Royal Mail service

What really annoys me is the measuring envelope size and weighing items, so you almost always have to visit the post office to send something other than a basic letter. If you get it slightly wrong the item gets side tracked with the recipient being charged an admin fee and having to go and get it from the depot if they're not in when it is attempted to be delivered. If this happens the whole process of someone deciding how much more postage is owed puts days usually on the delivery time scale.
 
Apart from the xmas card I received in March I have never had any issues that I can recall. Almost lost a parcel at the sorting office until they realised it was just that it had been put in the wrong place. I wasn't put out by the 15 minutes it took to locate it.
 
What annoys me about my local PO is every time I go in there to get a parcel delivered they try and sell me the most expensive service, but I suppose that's what you get when it's a private business.
 
bobbarley said:
There's so many better companies out there now for deliveries, TNT, Amazon Logistics etc. If they don't improve I could see them going under.
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Moses said:
No one else can do, wants to do, or does do what Royal Mail provides.
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Exactly. Non of the above have the capacity or the infrastructure to collect, sort & deliver to the door. Those that have attempted (TNT aka Whistl) cherry picked the most profitable areas and even then they couldn't manage it so have fallen back to RM to deliver their mail. Plus they weren't tied to the U.S.O (Universal Service Obligation) which means we have to deliver 6 days a week, to every home in the UK for example + much more & RM are the only ones who have to follow that.

If you're local delivery office isn't open past 12 midday for collections then I suspect it's a small office? Rural location? As usually any in towns or villages have at least 1 late opening or normal hours. Plus some collection points can be Post Offices which have their own opening times.

Privatisation hasn't helped much either, apart from making a few people more rich but the soldiers in the field get the flak for the majority of things that are not their fault, but customers don't ever think that.
Yes, there's work shy gits in all industries but when the humble postie disappears and you're forced to collect all your mail or wait in for a courier who will deliver any time between 8am - 6pm then you'll realise how good, but not perfect the mail service is currently.

We'd love to be able to deliver your parcel 1st time, we'd love to deliver mail in the morning, we'd love to have enough staff to do this every day etc but we're not perfect and neither is the company we work for but we struggle though the best we can.

/signed Gaz aka hard working in all weathers postie. :D
 
I'm pretty sure our postie doesn't bother on Mondays or Saturdays as I never see him and we never get post these days, but quite a bit the next, it's a joke have complained and they said they deliver all days except Sunday :rolleyes:
 
MrMoonX said:
I'm pretty sure our postie doesn't bother on Mondays or Saturdays as I never see him and we never get post these days, but quite a bit the next, it's a joke have complained and they said they deliver all days except Sunday :rolleyes:
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IF and it's a big IF you don't get a delivery and there is mail, then the postie will get into serious **** if he doesn't attempt delivery. It's called Wilful Delay and it's a sackable offence.

I'm not saying he's doing it but Saturdays are generally a quieter day of the week for mail so there's a very high chance you don't have any. Some people on the rounds I do only get about 1 letter a week and that's junk mail usually.
 
Gazanimal said:
IF and it's a big IF you don't get a delivery and there is mail, then the postie will get into serious **** if he doesn't attempt delivery. It's called Wilful Delay and it's a sackable offence.

I'm not saying he's doing it but Saturdays are generally a quieter day of the week for mail so there's a very high chance you don't have any. Some people on the rounds I do only get about 1 letter a week and that's junk mail usually.
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I've had them card me before without even trying. They had the card ready and just put it through the door.

I shouted the postman back, and he let it spill that he'd been told by the senior post master to not deliver anything to my address.

When I went in to complain at the depot, they swore blind that they did no such thing, and blamed it on him not knowing what he was doing because was from another depot, covering someone else.

It was no coincidence that days before I had a parcel that I had to collect that they wanted me to pay the best part of £20 for because they couldn't scan it (the sender had printed the label out so big that their scanners couldn't read it) so they wanted me to pay them for it.

I already had the parcel at the time, and I decided to take the parcel after they told me they'd send it back to the central hub and I'd likely never see it again (there was no return address on it, and the item was quite expensive). So I wasn't risking that.

For about a week afterwards, they started playing games with my mail until I went in again and had a go at them. They were pretending they didn't have items I had been carded for. One even shown me the screen on their computer, telling me that my address wasn't even on there. I pointed out it was, he got up and went straight to where he'd put it with no explanation as to what that was just about.

Another item I didn't even get carded for, and it turned out that they'd had it there and just didn't bother trying to deliver it. When I went in, they said it wasn't there. So I went back to the seller, got the tracking number, which said it was actually at the depot. I go back in and they say it's been sent to central depot that morning (and tracking confirmed this).

I had a go at them, and spoke to one of their more mature managers about it, and it's since stopped.

But it goes to show that even if you catch them out for wilful delay and go to the depot about it, doesn't mean that something will be done.
 
I'm pretty lucky that my Dad is my postman. And the rest of the street are still pretty happy he hasn't retired. As most people are at work he'll leave the packets for them here. So instead of having to go down to the sorting office they just knock on our door and collect.
While I do think Royal Mail can improve its a little unfair they're forced to deliver to EVERY house and the likes of TNT, UK Mail can just cherry what they want. And if they don't want to deliver it they just hand it off to Royal mail so when they stick it thought the door its "you should have delivered this days ago".
 
My normal postie is pretty good. I had something scheduled for redelivery today and tomorrow (because I got carded for the 2nd item yesterday and their system won't let you put in the next day for redelivery) but he noticed this and just brought them both today which is great as I won't need to wait in tomorrow.
 
Nothing changed to date. However once the rest is in commercial hands it will not be long until a challenge to the universal postage is made. The a package or letter to rural or the islands will rocket.
 
Never had any real problems with them and I've lived allover the UK.

When one person has a negative experience they love to rant about it. However they dont sing their praises when they get mail every other day of the week.
 
Don't generally have much of a problem around me.
Biggest bug I have with them is if I have a parcel with customs duty the sorting office only accept cash.
Really, it's the 21century! Surely card payments aren't that difficult?
 
Hedge said:
Never had any real problems with them and I've lived allover the UK.

When one person has a negative experience they love to rant about it. However they dont sing their praises when they get mail every other day of the week.
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I've had a moan about them in this thread, but in general they've been very good I can almost rely on things sent first class, to arrive that next day.
 
our postie is pretty god.
only thing I could moan about, Saturday deliveries are at random times. sometimes he drops stuff off at 9am and sometimes at 2pm :(
 
Lots of people have issues with receiving post in the afternoon. I worked as a postman for RM about 8 years ago and that's simply down to the position your street comes in the route.

I would sort mail then start posting about 8 or so. By the time you do about 6 bags and have lunch you are into the afternoon. That's not an unusual thing.

It's not possible for everyone to get mail at 9am. It would require like 5 times more staff and they would work less hours.
 
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