Why is it acceptable for post to go missing?

Raumarik

Raumarik

Raumarik

Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2003
Posts
14,835
I know it's very large network and a huge volume of post passes through it every day, but doesn't it seem that just a little too much vanishes into thin air and oddly is rarely traced?

If this happened with corporate e-mail there would be an uproar, but oddly companies and private individuals seem to accept the constant failure to deliver post on time, to the right place and of course without actually "losing it".

Is it purely down to the human factor? human greed? human laziness? Do the companies with more automated systems than the Royal Mail manage to deliver a higher pecentage of mail?

Oddly whenever I lose anything it's something worth money, DVDs, birthday presents or envelops that have cards, which could potentially contain money. I know there's a certain thickness of envelop that will get caught up in the RM sorting machinery but seriously, why is it never a bill :D
 
It's just people in depots stealing.

And it's accepted (well, not accepted but continues to happen) because no one high up at RM can really do anything about it... If they sack people that steal, some of the new recruits are still going to steal. There's not really a lot they can do about it in the long run.
 
things like emails getting lost is unacceptable as there is no reason for it to go missing as its not like someone can steal your email before it gets to you, but with the post the amount of people it sees and chances for it to be stolen are obviously quite a lot which means its acceptable.
 
Mohinder said:
It's just people in depots stealing.
Click to expand...

they stole a digital camera off me :(

I should have been clever, broek the law and not written what was inside the box, but alas the law abiding citizen as I is, it left me $320 out of pocket :mad: And yeah, zero comeback :mad: :mad:
 
The post office deals with hundreds of millions of items a day - it's not surprising that some does go missing (I've had 2 packages in 7 years go missing).

The only way to improve it would involve tracking every single item that is sent and vetting the workers much better at every point in the chain, something that takes time to do, and isn't really feasible unless you're going to keep a lot of extra staff on call for busy times.

I guess what it comes down to is how much you are willing to pay, and considering the screams of anguish and disgust when RM try to increase prices to reflect the costs involved in delivering low value, light but bulky stuff I doubt people are willing to pay an few pennie a letter (more for higher value/heavier/bulky items) to allow for an improved service, and to pay a better wage to attract and keep the better staff for longer (if you can get almost the same wage sitting in a warm comfortable office as for spending hours traipsing about in the rain mid winter people tend to go for the office;)).

It's surprises me the number of people who send high value stuff via normal post and then complain about it getting lost/damaged and them not getting enough compensation (recorded delivery costs about 70p extra...).
 
Mohinder said:
It's just people in depots stealing.

And it's accepted (well, not accepted but continues to happen) because no one high up at RM can really do anything about it... If they sack people that steal, some of the new recruits are still going to steal. There's not really a lot they can do about it in the long run.
Click to expand...


That's pretty much it :(
The only way round it is probably higher wages and making it so that it's not worth stealing, and even then some people will still steal things for various reasons (you just have to look at the cases of people on £50-100K+ a year stealing from employers etc).
 
Werewolf said:
It's surprises me the number of people who send high value stuff via normal post and then complain about it getting lost/damaged and them not getting enough compensation (recorded delivery costs about 70p extra...).
Click to expand...

People send cash through the post aswell, n00bs!!
 
I work at the Post Office so I often get complaints saying such-and-such piece of mail hasn't arrived yet, what do I do? Basically, only ever use standard mail for things like letters. Record delivery anything that you need to know has reached its destination - won't necessarily mean it won't get lost, but at least you can claim back on the fact it never arrived. Only up to £34 on that though.

Anything at all thats even remotely expensive, use Special Delivery. Special Delivery goes outside the normal postage lines, it doesn't go with the bulk mail, its tracked everywhere its moved, and it can be covered for up to £2500, more on certain items, so the chance of it going missing is tiny. It costs quite a bit more (Standard Recorded = Postage +70p, Standard Weight Special = £4.30) but definitely worth it, especially if the loss of the item is going to be painful to the pocket.
 
It's not acceptable for post to go missing, ever. The thing is though, what can you do about it? The people that work in the post office (certainly in Manchester and Cambridge) don't give a damn about serving you properly, they're not polite, they don't care if your letter has been lost or not. And if you ask to speak to a manager, what can they do? Your 'letter has been lost?' It's not as if they can go and find it for you..
 
platypus said:
It's not acceptable for post to go missing, ever. The thing is though, what can you do about it? The people that work in the post office (certainly in Manchester and Cambridge) don't give a damn about serving you properly, they're not polite
Click to expand...
It's much the same here. Customer service seems to be a dirty word and the staff seem to think they're doing you a huge favour by doing the job they are paid to do.
 
It can't just be down to people stealing post. I've had important government letters go missing on route to my house. Virgin media direct debit forms never arrive. Either a lot of companies are lying saying they have sent me letters, or my postman is incompetent and delivers to wrong address, or fuels his fire with them.

I complained and all I got was the standard reply - we deal with billions of mail a year, some go missing, deal with it.
 
A little off topic but where I live:
There went quite a while where a certain area was not recieving any post at all, this went on for some time until finally enough complaints plus the finding of a lot of peoples mail in a hedge caused the RM to investiagte. They figured that the postie was stealing everyones mail so got the police involved and broke down his door. What they found was months and months of unopened letters from all the households stuffed under his bed.
Turned out he couldnt be bothered to deliver them so would return home with his alloted delivery load and store it. It was only when the bed space became to full that he started using the hedge.

mark
 
I think some of you are overestimating the problem. Out of the hundreds of pieces of post I've received each year, I'm aware of no more than 1 or 2 in my life that have ever gone missing. Royal Mail go to a lot of effort to make sure post gets delivered - to the extend of opening up post that can't be delivered in order to find a return address.

Of course a little bit occassionally goes missing, but it sounds like some of you have been reading the Daily Mail too much and deciding that we should actually all be getting twice the amount of post that we are getting. Compared to postal services in most parts of the world, Royal Mail are very very cheap and pretty reliable. Any postal service that doesn't track individual shipments (which just isn't feasible for the price - if you want that, pay for Special Delivery) will have some things go missing from time to time. Perfection isn't an option. I'm not saying that's not room for improvement, but I really don't think the service is as disasterous as some of you are suggesting.
 
PinkPig said:
I think some of you are overestimating the problem. Out of the hundreds of pieces of post I've received each year, I'm aware of no more than 1 or 2 in my life that have ever gone missing. Royal Mail go to a lot of effort to make sure post gets delivered - to the extend of opening up post that can't be delivered in order to find a return address.
Click to expand...
Personally, Royal Mail's delivery has always been good for me. However, I find it worrying that they lost 14 million letters/parcels in either 2005 or 2006.

What irks me greatly about Royal Mail is not their delivery service though, it's their appalling customer service over the counter or phone. Thats a different topic though.
 
sent 2 letters recorded delivery at the same time, 1 was going about 15 houses down the street from the other and they managed to lose 1 of them. how do you lose 1 but not the other when they we put in the post office at the same time.
 
If it is unacceptable for your post to go missing then use special delivery.

I don't believe I've ever had post go missing.

stumpy187 said:
sent 2 letters recorded delivery at the same time, 1 was going about 15 houses down the street from the other and they managed to lose 1 of them. how do you lose 1 but not the other when they we put in the post office at the same time.
Click to expand...
That question doesn't make any sense. Every letter that has ever been lost by RM has been next to another at one time or another. Must they both arrive or both get lost?
 
platypus said:
It's not acceptable for post to go missing, ever. The thing is though, what can you do about it? The people that work in the post office (certainly in Manchester and Cambridge) don't give a damn about serving you properly, they're not polite, they don't care if your letter has been lost or not. And if you ask to speak to a manager, what can they do? Your 'letter has been lost?' It's not as if they can go and find it for you..
Click to expand...
Don't confuse the Post Office with Royal Mail, they're pretty much seperate from each other. I've had people coming in to me saying, "Well, why can't you find my mail? I gave it to you..". All the Post Office does is take the piece of mail, stick it in a bag then give it to the postman when he arrives. How the hell do we know whats happened to your mail when its been under our supervision for a couple of hours at most?

All the Post Office can do is hand you a form that deals with missing mail, and tell you to send it to Royal Mail - which I always thought was ironic. You lost a bit of mail, so they tell you to send some mail to find the last bit of mail that went missing. This could become a vicious circle.

And about politeness. We try, honest, but when you've been sitting there listening to customers for the past 5 hours and all you get tend to get is abuse, even when you're trying your best to help, its kinda hard to keep smiling.
 
stumpy187 said:
sent 2 letters recorded delivery at the same time, 1 was going about 15 houses down the street from the other and they managed to lose 1 of them. how do you lose 1 but not the other when they we put in the post office at the same time.
Click to expand...

Why?? - because it goes to a sorting centre where it mixes with all the other mail.

In response to the op.

Mail that is incorrectly addressed and with no return address will be destroyed. Given the amount that goes through a sorting office I am not really surprised that mail goes missing. It would be impossible to trace every letter for a reasonable cost. RM cannot combat their staff indiscretions. Ie if I was a postie and couldnt be bothered to deliver my sack of mail - what are they going to do about it? Likewise if I see what I suspect could be cask in the post what can they do to stop me from taking it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom