What to do if something goes wrong when you sell gold by post

First, work out which problem you have

The five things that go wrong have five different routes, and taking the wrong one wastes time you may not have. Find your row first. The process this is written against, step by step, is set out on selling gold by post.

Royal Mail claims: the three things that decide whether you are paid

Postal compensation is not automatic and it is not the same thing as the cover level you paid for. Eligibility, evidence and the applicable service terms matter. The following points concern Royal Mail’s retail loss policy; business-account services have separate terms, so confirm which applies to your label.

• The deadline. Royal Mail’s retail loss policy sets an 80-calendar-day claim limit measured from posting, as well as a qualifying waiting period. Check the policy applicable to your label promptly; do not assume that every account service uses the same rules.
• Evidence of posting. For anything above a refund of the postage, Royal Mail requires evidence of posting such as the Certificate of Posting handed to you at the counter. This is why a parcel must go over a staffed counter rather than into a postbox, and why the receipt matters more than the label.
• Evidence of the actual loss. Royal Mail requires evidence of the actual loss, such as original receipts, bank statements or invoices, and compensation is based on that actual loss up to the amount of compensation purchased by the sender, or the market value, whichever is smaller.

Cover on a GoldPaid label is Royal Mail Special Delivery, with cover that may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. If your items are likely to be worth more than that, say so before posting so the lot can be split across labels. The mechanics are on postage and cover, and the step-by-step for a missing parcel is in what happens if Royal Mail loses your gold parcel.

Why selling is different from buying goods from a trader

The Consumer Rights Act’s goods-quality remedies concern a trader supplying goods to a consumer; a sale of your own jewellery to a buyer is the opposite direction. That does not exclude every provision of the Act: Part 2 covers unfair terms in trader-consumer contracts. Separate services and other legal protections may also matter. Do not assume that ordinary online-purchase cancellation rights undo a completed sale; obtain advice on the actual agreement and facts.

That is not the same as having no protection. Other protections can also apply, which is a distinction worth being precise about when you write to a buyer.

What does protect you: unfair practices, bailment and contract

• Unfair commercial practices. Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, in force since 6 April 2025, replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. The CMA’s guidance (CMA207, Unfair commercial practices, gov.uk) defines a commercial practice as an act or omission by a trader relating to the promotion or supply of, among other things, “a consumer’s product to the trader or another person”. A gold buyer’s conduct towards you is squarely inside the regime, and misleading actions and misleading omissions, including omitting material information such as charges, are prohibited. Trading Standards enforces this.
• Bailment. A buyer holding your items before you have accepted an offer holds them as a bailee. They remain your property. A buyer who refuses to return goods that are still yours may be liable for conversion under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977. Saying this plainly in a written demand tends to focus minds.
• Contractual rights. If an agreed payment has not been made, retain the offer, acceptance and payment terms. The appropriate remedy depends on the agreement and facts; an adviser can distinguish a debt claim from other disputes.

This is general information rather than legal advice. If the sum involved is significant, or the facts are contested, take advice on your own circumstances.

The escalation ladder, in order

1. Write to the buyer. Dated, factual, one page. State what happened, what you want (the items returned, or the sum paid), and a deadline: fourteen days is customary. Send it by email and keep a copy. Escalating without a written demand on file weakens everything that follows.
2. Report the trader to Trading Standards through Citizens Advice. In England you contact the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133, or 0808 223 1144 for a Welsh-speaking adviser, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. Citizens Advice advises you and passes your report to Trading Standards, who decide whether to investigate. In Scotland the equivalent service is Advice Direct Scotland at consumeradvice.scot. In Northern Ireland it is Consumerline on 0300 123 6262.
3. Report suspected fraud. Use Report Fraud for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; it replaced Action Fraud in December 2025. In Scotland, follow Police Scotland’s reporting guidance. A disagreement about an offer is not by itself evidence of fraud, so describe the facts accurately.
4. Consider the appropriate civil claim route. GOV.UK’s money-claim guidance covers the county court route in England and Wales and links to the different processes in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Check eligibility, fees and pre-action requirements; a successful judgment does not guarantee that payment will be recovered.
5. Check the company’s status. If a buyer has stopped responding, search the Companies House register. A company being struck off or entering insolvency changes what is worth pursuing and how quickly you need to act.

The five records that make any of this work

• Dated photographs of every item, taken before packing. See how to photograph jewellery for a remote valuation.
• The description you gave when the label was requested. It is the buyer’s own record of what they expected to receive.
• The Certificate of Posting from the counter. Without it, postal compensation above the postage refund is very difficult to obtain.
• The written offer, showing purity, weight, rate and date.
• The full message thread, undeleted, including anything said about fees, returns and timescales.

All five are free, take a few minutes, and are the difference between a claim that is decided on evidence and one that is decided on whose account sounds more plausible. Assemble them before you post, not afterwards.

Write a chronology that separates facts from assumptions

Start with dated events you can support: the parcel was handed over, a particular tracking event appeared, the buyer confirmed receipt, an offer was issued, or you sent an acceptance or decline. Add the reference to the supporting receipt or message beside each event. If you do not know when something happened, say that it is unknown rather than estimating a date that may later be treated as fact.

Keep assumptions in a separate sentence. “The tracking has not changed since Monday” is an observation; “the parcel was stolen on Monday” is a conclusion that the tracking does not establish. The distinction matters because a useful enquiry asks the other party to investigate what remains unknown. It also makes it easier to correct the record when new information arrives.

If two pieces of evidence disagree, preserve both and describe the difference. A recipient’s message and a carrier scan may refer to different times or stages. Do not delete the less convenient record to make the chronology look simpler. Ask which consignment each record concerns and whether the update is about delivery, receipt into the business or completion of assessment.

Finish the chronology with the unresolved point and the action you are requesting. You might need confirmation of receipt, an explanation of an assessed item, a return reference or clarification of a payment. A clear request gives the recipient something specific to answer and reduces the chance of receiving a general reply that does not address the problem.

Keep a postal claim separate from a disagreement about an offer

A carrier enquiry concerns the transport service and the consignment. A dispute about an offer concerns what the buyer assessed, proposed or agreed. Both can involve the same jewellery, but they are not automatically the same complaint. Direct the question to the party that has the relevant records and explain what you need from the other party to support it.

If a parcel arrived but one item is said to be missing, preserve the packing record and ask for the receiving account. That does not by itself establish where the difference arose. Identify the precise item, how it was wrapped and whether it was listed separately. A general statement that “the parcel was delivered” does not settle what the parcel contained when it was opened.

Royal Mail distinguishes damage or part loss from loss of an entire parcel. Use the description that fits the event rather than choosing whichever sounds more serious. Keep the packaging if contents are damaged or incomplete, and follow the evidence instructions for the applicable service.

For an offer disagreement, ask about the specific line or assumption you cannot reconcile. The remedy you want may be a clearer explanation or return under the agreed terms, rather than a carrier payment. Keeping those questions distinct helps you avoid submitting a postal claim that cannot resolve the actual disagreement with the buyer.

Describe the outcome you want without making it harder to investigate

Use a measured request tied to the records. For example, identify the accepted offer and ask when the agreed payment was made, or identify a declined offer and request the return tracking reference. If you are disputing a deduction, state the offered amount, the received amount and the difference. Those details are easier to investigate than an accusation unsupported by the account of events.

Include relevant evidence once in a clear order. Label an attachment as the posting receipt, final inventory or accepted offer rather than sending a large unlabelled image collection. If a photograph is a close-up of a particular item, identify the item reference. Keep the original files so that a cropped or compressed copy does not become your only surviving record.

If you speak by phone, make a brief note of when the conversation happened, the issue discussed and the next action agreed. Follow up in the existing written thread if clarification is needed. Do not present your personal note as a recording or a statement approved by the other party. It is your contemporaneous account and should be described honestly as such.

Allow the stated response process to run while keeping track of any applicable deadline. An ongoing conversation does not necessarily extend a carrier’s claim limit or another relevant time limit. Check the current procedure for the particular issue and retain confirmation that a formal claim or complaint was actually received, rather than assuming that an informal message opened one.

Handle a returned parcel with a discrepancy

If a returned parcel appears damaged, photograph the outer packaging, label and the condition in which you received it before discarding anything. Then record the contents and the specific difference from your inventory. Avoid rearranging the pieces among unrelated belongings until you have checked them. This preserves a clearer account of what arrived and how it was packed.

A missing detachable part should be described separately from damage to the main item. A clasp, earring back or loose stone may be small but still identifiable in an earlier photograph. Explain whether it was attached when sent, enclosed separately or merely visible in a group picture. That detail can change what needs to be checked without establishing fault in advance.

Do not commission a repair or dispose of the packaging before asking what evidence the relevant party needs, unless there is an immediate practical reason you must act. If action cannot wait, document the condition and the reason. The goal is to avoid unintentionally removing evidence while trying to put the item back into everyday use.

Keep the return journey’s reference with the discrepancy report. The original outward tracking number may still appear prominently in the message thread, but it identifies a different consignment. Name both journeys where necessary so that neither the buyer nor the carrier investigates the wrong parcel.

Recognise when a second opinion needs a narrower question

A useful second opinion answers the disputed point. If you cannot understand an assay explanation, ask what evidence would help assess that specific material question. If your concern is an undisclosed charge, organise the terms and messages that describe the charge. Sending the whole history without identifying the uncertainty can make even competent advice less useful.

For a potentially valuable intact object, distinguish a question about authenticity or whole-piece value from a question about metal content. Those may require different expertise. Explain whether the item is still with you, with the buyer or already returned, and whether any testing or alteration has occurred. Do not assume that a later opinion can reconstruct an earlier condition without evidence.

If the matter requires advice about legal rights or formal proceedings, provide an adviser with the short chronology, relevant terms and the outcome you want. The article cannot determine liability from a tracking screenshot or a disputed message. A focused set of records helps the adviser assess the actual facts without treating every postal problem as the same kind of consumer transaction.

How GoldPaid handles it

If something has not gone as it should, say so early. Call or message 07944 014111, or use the complaints procedure, which sets out how a complaint is acknowledged, investigated and answered in writing. For a parcel that has not arrived, GoldPaid checks the tracking with you and confirms whether it reached us. The Royal Mail claim itself is made by you as the sender, using your Certificate of Posting, even though GoldPaid paid for the label; we supply the label and consignment details and the description given at label request, and walk you through it. Nothing here removes your right to escalate to Trading Standards or to the courts, and it is not meant to.