New Wedding Certificate

[SimonGent]

Courtesy of the Royal Mail we have no longer got our Wedding certificate - we sent it recorded (with my wife's passport & driving licence) but unfortunately it's gone missing and there's no way of tracing it once it leave the post office.

Can anyone tell me how to get a duplicate copy of a Wedding certificate? My wife's trying to change her name on all her documents but we're now stuck.

[maviscoull]

if there is no way of tracing mail after it leaves the post office....whats the point of recorded delivery then !

[SimonGent]

Our question precisiely.

Apparently Recorded mail gets scanned when it's collected from the post office and then put in with all the other mail. It doesn't get traced again until the point of delivery.

Special Delievry/Registered etc gets kept seperate from the other mail and is tracked throughout the process.

When we phoned the Customer Service line we were asked (by a woman who reached new levels of unhelpfulness and lack of sympathy) why we had used Recorded rather than Special Delivery. When we pointed out that the Recorded Delivery labels say that Recorded shoudl be used for legal documents the woman simply said that we shouldn't and implied that it was our fault for being stupid enough to believe what the label says.

Fortunately the lady at our local post office was far more helpful and told us how we could try to claim back at least the postage. Unfortunately we are still missing a passport, driving licence and - most importantly due to sentimental value - our wedding certificate.

[Garamond]

Surely you have a case against the Post Office.

But as far as the copy is concerned I found these using GOOGLE. Took seconds; quicker I would've thought than it took you to post the question.

http://www.gov-certificates.co.uk/?gclid=CP26o pbImIcCFRtuMAod-V8ctQ

http://www.ukcertificates.com/?ref=googleuk

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/communityandlivi ng/registrar/marriage/faqdetail_marraige-certi ficate_other.cfm

[SimonGent]

Thanks for that. Yes Google probably would have been quicker in hindsight.

Apparently we have got a case to get compensated for some of the costs involved. On the other hand we've lost our Wedding Cetificate which has more sentimental value - and certainly some very happy memories - to us than any financial implications.

[maviscoull]

make sure you claim for the' replacment of documents' costs too ! not sure about the cost of wedding cert but �20 + photo fee for the driving license !

[nicnic]

I don't think it'll cost too much to get a new marriage certificate - I recently got a new birth certificate which only cost about �7. Ring up your local city council/civic centre and ask to speak to the registrars office, you'll probably have to fill in a form and they'll have it on record in order to print you off a new one

[Siamsal]

If the certificate is recent, you can get a copy at the local registrars office - just ask them. If further back, you have to apply to a 'central office' - Garamond has supplied the link. You do have to pay, but it isn't too pricey.

Recorded is short for Recorded Delivery and it is just that: a record of the delivery. The letter isn't tracked and isn't treated as valuable. I don't believe it is even individually scanned when collected.

Royal Mail have this amazing arrangement whereby you can't claim for the postage when they've lost your stuff, only compensation for the loss of the article, and no consequential loss. All you can claim is the price of a replacement, up to a maximum of �28.

[what..the?]

This is what I said on another ab post about delivery problems:

I think my postie is asleep every morning because he makes loads of mistakes once he even posted a recorded delivery through my post box addressed for next door. He must have not had anyone sign it or signed it himself????
Then we had a phonecall for next door worried as the envelope contained the keys for her car parked outside her house, it was a nice BMW.

Due to this problem the royal mail seem to have unless someones 'nicked it' because they thought it was valuable I would personally try and chase it myself by phoning up various different departments at the company you addressed the parcel to, as it could be within the building lost. If the building is big enough they may even have someone incharge of post (mail room). The addressee is saying they have not received it, but theres nothing to says that it's not on someone elses desk.. As I said in my experience they will not even get someone to sign for these as proof of postage - whole point of recorded, so it might be worth phoning a few departments.

If it has been 'nicked' - which after watching that programme on the royal mail last year is possible - is there the possibility that the passport and driving licence is why they took it as genuine authenic ID must be desirable to a forger, could this be a security risk for you??? Was the envelope thin enough so the the passport could be felt through- as it could have been a bit of a give away!

What do others know about this possible security problem, might there be someone walking around with this womens ID with another photo in????

[heathfield]

You have my sympathy! But I'd report the loss of your passport to the Passport Office just in case anyone tries to use it in your wife's name.

[musicmummy]

I posted a next day registered delivery letter that had to be signed for to England containing �160.00 of postal orders for an item i purchased on ebay. When it didnt arrive i was told id need to wait 15 days or so before it was deemed lost by Royal Mail. I eventually recieved 3160.00 to replace the postal orders lost, but no compensation for the �5.60 or so i paid for the service. They gave me a book of 4 stamps. (wow)
Sixteen months later i recieved a letter, containing my original Letter plus the postal orders from a complete stranger who had received my postal orders to his house a few days earlier. He explained it was not for him and was just put through his letterbox without a signature.
I contacted Royal Mail, to advise them of this and for an explaination, Not only could they not explain but still refused to refund me the �5.60 id originally paid for next day registered signed for service. It was sixteen months late, to the wrong person and shoved through the letter box.
I took it to the Royal Mail ombisman but they never managed to help me either, even though i had all receipts and dockets. I would like to write how i rate Royal Mail but they would ban my answer from this site. K.

[musicmummy]

oops i meant to put �160.00 not 3160.00 sorry