Can I make Royal Mail pay for a present I posted to my sister in Scotland that by no means arrived? DEAN DUNHAM replies

I posted a present to my sister in Scotland and it never arrived. It wasn’t sent via registered post, but I do have the receipt from the Post Office. Can I get my money back and the cost of the gift?

S.J., Bournemouth.

Dean Dunham replies: In principle, the answer to this question should be that, yes, you can indeed get your money back.

That’s because the Consumer Rights Act says that when you buy a service – here the delivery of a parcel – it should be provided with ‘reasonable care and skill’ and clearly this has been breached as the parcel was lost.

The remedy you are then entitled to under the law is to be put back into the position you would have been in had the breach not occurred, meaning you would get back the postal cost and the value of the present.

However, this does not mean you have to go to court as thankfully there are other routes of redress when it comes to complaints about Royal Mail. 

In the first instance, you should make a claim via the Royal Mail compensation process, details of which you will find here: royalmail.com/help/lost-items-parcels-letters.

The amount of compensation Royal Mail will potentially offer depends on the postage service you used, as follows; second class, up to £20; first class, up to £20; signed for, up to £20; special delivery guaranteed by 1pm, up to £750; special delivery guaranteed by 9am, up to £50.

Make sure to submit your claim within 14 days of posting and provide proof of postage and the value of the item. 

If you’re not happy with its response you can escalate your complaint to the Royal Mail’s Postal Review Panel, which can be contacted by emailing postalreview@royalmail.com or by writing to FREEPOST, Postal Review Panel.

If your complaint still can’t be resolved, you can ask the independent postal redress scheme (often referred to as POSTRS) to investigate your case.

Finally, a piece of advice, when you post something with a value that is greater than the compensation amounts cited above – it is always advisable to purchase additional cover at the Post Office. You can get up to £2,500 cover for valuable items and if the

loss of the item causes further financial loss (ie to buy a replacement when the cost has gone up) you might be able to claim consequential loss cover up to £10,000. 

Did ‘cheeky’ shop assistant have a point?

I bought four shirts, two jackets and two ties for my husband in a High Street department store and had to return them as he didn’t like them. 

The assistant taking the returns cheekily said to me: ‘Next time, Madam, can you ask your husband to come into the store to try on as this takes us so much time to sort out.’ What are my rights?

L.R., Chester.

Dean Dunham replies:  When you buy goods ‘in store’ the Consumer Rights Act, the applicable

law covering in-store purchases, does not give you an automatic right to return the goods due to changing your mind or for any other reason.

In fact the only legal right you have to return goods purchased in store is if they are faulty, do not meet the description provided by the retailer or are not fit for purpose.

By contrast, when you buy online, or from anywhere that is not the trader’s usual place of business (such as a pop-up shop or exhibition), the Consumer Contracts Regulations (the applicable law covering online and distant sales) does afford you the right to simply change your mind and ask for a full refund, so long as you exercise the right within 14 days of being in possession of the goods.

So when you buy in store, your right to return non-faulty goods depends on the retailer’s returns policy. 

If the policy provides that you can return items for any reason, this will form part of the contract between you and will therefore be something the retailer must honour. 

So here, the comment made by the assistant was both unhelpful and unwarranted, as I assume the shop’s returns policy did allow you to return non-faulty goods.