The Royal Mail is dying on its arse

[KIlliePieMyOhMy]

Have friends that work for Royal Mail.
They tell me tracked parcels are the only thing that are prioritised.
Many posties bring letters back as they simply do not have time to complete a round.
If Royal Mail go to second class post not being daily they fear posties being made redundant.
Where did it all go wrong for this great national service,

They didn't step up for online shopping and let the likes of Evri, Yodel, DPD, etc., take most of the market from the larger online stores. They were very slow to introduce affordable tracking and signatures. They've got there now, but have lost a huge proportion of the market. Not helped by post offices having such restrictive opening hours, so difficult for people to drop off/collect outside office hours, so people just use Evri parcel shops instead that tend to be open 7 days and longer hours. There's also the massive growth in lockers from Amazon/InPost etc which the Post office/Royal mail has been late to the party again. It speaks volumes when post offices are now accepting Evri parcels!

I currently have my medical appointments split across three platforms. The appointments for one specific procedure show across two, depending on which hospital the appointment is actually at, and a third department is using another platform entirely. None of the platforms show duplicates of the appointments so it’s nigh on impossible to keep track of. It’s madness. This is all the same NHS trust and only two hospitals involved. Each dept seems to do its own thing.

As for Royal Mail, that is down to privatisation of what is a nationally essential service (post rather than parcels), combined with being forced to carry items for other carriers at a loss. They have to turn a profit but their business model doesn’t work and they will disappear eventually. It’s a travesty.

Do you get an email alert or SMS to check the app? Because my GP appointments aren’t on app!
I like RM they don’t leave my parcels on my doorstep on a main road Amazon or hunt the parcels, whose house is the photo on app, Yodel.
But they do seem to hold on to post and only deliver to my door about twice a week. Unless is advertising post( recycling).

Royal Mail is in the process of being bought by a Czech billionaire. Maybe the services will improve maybe not but IDS (Royal Mail) simply cannot go on like this.

The last two tracked and guaranteed items I sent failed to get there on time. I used Evri the next time.

If they can’t do the basics right, what do they expect.

I feel for the posties though.

I get text alerts from my GP.

When I was having a pre op appointment at the hospital I got a text with a link to the appointment details online. It will vary in different areas but they are making moves to make things a little more online based.

How do you check the text isn’t a scam. I don’t click on any links.

We have a great local postie and our post office is excellent.
I use RM a lot and have never had any issues.

Our posties are all fabulous and work so hard.
On Saturday, one that I know picked my parcel to be returned and said that five were off on leave and a few others had phoned in ill. He was more or less on his own doing it all! I get the impression that moral is low and things not running as well as it used to, but they still delivered my post and picked up the parcel for me.
It’s pretty good where I am , but I know other areas are struggling and we only get our post around twice a week. Which they said online would be the norm for most people I think. Maybe the new owners will turn things around ? I hope so as the actual staff are trying their best I think.

And for those who don't use the NHS app, or any other form of technology?

Im getting fucking sick of "use the internet" being touted as the answer to everything

There are 4.7 million people who are not able to use a computer/access the internet.

Royal Mail is still a very much needed service.

Not least needed by all the magazines/catalogues etc that depend on it together with their supply chains. Not everything is or can be digital and never will be.

But I agree, it's a very stressed service at the moment (like nearly every other in this country!)

Not much good if you're not expecting to find it there, yet. You can wait months for them.

I'm still waiting for an information letter for an appointment I have in just over a week and haven't got my postal vote slip through yet, even though DH got his last week. They were OK here until recently.

Royal Mail is fine here- our postman is great. I regularly send parcels via Click and Drop* from London to rural E Yorks (postman collects them) and they almost always arrive the next day.
*1st class, but not tracked.

Not if your surgery doesn't use the app.

My dad didn't receive any of his birthday cards on time. I posted one first class on Monday morning, his birthday was the Friday (a couple of weeks ago so not good Friday). He didn't get it until the following Monday. None of his other cards arrived until the Monday either and I know what their friends are like, they'll have been sent in what should have been plenty of time! They're shit.

i must be extremely lucky because I have no complaints at all about Royal Mail. Letters arrive at our house most days and like someone up thread I despatch all my eBay sales using its 2nd class post and have never had a problem
Not everyone bothers to feedback of course and I don’t always check tracking, but it’s obvious from those who do leave a comment that items have arrived within a couple of days of me sending them, with some even turning up the day after I dropped them off at the Post Office
When I’m expecting a parcel myself and get notification that it’s on its way I often ask for it to be redirected to my local sorting office so that I can pick it up after I’ve dropped the children off a school. This is such a convenient service for me as both the sorting office and the post office are within easy walking distance and picking it up resolves the issue of no one being at home when the postman tries to deliver it.

I sent a letter on 18 Feb I paid for signed delivery.
It's never been updated
I have no idea if it ever got to it's destination or not
Can you ask them, what they think might have happened?

I sent a letter on 18 Feb I paid for signed delivery.
It's never been updated
I have no idea if it ever got to it's destination or not
Can you ask them, what they think might have happened?

If Royal Mail go to second class post not being daily

If? I can't remember the last time I had post every day. I've had birthday cards sent out with a week to go still not getting there on time (as both the receiver and the sender), and that's with the postage costing more than the card.

I've also had things "missing" (stolen) at all levels, up to tracked and signed for parcels.

It also doesn't help that royal mail and the post office are apparently two completely different companies that blame each other whenever things go wrong. Plus they lost a lot of goodwill over the postmasters scandal.

I remember in 1996 getting two deliveries a day. In 2001 the post would arrive at 7.50 which was great as I was in for parcels or post to sign for. Now there is no clue when I'll get post, some days he doesn't come at all. Not hopeful for my redirection going well.

I live rurally, and we still have a daily postman, as well as good Amazon and DPD services. I have, however, had parcels where deliveries have apparently been attempted, despite me watching them out of the window and not stopping at my house. My house is clearly labelled...

However... post offices... the one where I grew up changed hands from a "pervy" postmaster to a group of people who couldn't organise a p*-up in a brewery. Parcels got lost in the shop, so you would be sent away and told back to come another day... repeatedly. People started diverting their mail to other post offices because of this.

The local Post Office in the nearest town is nice enough and the staff are helpful, but parking is next to impossible, it's a long trek to walk there, and its opening hours are limited to when most people are in work. I don't see it lasting forever.

Also, the astronomical price of stamps is insane.

Royal Mail just isn't set up for the modern world. It was set up to handle letters - so sorting offices weren't designed for mass drops of parcels. The local post offices just can't handle the amount of parcels sent via RM. Postmen can't carry the amount of parcels sent by RM. Letters aren't being sent on the volume they used to be and parcels cannot be carried in volume by postmen. It needs to modernise - bigger sorting offices for parcels not post 'slots' for letters.

I admit that you need a bank loan to buy stamps these days. They seem to go up in price almost daily.
Doing the parcels has probably ruined a lot of it too.