A wasted day thanks to Royal Mail

[MadisonAvenue]

I've got loads to do this week but was due a Royal Mail delivery today so have had to hang around for it.

Their Track and Trace said first thing that they'd attempt delivery today (and it had been scanned in at the delivery office at Midnight) but the postman didn't bring it at lunchtime although he had to knock with two other parcels. Still the tracker said they'd attempt delivery today so I assumed that it'd be brought later by van, as sometimes happens.

I waited and checked the tracker again mid afternoon only to see 'Item Retention' and that it was being held at the delivery office "on the request of the recipient" which is total bollocks, I've not made any requests at all.

I then spent 55 minutes listening to the same short piece of non-descript classical music while on hold to customer services. Got nowhere with that so I escalated it as a complaint and have had a call back but still got answers apart from being told that I can't collect it as I don't have a red card of doom and it's not available for collection as they will attempt delivery tomorrow although I'm not sure that I trust them to do that.
I could go tonight to try to collect it (it's their late night opening but it's always queued out of the door) but whether someone would go and look for the item would be at the discretion of the office manager according to the advisor I just spoke to.

I'm just so fucked off that I've wasted a day when I could've been doing something more useful. All other deliveries - Amazon, DPD, Hermes - this Christmas have been spot on but Royal Mail have been poor, even at the start of December something posted First Class took 6 days to arrive and another posted Second Class around the same time hasn't yet materialised.

Another example of something that politicians could do that we would all appreciate- controls on parcel deliveries with nasty fines for companies that don't comply. In this day and age with mobile technology a 2 hour window should be enough.

You'd think so wouldn't you. Most companies now seem able to give a time estimate, and often with a map showing where they are, yet Royal Mail can't even get the day right day.

The man dealing with the complaint was so unsympathetic and condescending too.
As I didn't pay directly to RM for the delivery, I'd paid for delivery to the company I'd made the purchase from who in turn paid RM, they basically couldn't give a shit that their screwed up system had misinformed me and wasted my time.

It’s high time that the entire system was regularised. I complained to RM and never had a response. The company I purchased from did reply though.

They’re all so different and it needs to get to the point whereby there is a cohesive process and a definite route for complaint when things go wrong.

It's a busy time of year for the royal mail. My birthday is December and I'm always getting things delayed in the post. I never usually have problems with them.

I appreciate the fact that they're busy, it's more a matter of them saying that the item was out for delivery, meaning that I waited around for it, making a delivery to my house with other mail and then changing the tracker mid-afternoon to say that I'd requested they hold it at the delivery office for another day which is apparently a scan they do for businesses when knowing they're going to be closed at weekends. This was coming to a residential address.

They've also managed to lose a couple of parcels on their way to me earlier in the year so my confidence in them getting anything right is very low.