Royal Mail Special delivery

Lady_K

I just wanted to tell people my experiences with the Royal Mail Special Delivery service as I think it’s failing like a lot of the Royal Mail services at the moment.

The track and trace service for the Special Delivery on the net is almost useless as 9/10 times it comes up with 'Sorry we cannot trace this item at this time please try later or ring the helpline'

This particular time I rang the number and they could not trace it either, they told me to check tomorrow as it may be delivered tomorrow. “This is supposed to be next day guaranteed before noon delivery” I told them but they said there was nothing else they could do, as they had no other information. I got concerned so phoned the place it was sent to and they said they have not received it. So I rang Royal Mail back again and they suggested I rang the local sorting office in the area where the parcel went to as they are open till 6 30 PM but they haven’t answered the phone so I couldn’t check with them. I rang back again and they told me to try customer services which I did and they have informed me that they cannot trace it either and they too said it will probably be in the system and to ring tomorrow to see if its been delivered. They said they do not update the Internet site until 2 PM tomorrow afternoon, so much for track and trace on the net and proof of next day delivery.

If an item goes missing you can claim but it has to be missing for at least 15 days and you have to fill in a claim form that you pick up from the post office to start off the claim procedure. If an item is delayed you can only claim the cost of the postage covered by the guarantee for delivery before 12 noon so if its something really important that critically needs to get there for the next day I would say you’d take a risk to rely on this... When my daughter is at home during University holidays she has previously used this service to send important assignments that have had to be in by deadlines and I realise now just how disastrous it could have been if they had not turned up in time. So basically be careful using this service, it might be proof of posting but it might not turn up on the day you want it to

cochise_2

Dont even get me started on Special Delivery. We had an extremely high value envelope sent via this. It was signed for whilst we were both at work and the post office conveniently cannot trace the signature. I have brought the police in but they cannot do anything until the post office have completed a complaint from the senders. I am chomping at the bit to get at this one.

coupon_king_2

I too had special delivery letter pushed through my letter box which was supposed to be signed for .... FUNNY how this can happen when we were both out when he called !

Freebie_Hunter_2

I had a recorded delivery letter put in my letterbox with the barcode label peeled off and the recorded delivery label half picked off!
The nice postie had signed for it for me - but I live in a house with 2 doorbells so who says it would get safely to me?!
Luckily the other bell is my landlady and I get on very well with her


Also my post arrived at 6pm on wednesday!

Hmmm ........

blinky

I think these days they assume nobody is in during the day, hence they self sign things.

It wasn't a special delivery but I was expecting a book from amazon and I knew it wouldn't fit through the post box. The only reason I knew the postie had tried to deliver it was because I saw him walking back down my drive - he hadn't bothered knocking, he just decided it was easier to stick a card through the door.

Don't bother ever marking anything as fragile, they don't take any notice, they'll still chuck it around.

My sorting office is open half day (6-12) but don't bother ringing - they never answer.

We also went through a phase of getting our post around 2-3pm. Not much fun when you are waiting for important letters.

To be honest most carriers have their faults.

Citylink (aka S***tylink) been stung by their imfamous 'we tried to deliver it but you didn't answer the door in the nanosecond we waited'.

DHL (DH-Hell?)- I'd paid for a next day delivery, waited - didn't turn up so by mid afternoon I rang up and they said they'd forgot to put it on the van and I would have to wait till the following Monday for delivery. After much badgering of a manager they said it would delivered that night. The guy who delivered it worked for a private courier whose main business was delivering things that DHL had forgotten to deliver. They said it happened all the time.

cheesemaster

:-/ After ordering some expensive aquatic supplies on the web, they were despatched via Parcelfarce. Sure enough, they lived up their name!

Their tracking page showed the parcel had been delivered and signed for - which obviously neither of us in the house knew anything about. The signature on the tracking page was some kind of bizarre scrawl.

As they had a signature (it could have been signed 'Mickey Mouse' for all they cared) and as the driver when quizzed by Parcelforce's "search team" rather dishonestly claimed that we had signed for it, they wouldn't help us any further, despite our Parcel vanishing into thin air.

Fortunately, the supplier was understanding and agreed to send the goods again through another Courier if we both sent proof of our signatures, which would show Parcelfarce's signature for what it was - a dishonest forgery.

This experience along with a number of others has led me never to trust Royal Mail or Parcelforce again - and recorded/special delivery means absolutely nothing.

raeble

Recorded delivery is not a guaranteed service. Special delivery is, if something goes missing they should pay compensation upto £250. I have to admit that when I was working as a despatch clerk I only had trouble with special delivery once in six years and that was because of the flooding a few years back.

I know that royalmail have been getting worse in recent years though, and parcelforce do use quite a few agency drivers.

Most courier services have their problems, even if you can afford to pay for another service they can still balls it up. e.g tnt delivering european mail for my new employer, there were so many complaints within the two weeks, to a month that they switched. That they have now switched back to royalmail.

bridiej

What I can't understand is how RM have announced profits of £1m a day and that they are delivering more first class mail on time - although it's only gone up by 4%!!

Our mail is getting worse and worse, but our local postie is a gem, a really nice guy who I hope will get his £800 bonus!

IAmATeaf

I sent out 2 seperate packages using Special Delivery. According to their tracking service and according to the recipients neither got there the next day so I complained. I rang their Tracking line, told them of the problem, the guy told me what date the parcel had been delivered, when I told him that in fact that was a day too late he said oh hold on there's been an update and in fact it was delivered on time and then hung up on me. I rang through again, same thing happended , the guy hung up. So I rang CS, they agreed that the delieveries were late and put in a claim to reimburse me the deleivery costs. Next thing I know is I recieve a letter no claiming that although they couldn't prove it they had no signature the parcels had in fact been deleivered on time therefore there was no claim. But being the numpties they are they still managed to get the date of one the deliveries out by a day so I rang through again and finally got through a cheque just the other day.

Bottom line is from my experience they make things up on the spot, will fob you off and then hang up. The irony of of it all is that I sent a parcel just using normal Parcel Post and it got there the next day.

saving-money_4

I work for the Royal Mail so I would like to clear a few things up for folks

Special Delivery
Guaranteed next working day by 9am or 1pm depending on the service used. Prices from £3.75. Next Working Day delivery only applies if you have sent the item via a collection driver or post office before the last collection by Royal Mail on that day. Saturdays not classed as working day.
If the item is delayed you are entitled to a full refund for the postage paid which you can claim by obtaining a claim form from your local post office
If the item is lost you can claim for the value of the item upto the compensation level paid for, usually £250 for 1pm or £50 for 9am unless extra requested and paid for

I must say I believe Special Delivery is very reliable and resonable value for money for letters and packages, too expensive for over 2KG I believe

Recorded Delivery
This is a standard service 1st or 2nd class and costs 65p extra to obtain a signature on delivery

Royal Mail postal workers are not allowed to leave mail outside or with a neighbour.

No Recorded or Special Delivery items are allowed to be posted without a signature. If you ever receive an item where a signature hasn't been obtained please inform your local sorting office instantly as it will probably be a postal worker who has signed the package himself, or an agency worker who hasn't been trained to know about Recorded's etc and has just posted the item

Private Mail Sectors all too have their faults as does the Royal Mail. But obviously due to the proportion of mail the Royal Mail deliver being much greater compared with the private mail sectors the amount of faults can only be expected to be greater too

trace-j

I think service can vary depending on where you post to. For example I frequently use Special and Recorded services without too much hassle. However on all the occasions I had to mail to London items end up getting delivered with no signatures.

I think there was some documentary on this last year and the London sorting offices.