Stop and Return

With ‘Stop and Return’ you can request that an attempt is made by Royal Mail to intercept and return items via your Online Business Account for Royal Mail Tracked 24®, Royal Mail Tracked 48®, Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am®, Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm®, and Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed Next Day.

We provide a service to Account customers who buy Tracked and Special Delivery Guaranteed products, allowing requests for items to be ‘Returned to Sender’ if they are not yet delivered.

Stop and Return can be used for fraudulent transactions, incorrectly entered delivery details, or a customer requesting that an order is no longer required

You will need to access your Online Business Account (OBA) to make a Stop and Return request - ensure each OBA user has the ‘Tracked Reports Role’ set up for their account profile

Getting started & help with your account admin

The recipient will receive notifications when the item is intercepted, notifying them that the Sender has requested the item is returned

You can also choose to receive email notifications updating you as the Sender on the progress of the Stop and Return interception attempt

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have sent us the pre-advice for the item and expect it to be in our network soon (within three days), or the item has already been handed over to us and is not yet delivered, then you can log into your Online Business Account, select ‘My Account’, and then proceed to click on the ‘Stop and Return’ tile.

It will require a Royal Mail reference number, a valid recipient postcode, and your email address to keep you informed on the progress of your interception request (optional).

  • The item is in our Royal Mail network or will shortly arrive in our network
  • The item is for delivery to UK Postcodes excluding Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey (IM/JE/GY)
  • The item has not yet been delivered
  • The item has not already been delivered to a Post Office or one of our Customer Service Points using the Local Collect service
  • The item has not already been scanned as Return to Sender
  • Note: if the item has not had any scans within the last seven days, it will be classed as inactive, and we will not be able to intercept it.

You will receive a notification explaining whether your request has been accepted, or whether the request has been rejected, or failed the initial validation with the reason given in the screen pop up message after you press Submit

Pop up screen messages you may see include the following examples:

  • Your request is received, and the item is in our network (acceptance)
  • No pre-advice yet received for the item - we will hold the request open for 72 hours
  • Item not yet seen in our network - we will hold the request open for 72 hours
  • Incorrect postcode entered
  • Duplicate Stop and Return request seen
  • Item is not in a Stoppable state, we are unable to accept your request
  • For Royal Mail Tracked items the return will be charged at the outbound rate of your item
  • For Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed items, the return cost is already included in the outbound rate

We will endeavour to intercept and return your item when it is in a Stoppable state, please see Royal Mail specific terms for parcelspdf, 186.12 KB.