When I applied to renew my passport a week ago, I was advised by the person at the post office to use "Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed 1pm" at the cost of £6.60, to return my old passport the following day. This I did, and received my receipt with the tracking details. The following afternoon, according to the tracking information, my package still hadn't left the mail centre in my town. The next day, I called Royal Mail customer services to complain. I was told that they would refund my £6.60 (which I have still not received) but there was not much else they could do and I should just keep checking the tracking details. Yesterday morning I called the passport office to tell them that Royal Mail had lost my passport. Later that day I received a call back from them saying that my passport had arrived later that morning and they had started to process my application. According to Royal Mail's tracking information my package is still at my local mail centre. I certainly won't be using this unreliable service again.