Sending Air Bottle Prohibited by Royal Mail?

[Dark Warrior]

As a Royal Mail group employee myself they are unfortunatly correct, compressed air bottles are classed as prohibited item even if the bottle is empty, it comes under the catogory of non-flammable compressed gas. Its the same as flying with one, something to do with the compression in the aircraft

He sent the bottle without a reg attached, therefore technically the bottle was an open container not a pressure vessel. There is no issue with compressed gas and no issue carrying it on a plane either.
As long as you sent the bottle with the correct postage and insurance then The Royal Mail are wrong and are just trying to get out of paying up for their negligence.
If the bottle had a reg on or was sealed in any way then yes, but it was not. If what you said was true no air bottles would be posted or couriered to its destination and I have lost count of how many I have special delivered over the years.

 

[just5]

As Poland is in the EU you dont need to complete a customs declaration, chances are it left this country ok but might not have got through the polish customs therefore its beyond Royal Mail's control.

I dont believe that this is true. I think that there is no customs at all when it comes to mail from within the EU. You dont fill out a declaration because there is no need without a customs unit checking the mail within the EU.

Mail that is from outside of the EU goes to the post office which then directs it to a customs unit based on the customs declaration information (such as the value of item etc). Mail from within the EU goes through the normal procedures as mail from within Poland.

For example, I bought an ego from the states and it arrived at the post office, who then sent it to the Warsaw customs warehouse because the declared value exceeded a certain maximum value (45$ or somethign along those lines). The post office sends you a notification that they received the mail and that they sent it off to the customs unit where you need to pick it up etc.