Sorry you were out.Why does the Royal Mail leave this card when you know you were in?

kevinyork

Overall I think RM do an ok job. However two things really annoy me:

1) We ship about 35000 items a year with RM by 1st or 2nd class post. We routinely get packages returned to us saying 'card left' when the customer is said not to have contacted them for redelivery. Alternatively a customer contacts us to report non receipt, we contact their local depot and the parcel is sat there waiting for them with the sticker on it saying card left. In about 99% of cases we contact the customer and they have no knowledge of an attempted delivery, no red card or anything. Now I know some customers are wallies and may either be lieing of their dog or kid has torn the red card up but the sheer number of occassions we get this isnt credible.

2) Why are the opening times for collection offices so appalingly non customer focussed. Some open from just 7am to 10am and many are just mornings only. Given the reason a customer may not be in is because they are at work during the day then offices need to be open for longer hours including evenings. Even during opening hours so many of these offices are uncontactable and ring off the hook or have answerphones. I realise this may not be the posties own fault but if RM want to compete with other couriers that have much more flexible opening hours this needs to change.

OK, rant over.

custardy

point 2 is purely staffing
often when you have a 7-10am opening the person doing the door will be going out on a delivery after 10am
so RM dont actually saff the door at all,they just use a postie to cover the door before going out.
the other staff get their walk ready
as ive said before you only have oner pair of hands on the door.if you are dealing with a collection/complaint or whatever you cant answer the phone.
if RM continue with there plans then you will get longer opening ours at delivery offices.
however that delivery office will be many miles away covering many postcodes.
we are a good 20 miles from the far side of our delivery span but we are open 7-7

pompeii

My latest card through the door on Friday said "leave 72 hours before collecting from local office" can i count Saturday and Sunday as 48 of the hours, you begin to lose the will to live. This year i have had quite a few very dead plants i have had to collect. Sometimes even after 72 chuffing hours they are still not at the local office. I try to be around for the post if i know i am due parcels, but there is no consistency to the time post arrives.

frivolous_fay

Custardy, what's your take on the card thing?

NotQuiteNorbert

barmonkey wrote: »

ive had it happen at least 4 times

I don't dispute that- just saying I haven't is all.

custardy

pompeii wrote: »

My latest card through the door on Friday said "leave 72 hours before collecting from local office" can i count Saturday and Sunday as 48 of the hours, you begin to lose the will to live. This year i have had quite a few very dead plants i have had to collect. Sometimes even after 72 chuffing hours they are still not at the local office. I try to be around for the post if i know i am due parcels, but there is no consistency to the time post arrives.

well this is down to RM's system,they dont want posties going back to the office as it takes time.
more time returning is less time not delivering
they try it with me on really busy days as a carrot to take the RM van home.
yet any other time its a sackable offence for me so i just kindly decline the 'offer'

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Custardy, what's your take on the card thing?

not much i can say,it shouldnt happen
i did hear of it once in an Edinburgh office where they had no staff and did this by management orders :eek:
it can happen you run out of cards/pens die etc snd i know some guys take the cards out the next day.
personally i take the packet adain and slap myself for being so dumb
the only time we legitimatly see it is when its stairs and you cant gain entry to the stair to leave a card.so deliver the card the next day

cyberbob

pompeii wrote: »

"leave 72 hours before collecting from local office"

We must be very luck as ours is always 2 hours from when the delivery was attempted. I normally just phone and the deliver the following day. maybe i'm just lucky

custardy

cyberbob wrote: »

We must be very luck as ours is always 2 hours from when the delivery was attempted. I normally just phone and the deliver the following day. maybe i'm just lucky

depends on the delivery office set up
eg i return every day with a van
so i can put x hours and know the item is going to be back

if you 'pouch off' at a post office then your items go from a PO to the mail centre and then to the delivery office
on a saturday the PO's shut early
so miss the last collection and your item is collected Monday so cannot be back till Tuesday at the earliest.

jb66

Why dont royal mail offer a "collect at local post office" service where people can send there parcels directly there to save the postman some work. 90% of the time i'm out and the postman has to bring the parcel to my door write a card and then take it back to the sorting office. I then have to go to the sorting office and collect it when it suits me. I'd rather get it sent to the local post office and i'd get it on my way home.

custardy

jb66 wrote: »

Why dont royal mail offer a "collect at local post office" service where people can send there parcels directly there to save the postman some work. 90% of the time i'm out and the postman has to bring the parcel to my door write a card and then take it back to the sorting office. I then have to go to the sorting office and collect it when it suits me. I'd rather get it sent to the local post office and i'd get it on my way home.

uumm http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?catId=400040&mediaId=600011 thats local collect 2 for businesses
you can local collect your items for 50p.this is on every card you get

the fact is you cannot put all packages to a PO(though i happens in some rural areas)
given many po's were shut the remaining ones just dont have the space to take every packet we cannot deliver.
with later starts ican be taking back 90% of my packets every day