‘Lost’ parcels from Royal Mail and Hermes are being sold off on online retail site eBay, according to reports.

The auction website features hundreds of parcels containing products ranging from jewellery to electrical goods.

Customers have expressed concern that their personal details could be found in unopened packages. 

In 2019 to 2020, Royal Mail received a quarter of a million complaints from customers who had not received their parcels with a third of Brits saying they had items go missing.

Earlier this year customers raged after it was revealed some 75,000 packages per year remain undelivered each year and the contents of packages “lost in the post” are auctioned off.

Speaking to the Metro, a Royal Mail spokesperson said the company was aware of the issue and explained why some customers will see such items being sold online.

They said: "Where we have been made aware of items being sold in this way, in line with our terms and conditions, we also ask these companies to remove any customer details on the sites as well as make no reference to Royal Mail and to black out our branding.

"These are not items that are in course of transmission by post and would not have reached eBay via Royal Mail. When Royal Mail attempts to deliver items to customers and the items are undeliverable, we return these items to the Delivery Office.

“In some cases, the customers do not want to collect these items which can often be of low value. When items are undeliverable, our policy is to return such items to the sender or retailer.”

They added: “Certain retailers, sometimes based overseas, may not want to deal with the administrative burden of managing the returns and associated shipping costs.

"As a result, certain overseas retailers sometimes arrange for third-party service providers based in the UK to manage their returns for them."