Birthday cards never arrived

sikahuntejack

Posted 2 birthday cards last thursday to my daughter like i do every years 50 euro in each card posted from carlow and they were to go to wicklow problem is they never arrived, i post cards with money in them a couple of times a year to my daughter ,Christmas ,Birthday, Easter, this is the first time it has happened rang the customer care in An post was told to fill out a form and they will look into it i think a employee helped themselves to the money :mad:

Amirani

sikahuntejack wrote: »

Posted 2 birthday cards last thursday to my daughter like i do every years 50 euro in each card posted from carlow and they were to go to wicklow problem is they never arrived, i post cards with money in them a couple of times a year to my daughter ,Christmas ,Birthday, Easter, this is the first time it has happened rang the customer care in An post was told to fill out a form and they will look into it i think a employee helped themselves to the money :mad:

I feel bad for you but you shouldn't really be putting money in ordinary envelopes, you have pretty much no comeback if it's lost.

longhalloween

NiallSparky wrote: »

I feel bad for you but you shouldn't really be putting money in ordinary envelopes, you have pretty much no comeback if it's lost.

You may as well give 50 quid to a random fella on the street and ask him to give it to your daughter.

BillJ

longhalloween wrote: »

You may as well give 50 quid to a random fella on the street and ask him to give it to your daughter.

hmmm not really sure it's the same thing

Corruptedmorals

It's well known that you shouldn't post money, in fact you're lucky that this is the first time this has happened. It sucks but it's not exactly news, surely you knew it was risky? In future if you can't give her the money by hand, put it in her bank account.

shopaholic01

Why did you send her two cards?

oldyouth

Happened a few times to me. Our family no longer post cash, cheques etc. I think posted greeting cards are an invitation to An Post staff to help themselves. Sorry, but it couldn't have been anyone else in my case

stimpson

longhalloween wrote: »

You may as well give 50 quid to a random fella on the street and ask him to give it to your daughter.

:eek:

dilallio

shopaholic01 wrote: »

Why did you send her two cards?

You should have sent her half a 50euro note in the 1st card, and the other half in the 2nd.

sikahuntejack

Posted 2 cards cause 1 from me and the other from her sister and brother who live with me ,i got 2 stamps and posted it in the post office last thursday the only people who could have took the money is An post employee , rang a man who works in the post office and he told me this happens all the time with money and bank cards being stolen he thinks the sorting office in portlaoise is where things go missing

irishgirl19

Yeah I got a birthday card in the post almost 2 years ago. The side of the card was cut with what I can only imagine was a Stanley blade. Wasn't any money sent in it anyway but just shows that people go looking for money in cards

Ruu

If you have to send cash, which you should not in any case, use Registered Post.

shopaholic01

sikahuntejack wrote: »

Posted 2 cards cause 1 from me and the other from her sister and brother who live with me ,i got 2 stamps and posted it in the post office last thursday the only people who could have took the money is An post employee , rang a man who works in the post office and he told me this happens all the time with money and bank cards being stolen he thinks the sorting office in portlaoise is where things go missing

I think you're just going to have to look at this as an expensive learning curve. Does your daughter not have a bank a/c that you could transfer the funds into, or a post office a/c? Then just post an empty card.

irishgirl19

Ruubot2 wrote: »

If you have to send cash, which you should not in any case, use Registered Post.[/quote

Just get a postal order it's cheaper

cuilteanna

I posted birthday party invitations last year and none ever turned up! I think my big mistake was putting those pretty birthday stamps on the envelopes. In the end someone mentioned theirs hadn't arrived so we rang everyone instead and had copies of the invitation (really cute, with lots of photos) as place cards on the day.

sikahuntejack

This aint about the 100 euro i lodged 100 into her mothers account today thats that sorted its that i trusted An post with those 2 cards what right did 1 of there employees have in opening the cards and taking the money is that not theft and when i rang customer care the woman sounded like this happens all the time what can she do about it

Triangla

I sent €20 cash to my niece from the GPO in Cork City.

I was sending it registered and when he asked me the value of the contents I told him it was €20 cash.

He got a plastic bag thing to put around the card and seal it, I asked him if it was registered why put the plastic bag thing around it.

He gave me a "You know yourself" look.

If I send cash now I don't bother to register it, I put the card into an exterior plain envelope.

hoodwinked

sikahuntejack wrote: »

This aint about the 100 euro i lodged 100 into her mothers account today thats that sorted its that i trusted An post with those 2 cards what right did 1 of there employees have in opening the cards and taking the money is that not theft and when i rang customer care the woman sounded like this happens all the time what can she do about it

while it happens it doesn't happen all the time, there some very good and trustworthy people working in An post and stories like this can damage their reputation as people cast a suspicious eye on An Post employees,


one bad apple as they say,

lesson is op use a brown standard (or padded envelope next time) im sorry your daughters card was tampered with

MadsL

OP as a separated father myself, I'm sad that you didn't get the chance to give them to her personally.

I hope access issues are not the reason you have to send money through the post.

Good luck.

Pumpkinseeds

I'd never put anything of value in a card anymore. Anything of sentimental value going in the post should be sent by registered post imo. Long time ago when we lived in the UK, my brother in law posted me some original photos of my husband as a child. They were in an envelope enclosed in another envelope. All I received was an open, empty, addressed envelope.

I never saw those photos and I never will, they're gone for good because some thieving pr*ck thought there might be something valuable in the envelope:mad::(

oldyouth

hoodwinked wrote: »

there some very good and trustworthy people working in An post and stories like this can damage their reputation as people cast a suspicious eye on An Post employees

one bad apple as they say, (

If you put an envelope in a post box, it is in the custody and care of An Post until it is delivered. Somewhere in the chain, an An Post employee or agent is responsible for cards going missing. I'm not casting suspicion, I'm stating it as a fact.

The vast majority of An Post employees would be honest, but 'one' bad apple is an understatement.

ScumLord

Triangla wrote: »

If I send cash now I don't bother to register it, I put the card into an exterior plain envelope.

That may not work too well either, you hold it up to a powerful enough light and they may be able to see through it.

Artful_Badger

I'd imagine there's plenty of postal workers who open the odd birthday card to check for cash. Best way to avoid it is put the money in a book and post that. People have no interest in books these days so it will reach its destination fine.

martinedwards

when I was a kid (early 70s, Co Down) our postman would stand and hand over our cards one at a time and was able to say which card had cash, and which had a postal order.

he got it right EVERY time.

I'm one of 5, and this guy did it 5 times a year for 6 or 7 years.

NEVER send cash in the post

that's why God gave us Paypal.

barone

in fairness to the person who took your call in an post, some stranger rings up with no proof of sending money via an post wants them to investigate it ..

imagine the amount of calls that are fraudulent aswell..


im not suggesting your a fraud,im saying there are fraudulent calls too.. hence the procedure of forms etc,its not a new phenomenon in the postal sector.

biko

It's possible someone at An Post opened the letters and saw the money and took them.
But it's also possible they are on the floor on some sorting office or miss-placed.
Hopefully they'll arrive, just a little late.

efb

Why do people send money by post???

kirving

martinedwards wrote: »

.....was able to say which card had cash, and which had a postal order.

he got it right EVERY time.

I'm one of 5, and this guy did it 5 times a year for 6 or 7 years.

NEVER send cash in the post

that's why God gave us Paypal.

Not at all surprised by that. I'm sure it becomes second nature after handing hundreds of not thousands of letters every day for years.

Elon Musk gave us PayPal, and Tesla Motors, and SpaceX. Maybe we should petition him to direct his efforts towards an envelope with an alarm?

sikahuntejack

sikahuntejack wrote: »

This aint about the 100 euro i lodged 100 into her mothers account today thats that sorted its that i trusted An post with those 2 cards what right did 1 of there employees have in opening the cards and taking the money is that not theft and when i rang customer care the woman sounded like this happens all the time what can she do about it

Do you think registered post exists for the craic? There's no way on earth, in any postal service, to remove the risk of theft by employees, or to find the culprits in the case of theft.

There are only two solutions to this. You can start putting in CCTV everywhere in mailing centres and An Post vans and on hats that you'd force delivery men to wear, start documenting and tracking every single item of post, keeping records of exactly what was sent, and set up a task force for the prevention of theft, and as a result the price of your average 60c letter would probably end up being about €20. The easier solution, however, is to offer people a service where their post is extra secure, documented, tracked, and signed for at the end, for cases where valuables are being sent, for about €4 extra to standard post. If you were that woman on the phone, having to hear all the time about people sending money in standard post and then being outraged that theft occurred, your voice would eventually become tinged with tones of "what do you expect, it happens" too.

wolfpawnat

I had a baby a few weeks ago. Of course people sent cards. One has not arrived. I am not sure they put anything in it. One of my sons birthday cards never arrived either.

I was on the phone to another relative the other day. He sent cards in a registered larger padded envelope. When I saw they were from him I was shocked. It was to sensible for him. The man in the post office had asked him was there money in the pink enveloped cards when he said there was cheques the man did that for him. I still maintain the person could have waited until we saw them or put money in my account but anyway.

Brian2208

I never get letters or birthday cards,

maybe they're all being stolen...

Unfortunately these things do happen but as mentioned already it could be sitting buried in some sorting office still. Hopefully it will arrive.

Missing letters and cards should ALWAYS be reported. If there is a dodgy postman, reported stolen items will eventually be pin pointed to them.

OP, its my birthday next week. You can Paypal my money to me -no need for a card.

ScumLord

true-or-false wrote: »

There are only two solutions to this. You can start putting in CCTV everywhere in mailing centres and An Post vans and on hats that you'd force delivery men to wear, start documenting and tracking every single item of post, keeping records of exactly what was sent, and set up a task force for the prevention of theft, and as a result the price of your average 60c letter would probably end up being about €20.

Or €5.25 as that's registered post.

An Post could do a lot to make their post more secure, it would cost money on new machines but it's easy enough to implement sorting these days.Many companies big or small has experience with identifying and sorting items, it's such common practice there are a lot of off the self components cheaply now, of course those off the self components won't suit an post but it's a competitive and busy industry.

Standardising envelopes would probably help with sorting because it would make it easier for machines to sort the envelopes and stamp them at every sorting office. CCTV must be commonplace at this stage, CCTV protects the company from fraud by the employees and costs little in the grand schemes of things.

It really shouldn't happen in this day and age, it shouldn't be accepted that an post is untrustworthy. The only reason they can get away with it is because people have little choice but to use them. If there was a serious competitor to an post people would switch once their first bit of money went missing and an post would be forced to change.

kylith

I never put money in cards, and these days I don't seal the envelopes with cards either. That way they can't steal any money, and they don't have to rip the envelope to see that there's no cash inside.

snakebite80

My mother usually sends me cash for birthdays and anniversary - at her age it is the easiest way and she always did it. A few weeks ago, 2 cards, one from my sister, one from my mother both sent together. One arrived, the one with money did not.

Just today, card sent by my sister arrived for my daughter, card had been opened and cash gone. Have to presume that it happened in Ireland. Didn't seem logical that our postman would put the open card in our postbox otherwise - would have been easier for hm/her just to dispose of the evidence..

I know its a risk but it shouldn't happen.

dilallio

Don't send cash in a letter fullstop - even if it's registered.

I sent a parcel last year registered. The parcel never arrived.
An Post refused to pay out on the grounds that I had no proof of what was inside the parcel.

ScumLord

snakebite80 wrote: »

Just today, card sent by my sister arrived for my daughter, card had been opened and cash gone. Have to presume that it happened in Ireland. Didn't seem logical that our postman would put the open card in our postbox otherwise - would have been easier for hm/her just to dispose of the evidence..

That's pretty blatant stealing, they can't even fall back on the old reliable "it got lost". You've no way to prove what was in it but still the fact they opened your mail should mean they broke the law, unless it was sent from abroad and went through customs.

dilallio wrote: »

Don't send cash in a letter fullstop - even if it's registered.

You can put a value on the registered post, I don't know if it costs extra but at least then an post owes you back what you insured it for.

dilallio

ScumLord wrote: »

That's pretty blatant stealing, they can't even fall back on the old reliable "it got lost". You've no way to prove what was in it but still the fact they opened your mail should mean they broke the law, unless it was sent from abroad and went through customs.

You can put a value on the registered post, I don't know if it costs extra but at least then an post owes you back what you insured it for.

I had a value on the items. An Post are saying that the value placed on the items when registering the parcel is the maximum value that can be paid out, and proof such as receipts must be shown before they will pay anything.

ScumLord

dilallio wrote: »

I had a value on the items. An Post are saying that the value placed on the items when registering the parcel is the maximum value that can be paid out, and proof such as receipts must be shown before they will pay anything.

If you didn't have the receipts they won't help you. If you did have receipts then I don't see why they wouldn't pay out.

dilallio

dilallio wrote: »

I had a value on the items. An Post are saying that the value placed on the items when registering the parcel is the maximum value that can be paid out, and proof such as receipts must be shown before they will pay anything.

Well obviously they're not going to pay out more than what they lost was worth?? Seems like common sense to me. Same goes for the receipts - registered post comes with a receipt which declares the value and has a tracking number on it, for this very reason. It can hardly have been that important to you if you didn't bother to hold onto the receipt. In fact, there's no point in registering if you don't hold onto the receipt, because then how is it any different to regular post?

sikahuntejack

So after 2 months i got a letter off An Post telling me eveyday An Post handles 3 million letters or packages and that they have tried there best to find the birthday cards that i should have had a return address on the envelope as if the cards went missing, they were robbed by a employee i would say myself. Then the letter askes me to accept the gift of 4 free stamps wow free stamps to put on birthday cards that dont arrive, are they haveing a laugh. Will send the stamps back with a lovely letter hope they get it and its not robbed again.

Artful_Badger

sikahuntejack wrote: »

So after 2 months i got a letter off An Post telling me eveyday An Post handles 3 million letters or packages and that they have tried there best to find the birthday cards that i should have had a return address on the envelope as if the cards went missing, they were robbed by a employee i would say myself. Then the letter askes me to accept the gift of 4 free stamps wow free stamps to put on birthday cards that dont arrive, are they haveing a laugh. Will send the stamps back with a lovely letter hope they get it and its not robbed again.

They'll arrive just fine if you dont put cash into them. Accept that people will steal money and move on.