Progress is...

beanielou

That’s not good. Also get very cross that people cannot wait long enough for me to answer the door.  🤬

Cheery_Daff

I complained about a post office in town last week - our local village one is great but obviously only open in the day, so I drove into town to one that's in a Morrisons and supposedly open same hours as the shop - only to find a hand written notice with worse opening times than the local village one! I checked the website again, and when a 'rate our website' survey came up I gave them one star and complained they were giving false information 😂 obviously nothing will come of it.

We do have another shop on my way to work where the post office is open the same hours as the shop, 7am til 10pm, and to be fair the post office counter has ALWAYS been open when I've been in. Helps that it's behind the same counter, using the same staff - the other one is a separate unit at the back of the shop.

rtandon27

@themadvix - I raised a complaint via Resolver, a tool I found on MSE - I think Martin had a hand in creating it at some point? - I then followed up on the Post Office's own site with a secondary complaint referring back to my Resolver case number at each and every turn.  Might be overkill, but I found this method worked several times previously over the years with other sub-standard service!

Quite honestly, I feel that the more people who exercise their voice when it comes to poor service, the more accurate picture the parent companies get as to how their reputation is being sullied by skivers!

@badmemory - yes I totally agree with you - when we lived rurally on the farm we had a lovely Evri/Hermes driver who had a lovely personality and was kind and considerate despite English not being his first language & his struggle to communicate!  Our current delivery person is rude and obnoxious to the point where I've now purchased security cameras to record his behavior.  I try and route all packages through that company to the local corner shop, run by a lovely Sikh family who have wonderful customer service skills.

@beanielou - I've put notes on both the big river site and the RM app that they need to wait at the door to accommodate disability and allow extra time for us to come to the door.  Unfortunately it's a bit hit an miss as to the language/reading skills of the delivery person!  If they are literate in English, our instructions are followed and if not then we get the drop on the step and run or the knock and run away with the parcel.

@Cheery_Daff - Living in a small town, I find that ratings are the new way of passing around village gossip about the poor quality of some of the businesses!  I'd honestly say that the only way to get heard by the big companies is to raise a complaint via Resolver (for the big issues) or via their own complaints portal!

We've had a result today - my xmas pressie from OH has arrived safe and sound via RM.  They left a red card properly yesterday and the package has been scanned and logged at every step of the way.  I think my escalation of the last complaint has trickled through. FINALLY!

Progress is...
Getting the current RM staff & contractors to follow correct procedures in delivering a package after a FULL YEAR of logging complaints about their service!

Sadly the lost/stolen package is still missing and I have a claim in with the Post Office for the value of the package and my wasted time trying to track it down.  I've finally also received several less than acceptable answers from the seller of the lost/stolen goods so have initiated a chargeback via my credit card.  Once I get the money back in hand, I will be adding a very poor rating to their G00gle listing and to their automated rate our service page!

A lovely little quote sent to me by my dear OH "Every step you take, no matter how small, is still a step forward,"

badmemory

Many years ago the company I worked for used to use mostly 3 different carriers.  Very expensive went by one.  Then if is going to town A don't send by RM & if it going to town B don't send by normal carrier because they used to get lost.  It will be different towns & different carriers now but I'm sure it still happens.

Greying_Pilgrim

Oh RT - I was just thinking of you. 

I have a parcel coming (allegedly) which is carried by RM.  I have just been on the tracking system to see where it's got to.  I haven't had any parcels delivered by RM for well over 6 months.  It seems you now have to verify that you are not a bot to get to see where your parcel is 😱 

#patronising

Parcels have a propensity to get "stuck" at this particular hub, and last time we had a Saturday delivery, we received no knock at the door, no notification, and the parcel was left out in the open air, in storm "someone or other" 😱

And I have to prove that I am a sentient being.....................................

Greying X

rtandon27

Progress is...
...being 8 days into the month and still temporarily mortgage neutral! 

Mind you this is only by 154 pounds, which will disappear and then some, when mid-month bills come out!  annual car break-down cover, bi-weekly veg box, quarterly window cleaner (we are on a road with regular traffic), gas/electric, mortgage related life insurance, monthly petrol fill-up are all due to be paid next week - this will eat up that amount and then some! 

I love that our big bills all come out at the beginning of the month and the remainder mid-month.  By the third weekend I clear off the credit cards in full as we only use them for the points/cashbacks and then the last weekend of the month we budget for the following month and start all over again!

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@badmemory - that is amazing regarding the different carriers - I wish more companies would allow choice when it comes to carrier!  When we were rural I remember having to switch a subscription delivery to RM as the monthly box kept arriving damaged and or water logged by the other carrier!

@Greying_Pilgrim - Can I prompt you to install the RM app on your phone?  I did so recently and it works like a dream!  Can I also be the one to stir it up if your RM parcel does not appear on time or in line with their own procedures?  Complain, complain, complain - it's the only way the hubs get a kick up the backside and keep their staff & contractors in line! (SL - close your ears to this, I know your boy works for them!!!)...and GP you certainly don't have to prove to any of us you are a fully sentient being! 🤣🤣🤣

rtandon27

Progress is...
...being approx. halfway through the month & approx. halfway though the budget!
The memory of more month than money still haunts me from years gone by.

Feeling calm about the bills has been years in the making - I feel so much better having payments go out at the beginning, middle and end of the month!  Makes the pay appear to be spread out more evenly between paydays, even though I know that everything is budgeted for and the funds are available to trickle out no matter where in the month the bills fall.

My 'ladies who lunch' buddy of 13 years had just reminded me that she owes me money from our last outing!  I classified it as gifts in my budgeting app and promptly forgot about it as there was enough saved to cover it!  My sister will not be getting anything this year for xmas if I don't claim it back!  I'm of two minds about this as the kin has not been particularly interactive over this past year, but my monthly lunch mate is always supportive and loving on a continuous basis - she makes me laugh heartily and gives supportive cuddles when I'm sad.  I might just have to shuffle extra funds into the gifts category and treat her to next month's lunch out!

beanielou

What a lovely friend you. 

rtandon27

@beanielou - awww - thank-you for the complement, it is very kind of you to say so! - Indeed, my 'ladies who lunch' buddy is the lovely one & has been her chatty bubbly self through thick and thin!  I count myself blessed to have her in my life!

Well today, my baby steps are of a different sort...
Progress is...
...having allocated sick days and knowing when to take one!  Just a few short years ago, I'd have ploughed through

I've come over with a head cold, and the cold & flu meds are only just taking the the edge off it!  It's been a couple of years since I've had Covid and even longer since having any sort of streaming cold so I'm feeling particularly sorry for myself!  Have on warm winter pyjamas and fluffy socks with a heating pad in my lap.  To OH's displeasure no sympathy is going his way as in addition to the cold, he also has man-flu and is 100% worse off than I am by his own reckoning.

Cherryfudge

Get well soon, @rtandon27, and your OH too. I have a lighter version of the cold right now but even so it's taken my energy and made me sleep more. I reckon the body asks for extra rest as it needs to put resources into recovery. I learned the hard way that we do pay for things that happen, whether illness or trauma or perhaps something else. We feel we are coping, but something in us is working on the budget and will take what is needed from another pot, be that extra sleep, lack of focus, clumsiness, or even coming down with an illness once the adrenalin stops flowing.

So taking a sick day may be counter-cultural, but it makes very good sense. Rest, distract yourself (sleep or TV or a good book perhaps), plenty of fluids and some antioxidants if you have any to hand.

I do feel we all had more of a break from colds over Covid, which was nice at the time but a bad one is still miserable and perhaps we feel it more for not having had so many over recent years?