit sanding disks (about £20 worth) etc PLUS having to pay the extra to MAKE SURE it got to me. To date the other 3 have NEVER arrived.

Banks send new cards and pin numbers seperatly because they do not trust the mail system either.