Royal Mail

davidlizard

It is now almost two weeks past Christmas, yet I am still receiving Christmas cards (many with first class stamps on them) at the rate of 1 or so a day.

I am sure not all of our friends leave posting their cards until the new year, or are posting very early for next Christmas.

And needless to say, about 30% of all cards and other mail arrive with corners lifted or otherwise opened.

Three times our replacement credit cards have been sent, and three times they have failed to arrive. We ended up having to collect them at a branch of the bank.

Needless to say, the Royal Mail has never even had the courtesy to even acknowledge any of our written complaints.

What a third rate service Royal Mail has become.

pinkfluffybabe

I know what you mean, we've had a couple of cards today postmarked 13th December and a pension statement postmarked 12th - where have they been all this time

RAMBLER

If I need to post a letter that needs to get somewhere, I always pay the extra to get it signed - ok still no guarantee, but i've 'lost' so many pieces of mail its manic.

The very least you should do is ask for proof of postage for every item you send

msmicawber

I agree, the Royal Mail has really gone downhill lately. I keep receiving mail for the wrong address, have had 3 items that I've posted recently lost, and my mail appears to take a few days to arrive no matter what postage is on it. I've decided to only use the mail when I have no alternative and, as the poster above does, to ensure I have at least a proof of postage for each item.

smudger1964

In royal mails defence lots of the christmas cards being delivered this week are ones with no postcodes on or addresses which arent that legible .These are generally put to one side before xmas due to the volume of mail and dealt with just after xmas.So0meone has to go through these cards one by one to see if they can decifer the writing or work out what the correct postcode is as not having a correct or any postcode on delays the mail

msmicawber

I can understand that, Smudger, but hasn't that always been the case (since postcodes were introduced anyway)? I've never known the post to be so bad.

smudger1964

Yes i agree it is getting worse due to cost cutting and not taking on any more full timers so every delivery office is now undermanned and relying on overtime to get the job done.If someone leaves as many are doing the management are not replacing them with full timers but only with part timers so hours are being cut hence the poorer service.Staff morale is at an all time low due to this and other cost cutting measures as now royal mail is a business and not a service "apparently"

beccabee_2

Our post is appalling. Had 3 parcels disappear over Christmas, post takes an age to arrive, I was always under the impression that 1st class meant next day??? Yesterday we had no post at all, though we should have received loads of Birthday cards for my sons birthday, all posted Thursday 1st class:mad:

Unfortunately there is no alternative and complaints fall on deaf ears:rolleyes:

Tabby

I have to agree Royal mail is utterly useless. They left their calling card when trying to deliver a parcel to me on the Wednesday saying wait 24 hours before going to the sorting office (15 min walk) to collect. When I went there on Saturday morning (as unsurprisingly like many people I work 9-5 weekdays) the woman behind the counter said sorry it is not back here yet. So where was the parcel? Sitting in a van somewhere? That's nice and secure! So then I had to phone or go online to rebook delivery and pay 50p to have it delivered to my local post office 2 doors away. I complained but have not received any reply after the acknowledgement.

custardy

right where do i start lol

@ tabby.when a driver/postie finishes they may not return to the office depending on how that office runs,rural locations etc (since dropping to 1 delivery) so these items are 'pouched off' at a post office.
this is then moved with the standard mail back to a mail centre and resorted to return to the delivery office.
this usually takes 24-48 hours but somtimes things are delayed.
they are not just 'left in a van'
the vans are in near constant use as after delivery duties they are used for collections duties etc

i was out today on packet deliveries.we have been doing sunday deliveries in my office since the end of november.
i try and see what sort of dates we have and i was doing packets from 21st december right up to 4th january

staff cuts,staff cuts and staff cuts plus the later starts are causing massive issues.this was the worst xmas ever.
less and less full time bodys mean less people to sort mail and it has knock on effects.
i know our local mail centre(which is huge!) kept on 60 xmas casuals as the struggled to keep on top of it.
our office has been clearing packets on overtime with a near open book for anyone who can drive an RM van to clear packets.
right now we are about cleared

to the issue of poorly addressed/no postcode items.unfortunatly these cause problems in a few ways.
eg you get a card that is poorly addressed but not known in your office.
you think well it maybe for x office so forward that in the missirts to that office.
it gets to x office and its not for them.
they then try x office to see if its them
and it continues.this leads to 1000's upon 1000's of items being sorted many times and given we have less staff sorting you see the problems caused.

dont blame the ground level posties.these problems are brought about from the top

Tabby

Custardy, okay so as you have inside knowledge you know what does/does not happen to the undelivered parcels. I do not work for RM and so when the card says wait 24 hrs (they have sometimes said wait 48 hrs) it is reasonable to expect the parcel to be back at the sorting office on Saturday from a Wednesday attempted delivery. I live in London not a rural area and I would rather they said 'the parcel's at your local office (2 doors away) until it can get back to the sorting office' than say the parcel will be at the sorting office on Thursday or even Friday if 24/48 hours.

I don't blame the ground level postie and wouldn't as our local guys are great when I see them (working hours as I previously mentioned) it is the SYSTEM!!!