[Darren Boyle]

This is the VERY reason why we as a shop send all of our orders over £50 retail value as Guarrenteed Next Day via Royal Mail since the standard first class insurance covers just over £30 in worth.

The "recorded" service is useless for anything else other than a signature to show it has arrived safely (if anything, MORE recoreded get "lost" than standard post, since so many people wrongly think it is a proirity service when it is not and use it for the wrong reasons). Always use GND12 for higher value or urgent items.

Your comment about the "store" you talk about "maybe" scamming and not even sending the goods in the first place. To be honest they would (should) have a "proof of posting" which would show they have sent the items to you to rid of that issue. A Royal Mail claim would need to see some proof that this was the case before proceeding. They will only get a "Proof" if they have handed over your packet.

As a store oursleves we DO charge for post, but we always use the highest service level we can and often items arrive from us with more postage paid by us than we have even charged the customer. In this world there is no such thing really as FREE it is hidden in the cost/charge somwhere.

Lastly, the replacment of goods (as we do also) is again at the discretion of the store, some send out a replacemnt, some refund and some just let you claim from Royal Mail as the "recipient" of the missing packet/parcel. In my opinion any store should deal with it all until the customer either has their order (the original or a duplicate) or is satisfied with a refund or claim payout as is required. It is good customer service for the store to do this and not make the paying customer be lumbered with the job of doing it.