A huge Royal Mail exposè is coming...

[Skimm]

I saw my postie today after not seeing one for weeks and asked whats been happening with the mail recently. He took out his ear phones and wouldn't stop talking.

He said that its chaos at the depot, they are being giving thousand of letter to post and when you complain they say ai don't care what you do with them, dont bring them back.

They are also being told to prioritize parcels and that letters aren't important. People are quiting or going off sick so the RM are having to hire agency workers who are dumping letters in bushes and quiting within days.

I haven't had post in over 3 week. I have only noticed as I'm waiting to recieve 2 v.important letters that were sent 3 and 2 weeks ago. So who knows how long its been going on.

I have phoned the help line and been told that 50% off the staff in my local depot are either sick or absent and that they have shut down certain postcodes to deliveries. They said after the complaint I will recieve post within 72hr. It never happened and I've had to complain again.

If you search online you will see I'm not the only one. It seems to be happening nationwide in cities and rural areas. The issue is that RM are denying that there is an issue.

They are suppose to deliver post to every postcode Monday to Saturday and now I've been told that they are closing down certain postcodes over the phone but then denying it on social media.

I still didn't get my mail today so I'm starting to wonder if I'm one if the people whobhave had their letters dumped.

Oh no, not Evri

That's so strange that you mention this, because my mail's delayed by 1-2 weeks. But parcels are coming within 2 days! I thought it was bizarre! They must be focused on the parcels, otherwise they'd lose contracts. The parcels are where they generate the most money.

This makes so much sense to me now. Same thing has happened to us. Nothing arriving despite being sent out to us weeks ago, no post for over 2 weeks, then suddenly today we had a big letter drop of everything that we have been waiting for. I was starting to worry our postie was stealing it.

I had a chat with my postie today and the poor bloke genuinely looked broken! He said normally at this time of year there are extra hours on offer to deal with higher demand but this year there is nothing, he has so much stuff to deliver he doesn't know where to start. Honestly I really felt for him. Hopefully I'll see him again before Christmas and can give him a box of chocs or something nice to cheer him up. Gave our local evri guy a box of biscuits yesterday for being ace and he looked like he was about to cry. Wouldn't want to do their job for the world, and I work in healthcare!!

It's terrible op. I only get deliveries twice a week - got 12 Christmas cards yesterday after nothing for 6 days. They are definitely not delivering 6 days a week but assume are not openly saying so as their requirements haven't changed.

It’s not so dreadful here at the moment, but the last few months have been chaotic

Ooh, I hadn't noticed as nobody ever seems to use royal mail anymore and most of our bills and gov.uk stuff is online/via email.

But now you mention it, I haven't even had junk mail for weeks.

There was a similar thread about this recently.

Ofcom did fine them, but it was way less than they are saving by not replacing people when they leave or are off sick. Not sure why so many are off sick, it's an outdoor job so much less likely to catch bugs but I guess a lot have school aged children.

They don't want to deliver letters. But it's a legal requirement that they do, six days a week, and until eg the NHS starts using email and texts, they should get off their bottoms and facilitate it (managers, not the posties themselves).

It's a bit of an issue if a parking ticket doesn't arrive as well.

We do have a regular postie but when she was off sick we were only getting about one delivery a week.

As for a tie-up with Evri, words fail me.

We've been getting post every day. Maybe our regional office has a better handle on things. The local posties are great.

Ofcom did fine them, but it was way less than they are saving by not replacing people when they leave or are off sick. Not sure why so many are off sick, it's an outdoor job so much less likely to catch bugs but I guess a lot have school aged children.

Anxiety, depression and stress have been the reasons the postwomen and postmen I personally know have been off.

I’m amazed it’s taken this long to get to this point. We’ve had a few posties over the last nine years and they’ve all been lovely, but they’ve either been shifted for no discernible reason, or they’ve left with stress. Prioritising parcels has been happening for a couple of years. It certainly was this time last year.

I agree that an organisation like RM should be efficient enough to plan for staff shortages and times of high volume. I sent a parcel last week. It would surprise me if it doesn’t arrive. It comes to something when the card toy send for Christmas or a birthday, costs less than the stamp you put on it.

Yes its very sad. The postman wanted to talk for ages but I had to go. He says he has 2 years until retirement and he can't wait, he said it used to be a very good job.

People haven't noticed because everything is online but the moment you need a new bank card, parking permit, nhs letter, maternity forms from your employer or something else that has been posted, you can feel it.

They never should've sold it off.

Isn't it exposé?

Anyway, I said about 40 min ago to a friend how much I like Royal Mail. Super efficient, good service, prices are reasonable and they usually beat their delivery timescales. I really really like their service.

Once a week or an available slot to pick up my mail from the depot, I could put up with. But no mail for almost a month and no way to collect it is unacceptable.

My postman said the same when I last saw him
They are prioritising parcels and the delivery office is chaos.
The last post I had took 11 days to arrive
I'm glad my hospital appointments are now emailed
Yet, I still get the usual flyers( Dominos etc) every Monday.
I'm in a Wiltshire town

My DH is also a postman. All of this is true for him also. Plus, Black Friday and Christmas seem to come as a huge surprise to RM every year - little to no forward planning. DH is exhausted and fed up, if we didn't need the money to pay the mortgage, he would quit tomorrow.

We get post twice a week if we are lucky, small town

It's such a shame to see a once excellent service decline so much. We get fortnightly post at most now, and I've taken to going to the local sorting office to pick things up when I know they've been posted. Still haven't located DD's missing GCSE certificates though. The sorting office is helpfully open one hour a day with a queue out of the door. Have sent only one Xmas card this year as stamps are now extortionate and the cards will probably arrive in June.

Sent my familys christmas parcel by special delivery, guaranteed next day delivery last thursday. Cost me £22. Still not arrived. I phoned up, waited in a queue for over an hour and they said in all likelihood it has been lost. Over £200 worth of stuff in it. Pretty gutted. I chose special delivery because it has always been so reliable. Never again.

A special delivery, guaranteed by next day noon took 4 days last month and they wouldn't compensate! I'm using a courier from now on

It's been fine by me

If 'partnership' with Evri is coming then God help us all. A message from Evri saying 'We've got your parcel' is quite a blow as it is.

I didn't even think about certificates thats sad as it can be hard to get a copy and it doesn't feel the same as the original. I'm sorry for your daughter.

Our post is so erratic now, if we’re lucky we get mail every 12 days usually accompanied by a heap of junk mail. Parcels arrive roughly every three weeks and the post is collected from the post box once a day at 8am but none delivered 🤷🏼‍♀️

I live in a tenement stair and never get the right mail. Not only is it dumped at the doorstep (we all have letterboxes?!?!) but it's always mixed up. Total joke.