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It's been a very challenging year and the lack of real preparation for what is expected to easily be a record breaking Xmas is shocking, unless you already know just how poor they often prepare for a non-Covid Xmas.
And nobody likes that guy at the desk with a sack full of parcels…
I do - the more post the better......
whilst we're talking about RM, has anyone used the new pick up option when sending something?
My posties have always been great, however post office staff are another thing altogether. I can only assume "torn faced arsehole" is the main qualifying criteria for the job. I hate the people in our closest one with a passion. Absolute cretins that clearly take pleasure in their inability to provide a service. For example a point blank refusal to accept anything with a battery in it, despite it being allowed to be sent according the Royal Mails rules for batteries.
People still seem to have the thought that royal mail and postoffice are the same thing
I resemble that remark. I made the mistake of buying Tracked 48 labels from royalmail.com and taking them to a Post Office only to find that they wouldn't accept them and I had to wait til the next alternate Tuesday when a RM depot was open. Yes, it's all there in the small print but it's still frustrating.
MrsJ had to get some 'proof of identity' stuff done for a job security clearance and between people wearing masks and nobody exactly knowing the rules (e.g. accepting printouts of online bank statements) it was quite an ordeal.
Having said all that, practically everything I've posted has arrived fine.
For example a point blank refusal to accept anything with a battery in it,
Yeah but you only get caught that way once and then you just deny under oath that anything you're sending has a battery 🙂
For example a point blank refusal to accept anything with a battery in it
We can take stuff with batteries, but it has to be inside the item (phone battery inside a phone for example). It gets a special sticker and everything 😂
We cant just send batteries on their own. Must have been a fire caused by a battery at some point at a guess.....
Nope. Send stuff. Receive stuff. Just working like normal for me.
Royal Mail are pretty bad at the best of times but now stuff is super slow. Every package I have got over the last few weeks has been a week or so delayed. Recently tried to get some coffee sent to me last week from North london I love in SE london, a week later items still haven't shown so the company are now doing a reorder.
whilst we’re talking about RM, has anyone used the new pick up option when sending something?
Yes I’ve used it. Cost 72p extra. Seemed to work well as I got an email proof of sending with the tracking info on it too.
Posted something today and it was about to go 2nd class but the lady in the PO said it will take at least 7 days. As it was an eBay item I relented and sent it 1st class but all the assurance was that it “might be there in a couple of days”.
I think I’ll leave the rest of the eBay selling until after Xmas.
I’m not “bashing” them in intentionally, just stating my experience. It’s just a bit sad really as they were the good standard in my eyes for small packages but it’s hard to stay with them right now for anything but letters.
Frustrated with them certainly!
I live down a 500m track. Perfectly drivable etc, but with a post box at the top to save them having to do it.
Except when ever something needs a signature (and they don’t even take one now!) they leave the card rather than coming down.
I then have to take time off work and drive an hour round trip to the collection place! Properly grinds my gears but I have no idea what the solution is!?
@FFJA posties havent been taking recipient signatures since March, "signed for" is now "signed by the postman" delivering..
That’s what I thought! Which baffles me why they won’t leave stuff where they leave the letters?!
We can take stuff with batteries, but it has to be inside the item (phone battery inside a phone for example). It gets a special sticker and everything 😂
We cant just send batteries on their own. Must have been a fire caused by a battery at some point at a guess…..
A tiny pair of bluetooth headphones. They absolutely point blank refused to accept them as they contained batteries.
They're also point blank refusing to accept packages containing alcohol despite the clear guidelines around what alcohol can be sent.
Its manic at work! even Kendal which is quite rural is experiencing very heavy workloads with rounds going our every other day on normal items, tracked /signiture go out every day!
Royal Mail has failed to get enough vans, pdas for the extra staff we have taken on they also run a Covid secure workplace so if you working in a very old building like we do its a nightmare with social distancing.
I rarely work OT but 17 hours worked last week the same this week probably working my day off as I know they will not cover my day off and I will get hammered when I come in.
Most customers understand the issues and staff hate to see mail fail so work over and beyond their contracted hours.
Rich
A tiny pair of bluetooth headphones. They absolutely point blank refused to accept them as they contained batteries.
They’re also point blank refusing to accept packages containing alcohol despite the clear guidelines around what alcohol can be sent.
Sounds like they are doing it wrong, electronic items containing batteries can be sent, horizon (post office till system) just prompts for a battery sticker. Alcohol is fine is also fine in the uk, you just can't put it on a plane (international post).
That’s what I thought! Which baffles me why they won’t leave stuff where they leave the letters?!
Phone your local sorting office (after Christmas 😁) and ask your postman to come to the house for signed for. They prob think your out and doing you a favour.
Yes I’ve used it. Cost 72p extra. Seemed to work well as I got an email proof of sending with the tracking info on it too.
This baffles me, royal mail have taken the postoffice fee for themselves out of the price and added an additional 72p to do a parcel pickup. But by doing so have shot themselves in the foot with postoffice who are in renegotiation of contract and could take on other carriers as a result. Massive mistake of the PO take on cheaper or alternative carriers,
Posted something today and it was about to go 2nd class but the lady in the PO said it will take at least 7 days.
Every year we are told by the postmen and sorting staff that when it gets busy there is only one speed of post. But the official line is 2nd class is a minimum 3 working days & 1st is minimum of 1 working day - note that there isn't a maximum on either.
I think in the circumstances they are doing a great job. We get 2 deliveries today and my postie stopped and had a distanced cuppa with me this AM ! As always he will get his nice bottle of malt whisky as a thank you
We send hundreds daily with Royal Mail and mostly they do a good job, things always get dicey in December but this is definitely one of the most nervous for us, a perfect storm of volume, staff and covid.
The main problem is the Royal Mail Oubliette – a place where stuff gets forgotten about. RM get fined based on the % of items delivered late, you’d think once an item is late they’d make an extra effort to deliver. No, they hide it in a warehouse somewhere (the Oubliette) and focus on parcels that are not yet overdue – if they didn’t it would mean more late items and bigger fines, but the stuff already late can’t hurt their metrics more, so are forgotten about.
For a business this is a difficult situation as stuff sent later arrives sooner, customers think it’s somehow our fault as stuff they’ve ordered a couple of days ago has arrived but stuff we sent Black Friday hasn’t. It’s upsetting as we’ve worked hard to stock, pack and ship in a timely fashion only for the last and most important mile out of our hands.
If there is something I’d change about the service is if they can’t get it there in a couple of weeks it needs to come back or our losses multiple. Royal Mail will still deliver a parcel long after we’ve refunded or resent, and you can’t claim for a parcel that’s been delivered.
Maybe not quite as bad as 2009 when we had a big freeze before Christmas and I thought we would go out of business that much stuff was delayed, but similar problems to strike years.
They are still a cost effective service when they work, if we sent everything on DPD (who despite record volumes have been superb this year) we’d either have to pass the a couple of quid more on and sell half as much or absorb the cost and make no profit so just suck it up and try and manage customer expectations.
royal mail is the most reliable deliveries that I get by a long way
Totally agree with Muke and Houns, please stop bashing the poor posties FFS! 😠😠😠😠
I took redundancy 11 years ago, the bloke I trained up is now our postie. When I spoke to him a couple of days ago the exhaustion and frustration he was experiencing was written all over his face 😞😞😞😞
His experience has been the same, been like Xmas since March, 10 hour days are the norm, all you whingers on here, try being on your feet most days for 10 hours and as has also been said going to work knowing the chances of completing your round most days are slim to none. Old story shit always rolls down hill and the poor sod at the bottom gets covered in it! 😠😠😠
To sum up, I think it's safe to say I'm glad I took the money and ran when I did. I know it's impossible but try blaming the right people not the cannon fodder in the firing line.
Totally agree with Muke and Houns, please stop bashing the poor posties FFS!
Not sure there are many here bashing the posties. They've horrendously overworked, so I understand. Ours certainly seems to have bugger all time at any given delivery and looks rushed off their feet.
It gives an inevitable drop in service at the receiving end of things. As I said, a number of "sorry we couldn't deliver" cards, when they plainly could have delivered because we were there. How rushed do you have to be to not wait half a minute for someone to answer the door?
And all of which is the fault of RM inc., not the individual posties.
And as someone else said, it's boom time for logistics, and if RM can't get it right at this moment in time...
48 hr service from Sportpursuit that took 6 days, most of the time no updates on the tracking.
Tablet form Curry's went into a distribution centre then all tracking stopped and a week later hadn't updated, hopefully 2nd tablet on the way after extended negotiations and a bit of a Twitter rant from the Mrs (who did 30 years in retail)
My theory is they might be quite busy, however loosing stuff is a bit poor.
Wobbliescott I'd like to know who you're using and where you ship to because we appear to be inhabiting different universes! We've used ups for a long time due to reliability and reach - we occasionally have to ship to Southern Italy for instance, but over the past couple of years our admin guy has had more conversations with our local rep than I could count, their performance has dropped beyond woeful even before covid, and now just forget any decent level of service. UK 'saver next day' is now 3 days. No guarantees on express or even next day. No recompense offered at all. A year ago we were getting stuff held at donnigton, if it even made it out of the local depot, for 'operational reasons' - now it's a complete lottery. We're eyeing FedEx at the mo...
please stop bashing the poor posties FFS!
Calm down, have a valium. I don’t think anybody is bashing the posties. They do a cracking job.
This is causing some amusement.
Despite "exhaustive planning", some customers may be experiencing "slightly longer delivery timescales" than normal
Oh, my aching sides.
All those trips to the coffee machine while scratching their heads, wondering where did this busy Xmas parcel ordering come from, must be very tiring. 😆
At work we use lots of postal services, mostly via the fulfillment company we use. RM is great and we could send stuff to most countries for less than it being sent internally in that country. Prices went up so we switched to Deutsch Post for EU delivery, it's no faster or reliable. We use Hermes for some larger B2B orders and despite the reputation that's been faultless too. So all in all from our perspective there's little difference between them from a business post point if view.