Why was there a travel delay on passport?
QMY wife renewed her passport, paying £75.50. Without delay, the Passport Office (HMPO) emailed saying “We’ve sent your new passport by secure delivery with courier DX which has 48 hours to deliver”.
The next day, DX emailed about the procedure for changed addresses. We have not moved. Then, Royal Mail delivered her old passport. Three days later, nothing had arrived so we contacted HMPO which reported DX claiming the passport had already been delivered. Erroneously. The DX helpline did not answer when we called so we emailed. The following day, DX promised the package but despite waiting in all day, the secure delivery did not happen but the passport dropped through the letterbox without checks or signatures. Both security and tracking seem to have failed. I complained to both DX and HMPO but got nowhere.
AHMPO delivers most passports by secure courier, but it uses Royal Mail recorded delivery if it judges an address as low risk. Both require a signature to acknowledge receipt but in your case there was no signature. The “secure delivery” was anything but.
It is obviously worrying when you are told such a valuable (and useful to criminals) document has been delivered when it has not. Add in the time waiting in for the promised arrival and it is easy to see why you were concerned.
As for your rights, you have precious few. The passport fee includes delivery by whichever method HMPO decides is right. You have no choice of courier.
More generally, if you order something online, your rights are limited to claiming the difference between “next day delivery” and something slower if a paid for fast track fails. So if next day costs £10 and normal delivery £5, all you get is £5. There is no “delivery ombudsman” or similar body.
DX blames the failures on an operative who selected the wrong status on his handheld device for the original delivery problem and it seems there was a second mistake here when the item went through your letterbox without a signature. The Home Office does not comment on individual cases.
It says: “We constantly monitor our suppliers’ performance, and will investigate any complaints we receive from customers.”