Hey Paddy

We have been through this as well, more times than I care to remember

You can scream about it until you're blue in the face, it won't make any difference.  As the PP said, unless you have taken out insurance on your parcel, you are screwed.  They will only reimburse the actual postage cost if you have kept the receipt.

We had parcels that we sent through click and send, some were in transit still after a few weeks and never arrived at their destination.  A/Post pretty much admitted they lost the parcel but refused to compensate for anything but the actual postage cost.  And only if I kept the recipt which I didn't.  The fact I paid for it through my paypal account, we had the tracking ID and the A/Post tracking shows it still wasn't delivered, didn't count for jack, they wanted a paper receipt

Good Luck