The Royal Mail (mini-rant)

Wej

Wej

Wej

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Bakewell
Anyone else have as many problems as I do with Royal Mail parcel delivery. Not usually one to rant online (I normally do it in the privacy of my own home) but the 3rd lost parcel in six months and I'm beginning to despair with their ability to actually get stuff to me.

The latest...

* They attempted to deliver the parcel when I was out
* I got online to do parcel redelivery and asked for it to be delivered to my local post office
* Went three days later, no sign of it, no record of it ever going it
* Left it a few days
* Went again, ditto. They recommended doing the online redirect again
* Attempted to do the online redirect, but the period had expired so it wasn't possible.
* Rang delivery office repeatedly over the course of a week, always engaged
* Finally went up today and spent half an hour waiting as people searched, checked stuff etc. They eventually took my number and have just rung me back to say that they should have it, but it may have gone to a post office but not the one I asked for redelivery to

I know the Royal Mail have had cutbacks but I've lost £40 of parcels in six months and it's beginning to get silly. You don't always have the option of choosing other delivery companies when you order stuff online, so it's not like you can just say 'I'm never using them again'.

Are they just awful for me, or have other people had similar experiences?
 
My only bad experiences have been city link smashing my keyboard to pieces, and a parcel force bloke who wrote the note out saying no one was there, and stuck it through the door without knocking!!

My summer job is with a courier, and I can tell you business is good for this reason. Businesses no longer trust the royal snail or any other large delivery network.
 
Hmmm, beginning to feel victimised now that everyone else has said they're fine for them. Or maybe it's just Sheffield ;)
 
I used to stay in a hotel at Ilford that overlooked a royal mail depot, the amount of packages and letters you could see on the roof was amazing. How on earth did they end up there?
 
They usually are very good and most parcels come the next day. I suspect that you have been very unlucky.
 
I found a parcel thrown over my side gate the other day, there was no card left in my letterbox.

I only found it because I went out to water the plants!
 
My old flat was awful, had several parcels just completely disappear in the post. Almost more frustrating, however, was the number of times the "Sorry, you were out" cards came through the door while I was in the flat. I know I was in, because the service entry buzzer on the stairwell was broken, so the guy buzzed my flat every day to be let in the building! Just cheeky, that.

(Being woken up by the postman early each morning after working late nights, was also a pain, but I appreciate that one wasn't their fault.)
 
Quality of service depends on where you are greatly I have found, when I lived in:

Aberystwyth - I lost approx 1/3 of my post inc occasional parcel.
Sheffield S17 - Never lost anything.
Chesterfield - No lost parcels but throw a guess at I have lost about 1/10th of my post, I received post for the same number house on a similarly named road yesterday!
 
Where I live the situation is awkward - I live in a block of flats, the front door to which is open to tradesmen until noon, after this time you need a key or to be buzzed in.

Postie doesn't usually arrive until gone noon so he/she sticks the post for the entire block through the letterbox in the main porch. Stuff goes missing all the time.

I know there is little the postie can do if the main door is locked but I sometimes wonder if they try buzzing any of the 16 flats to ask to be let it.
 
I had a package delivered the other day, I wan't in so they left it under my door mat.

The problem was the package was nearly as big as the mat, so effectively there was the package with a doormat sitting on top of it!! My front door is about 2 meters from the street so it wouldn't have been hard for someone to walk along and grab it, although they did drag my wheelie bin infront of it to hide it.
So I came home to the bizzare sight of a wheelie bin blocking my front door, and behind the bin a package (which was soaking wet as it had been raining) with my door mat on top of it!

I can't help but think the sensible thing to do would have been to leave a card!
 
They are terrible, unforunately until we can convince the employees and the company itself (through severing ties with the state) that they are not entitled to a job or customers, things will never improve.
 
I have actually never had a problem with RM. Our postie is a smashing lad and looks after us when we have parcels etc. He gets a few tins in gratitude at Christmas time.
 
In the past 10 years the biggest problem i've had is, from memory 5 lost items (at least 2 of those were DVD's coming from the States, so possibly the fault of USPS).

My one complaint these days, is that the parcels guys (RM parcels not PF), tend to drop the packages off at 7am, ring the door bell and be driving off within a 15-30 seconds, which is because they're set unrealistic delivery schedules.

I think the big problem with RM is that they're basically being forced to deliver mail at below cost, and unlike in the past where they could cross subsidise the delivery individual personal letters being sent from Dave in Cornwell to Angus in Scarfskerry, with the bulk business letters being sent by the million from a printer in Maidstone, these days they've got stuck with the the individual letters, whilst DHL etc are offering bulk collection services undercuting RM's fee (set by a clueless regulator), and then handing them over to RM for delivery.

Privatising them won't improve service, it'll likely just raise costs and decrease the number of deliveries for many people a lot more, as it would be run a a profit making business, rather than a pretty essential service for many people (yes we get a lot of junk mail, but everything from your credit card, to speeding tickets tends to come through it).
 
I may work for the clowns, but I always prefer my stuff to be delivered by Royal Mail (, if I get the chance to chose). Couriers are just too inflexible and all their depots are miles from where I live.

I must say that I still don't think I've lost anything with any company though.
FARGO said:
Where I live the situation is awkward - I live in a block of flats, the front door to which is open to tradesmen until noon, after this time you need a key or to be buzzed in.

Postie doesn't usually arrive until gone noon so he/she sticks the post for the entire block through the letterbox in the main porch. Stuff goes missing all the time.

I know there is little the postie can do if the main door is locked but I sometimes wonder if they try buzzing any of the 16 flats to ask to be let it.
Click to expand...

To be fair, I wouldn't want to be buzzing random people every day. Eventually people start getting a bit tetchy about being buzzed and you don't want that grief. It's sounds to me like his round needs adjusting to accommodate the time lock. If you suggest this to him/her, then in a few years time something might happen. :D
 
Royal Mail have only ever lost one of my eBay parcels and to this day I'm not 100% convinced it was them and not the eBay buyer pulling a fast one. RM refunded the postage and the value of the item, despite it also being outside their normal allowable timeframe.
 
Dolph said:
They are terrible, unforunately until we can convince the employees and the company itself (through severing ties with the state) that they are not entitled to a job or customers, things will never improve.
Click to expand...

What makes you think privatisation will make the service any better? In my experience the service was much better when RM had a monopoly and before the market was opened up, allowing TNT etc cherry pick all the profitable bulk mail contracts. For the record my service from RM is ok, the odd missdelivered or delayed letter now and then but nothing terrible, all my packages seem to arrive ok.
 
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