Post office - long delivery times

Brie

OK so my brother sent me a letter.  Granted it was from overseas but that usually would just add a week at most.

But he got my postcode wrong.  Slightly wrong, and only the very last digit.  So the post office should have got it somewhere quite local.  And then someone should have realised that the actually address is correct.  And it could have been delivered promptly.  Instead it took 7 weeks.  Which is unfortunately as it was an urgent issue.

So everything fine on the address except at the very end instead of a U he put W.  This made it into an postcode that doesn't exist.  So someone at the post office marked it as incorrect.  And then crossed off the town name.  And sent it to a different county where they have that same town name but a completely different post code.  And then someone crossed that off and sent it back. And today it landed on my door mat.  

Now I'm grateful that someone at the post office took the time to finally get this to me - I know that would never have happened in it's country of origin unless it's a letter improperly addressed to Santa Claus.  I'm just wondering why they would think the town name was wrong when it's exactly where the majority of the post code is.

Sorry for the rant - just slightly boggled by it all.

TadleyBaggie

Nothing that do with the Post Office, it’s Royal Mail that do delivery. 

Brie

sorry to rant incorrectly!!!

TadleyBaggie

No apology needed. 

custardy

Brie said:

OK so my brother sent me a letter.  Granted it was from overseas but that usually would just add a week at most.

But he got my postcode wrong.  Slightly wrong, and only the very last digit.  So the post office should have got it somewhere quite local.  And then someone should have realised that the actually address is correct.  And it could have been delivered promptly.  Instead it took 7 weeks.  Which is unfortunately as it was an urgent issue.

So everything fine on the address except at the very end instead of a U he put W.  This made it into an postcode that doesn't exist.  So someone at the post office marked it as incorrect.  And then crossed off the town name.  And sent it to a different county where they have that same town name but a completely different post code.  And then someone crossed that off and sent it back. And today it landed on my door mat.  

Now I'm grateful that someone at the post office took the time to finally get this to me - I know that would never have happened in it's country of origin unless it's a letter improperly addressed to Santa Claus.  I'm just wondering why they would think the town name was wrong when it's exactly where the majority of the post code is.

Sorry for the rant - just slightly boggled by it all.

Its almost like the wrong postcode details created the issue but of course we should certainly skim over that blame.
Mail is generally mech sorted using postcodes. So an address that doesnt exist is likely ejected for manual sorting at every (UK) machine on the journey.
Yes the likelihood is its probably the most obvious answer to try the same postocde area. However you may find this is a regular issue for those postcode sectors/towns. Maybe it was a new postie 
As for calling it Post Office. Trust me folks who work for PO and RM get tired of explaining the difference daily (yes) when people go to the wrong place /organisation for whatever it is the need/want to moan about.

Brie

And yes I will also give my brother a rant for making such a silly mistake.

GaleSF63

custardy said:

As for calling it Post Office. Trust me folks who work for PO and RM get tired of explaining the difference daily (yes) when people go to the wrong place /organisation for whatever it is the need/want to moan about.

It probably didn't help that when one organisation became 2, it didn't really make any practical difference to the general public. They still go to the post office to send their parcels by RM, still buy their RM stamps at the post office and still post their letters in boxes which often look something like this... I assume the letter boxes are all owned by RM now?
I hope they never change or get rid of the Post Office letter boxes though.

sheramber

That is a box from the reign of Edward 8th.  Not many of there left.

GaleSF63

sheramber said:

That is a box from the reign of Edward 8th.  Not many of there left.

Bawdsey, Suffolk. Photo is about 30 years old but I hope the box is still there. 

nyermen

GaleSF63 said:

sheramber said:

That is a box from the reign of Edward 8th.  Not many of there left.

Bawdsey, Suffolk. Photo is about 30 years old but I hope the box is still there. 

Probably is, most of the really old remaining ones have been listed I think?

custardy

GaleSF63 said:

custardy said:

As for calling it Post Office. Trust me folks who work for PO and RM get tired of explaining the difference daily (yes) when people go to the wrong place /organisation for whatever it is the need/want to moan about.

It probably didn't help that when one organisation became 2, it didn't really make any practical difference to the general public. They still go to the post office to send their parcels by RM, still buy their RM stamps at the post office and still post their letters in boxes which often look something like this... I assume the letter boxes are all owned by RM now?
I hope they never change or get rid of the Post Office letter boxes though.

By the same argument. Why not refer to it as the GPO?
How many decades will the same excuse/reason be used? 
Calling it one thing but not knowing the difference is the issue. Yet folks are always quick to excuse it
RM,PO & BT were split out (in various forms) in the 80's. So that 1 organisation became 3. Nearly 40 years ago