Missing Parcel?

COVID-19 Announcement :: Please be aware parcels are taking longer to arrive at the moment because the Royal Mail are processing four times as much post than they do at Christmas time, but instead of having extra staff, like they do at Christmas, they are having to cope with normal numbers of staff. And, on top of that they are 30% down on these numbers due to sickness. This is because workers are sent home to self isolate at the first sign of illness.

It is very rare for parcels to go missing. In the two years of selling online, Wild As The Wind can count on one hand the number of problems with missing parcels.

When parcels have not been successfully delivered this has always been due to a problem at the customer’s end, and not a failure on the part of the postal service. Thankfully, the few parcels which have gone awry have always turned up again.

Royal Mail Deliveries

Wild As The Wind use the Royal Mail for all of our deliveries. This is because, in our experience, they are the best at what they do, and they provide proof of posting and traceability of packages, if necessary.

When parcels have gone missing it has never been the fault of the Royal Mail. It has always been some kind of customer error which has led to the parcel not arriving when expected.

Royal Mail Proof Of Posting

The Royal Mail issues Wild As The Wind with a proof of posting for each parcel which contains a tracking number.

You are not issued with the 16 digit tracking number with your online parcel dispatch notice because so many parcels are sent and so few go missing it would be a criminal waste of time to type them all in.

What To Do When Your Parcel Goes Missing?

Firstly, check with neighbours and check your porch and any out buildings (garage, shed, stables and barns etc) to see if your parcel has been ‘left in a safe place’. Most parcels don’t fit through the average letterbox, and this is why your parcel may be left in a safe place.

If your parcel is still nowhere to be seen then please get in touch.

Contact Wild As The Wind via email.

Contact Us

For more options of contacting us go to How Do I Contact Wild As The Wind?

Why Do Parcels Go Missing?

There are a number of reasons why parcels can go missing:

• Improperly addressed orders
• Delivery was attempted but no-one was in
• Deliveries to business / organisational addresses are improperly processed internally

Improperly Addressed Orders

It is vitally important for you to give your full address when placing an order. Wild As The Wind cannot be held responsible for your failure to provide a full and accurate address with your order. So, please double check that the address you give with your order is the right one.

****If you realise the address provided is incorrect or incomplete it is imperative to either message or email Wild As The Wind to explain, and to provide the correct address. This must be done immediately!

Best efforts will be made to use any alternative address provided, but no guarantee can be given. This is because the administration of orders is already very complicated. Therefore, receiving entirely separate instructions, via an entirely different system, will inevitably mean that alterations cannot feasibly be made in all cases.

Issues of timing will prevent the correction of some customer mistakes, but, because there is no efficient method of relaying new information from one system to another, this means that, despite best efforts, not all mistakes made by customers at the time of ordering can be rectified.

Regrettably, if your order is sent to the address provided with the order, even after you have sent a message or email to advise Wild As The Wind you wish the order to be sent elsewhere, the liability rests with you for not having provided the correct address at the outset.

Customer liability for incorrectly addressed orders is clearly stated on the Wild As The Wind Etsy Platform.

Mistakes, for which you are responsible, which result in Wild As The Wind spending a considerable amount of time attempting to remedy, will result in a Admin Charge being applied, which you will have to pay before resolution will be provided.

Delivery Attempted But No-one Was In

Royal Mail Postmen will do everything in their power to deliver your package safely. However, if there is no-one at home, and your letter box is too small for the package to fit through, this will potentially present a situation where the parcel cannot be delivered.

The alternatives available to them are:

• Leave the package in a safe place (porch or outbuilding etc)
• Leave with a neighbour

If you have a communal porch where leaving the parcel will present the risk of theft, or there or no other safe places to leave your package, then your postal delivery person will resort to leaving your parcel with your neighbours. If none of your neighbours are at home either your parcel will be returned to the Royal Mail Sorting Office.

In these instances your postal delivery person will always post a card explaining what they have done with your package.

If they have left your package in a safe place the card will describe which safe place they have used so you can easily locate your parcel. Or, the card will explain which neighbour they have left your parcel with, or that they have had to take your package back to the sorting office.

If they have had to take your package back to the sorting office the card will advise you what course of action will be required. There are usually only two courses of action stipulated.

• The first is that they will attempt to deliver your package on a future date and no action is to be taken by you.
• Or, they will request you to collect the parcel from the sorting office yourself.

Collecting Your Parcel From The Sorting Office

If your postal delivery person has tried and failed to deliver your parcel a couple of times, and there are no suitable safe places to leave your package, it will be taken back to the sorting office so that you may safely collect it.

A card explaining what you need to do will be posted through your letter box advising you of the action required.

Every effort will have been made to deliver your parcel within the delivery timescale, but, if you are not in and your post box is too small for small packages, and there are no safe places to leave your parcel, then your postal delivery person is obliged to retain your parcel at the sorting office for you to collect.

What Happens If I Ignore The Request To Collect From The Sorting Office?

It is your responsibility to act on the advice on the card delivered to you by your postal delivery person. At this juncture the matter is effectively out of the hands of Wild As The Wind. However, any failure to collect the parcel will result in it being eventually returned to Wild As The Wind… usually within one month.

Your parcel, however, still remains your property, even though Wild As The Wind has the burden of the further handling of your parcel.

Returned parcels are highly problematical for all concerned as they waste a lot of time. Because of this, the processing of returned parcels will ALWAYS carry an Admin Charge which will need to be paid prior to your parcel being sent out again.

In Can I Collect In Person? I explain why Wild As The Wind is duty bound to ensure all time is used efficiently. The decision to levy Admin Charges has been made to protect the vast majority of Wild As The Wind customers who present no issue to the smooth running of this small artisanal business. Admin Charges mean that those who negatively impact Wild As The Wind pick up the tab for their actions, instead of the cost being transferred onto those who interact properly and waste no time.

In addition, Wild As The Wind will never re-send an item to an address where there has been a failure to deliver in the past.

How To Avoid Returned Parcels

• Always address your order accurately with your full address
• If you know you will be out when your parcel will be delivered, leave a note for your postie telling them where to leave your parcel
• Prearrange your preferred ‘safe place’ for leaving postal items which will not fit through your letterbox in person with your postal delivery person so you don’t need to leave a note on your door, which could alert thieves where to find your latest purchases
• Read and act on postcards from your postal delivery person