Posti offers to return postal cost as document disappears

Missing of documents by national postal and logistic services operator Posti during the recent period created uncertainty among the people about the fate of their documents while using postal services.

According to Posti report submitted to Traficom, a total of 3,921 inquiries for registered letters were recorded in 2021, Posti source said.

After missing the documents sent by the national social insurance institution- Kela in February this year and November last year, a recent incident of missing a private document last month created confusion among the sender and receiver about the credibility of Posti services.

The document was sent on 4 April from Rovaniemi to Kerava and the tracking report still shows that the item reached in Helsinki on 5 April and it is in transport now.

Both the sender and receiver communicated with the postal service and filed a missing report on 11 April but the authority failed to find it out.

At certain stage the Posti authority opted that the postal costs could be returned to the sender.

Posti official said that they can send few new stamps and Plus stamps too, so that the sender can send replacement letter to the receiver, said the sender.

The receiver, Shamsul Alam, a Councilor of Kerava municipality expressed his frustration over the missing of the document in Posti service and raised question how the missing document could be replaced?

”It is unfortunate that the item has been lost by Posti despite containing tracking code. I fear that the fate of ordinary letters is more uncertain,” said Alam, also a Masters Student of the University of Helsinki.

He, however, said that previously Posti services were credible and missing of document was very rare but at the recent period he suffers from uncertainty to send document through Posti, until it reaches to the receiver.

“I do not consider Posti as a credible service anymore,” he said, adding that missing of the document incurred huge loss to him.

While asked about the missing document, Posti authority, however, said it is not possible to comment on individual postal items but said that the delay or missing could be taken place due to human error.

“It is not possible to comment on individual postal items, but in general human errors may occur, which may result in delays or loss,” Antti Rantanen, Communications Specialist of Posti Group told Daily Finland.

Replying to queries on behalf of Timo Nurmi, Head of Communications at Posti, Rantanen said that the incident of disappearance is very rare.

Pointing out the last Posti´s report submitted to Traficom , Rantanen said that in the 2021 report, for example, there were a total of 3,921 inquiries for registered letters, or 0.2926% of the volume sent.

“Of those, 2,371 were recovered and 319 were recorded as lost. The number of unresolved cases was 1,231,” the Communications Specialist added.

Earlier Posti has reportedly lost a parcel submitted by the Kela in November last year.

Kela lodged complaint with the Data Protection Ombudsman following the missing of the parcel submitted to Kouvola service point on 26 November.

Posti also reportedly lost another Kela parcel submitted in late February.

The parcel containing applications and documents of some 40 to 50 clients sent from Kela service point in Vihti on 25-28 February went missing.