A cautionary tale about Royal Mail (hey that rhymes!)

Ok, so last weekend I bought some computer games off Ebay. Some old games that you can't get any more, one of which I was particularly interested in as I remembered playing a demo AGES ago (and played a demo recently too) and it was REALLY good - Sanitarium. The seller sent them on and that was fine. Except not. Because she sent them last Monday (3rd April 2006) and I haven't recieved them. I eventually got in touch with the seller and she, to her great credit, has been chasing the parcel up.

She sent the parcel using recorded delivery (where you have to sign on recipt of the parcel). I was under the impression that using this service would reduce postal fraud/theft. It seems I was wrong. Checking the Royal Mail website shows that the item was apparently delivered from my local delivery office. Thankfully, you can now see a scanned version of the signature slip to see who signed for it. MY item was signed for by a D Newton. Now here comes the ranty shouty bit:

THERE IS NO D. NEWTON THAT LIVES IN THIS BLOCK OF FLATS!!!!!!!! I'VE RUNG THE LANDLORD, HE DOES NOT KNOW AND HAS NEVER KNOWN A D. NEWTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I'm asking:

WHERE THE FUCK IS MY PARCEL?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

Also, there's some contradictions coming form the Royal Mail. The Ebay seller was informed by Royal Mail customer service that my item had been delievered at 11.04 am on the 4/4/06. However, the signature slip I can see on the Royal Mail website says 9.50am. Why the contradiction? Also, if the item was delivered to a neighbour (which it WASN'T as there is no D Newton in this block of flats) the postman should've left a card saying "Left item with ...." but they didn't.

And the real kicker? I've got to wait 15 days (so I'm guessing until the 19th April) before I can make a claim and possibly try to get my money back.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Sorry for the rant. I WANT MY GAMES *sobs*

Royal Mail's Incompetence