DVLA- Royal Mail

[Olds]

Sent my V5C away to DVLA last month for change in vehicle details and surprise surprise, they cant find it. A very nice lady said they would investigate and admitted that although the signed for tracking number showed that it hadn't yet reached them, (lost in post) it probably was there somewhere. If it couldn't be found I will have to pay £25 for a replacement V5C in its original format and then send it back again to have the details changed. 
Should however be able to claim the £25 back off of Royal Mail. Perhaps.
Head-Wall HEAD-WALL HEAD-WALL   that hurts 

[kapri]

Apparently DVLA no longer sign for Recorded mail individually ,just a bulk sign. easier to claim they never received it then rather than go looking.

Here's a plan though.

With regards to notification of change of owner and SORN declarations the fact that you just put it in the Post Box , without even a proof of posting proves that you have complied with their requirements. So surely a signed for delivery is more than proof enough that you have tried to make sure it has arrived.

So in that case , as per SORN, they have to treat it as if it HAD arrived giving you the benefit of the doubt.
Point this out to them and explain you expect them to treat your mail as teh same and to deal with it as if it had arrived. You did keep a copy so you can give them reference numbers etc that they require ?

[Olds]

If the DVLA are no longer signing for mail then something is very amiss.
You pay extra for signed for delivery. I would assume that for the Royal Mail to sell a service and then not provide it, could possibly, if they are aware of this situation, be construed as fraud. The fact that signed for mail is not reaching its destination, according to their own systems, must, I would think mean that they are aware.
Somewhere I still have the tracking numbers of mail I know reached DVLA but were still "being progressed through our network for delivery" months later.
I am being deliberately careful with my wording.
Rant over for now.

[JayJay]

I had the same problem with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). I sent documents recorded delivery but they say there is no record of receiving them and the tracking message on the Royal Mail site is "being progressed through our network for delivery". It still says that now nearly five months later so I phoned RM up and asked if they ever change that message to "LOST" but it seems not. Perhaps the DWP are doing the same as the DVLA and not signing for things.
JJ 

[Olds]

You can put in a claim for replacing any lost documents and the original postage. Most people don't bother so there is little incentive to change the system.
Spoke to Royal Mail and was informed that DVLA and the like, bulk sign for mail. Not surprising that individual letters cannot be traced.

[poprodder]

what a bunch of tossers the lot of them!!!!!!

sorry andy, not posties fault.

[peewee]

Why should you have to pay for someone elses mistake? either dvla or post office are the ones at fault.

[dobber]

very typical of how this country's going to the dumps. at all levels from petty crime, unplanned pregnancy's, politicians blatantly lying to this. no one is held responsible for their actions thus making it more appealing to do as they want.. i have it going with the planning department. they have to sort a application in a set time. when i contact them at their own deadline I'm told, we are running over due to work load.  going to be another month. .\ whats the point of a dead line if it means nothing. i can appeal at Bristol but their too busy due to all the appeals.. now i just do what i want with out planing [[[ not a full house up to now ]]] and go for retrospective planing if anything gets reported. that can go on for years. thus plannings a waste of effort.

[Manky Monkey]

As the token Postman here, I feel like I should offer reasons or reassurance, but I know no more about the system than you guys.
Recorded items travel with the normal Mail, but have to be signed for. They're insured, but aren't tracked from sorting office to sorting office, so we only know where they are when they arrive at their destination & are signed for.
Special Delivery items travel in separate, sealed Mail bags & go to a secure room to be sorted. The Postman has to sign for them when he leaves the sorting office, then the customer signs to relieve the Postman of the responsibility. "Specials" are insured for a higher amount than "Recordeds" & can be tracked from one sorting office to another, so we should be able to tell you where they are.
You spoke to Basingstoke Royal Mail Dave? I'm amazed -they don't usually answer the phone.

[Olds]

No, didn't speak to Basingstoke. No point. Went to complaint/claims department. They seemed genuinely surprised when I said that my last three posts to DVLA had never got to the delivered stage according to their system.
I'm not really upset by all this as I've got to the stage where I expect this to happen. If something actually comes back from DVLA, correctly first time, it's a bonus.

[Manky Monkey]

I'd suspect the computer system or DVLA, rather than the delivery guy.
I know Mail does go missing, but we deliver literally millions of items every day -at the last check we were delivering more than the 10 biggest courier companies put together. Personally I've never had anything go astray, but obviously it happens when you're working on such an industrial scale. It's unusual for it to simply disappear altogether though.

[Olds]

Not blaming the delivery guys. Just the system. It almost certainly got to DVLA but without a record of this happening, they wont look to see if they have it. Been told to wait another week as the turnaround time is four weeks for simple detail changes and see if it turns up.

[poprodder]

where does all this missing mail go to at dvla? must be a big filing cabinet for it to fall behind!!!!!!

[ROD]

Touching wood, and it'll probably happen to me now, but Ive always been lucky with no lost mail, but theres recently been a case in my locality of a postie nicking the mail (absolutely no slight whatsoever on young Manky)over the course of many years, so it worries me a bit and I always tryto copy documents etc that I send.

[Olds]

Well I was right. DVLA had it all the time and it's now been returned, changed as requested. Royal Mail still have it as waiting to be delivered.