I shipped a camera lens special next day guaranteed with up to £500 cover insurance as the lens is worth up to £300. The lens arrived next day but it had been crushed flat! this lens was a big solid metal lens and even if dropped it would maybe crack the glass or smash some buts but this lens was crushed completely flat and shattered into pieces! i thought it would be no bother, contact royal mail, they will understand and refund me the worth of the lens (at least what i sold it for). it took them up to a month to reply, they asked for evidence so i complied and had the customer send the evidence off to them. while in the post office he told me that they would not accept the lens for delivery as they did not have a post code to ship it to (it had the address supplied to us by the complaints team). he then had to go to another post office to finally have it accepted for their free post address. another few weeks went by and i received a parcel. It was the lens that was shipped to them as evidence with a letter attached. the letter explained that they will not be giving a refund for the service and they will also not be paying any compensation for any damage of goods. There excuse was that the lens was not protected well enough. I did not realize, when shipping parcels that they had to be able to withstand the weight of a truck! next time i will be sure to pay an extra £200 to have a case welded out of steel to make sure the parcel gets to the customer undamaged and i will not be paying for insurance which is a total scam! especially when they don't pay for the exact reason your insuring the package! totally dissatisfied and will never be using royal mail again! i advise everyone to do the same and to also not insure your packages as they do not pay out, its just another way for them to get extra money.