Raw Deal: Royal Mail dropped a heavy parcel through Julie’s 7-foot window

ONE thing the world lacks, quite often, is a little bit of common sense.

It is quite easy to act with a bit of sense, thankfully. The requirement is only that you have a look at a situation, have a wee think about it, then act in the best, the cleverest manner.

Julie Balfour, of Inverness, was a little perplexed recently when she had a heavy parcel delivered.

She wasn’t in to receive the parcel, but the Royal Mail delivery team weren’t put off.

They popped the parcel through the top hopper window of Julie’s front room. This window is seven feet above floor level.

To make matters worse, directly below the window was a unit which had a picture frame and a lamp that had belonged to Julie’s recently-deceased mother.

The lamp was bashed, the picture frame flattened and the unit scratched.

Of course Julie and her husband, Steven, complained about this.

Royal Mail sent a claim form…for non-received mail. This was, not surprisingly, not much use for Julie’s complaint.

Julie then wrote to them a total of six times, saying largely the same thing. She asked for an email address so she could send them a link to the John Lewis website showing the type of items that had been destroyed, because they insisted on details.

But they wouldn’t give an email address. Julie had to pay for an envelope and stamp each time.

They knew from the outset the lamp had been Julie’s mother’s, so she couldn’t provide bank statements to prove the purchase.

They then asked for bank statements to prove it. But Julie wasn’t an executor of her mother’s will – did they expect her to pay a solicitor to sift through her mum’s papers at £250 per hour?

Julie said: “They eventually sent someone from the local office to inspect the damage, so they have photos and they have their own staff’s evidence of the damage. They admitted liability, and saw the quality of the items but still kept insisting on things I couldn’t possibly provide.

“As for the scratched unit, I provided a link to an identical one on the John Lewis website. But then they decided they wanted several quotations for repair.”

Julie reckoned they should do that as she had spent many hours, over the course of three months, writing to them. Each time they asked for something new, and each time refuse to provide a contact name or email to write back to.

She became convinced that obstacles were being put in her way in the hope that she would give up her claim.

But she didn’t and Raw Deal salutes her for that.

Julie wrote to us and we took up cudgels on her behalf.

She was phoned by a representative of Royal Mail’s chief executive’s office. Julie said: “He was very apologetic and said their teams had to follow procedures but agreed a little common sense would have gone a long way.

“He is sending me a cheque for the damaged items.

“You are miracle workers at Raw Deal and I am so very grateful to you as I was truly getting to the point of just leaving it for the sake of my stress levels.”