Royal Mail Redirection service a RIP OFF!

sundaycyclist_2

I have been living in France for one year and that year is almost at an end. At the start of the year I set up a mail redirection costing £72.50.

I have had mail returned to senders marked addressee has gone away rather than redirected.Bland letters from complaints told me it was because they were packages when they were standard DL letters containing one page.
I have had mail delivered to the old address.
I have had other people's mail redirected to me.
I tried in vain to cancel the service early. I was told repeatedly that the mail would no longer be redirected but it was. It said on the computer that the service was cancelled and Royal Mail refused to do anything further even although I had the letters in France that shouldn't have been sent to France - basically it was impossible to rectify problems because no one accepted there was a problem. I was sent the wrong complaint form. I was told managers would contact me - they never did. I was told I'd be informed of the outcome of each complaint - only once was I informed despite numerous complaints. I was just a waste of money. There must be an alternative.

SpammyTheSpammer

Tell the people that are now living at your old address that you will pay THEM £72.50 for forwarding mail and give them a couple of sheaves of sticky labels with your new address to simplify the process for them. Perhaps offer them £2 for each forwarded letter?

CharleneUK

Yikes! I hope we have better luck. We're going to be using this service next month, but may just ask the sellers if they don't mind us transferring the non essential stuff over to their address straight after exchange of contracts.

marleyboy

After my past experience with it I would advise that you dont trust it 100%. There is no refund service from RM should it fail in its duty, with a guarantee that not all mail will be redirected by them, with the usual "it shouldn't happen" excuse but "here's an extension of the problem" when it inevitably does.

If your really lucky, they might throw in a couple of 1st class stamps for your £20 or £75 inconvenience.

jojo2004

marleyboy wrote: »

I had a 3 moth redirect service, costing £25. We only moved a few streets away from the old address, in 6 weeks, I had reported on 3 seperate occasions, that post was still turning up at my old address, this wasnt just junk mail. On all 3 occasions I was informed that it wouldnt happen again, Im now in my 2nd month with the service and STILL mail is turning up at my old address.

Wether the postman is to blame or not, RM are ultimatley responcible, as it was RM I paid the fee to and not the Postman. I now have 2 weeks left of the service, yet I am still not getting it. RM could say "we will extend the service for another month for free if you wish", but at this time should no longer require it.

The fact still remains, that I have not had the service I have paid for. The complaint I have is I am not entitled to a refund simply because they dont have a refunds policy. No matter how many customers HAVE received the service, those that HAVE NOT, have still paid for it and are not entitled to get their money back, because RM dont do that.

If I paid RM insurance as well as postage on a parcel in case it got lost during delivery, and RM lost it during transit, would it be right for RM to say "we dont pay out on the insurance, because the parcel shouldnt have gone missing, but rest assured not all parcels go missing.", would that not make the point of insuring the parcel a waste of money?

So true MarleyBoy - RM should not charge for a service which cannot be guaranteed. They certainly need to look at how best to implement this service properly - or do it for free.

We moved into our flat over 6 months ago, and at least once a week I receive post for the previous tenants, despite them having paid for a redirect.

There is an even more previous (IYSWIM) tenant who went overseas when he left, without transferring various debts away from this address. Despite RTS, informing RM directly, and even eventually opening the most threatening looking of the letters and calling the company directly, the letters still arrive. I know that's the fault of the old tenant, but I do get bored of writing "No longer at this address" or "Return to Sender" on the envelopes and schlepping them to the postbox once a week. You'd think eventually SOMEONE at RM would catch on?

BTW - custardy, I'm sure you do an awesome job, but my best mate's sister worked for RM as a temp, and she tells me that the majority of posties she met were lazy s-o-b's, and that leaving parcels at the depot and only taking the red 'Sorry we missed you' cards prefilled in was standard practice. I recently had a Special Delivery item posted through the postbox - no attempt to ring the doorbell. She's in Glasgow, I'm in London - it seems there aren't many conscientious posties left...

knightstyle

Do you realize that items over 100gms or more than 25cms thick are not redirected abroad? This is what happened to us but I cannot find where it says this on the application form conditions we filled in!!!!!!!!!!!!

custardy

knightstyle wrote: »

Do you realize that items over 100gms or more than 25cms thick are not redirected abroad? This is what happened to us but I cannot find where it says this on the application form conditions we filled in!!!!!!!!!!!!

International Mail - Any item bigger than Letter format over 25mm thickness & over 100g that clearly contains goods cannot be redirected abroad.

its on the site,dunno if its covered by T&C's on the forms?

AdrianW2

Just to add another voice of complaint.

Redirection appears to be just over fifty-fifty effective. There doesn't appear to be any reason to it, e.g. my final BT bill didn't get redirected but the refund cheque did - both sent to exactly the same address.

nikki2804

This happened to us too, my partner got his mail redirected but his stuff still went to his dads house and we got his dads mail. Bizarre considering they have two different names!! We wrote and complained to Royal Mail who come to think of it have not replied ... hmm I think i'll chase that one up.

Mind you my ex's step dad worked for Royal Mail and he used to find it funny that mail for Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in Little France, Edinburgh was normally sent to France! It makes you wonder ...

sweetstudent

I have used the service twice, for both years at university and i had no problem whatsoever! The only problem i had that occasionally i got my parents mail, which i simple popped in the post box at uni!