Traveller cuts holiday short after Royal Mail lose passport - and gets stamps as compensation

A British traveller had to cut his exotic holiday short when Royal Mail lost his passport - before sending him six first-class stamps as compensation.

Oliver Keynes sent off his passport to get a visa which he needed to visit India and the tropical Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.

He posted it by special delivery to the travel company organising his trip on May 7 - more than three weeks before he was due to depart on the 21-day jaunt.

But the next day they phoned to say they had not received his passport - just an open envelope with the application inside.

Furious Oliver, 36, was forced to apply for an emergency fast-track passport and ended up jetting out three weeks late - cutting his holiday down to just nine days.

The blunder cost him almost £500 extra, including £87 for the replacement passport and rearranged hotels and flights.

Oliver, an MA student from Bishopston, Bristol, complained to the Royal Mail when he got home - and a couple of weeks later was sent a book of six stamps in return.

He said: 'I got a letter through saying their investigation had found this was the compensation they could give me and six first-class stamps fell out.

'It just felt fully insulting. The stamps don't even cover the cost of sending the passport in the first place.

'I wouldn't have even booked the holiday if I knew how much it would end up costing me and how stressful it was.'

He added: 'They have a consequential insurance cover you are meant to take out and I hadn't as it seems like a cheeky extra charge to me.

'They wouldn't cover the flights or anything. I'm even in the process of trying to claim it through my Co-op insurance but they are being difficult too.'

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After his passport went missing Oliver, who was travelling alone, sent off for a visa a second time and got it back ten days later - by which time he had missed his original departure date of May 29.

He ended up flying out on June 19 - leaving him with just nine days holiday, four of them travelling - and returned on June 28.

He has since complained about the six stamps and the Royal Mail have now said they will refund the cost of his new passport.

But they are refusing to pay any extra fees as he didn't take out the consequential loss cover.

The Royal Mail said: 'We process millions of items each day without incident, and take seriously any customer reports of loss or undelivered items.

'We will in this instance reimburse Mr. Keynes for the cost of his passport and postage costs.

'Royal Mail would like to apologise unreservedly to Mr. Keynes for this incident and for the obvious inconvenience caused.'