Royal Mail problems/delayed mail

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Freefaller

Freefaller

Freefaller

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Over the past few months I have noticed very obviously lots of letters / mail not getting to it's destination. At work we send off our IR cheques every month and the past 3 months they haven't got there, so we've had to go to the post office and get it sorted there - which wastes our time a bit. Over Christmas we sent out invitations and cards to people and a good 20-30% of them never got it. Furthermore mail in general, like magazine subscriptions and other things have been somewhat delayed.

Is this just around London? Has anyone else been having these problems? It's getting a bit nerve racking, certainly paying for bills or sending cheques etc.. If this is a common problem, does anyone know why so much stuff is getting delayed and why the service is not very reliable?
 
royal mail suck, simple as that. If you wnat something to be sent for deffo you should either send it recorded delivery or special delivery. I've had countless numbers of letters, parcles, cheques etc "lost" in the post, and it isnt a suprise considering the people they hire, although saying that the new postie for my area seems to be doing a good job
 
The post is incredibly unreliable where I live - I've had to get post sent to either my parents or the office to have any reasonable chance of receiving it.

I've complained numerous times to Royail Fail, each time they apologise and say that the 'normal delivery agent was on holiday' give me a book of 1st class stamps and them promprly arse the delivery up again.

I stopped sending payments by cheque several years ago - internet banking is the only way to go.
 
Our mail has started arriving at around 6pm, sometimes weeks after the date on the postmark. If I ever need to send or receive anything urgent I'll make sure it's sent either recorded or special delivery as you just can't trust 1st class to make it there anymore.
 
I know what people mean!

I had a series of letters go missing when I was in a block of flats (along with a few others) and nearly had a CCJ given to me because I never received reminder letters for something! I got the final warning letter fortunately!
 
We have had tonnes of letter dissapear, usually ones with cheques or cards in. Its not surprising when you see some of the postmen we get.

Sometimes we can go two weeks without recieving any post, even when we are expecting stuff that we know has been sent
 
Our mail seems to be pretty good at the moment, but from what i've been able to make out it's always been pretty good and most of the posties here have been doing the job for years (so very few temp guys).

The only complaint I do have is that the delivery time varies from about 6am to mid day, when a couple of years back (prior to the changes in routes etc) it would arrive within a 30 minute window 90% of the time (only time it would arrive earlier/later was if it was really busy or the regular guy was ill).
 
I'm waiting for something I won off ebay - thought getting it sent to my work address (London) would ensure delivery.

Seller said she'd posted first class on Tuesday and its still not here :(

Was part of my friend's bday pressie which I was going to tomorrow.

Royal Mail are rubbish! :mad:

BB x
 
i never (touch wood) have problems with Royal Mail. in fact, this week i ordered something on monday (arrived tuesday) and 2 things on tuesday (arrived wednesday) and 1 thing on wednesday (arrived yesterday).

just waiting for what i ordered yesterday now. i agree they have their moments, and it's probably worse in some areas, but for the most part in my experience they've been very reliable
 
Have to agree that Royal Mail are rubbish I can pretty much guarantee that if I’m being sent something of importance/value that isn’t sent via recorded it will go missing, same for anything outgoing. These days I just send most things recorded it’s a shame Royal Mail can’t crack down on the scumbags working from them who keep dipping their fingers.
 
Royal Mail are just useless up here and very unreliable. Just an example of how bad they are, I am waiting for a parcel, I am only 20 minutes from the Inverness Main depot:

26-01-2006 15:43 Inverness Depot Attempted delivery
25-01-2006 21:20 Inverness Depot Out for delivery
24-01-2006 21:40 Inverness Depot Out for delivery
24-01-2006 18:12 Inverness Depot Arrived at delivery depot
24-01-2006 00:14 National Hub Sorted in hub
23-01-2006 18:14 Newcastle Depot On route to hub
23-01-2006 15:01 Newcastle Depot Collected from customer

So it arrived in the depot 18:12 on the 24th and it took them until 15:43 on the 26th to deliver it. Nearly 45 hours to get a package delivered where the destination is only 20 minutes away (by car). Just my luck that having waited in for this parcel and needing to go out the house that it delivery was attempted in the one hour the house was empty (not that I am blaming them for this). Wonder if I will get this delivered today, but then it could be tomorrow or Monday.
 
The thing is this has been happening more over the past 4 months or so. I'm relieved in a way it's not just us, but we've just had the IR come round to query us for not paying, which is a bit irritating and a waste of our and their time. Furthermore I do like sending letters and cards, especially over festive seasons, and birthdays and so on. I'm getting very wary of sending money via the post, or waiting for bills or insurance renewals etc...
 
From what I've seen, RM are shortly to axe a massive amount of staff. So if you thought out postal service was bad now, just wait :mad:
 
I've had a credit card go missing in the post, my P45 never turned up, some bills that got sent to my home address I got mum to forward onto me at uni... they arrived 2 weeks later.

It is indeed a joke and I really have no confidence at all sending stuff to people using royal mail.

The whole concept of paying extra for guaranteed delivery/insurance is a joke....

If I pay for a product (1st class post) I expect it to get there without having to pay extra to be able to track it and keep an eye on it. I expect their own incompetence increases the uptake of the more expensive postal products and helps them generate more revenue. If we could trust 1st class post we'd rarely need to use special delivery etc afterall.

I'd like to see other industries try this on. Imagine going to Tesco and being asked at the checkout if you'd like to pay extra to cover your shopping in case the person on the checkout loses something as they're scanning it.
 
Luckily i've had no problems at all with RM. The only problems I had was one cheque going missing - the envelope had been opened and cheque taken out, but other documents were still in. Luckily the destination address told us and all was sorted out.

The 2nd problem was when I was posting my computer and monitor (60 kgs altogether). Took 5 days to track it down to local depot.

One thing I would say is that I've been to the collections department in one depot in glasgow and one depot just here, and I've been impressed with the polite and courteous staff on the other side of the counter.
 
I've just remembed something funny... when my I was home for Christmas my gran had a Christmas card arrive... but it was in a plastic royal mail bag which said "damaged - sorry" or words to that effect.

She opened it to find the envelope only, but no card! She therefore has no idea who it's from.

She has loads of friends going back years and she sends cads to them all, but going back a couple of years she started crossing ones out of her address book that didnt send one back the year after. This year she was unsure whether to delete people or not because one of them could actually have sent her something, she just never knew. She got in quite a fapp about it!
 
I sent a document, on the 26th of Jan, to be printed as an A1 poster. It was printed and sent on the 28th Jan with Royal Mail Special Delivery. I wait just under two weeks when I suspect something suspicious has happen.
So today I phone up the printers and they chase up my parcel, on my behalf. They then email to say that it is waiting in my local sorting office for collection and that someone had been round to deliver a 'you were out card'. I can tell you that they did not even tried to deliver my parcel or leave a 'you were out card'. I know it says special but I didn't expect it to be a sooo special that no one was allowd to touch it.

Another story from my brother. He was sitting in his living room on Saturday morning when he heard the postman walkdown his drive (gravel). Next thing he knew the postman deliverd a 'you were out card' through his letterbox. He didn't even try to knock or ring the doorbell once! Before he could unlock the door and open it the cheeky postman disappeared!

Sorry but service like this does my head in.

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I did search for any other Royal mail thread so I didn't clutter up the forums.
 
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