The Mystery Shopping thread - VII

nads

ukmonkey wrote: »

I don't feel I was rude, I feel fully justified in calling him/her a moron.

Rudeness is a subjective matter.

ukmonkey wrote: »

I don't THINK they do, I know, 100% that they do.

Enlightenment is required! Care to share the figures on this as a percentage of all mail sent via Royal Mail. Would be nice to have figures on how much direct mailing comes from Royal Mail too - unaddressed.

ukmonkey wrote: »

No, but added up, yes, it would contribute. What if this person tells ten people what he does (he's just told potentially 1000's by posting on here), they tell ten people, they tell ten people, and so on and so on...

I don't understand. What gain would anyone else have in being told you can gain a free proof of posting by queuing up in a post office with an envelope and asking for a free rubber stamp? He could tell a million people and 99.9% would think he's being loony.

ukmonkey wrote: »

I do blame Royal Mail Group, absoloutley. In fact I firmly believe that the prices should be at least twice what they are now, at least the basic (lighter/smaller/lower priced) items anyway.

Why should they be higher? Surely by doing this it has two significant effects. Less people posting items and less people going into branches. Pricing yourself out of markets may work for Prada or Ferrari but I think the Post Office and Royal Mail would like us to think they are a persons essential service!

ukmonkey wrote: »

The service now is much better than it has been over recent years and decades. Although the last quarter (I believe) saw a slight drop in QoS.

Are we talking RM? I'm on about the Post Office service. e.g. 9 people queing two counters open, 5 not in use. :rolleyes: Of course one rbanch service will differ considerably to another. I think we all agree on that in this thread!

ukmonkey wrote: »

[

Agree totally.

--

The problem here is caused by the English Government. Why the hell did they allow competition to the UK postal market quite some years before the EU had stated it must be done by?

In my opinion, this was done to impact upon RMG's finances, thus strengthen the case for privatisation. Just my opinion, scorn if you wish.

Not a clue but your entitled to your opinion


Yes, lets! :beer:[/QUOTE]

TractorGirl327

nads wrote: »

Why would anybody else do that? At least there's a purpose to johnnycl's actions - perhaps even in a sadistic way it is beneficial to the Post Office too. I don't see anyone thinking "Hmmm my rubbish bin is full, I think I'll post this off to some fictitious freepost address".


How many times have we received random mailings direct from the Royal Mail simply addressed to the "The Home Owner"? I didn't ask for it, but do I calculate the monetary costI wasted picking up that envelope, opening it up, checking its contents and putting in the bin?

Recycling bin, I hope!! :rotfl:

nads

ukmonkey wrote: »

Sorry to be pedantic, but these aren't "from" [STRIKE]The [/STRIKE]Royal Mail, they only deliver them!

They don't just delivery them. They consult, they market, they distribute their knowledge to mass-mailers.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump1?catId=500185&mediaId=400054

They make it easier to direct mail by sending letters to generic household names such as "The Home Owner".

nads

TractorGirl327 wrote: »

Recycling bin, I hope!! :rotfl:

Of course but I felt it would have been pedantic of me to describe the type of bin I put it in!

Edit: I wouldn't classifier myself as a recycler but I do put the obvious stuff in the recycling box.

tizzy79

errm remember folks the cost of stamps are going up soon, so as long as you buy stamps that only have 1st or 2nd printed on them they are still valid regardless of the price at time of posting so you may save a few pounds or so in the future.

daydreambeliever_3

TractorGirl327 wrote: »

And all to save 27p, the cost of a second class stamp ... people like this make my blood boil :mad:

As far as I can see it wasn't to save 27p but as a way of completing the ms.
He did say that he's often got enough freepost junk envelopes to not have to put a fake address on, so he's just giving the companies who send out junk mail a taste of their own medicine.

ukmonkey

daydreambeliever wrote: »

As far as I can see it wasn't to save 27p but as a way of completing the ms.
He did say that he's often got enough freepost junk envelopes to not have to put a fake address on, so he's just giving the companies who send out junk mail a taste of their own medicine.

Which is great. Even better he should tear his parking tickets up into tiny pieces in the hope that when the companies open the envelope, the pieces fall all over the floor and that someone has to pick them up.

However, when he hasn't got any spare business reply envelopes, he should send himself a second class envelope in order to get the CoP.

johnny_c-l

Wow! I must say I'm surprised by the reaction I received (and not least by the language used in some posts).

I'd just like to clarify the situation and respond to a few of the comments.

I was doing a round trip of loads of stamp shops last month along with other MS jobs on the way. Usually I would take with me letters I need to post or genuine junk mail freepost envelopes with uncompleted forms to post back. I was visiting shops in very remote locations and had forgotten half the envelopes I meant to take with me. Bearing in mind I was a long way from home and nowhere near any shops other than the stamp ones I was MS'ing, I used a couple of blank envelopes I had for fake freepost addresses. The remaining genuine freepost envelopes I put parking tickets/general office paper (i.e. nothing nasty) in because they were very thin and it was obvious that they were empty.

TractorGirl327 wrote: »

You put RUBBISH FROM YOUR CAR in envelopes and post them off? What the f*** is wrong with you? That is so darned irresponsible! :eek:

Again to clear this up, I don't do this as part of my normal routine, just as in the above situation.

ukmonkey wrote: »

Hear hear!

The moron clearly doesn't realise that this would be very costly to Royal Mai on several counts:
1. The cost of processing the letter through the mail system for delivery.
2. The cost of the postman not recognising the address, so putting it back into the mail
3. The cost of processing the letter through the mail system for delivery to the Return Letter Centre in Belfast.
4. The cost of a person in said office in Belfast opening the letter and trying to trace who the contents belong to (ok, they'd take one look and throw it in the bin, but that is still30 seconds out of someone's very very busy day).
You're an idiot.

1. I had to send a letter anyway to get a POP (be it fake freepost or genuine), so this would have been the same.
2-5. Yes I agree with that, but I really think that the cost on literally a couple of occasions would have been minimal. It didn't cross my mind at the time.

TractorGirl327 wrote: »

And all to save 27p, the cost of a second class stamp ... people like this make my blood boil :mad:

What can I say......at the time I did't have any stamps or cash on me, so just wrote it as freepost.

TractorGirl327 wrote: »

AN extra letter, no. But what if EVERYONE decided to get rid of their old car-park tickets by putting them in an envelope and posting them off, stampless, to a ficticious address?

I can't see that everyone would do that; there's no point.

ukmonkey wrote: »

I don't feel I was rude, I feel fully justified in calling him/her a moron.

No, but added up, yes, it would contribute. What if this person tells ten people what he does (he's just told potentially 1000's by posting on here), they tell ten people, they tell ten people, and so on and so on...

I did find it rude to be called a moron; especially since I was nothing but polite and tried to be helpful when you first started posting on this board.

Whilst everyone on the board now knows fake freepost addresses 'work'....I can't see it catching on. In any case everyone here is capable of making a decision of what to post and to where for their MS jobs.

daydreambeliever wrote: »

As far as I can see it wasn't to save 27p but as a way of completing the ms.
He did say that he's often got enough freepost junk envelopes to not have to put a fake address on, so he's just giving the companies who send out junk mail a taste of their own medicine.

Yes, that's right DDB. Athough I don't see it as giving them a taste of their own medicine...I don't mind junk mail, it's just part and parcel of everyday life. Using their envelopes is just really having something to post.

ukmonkey wrote: »

Which is great. Even better he should tear his parking tickets up into tiny pieces in the hope that when the companies open the envelope, the pieces fall all over the floor and that someone has to pick them up.

I don't have anything against junk mail companies really; there's no point in antagonising people for the sake of it. As I wrote above, it's just simply having something to post.

I guess the crux of the matter is that it is wasteful for RM to spend time on the couple of fake letters I sent. But MS can be wasteful....I did a few chicken places the other day and now have half a bin bag of chicken to dispose of. I can't eat it all myself and there weren't any homeless people around to give it to.

Asides from "freepostgate" I would like to assure all who are concerned that I am a responsibe postal service user and ensure addresses are clear, postage is correct and the postcode is specified. :A

ukmonkey

Good of you to answer our points.

I'll downgrade you from a "moron" to "slightly lacking ethics and/or common sense on the occasion in question" (I jest)

Now lets drink and forget "freepostgate" as you so aptly named it! :-)

:beer: :beer: :beer:

nads

ukmonkey wrote: »

Good of you to answer our points.

I'll downgrade you from a "moron" to "slightly lacking ethics and/or common sense on the occasion in question" (I jest)

Now lets drink and forget "freepostgate" as you so aptly named it! :-)

:beer: :beer: :beer:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Don't fall for it! It's to make you feel safe now, you'll be upgraded to level 5 moron before the end of day and there'll be a heightened level of stupidity all around you!