Parcels · terms read September 2026

The courier will offer you £20. The shop owes you the lot.

Two out of three people had a delivery go wrong in the last six months, and the standard response is a claim form with a cap on it. The cap is real, but it only applies to the person who paid the courier. If you bought the item, the law puts the whole loss on the retailer until the parcel is in your hands. Below: what each courier actually pays, how fast you have to move, and the one section of the Consumer Rights Act to quote.

Written by Corey Musa, Founder·Last reviewed September 2026·LinkedIn·Built by COM Computing

68%

had a delivery problem in the last six months (Ofcom, 2025)

16%

had a parcel not delivered at all

£20

Royal Mail and Evri standard cover

30 days

the retailer's legal deadline to deliver

Sources: Ofcom parcel delivery research, 22 October 2025 (4,058 adults); Royal Mail and Evri compensation policies; Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.28.

Complain to the shop, not the courier

Section 29 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is the sentence to keep: “The goods remain at the trader's risk until they come into the physical possession of (a) the consumer, or (b) a person identified by the consumer.” The only exception is a courier you arranged yourself that the shop did not offer. Section 28 adds the deadline: unless you agreed otherwise, the trader “must deliver the goods... not more than 30 days after the day on which the contract is entered into”, and if it fails it “must without undue delay reimburse all payments”.

Every consumer body says the same thing. Which?: “You should complain to the retailer, not the courier, about a missing delivery.” Citizens Advice: “If the seller used a courier, they should chase the courier... it's not your responsibility.” The House of Commons Library briefing on parcel problems, updated July 2026: “it is the retailer's responsibility to make sure all items are safely delivered.”

So the table below is for senders: people posting a sale from eBay or Vinted, returning an item, sending a gift. Buyers should read it for one reason, to see how little the shop will recover from its courier, and why it would rather you took the £20.

What each courier pays the sender

Standard cover for the basic consumer service, from each courier's own terms. Every one of them pays the lower of the cap and the proven value, and every one wants proof of posting and proof of what the contents cost.

Courier	Standard cover	Claim window	Who can claim	Paid cover
Royal Mail (1st and 2nd Class, Signed For)	The lower of the item's market value and £20; damage is capped at the repair cost. Without proof of value you get the postage back and nothing else. Tracked 24 and 48 include £75; Special Delivery includes £750.	Lost 10 working days after the due date; claim within 80 calendar days of posting (Tracked: within 30 days).	Sender or recipient may claim; only one is paid.	Special Delivery options to £1,000 or £2,500.
Parcelforce Worldwide	£150 per item for loss or damage, valued at cost or sale price less wear and depreciation; damage limited to repair cost, postage not refunded.	Loss claim only once 7 working days have passed since the due date, then within 30 calendar days.	Sender. Anyone else needs the sender's consent.	£750 for £7, £1,000 for £30, £2,500 for £65.
Evri	The lower of £20 and the value or repair cost, plus the postage back. Letterbox 'postable' parcels: postage refund only.	Treated as missing after 7 days; Evri asks for claims within 28 days of the order.	Sender only. Recipients are told to contact the sender.	Full Cover to £999 (price not published on the pages read).
DPD (DPD Online, consumer)	£50 per parcel, £250 on Same Day, never more than the actual value. Retailer contracts on DPD's standard conditions carry £100.	Claim within 14 days of sending; evidence within 28 days of DPD asking.	Sender. The recipient may be asked for a denial-of-receipt letter.	Extended Cover to £1,000; £950 of cover costs £37.50 plus VAT.
InPost (formerly Yodel)	The lower of the cost value and £50. Yodel was bought by InPost in April 2025 and its help pages now redirect to InPost.	Lost: within 7 days of drop-off. Delivered but not received: within 14 days of the delivery date. Damaged: within 30 days.	Sender. Retailer-booked parcels go back to the retailer.	Full-value cover to £500 (price not published).
DHL eCommerce UK (send.dhlparcel)	£50 default liability per shipment.	Damage within 14 calendar days of delivery; loss within 28 calendar days of the due date; evidence within 21 days.	Sender.	To £5,000 at 5p per £1 of cover.
UPS	The greater of £60 per shipment or 8.33 Special Drawing Rights per kilo, roughly £9 a kilo.	Damage within 14 days of receipt; loss within 60 days of consignment; court action within 8 months.	The shipper is paid. Recipients can file as a guest but some large shippers block that.	Declared value on the waybill, charged per the tariff guide.
Amazon Logistics	No consumer compensation policy is published. Merchant terms cap Amazon's liability at £100 per shipment and say the receiver is reimbursed the purchase price and delivery.	Contact Customer Service within 30 days of the expected delivery date.	The buyer, through Amazon; third-party seller orders go to the seller.	None.

DHL Express and UPS price liability by weight in Special Drawing Rights, an IMF unit; 8.33 SDR was about £9 in September 2026. Prices for Evri Full Cover and InPost's £500 upgrade are shown at checkout only, so they are not quoted here.

What the caps mean in practice

Post a £200 jacket you sold online by 2nd Class and lose it, and Royal Mail's policy pays “the lower of the market value of the item and £20”. Evri's terms say the same £20, and a letterbox-sized parcel gets the postage back and nothing more. Parcelforce's £150 is the most generous standard figure, but its terms value the contents “allowing for wear and tear and depreciation”, so a used item pays out below what you sold it for.

The evidence bar is the second cut. Royal Mail wants “original receipts, bank or credit card statements... paypal record, invoices” for anything above a postage refund. Marketplace sellers claiming from Evri need proof of the sale. DPD may ask the recipient for a signed letter denying receipt. Keep the packaging: several couriers reserve the right to inspect a damaged item before paying.

How often it goes wrong

Ofcom, October 2025.Of 4,058 adults surveyed, “more than two thirds (68%) had experienced a delivery issue in the past six months.” 16% had a parcel not delivered and 15% had one damaged. Problems by company: Evri 45%, Amazon 42%, Yodel 39%, Royal Mail 34%, UPS 30%, DHL 29%, DPD 28%, Parcelforce 26%.
Citizens Advice, November 2025. Its league table scored Royal Mail 3.25 out of 5, Amazon Logistics 3.0, DPD and Evri 2.25, Yodel 2.0. Among people with a problem, 47% then hit further problems trying to resolve it. The charity called the picture “one of consumers being persistently failed by parcel companies”.
Royal Mail's own targets. Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21m in October 2025 for missing its 2024/25 delivery targets and opened another investigation in June 2026 after only 75.7% of First Class mail arrived the next working day against a 93% target. Ofcom regulates the market but “does not investigate individual complaints about parcel companies”, so your route is the courier's complaints process or, as a buyer, the shop.

The free route

1Work out which side you are on. Bought it: the retailer owes you. Sent it: the courier's terms apply and the clock in the table is already running.
2Buyers: write to the retailer, not the courier and not the chat bot. Give the order number, the promised date, and quote section 29 (risk stays with the trader until you have the goods) and section 28 (30-day delivery limit). Ask for a replacement or a full refund within 14 days.
3If the retailer refuses or goes quiet, go to your card provider. Debit or credit card: chargeback for goods not received. Credit card and the item cost over £100: a Section 75 claim makes the card issuer jointly liable. PayPal and eBay have their own item-not-received cases with fixed deadlines.
4Senders: claim inside the window in the table with proof of posting, proof of value and photos, and keep the packaging. Do not accept a postage refund as full settlement if you have the receipts to claim the cap.
5A refused courier claim goes to the courier's formal complaints process in writing. If the courier lost an item you paid extra cover for and still refuses, the small claims track is open to you for the covered amount.

Write the letter that quotes section 29 back at the shop.

Reclaim drafts the retailer demand with the Consumer Rights Act wording and a 14-day deadline, and the chargeback follow-up if they stall. You send it and keep all of it.

Build my letter →Royal Mail claim guide

Courier and marketplace guides

FAQ

Who is responsible for a lost parcel, the retailer or the courier?

If you bought the item, the retailer. Section 29 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says the goods remain at the trader's risk until they come into your physical possession, so a parcel lost by the courier the shop chose is the shop's loss, and you are owed a replacement or a full refund. The courier's compensation cap is the shop's problem to recover. Only if you posted the parcel yourself are you the courier's customer.

How much does Royal Mail pay for a lost parcel?

For 1st Class, 2nd Class and Signed For the maximum is the lower of the item's market value and £20, and only with proof of posting and proof of value; without a receipt or statement you get the postage back. Tracked 24 and 48 include cover up to £75, Special Delivery up to £750 with paid options to £1,000 and £2,500. Claims for loss must be made within 80 calendar days of posting.

Can the person receiving the parcel claim from the courier?

Usually not. Evri, InPost, DPD, Parcelforce and DHL all treat the sender as their customer and tell recipients to go back to whoever sent it. Royal Mail is the exception: sender or recipient may claim, though only one is paid. UPS pays the shipper but lets a recipient file. This is why a buyer should always go to the shop rather than the courier.

How long do I have to claim for a lost parcel?

It depends on the courier and it is short. DPD wants the claim within 14 days of sending, InPost within 7 days of drop-off for a lost parcel, Evri within 28 days of the order, DHL within 28 days of the due date, UPS within 60 days, Royal Mail within 80 days of posting. Most also refuse to accept a loss claim until 7 to 10 working days have passed since the due date, so the window in the middle is narrow.

Is paid parcel cover worth buying?

Only when you are the sender of something worth more than the standard cap. Parcelforce's £150 covers most second-hand sales; £7 lifts it to £750. Royal Mail Special Delivery at £750 is the usual choice for jewellery or electronics. If you are the buyer, no: the retailer carries the risk under the Consumer Rights Act whether or not anyone paid for cover.

Sources

A self-serve tool, not a law firm. Courier terms change; the figures above were read on 29 September 2026 and each links to its source. General information, not legal advice.