*Update* Post Office / Royal Mail

Gers

Think I'm stuck between the two organisations so any advice would be most welcome.

On 19 December last year I paid for a parcel to be sent to Reading by Special Delivery next day guaranteed. It wasn't delivered until 21 December so I submitted a refund of fee claim with RM.  Today I've been told by RM that SD was suspended from a date in November (can't recall the exact one) until 27 December because of the ongoing strike action.

I can't understand why the PO took the instruction and allowed me to pay the fee. I'll complain to them but just wonder if I'll be left roaming in the wilderness between them.

user1977

Thread on identical point here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6421361/royal-mail-conning-customers-or-not#latest

Alderbank

There is a full discussion of this issue in the current thread 
 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79833949#Comment_79833949

Essentially  RM said they could not guarantee one part of the service (next day delivery) during strike days but could still offer other aspects of the enhanced service in return for the enhanced fee. 

jon81uk

If the Post Office staff mis-sold by telling you that it will arrive next day then maybe there is a claim, but its your word against theirs I expect.

Post Office website does state some service guarentees are suspended during industrial action
https://www.postoffice.co.uk/industrial-action

The Royal Mail website also sets out the the guarantee is suspended https://www.royalmail.com/latest-news

Gers

Hadn't seen the earlier discussion.

RM told me that PO shouldn't have sold the SD service on 19 December though PO didn't advise me that delivery would be delayed.  I'll complain to PO and see what happens.

I suppose I should be grateful that the parcel arrived even though it was a day late.  Sometimes it's best to not sweat the small things even if the cost is three times more than it could have been.

Thanks for flagging up the earlier thread.

soolin

I don’t understand whyRM said that the PO shouldn’t have sold the service at all, RM were still selling it just without the next day guarantee bit. I think  there would be an uproar if RM took away their only enhanced insured service which a number of people use not for the next day bit but for the insured cover. 

In fact this is from their website ,so no, special delivery wasn’t suspended .

Key information for national strikes

Priority Items on days of Industrial Action

Special Delivery Guaranteed: We will continue to accept, prioritise and deliver as many Special Delivery items as our resources allow during strike action. However, we cannot guarantee delivery of all items by 9am or 1pm next day. We will therefore suspend the next day guarantee for items sent the day before, during strike action and until our services are back to normal

https://www.royalmail.com/latest-news

Gers

soolin said:

I don’t understand whyRM said that the PO shouldn’t have sold the service at all, RM were still selling it just without the next day guarantee bit. I think  there would be an uproar if RM took away their only enhanced insured service which a number of people use not for the next day bit but for the insured cover. 

In fact this is from their website ,so no, special delivery wasn’t suspended .

Key information for national strikes

Priority Items on days of Industrial Action

Special Delivery Guaranteed: We will continue to accept, prioritise and deliver as many Special Delivery items as our resources allow during strike action. However, we cannot guarantee delivery of all items by 9am or 1pm next day. We will therefore suspend the next day guarantee for items sent the day before, during strike action and until our services are back to normal

https://www.royalmail.com/latest-news

 Me neither - the RM agent I spoke to this morning explicitly told me that they had suspended the service and PO should not have agreed to my request.  That's what I can't understand - however, I am resolved to remove this from my life now!

Gers

Update: my resolve wasn't as strong as my irritation so I sent off an email to Post Office to complain about this. 

Today I've received a response from them upholding my complaint and awarding me a full refund of the SD fee I paid. 

Happy result. 

Gers

Update 2 - my refund voucher arrived by email this morning so I took it to a PO - the assistant was baffled at first as he hadn't seen one before but it scanned and popped up on his monitor so I am now fully refunded.