Close Menu
    Mum given £50 compensation after Royal Mail lost her son’s ashes in the post
    United Kingdom

    Mum given £50 compensation after Royal Mail lost her son’s ashes in the post

    Share.
    View 22 Comments

    22 Comments

    1. AstronomerFluid6554 on

      Should be enough to bribe the crematorium staff for another scoopful, at least.

    2. adults-in-the-room on

      We have decided to scatter him all over the sorting office. It’s what he would have wanted.

    3. Overseerer-Vault-101 on

      I got arrested and spent a night in the cells thanks to a missed court summons due to them failing to deliver the letter. Seems kinda fucked for a private organisation that’s run for profit to have so much power over people’s lives.

    4. lxgrf on

      Brutal. But we don’t do ’emotional damages’ or anything like that, and the actual material value of some ashes is… probably quite a lot less than £50. I’m sure this could have been handled better, but through better communication and more compassion, not more money.

    6. Cheap_Parking9340 on

      Why would you post your son’s ashes to a friend, and if you were going to surely you would use recorded delivery?

      I’m guessing it’s more common than I realised as RM have stated it was over the weight limit for human ashes!

    7. Legendofvader on

      Sent ashes First Class . Lucky got above max comp of twenty quid. Fact is if it was that important should have used Special Delivery.

    8. ProfessionalOkra9427 on

      This is obviously incredibly sad for her and I hope they manage to find the package. It is also always going to be the case that items get lost in the post no matter the quality of the service. If she’d said what the package was, I’d have hoped the person sending it would have advised her that there was a risk and recommended another route.

    9. ihateeverythingandu on

      Should have been complimentary tickets to the next England v Australia cricket game

    10. Minischoles on

      I do so love stories like this – ‘I sent my sons ashes by the literal cheapest service possible and now i’m going to complain’

      Can anyone here say that if they were sending the remains of one of their relatives, they would just use ordinary first class post? that they wouldn’t spring for the money for at least Special Delivery, or send it via a courier?

      I sympathise with her, but she cheaped out.

    11. roddyhammer on

      Maybe this is common practice I’m not aware of, but who the hell would have their son’s ashes sent in the post.

    12. terryjuicelawson on

      Yikes, the whole saga seems to have been terribly handled if it is as casual as the article suggests. But as she said, the ashes were priceless *to her* but it is not like £500 would replace them so they are stuck with whatever their token gesture is. This is also the kind of thing I would *not* put in the post.

    13. CeroMiedic on

      I would rather cycle the length of Britain to deliver ashes rather than send it via post, to me that is total disrespect.

    17. flashback5285 on

      Mistakes happen in absolutely every walk of life.

      It’s terrible when things like this happen to you, but to think Royal Mail is going to be 100% error free is just naive.

    19. sunkenrocks on

      It sucks but she wasn’t insured for more, she sent over the legal limit of ashes, and how do you put a monetary value on them anyway? To the mum they’re probably wroth millions, to me, they’re worthless. They’re not saying the ashes were worth only 50 anyway it’s a goodwill gesture for losing them. It sucks but other than the loss of the item I don’t see how RM is at fault here for their response.

    20. Physical_Ad4617 on

      The real irony is that there are bins and bins bins and bins of undelivered mail that’s just been written off as lost. Her ashes are in that system somewhere but there is zero incentive to sift through it for the workers.

    21. memberflex on

      Ah lovely. She can buy some replacement ashes and then treat herself to fish and chips. Another fine job by the Post Office.