Royal Mail home collections - not collecting

ailey

Has anyone been having problems with Royal Mail not collecting parcels, paid for online, on the agreed collection day? This is the second time out of 3 collections that they have not picked up the parcels so just wondering if it's a general thing that some areas are experiencing or local to us. They have the special offer on at the moment until 26 September but not sure if I might go back to Hermes when the offer finishes as they never let me down in the past. I'd like to stick with Royal Mail but I don't want marked down by EBay for late despatch of items. 

custardy

So I have some knowledge on this process. Its not perfect. As with most RM systems its designed with the assumption every duty has a postie and there's never a problem.
Every duty has a collections barcode (if the duty has PO/post box collections)and a delivery barcode. The delivery barcode checks for parcel collect jobs. Both barcodes are scanned as part of the daily PDA log on process
If a duty is lapsed/uncovered then the only 'check' is for a manager to check an online report for parcel collect jobs for that day.
Sick is spiking in RM right now alongside them having brought in Sunday parcel deliveries, evening tracked deliveries, extending some callers hours and bringing back the SD 1pm
Many offices are failing duties daily and struggling for cover.
Obviously In speaking in general terms but its the most likely cause for failed parcel collects

ailey

Thanks for your reply, custardy. Yes they certainly seem to be having problems with their new home collection system sadly.  A bit difficult when we have despatch dates to meet on EBay with the chance of getting a mark against us when parcels don't get picked up on the agreed day. Unfortunately our local Post Office closed down so this service would be a good help if they could collect when agreed. It's very disappointing. That was a good detailed explanation of what might cause their non-collections. Thanks again.