I used a specialist company, Treasured Possession, to clean and pack my wedding dress and veil after my wedding. The items were collected from my home by the courier DPD and were due to be returned a month later. Four weeks after I handed them over, Treasured Possession informed me that DPD had lost the package. That was more than a month ago. I’m told Treasured Possession has been chasing for updates and has started an insurance claim but I do not want to give up on being reunited with my dress and veil. It must be somewhere! I have never felt more amazing than in these items and hoped to keep them for ever and perhaps even pass them on to a daughter. I cannot accept that this is not going to be possible now.
EL, London
Only a bride will understand the pain of your loss; and a bridal dry cleaning firm. “Like the bond you’ve made with your loved one, memories of your special day will last a lifetime, and we’re here to make sure your wedding dress does, too,” reads the homepage of Treasured Possession. Now the blame lies with DPD, which somehow managed to lose your sizeable parcel, but Treasured Possession could have been more proactive.
It only informed you the week before the dress was due to be returned to you that it had never arrived and its phone number has been out of action for weeks, so you have had to rely on emails for updates. Most concerning of all, it turns out DPD had paid Treasured Possession compensation to the tune of £1,516.67 two weeks before you contacted me, but you were not told. That sum represents 50% of the value of the lost items, which is the amount for which Treasured Possession insures customer orders in its care.
DPD’s payment only came to light after I contacted the courier. It was another nine days before Treasured Possession confirmed it had received the money. It told me that it had held on to it while it unsuccessfully battled DPD for the extra sum to cover VAT. It added that it had done everything in its power to trace your dress but was up against the implacable force of a multinational.
“Once DPD feel they have carried out a thorough search, it becomes very difficult for us to escalate it further, they literally close the case and pass it to claims,” said the director, Andrew Novak. “They refuse to continue to search once they feel they have done everything. As you can imagine they are a huge corporation and follow their own rules.”
DPD agreed to pay the outstanding sum after my involvement, although it insisted it was “a gesture of goodwill” rather than withheld VAT, and you have now received the money. It said: “DPD apologises for the missing wedding dress and the distress this has clearly caused. The business conducted a full network-wide search as soon as we were made aware. DPD delivers more than 1m parcels a day and incidents like this are incredibly rare.”
Another Treasured Possession customer lost her dress at the hands of DPD last year, according to the review website Trustpilot. The firm might want to look into changing its courier – or increasing the compensation cover.
Email your.problems@observer.co.uk. Include an address and phone number. Submission and publication are subject to our terms and conditions
