Royal Mail Auctions Off 'Undelivered Mail' and Angers Customers

UK's Daily Express reports, "Britain's Royal Mail has admitted it sells off around 75,000 undelivered postage items every year and has earned 3.2 million pounds over the past five years - a move that has angered many consumers."

Reporter Jon Coates pens, "Post which is not addressed properly, too big for letter boxes and not claimed from post offices, or with incorrect postage paid is sent to the National Returned Letter Centre in Belfast. The centre stores items for four months, but if they remain unclaimed they are sent to Surrey-based Wellers Auction House to go under the hammer. The centre in Belfast, which employs 160 full-time staff, successfully redirected 5.2million items last year, but this left another 20 million undelivered."

Postal industry expert Steve Lawson is quoted in the article as saying, "'Auctioning off lost items could be regarded as a profitable business and the drive for profit could outstrip any moral or legal obligation to trace their rightful owners."

Shown above, Royal Mail sorting center.

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To learn how to recover a package lost in the U.S. postal system, click here.