Royal Mail delivery times

[Deleted User]

I’ve had two lots of post this week which is better than previous three weeks where we only got post on Fridays. 

ballisticbrian

Just consider the Royal Mail updates to be for the benefit of the shareholders, patting them on the head and saying "everything is ok."

charlies_mum

For the first time ever, I am about to drop from Top rated to Above Standard as I have so many Late delivery defects.   11 for this month so far.    Beginning to wonder why I pay so much postage to Royal Mail every month.   I understand they are struggling, but why not be honest about it.   

custardy

charlies_mum said:

For the first time ever, I am about to drop from Top rated to Above Standard as I have so many Late delivery defects.   11 for this month so far.    Beginning to wonder why I pay so much postage to Royal Mail every month.   I understand they are struggling, but why not be honest about it.   

This is the thing. They arent 'struggling'
The public facade of a company doing all it can in the face of Covid is far from the truth.
Of course there are areas with high sick and some operational issues.
However its far more about RM capitalising on the situation. This is the end of the USO and RM are doing all they can to make Covid the catalyst for a public relations friendly reason.

soolin

charlies_mum said:

For the first time ever, I am about to drop from Top rated to Above Standard as I have so many Late delivery defects.   11 for this month so far.    Beginning to wonder why I pay so much postage to Royal Mail every month.   I understand they are struggling, but why not be honest about it.   

I know your volumes are vastly higher than mine but might you have issues with your local office who take them in? I am still showing no late defects at all (although that does of course tempt fate to slap me down and no doubt this time next week I shall be on here lamenting I'm at 3% or something  ) despite my incoming post being poor. I don't know why I'm showing no lates, I know some of my stuff must be late, and as I always upload delivery confirmation numbers at point of despatch, ebay must know that as well. I am showing a 2 day dispatch on my business account but posting same or next day, but the past couple of weeks I haven't even been doing that- my mid week sales have been so poor that I haven't gone to the PO every day, I tend to only go daily when I have a lot of facebook items to post. 

soolin

custardy said:

charlies_mum said:

For the first time ever, I am about to drop from Top rated to Above Standard as I have so many Late delivery defects.   11 for this month so far.    Beginning to wonder why I pay so much postage to Royal Mail every month.   I understand they are struggling, but why not be honest about it.   

This is the thing. They arent 'struggling'
The public facade of a company doing all it can in the face of Covid is far from the truth.
Of course there are areas with high sick and some operational issues.
However its far more about RM capitalising on the situation. This is the end of the USO and RM are doing all they can to make Covid the catalyst for a public relations friendly reason.

I have liked your post as I feel if I say too much I may have to give myself a slap on the wrist for going wildly off topic. I will say though that I believe a lot of 'Covid' changes will remain for good now and never be referred to as 'temporary' again. We will all get used to less service, less customer focus and poorer rights than we had pre covid, I think workers will see a return to a lower standard of rights and staffing and basically have to accept it as they will be told they are lucky to still be working at all. 

custardy

soolin said:

custardy said:

charlies_mum said:

For the first time ever, I am about to drop from Top rated to Above Standard as I have so many Late delivery defects.   11 for this month so far.    Beginning to wonder why I pay so much postage to Royal Mail every month.   I understand they are struggling, but why not be honest about it.   

This is the thing. They arent 'struggling'
The public facade of a company doing all it can in the face of Covid is far from the truth.
Of course there are areas with high sick and some operational issues.
However its far more about RM capitalising on the situation. This is the end of the USO and RM are doing all they can to make Covid the catalyst for a public relations friendly reason.

I have liked your post as I feel if I say too much I may have to give myself a slap on the wrist for going wildly off topic. I will say though that I believe a lot of 'Covid' changes will remain for good now and never be referred to as 'temporary' again. We will all get used to less service, less customer focus and poorer rights than we had pre covid, I think workers will see a return to a lower standard of rights and staffing and basically have to accept it as they will be told they are lucky to still be working at all. 

Very much so. I still keep in touch with RM people in many areas.
RM are currently working out the fifth of managers they are removing, whilst bringing in agency managers for Xmas cover
Theres no drive to get back to any form of normality. Spend is front and foremost in decisions.
Mail clearance used to be the daily drive,its long gone.

charlies_mum

I phoned eBay and they suggested I reach out to my buyers and explain that their delivery might be late. They are sure my buyers will be understanding.   They said all sellers are treated the same, but I said if you ship mainly parcels you have a massive advantage. Might as well have talked to the wall. 

 Doesn’t matter anyway, my sales have virtually stopped. 

vacheron

I've had a buyer on today asking where their parcel is which I posted first class on the 14th. I have never had any problems with any missing parcels previously.

RM tracking website recognises the tracking number but says they will only update the tracking when they attempt to deliver which implies it has been somewhere in their system for a week so far.  

RFW

I've sent about 1000 parcels in the second lockdown and am not seeing anywhere near as bad as the first time around, so far only one complaint. That said I have longer estimates on delivery and send everything first class when it's listed as second.
On mail being received it's erratic, 2 or 3 deliveries per week seems to be the norm. Oddly, Saturday saw us get 3 RM deliveries, 2 separate parcel deliveries and regular post.