i generally use Royal Mail Special Delivery... (as its convenient..)
and luckily i havent had any problems with the special...
So i will probably use them until i have a reason not to..
However.. i had no end of problems with Recorded & 1st class..
and dont get me started on Parcelfarce.. (oops parcelforce..)
i did have a bit of bad luck turn VERY good however...
when i ordered a certain piece of £200 kit, new.. and it was to be delivered by Parcel force.. it never turned up.. and got lost...
After 2 or 3 weeks of griping at parcelforce and the company i ordered said piece of kit from.... they finaly gave up, declared it lost, claimed insurance, and sent me another item..
(they decided to use parcel force again.. DUH!)
But.. anyway.. 5 days later.. BOTH!!! Items arrived at the same time.. So i had one free!!! cant argue with that.. as parcelforce had already coughed up to the supplier, i was in a Win Win situation..
EDIT :- i used to work for Nightspeed, and most of the problems with lost parcels happen at the sorting warehouse...
for example.. when the lorry comes in at like 4 AM, wed often find parcels bound for other parts of the country, and of course, we cant send them back till our collections leave that evening..