Royal Mail: Signed For a waste of time. . . literally

PhylPho

We sent off an RAC breakdown subscription on April 12th by Signed For. The RAC still hasn't received it. The reason why the RAC has not received it is because when we go online to Royal Mail and enter the 13-character reference number for that Signed For letter, Royal Mail announces:

We have your item.

Item number xxxxxxxxx was posted at xxxxxxxxxxxx on 12/04/12 and is being progressed through our network for delivery.

Oh really? Well, that's good. For a moment there, we thought you'd lost it. So as you do still have it in your possession, why has it taking eight days -- and counting -- for it to be delivered (sorry: to 'progress through your network for delivery'??)

And also, seeing as you still have it in your possession, just whereabouts in your network is it now -- you must know, otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell us that you're still in the process of delivering it.

Two simple questions, but no answers are forthcoming from Royal Mail nor ever will be because its assurance that "We have your item" is a fiction. And it knows it is.

After wading through umpteen pages of 'customer help' guff on the website, and trying, but failing, to speak to A Real Person rather than a pre-recorded message from one of 10,000 filter options designed to keep the public well away from Royal Mail, we learn that Royal Mail has no idea where our mail is.

It doesn't know because it doesn't track any Signed For mail through its delivery network. With Signed For, it only knows when the mail was posted, and only knows when it has been delivered when a signature is obtained. Royal Mail will be probably be quite happy to leave you waiting indefinitely with glib assurances that "we have your item" when that item was long since lost in transit.

We'll never pay the extra for Signed For again (well done, Royal Mail; that's more revenue lost.) A Certificate of Posting would have left us as much in the dark as paying for Signed For has. But a CoP is free.

Meanwhile, because Royal Mail has reported day after day that it has 'our item', we've waited and waited and now our existing breakdown policy has lapsed and we're without cover.

Had Royal Mail said from the outset on its 'Track and Trace' page that it never has any idea where any Signed For is between posting and delivery, we'd never have waited.

And we'd never have fallen for the blatant lie that our item is still in Royal Mail's possession, either.

Grrrrr. Ends rant.

mazza111

Did you really expect them to be able to lay their hands on it and tell you exactly where it was in the network? RD travels along with normal mail. It is just that, recorded on delivery. My guess is that it's got stuck in a mailbag somewhere, it happens quite regularly I'm afraid. Used to find it all the time when I was emptying the bags, you would find one item from weeks ago that someone hadn't emptied properly. Anything of importance that's time sensitive should really be sent by Special Delivery. You will be able to claim it back in 15 days, if it doesn't turn up by then.

I know the above doesn't help you much, but you really need to know the difference between the 2 before you set off ranting about the service (even though they haven't fulfilled and are in the wrong). So really, it is still progressing through their system, it's just probably stuck somewhere :lipsrseal

soolin

Recorded is not tracked and RM will have no idea where it is. It is just standard post.

There is also the chance that it has actually arrived as in many areas it is never signed for and the online message is not updated.

It is quite clear that this is not a service suitable for urgent or valuable mail and I agree with you that it is basically a waste of money. I get a lot of parcels here and all of them are just handed over, regardless of whether they are recorded or not.

PhylPho

Thanks, Soolin. It's the unnecessary, and truly irritating, deception in play here that is so annoying: why say it still has our mail when it doesn't know whether it has or not? The envelope could've vanished en route during the night of April 12th or at any time afterwards.

For Royal Mail to pretend that it "knows" where our mail is really is a blatant lie.

Its Track & Trace website should state plainly that items sent by Special Delivery are tracked throughout the delivery network, but the whereabouts of Signed For items is never known to Royal Mail until the recipient's signature has been obtained.

Why go to such lengths to obscure that truth and pretend otherwise?

mazza111

It doesn't say it "knows" where your item of mail is though, it just says it's in the network, which in all likelihood it is. Just could be anywhere as I previously said.

Sounds like Soolin has a postie that isn't doing the job properly. It will probably catch up with him one day and he will be no more There are some who do it right.

PhylPho

Sorry, mazza, but the Royal Mail online assurance is unambiguous.

We. Have. Your. Item.

clearly indicates -- as it is doubtless intended to do -- that Royal Mail

Knows

that still, right this very minute, within its possession is. . . Our item.

Yet Royal Mail doesn't know, does it?

Royal Mail has not the slightest idea if our item is still in the process of being delivered or if it was stolen several days ago or fell out of a sack or is lying in a corner of a sorting office somewhere. It hasn't a clue.

As to your earlier comment, it is not unreasonable -- were I to tell you that I have an item, any item, that belongs to you but which happens to be in my possession right now --for you to then ask me: 'Oh, good. Where is it then?'

I can't tell you though. Because I don't actually *know* whether I have it or not. I was just stringing you along. Telling you a lie.

The same way Royal Mail is lying to its customers -- and wasting their time, too.

mynameistallulah

PhylPho wrote: »

Sorry, mazza, but the Royal Mail online assurance is unambiguous.

We. Have. Your. Item.

clearly indicates -- as it is doubtless intended to do -- that Royal Mail

Knows

that still, right this very minute, within its possession is. . . Our item.

Yet Royal Mail doesn't know, does it?

Royal Mail has not the slightest idea if our item is still in the process of being delivered or if it was stolen several days ago or fell out of a sack or is lying in a corner of a sorting office somewhere. It hasn't a clue.

As to your earlier comment, it is not unreasonable -- were I to tell you that I have an item, any item, that belongs to you but which happens to be in my possession right now --for you to then ask me: 'Oh, good. Where is it then?'

I can't tell you though. Because I don't actually *know* whether I have it or not. I was just stringing you along. Telling you a lie.

The same way Royal Mail is lying to its customers -- and wasting their time, too.

To the best of their knowledge, RM still had your item. Hence, there was no lie.

arcon5

I have a friends Dr Who box set, in fact have had it for a few weeks now and should really return it.

But I can't remember/don't know where i've put it. I do know though it's either in the storage area out back or in the spare bedroom. I do know I have his item though, just not where it is

PhylPho

mynameistallulah wrote: »

To the best of their knowledge, RM still had your item. Hence, there was no lie.

Sheesh. Is it really that difficult to follow this? Let's try again.

Royal Mail says on its website and on its answerphone filter options that it has "no knowledge" of what happens to anything between the time a letter or package is posted and the time it is delivered by Signed For.

Royal Mail has "no knowledge" of the conditiion, status, or whereabouts of any Signed For letter or package because it does not track that kind of mail in order to obtain that kind of knowledge.

Royal Mail therefore has no idea if such a letter or package is still within its delivery network or not.

In what way, then, does your assertion make any kind of sense???

Because if Royal Mail has no knowledge at all. . . then "the best of their knowledge" adds up to precisely. . . Nothing.

Just as if you had absolutely no idea of what you're talking about on a given subject, you too would be lying if you started making specific and unambiguous statements of fact absent any true knowledge of those facts.

The issue of corporate ethics / corporate responsibility with any business is what it knowingly says. When it doesn't know, it shouldn't say.

And when it gives the deliberate appearance of knowing, absent any such knowledge, then yes: it's lying. As here. With Royal Mail.

mazza111

k let's start again.

RM have failed you. No doubt about that, shouldn't take 8 days or whatever to delivery a letter.

However, as stated, RM don't consider an item to be lost for 15 days. Therefore, it's still progressing through their system. I really don't see it as a lie. It is in their system, they just don't know where. Chances are it is lost, as they don't acknowledge that before 15 days....

The only problem I have ever had with RM and RD is that some posties, not all, don't do the job properly as Soolin as stated and don't collect a signature for the delivery therefore breaking the terms of the contract.

The chances are, your item is lost. RM won't entertain that thought until the 15 days have passed. It's the way they work, and it's clear on their terms and conditions. It could still turn up of course. Given the circumstances I explained earlier, or of course it could be completely lost, then you have to claim for the loss.

custardy

recorded delivery
a record of delivery
Think you need to up that Bromide dosage