Spectos/Royal Mail Monitoring and Posting Panel

NBLondon

bdark2755 said:

Yorkie006 said:

I'm not so bothered about the reward, it's the fact that I have nowhere to post them without having to go out of my way. I did a bit of research and there are 3 parcel boxes within a 5 mile radius of where I live. The closest one is on the edge of town centre a mile away (so often full) and the 2 others are 5 miles away (each in different direction) on (you guessed it) out of town industrial estates. I do not drive so walking 5 miles to a parcel box and 5 miles back is simply not practical and bus tickets are expensive (assuming the bus actually turns up). In the past year, 2 local post offices closed down (one was 5 mins walk away and every time I went there, it was busy) so if I want to go to a post office now, it's 20 min walk each way (and then it's a 10min+ queue to get served). We need post offices with longer opening hours and/or more parcel boxes in more accessible locations (and emptied more often). Sorry for the long rant, I could go on for quite a while still...

It won’t hurt emailing them to ask for an opt out of parcels. There must be lots of people like me that can post extra to cover those that can’t. I work full time on an Industrial Estate with a parcel box I drive past twice a day. I’m more than happy to have extra parcels as it’s not out of my way. 

If enough people fall off the panel and TELL Spectos this is why - then maybe it will eventually filter through to RM that there's an issue.

RM will then point to their Parcel Collection service - which still doesn't work for Yorkie unless they can collect from a workplace at an agreed time (lunchbreak).   And wouldn't work for the panel as it isn't anonymous.

I left Kantar in 2018 or so for the same reason - no PO that I could feasibly get to in a working day (I worked in a different postcode to home).   Only came back when I started working from home and can nip out when convenient.

Money_Grabber13579

I received my missing pack, which should have been posted yesterday, today. So that will have to wait until next Monday.

Also received May’s stamps today.

fluffig

I wish they’d sort their admin out. Yet another letter today saying they’d enclosed a RFID envelope to post back to them. No they didn’t.

I’ve given up telling them when it happens now as they just say they don’t always include it🙄. 

Well, if they are knowingly not sending the RFID enclosures to be returned, I don’t think they should say in the letter that they have🤷🏼‍♀️. Grrr.

Money_Grabber13579

fluffig said:

I wish they’d sort their admin out. Yet another letter today saying they’d enclosed a RFID envelope to post back to them. No they didn’t.

I’ve given up telling them when it happens now as they just say they don’t always include it🙄. 

Well, if they are knowingly not sending the RFID enclosures to be returned, I don’t think they should say in the letter that they have🤷🏼‍♀️. Grrr.

I just ignore that - if they haven’t included one, then I can’t return it and they haven’t chased me to return any of them so doesn’t seem to be causing any problems.

I did have one last week that didn’t have an RFID and then noticed that the bottom of the envelope had been carefully sliced open and then sellotaped shut again. Not sure if someone removed the RFID?

madflower

CRISPIANNE3 said:

A few days ago I received an invite for the unaddressed mail and starts on the 8 May. The last time I accepted it never happened. Also nothing showing on the app yet. 

I had the same and still nothing on the app so I assume I didn't qualify for some reason. I've also just received my first test letter which I assume means I'm now live on the normal send/receive letters/parcels survey although I've had no communication about this and no sending pack. I did get on the correctly delivered survey once since leaving Kantar but was unable to correctly record everything as the most I could record each day was 3. I tried scrolling down and got my partner to look too to see if I was doing something silly. The reply from Spectos, 3 weeks later, was that there should be the option to record up to 10 each day and did I try scrolling down!
Kantar weren't perfect but there seems to be a lot of teething issues with Spectos.

kerri_gt

I don't seem to have any items to post after end of May - anyone else got June dates up yet? Just wondering if I'm being mothballed for a rest period shortly. 

HonestJohn

kerri_gt said:

I don't seem to have any items to post after end of May - anyone else got June dates up yet? Just wondering if I'm being mothballed for a rest period shortly. 

Got a couple already

Saetana

Yorkie006 said:

Oh, and apparently it is okay to take the parcels out of the sack and post them in a normal post box - if they will fit - someone confirmed this with Spectos recently.

That's all fine and dandy, assuming the parcel box is not full to the brim. Last time I had 2 parcels to post (I could not get to a post office during opening hours) so went to take them do a parcel box, only to find out it was so full, I could only post 1 parcel. It was a 1 hour round trip on foot at 4.30am and basically for nothing as I could not complete the task. The other nearest parcel box was 5 miles away and I was not willing to walk there and back just to drop of 1 box, not to mention I did not have the time anyway as I had to be at work at 6am for a 12hr shift...
Clearly, posting parcels is a lot of hassle for me so I'd prefer not having to do it. Letters are fine, I just pop them in the post box on my way to work, but parcels are a pain as all post offices I could get to close between 17:30 and 18:00 and the only nearby parcel box is a long walk out of my way and no guarantee it won't be full when I get there.
Looks like I'll be quitting the panel in the very near future, it's clearly not meant for people working the hours I do.

You can put the parcels in a normal post box - if they will fit - some boxes have a bigger slot than others and I find they are just about big enough for most of the parcels.

Money_Grabber13579

kerri_gt said:

I don't seem to have any items to post after end of May - anyone else got June dates up yet? Just wondering if I'm being mothballed for a rest period shortly. 

I’ve got one showing for June 26!

EDIT - have just realised that they have rescheduled the letter I should have posted yesterday. I was going to post it next Monday but for some reason, they seem to want me to hold onto it for over a month…

gt94sss2

kerri_gt said:

I don't seem to have any items to post after end of May - anyone else got June dates up yet? Just wondering if I'm being mothballed for a rest period shortly. 

I have one in June and one in August (!) showing ATM. Nothing in July so far.