Fury After Royal Mail Offers Man £750 After Losing £10,000 Gold Bar In Post
A man who claims the Royal Mail lost a £10,000 gold bar that he planned to use for his pension has been left understandably fuming after being offered £750 in compensation.
Rob Hobson, 65, of Torquay, Devon, bought a 100g gold Britannia bar from his dad’s inheritance and had agreed a buyback offer from the Royal Mint after it was valued at £9,731.
He sent the gold bar off via special delivery and extra insurance… but it never arrived at its destination.
Worst of all, Rob was told that the extra insurance he forked out for only had a maximum compensation of £750.
Rob, 65, of Torquay, Devon, said: ‘I put my trust in the Royal Mail. The terms I sent it by surely say it all….SP Guaranteed next day!
‘I don’t want compensation. I want my gold back. Someone knows where it is.’
He added: ‘I bought a gold bar using money from my dad’s inheritance, and with the price of gold being so high, I decided to sell.’
‘The proceeds were being used to put towards my pension. I have 11 months to go and was looking towards that time. I bought the gold from the Royal Mint and contacted them for resale, and they agreed a buy-back estimated value of £9730.’
Rob says he posted the gold bar on October 15 under what was described as Royal Mail’s gold standard Special Delivery Guaranteed next day by 1 pm.
‘I paid for additional insurance cover, including consequential loss up to £10k and started tracking my parcel using the reference number.’
He tracked the parcel from Exeter to Romford, but its status didn’t change over the weekend. Rob then contacted the Royal Mint, which confirmed it hadn’t received the gold bar. Cue panic stations.
Rob immediately got on the phone to Royal Mail, who eventually ‘escalated’ the call and rang him back to say the item was lost and he would have to put a claim in.
Rob says: ‘I decided to go to the Exeter sorting office and spoke to two managers who were horrified and said it can’t have disappeared but had.
‘They could see it being scanned through their system and then into a sealed bag along with other parcels. However, it seems my parcel never arrived in London despite all the other parcels in that bag did.’
Rob reckons the only way his parcel could have vanished was if someone ‘intervened’ with it, which is probably a good shout.
He’s since reported the missing item to the police, but in hindsight, believes he was ‘naive’ to trust the Royal Mail with such a valuable item. Which he definitely was, to be fair. I mean, you wouldn’t send £10,000 cash in the post, would you? So then why would you send a literal gold bar?
Due to him taking out the extra insurance over and above the standard, some Royal Mail worker probably realised the contents were valuable and swiped it. Imagine the rush they felt when they realised it was a literal bar of gold!
Next time, probably best to drive to the Royal Mint himself. You live and you learn.
The Royal Mail has launched an investigation, and Devon and Cornwall Police are carrying out inquiries too.
For the man who fell down an 130ft hole he dug after dreaming that there was gold underneath his home, click HERE.
