Royal Mail Lost Parcel Claim for Sellers: How to Claim Compensation

Can I claim yet?

This guide is for the seller or sender recovering the parcel’s loss. If you bought the goods and are waiting for them, use our Royal Mail buyer refund guide.

Service → earliest loss claim → final deadline

“Due” means the delivery date for your actual product and destination, taking account of acceptance cutoffs, collection arrangements, redirection and postcode exceptions. It is not necessarily the order date or the day you printed the label.

Basis: retail loss policy; non-account Tracked terms, clause 11.2; account General Terms, clause 14 and Appendix C, printed pages 35–37. The missing-item guidance also distinguishes Tracked’s seven-day wait.

Click & Drop is a buying tool, not a compensation category. A pay-as-you-go purchase and a label billed to your Online Business Account can have different terms. An integration printing labels on your own OBA is also different from an intermediary reselling carriage under its account. Check the invoice and contracting party. Click & Drop support separates OBA and non-OBA parcel enquiries.

Current account terms include product-specific terms and user guides that can override general provisions. Use the live account terms index and your posting agreement. Historical rules in search results are not a substitute for the applicable version.

What amount can I actually claim?

Start with the provable item loss, then apply the service ceiling. Refunding a £90 sale does not establish a £90 courier entitlement. Separate the item, postage and any excluded profit or other consequential costs.

Check Tracked 24, Tracked 48 and Special Delivery by 1pm product limits alongside the contractual sources above.

Use the supplier invoice or manufacturing records for cost, and the marketplace sale/payment record to identify the goods and transaction. If you no longer have the receipt, identify honest alternative records and ask what will be accepted; do not substitute an invented cost or assume a listing screenshot proves it.

Royal Mail’s current services guide identifies exclusions including inadequate packaging, incorrectly addressed or insufficiently paid mail, prohibited goods and restricted goods whose acceptance conditions were not met. Money and jewellery require an appropriate service. A paid label, extra cover or a buyer refund does not override an exclusion. For a disputed packaging refusal, ask which requirement failed and provide relevant packing evidence.

Build one evidence packet

• 01 · Booking identity: label invoice, Royal Mail service/variant, product code if available, account or non-account route, postage fee and purchased cover.
• 02 · Actual handover: original certificate/receipt, validated online-postage certificate, or collection confirmation received after collection. Tie it to this tracking number and posting date.
• 03 · Item and cost: invoice, purchase/payment records or manufacturing costs; description, condition and age. Keep original documents and copies of what you send.
• 04 · Sale and customer outcome: listing/order ID, paid amount, buyer correspondence, refund/replacement date and record. This identifies your commercial loss without replacing cost-price proof.
• 05 · Delivery investigation: dated tracking history, due date basis, destination, customer’s non-receipt account and carrier responses. Keep a snapshot if tracking changes.
• 06 · Declaration if requested: have the intended recipient complete Royal Mail’s actual proof-of-non-delivery request truthfully. Do not sign on their behalf or treat it as the only possible evidence.
• 07 · Claim record: eligibility date, cutoff, claimed item/postage amounts, submission receipt, reference and any follow-up request with its reply date.

The retail policy asks for original evidence, with copies retained by you; follow the actual online upload/post instructions and keep the originals available. Royal Mail may seek extra documentation. Its terms-change notice confirms recipient non-delivery evidence may be requested for Tracked and Special Delivery claims. Do not promise a buyer that a declaration guarantees payment.

Who submits? Under the retail policy either sender or recipient can claim, but only one compensation payment is made; if both claim, the sender’s claim takes priority unless the recipient was already paid. For the Tracked contracts covered here, claim through the postage customer/account holder; the recipient may need to supply non-delivery evidence. If a third party holds the carriage contract, follow its claim route. Agree who is handling recovery so you do not create competing claims.

Buyer refund vs Royal Mail recovery

If the buyer has opened an eBay INR case, it needs a separate response. For an Etsy order, review Etsy seller Purchase Protection before assuming the carrier is the only recovery route. If you sent an Amazon seller-fulfilled order, the A-to-z claim process has its own requests and clocks. Your buyer’s rights, any platform protection and the carrier contract answer different questions.

Your next-action timeline

1. Today: identify service/contract, preserve handover and value records, respond to the customer and record both sets of deadlines.
2. When loss becomes claimable: submit via the correct claims centre with a short chronology and indexed evidence. Save the confirmation; a draft form is not a submitted claim.
3. While investigated: monitor email and any recipient request. Supply missing records by the date requested; use the same claim reference.
4. When a decision arrives: compare the reason and item/postage calculation with your evidence. If refused, diagnose the gap before asking for review.
5. If the parcel arrives later: notify the handler immediately, even after payment. Ask whether the claim must close or compensation be repaid/adjusted. Update your buyer and marketplace record too.

Where to submit and how long it takes

Use the personal Claims Centre for applicable retail/non-account postage, or the Business Account Claims Centre for account claims. If the forms cannot identify your product, contact the relevant team rather than choosing a different service. Click & Drop’s official support guidance lists 03457 950 950 for OBA parcel enquiries and 03457 740 740 without OBA; its technical support desk is a different function.

The retail loss policy states an outcome within 30 calendar days, or an update if it cannot conclude then. This is not a universal account decision SLA. Non-account Tracked clause 11.10 separately describes payment by cheque within 30 Days after the claim is agreed valid; that is not 30 days from submission. Save any case-specific response date and chase using the reference if it passes.

Delayed delivery is a different claim

If the item is safely delivered, do not continue presenting it as lost. A retail delay claim has separate eligibility, deadlines and awards; ordinary lateness does not automatically reimburse the sale. Non-account Royal Mail Tracked does not pay late-delivery compensation under clause 11.8. For non-account Special Delivery by 1pm, the retail delay policy requires a fee-refund claim within 14 days of posting. That fee request has a different clock from an item-loss claim. Check those rules promptly rather than waiting for a loss investigation to finish.