Royal Mail -paying for a service doesn't guarentee getting it

[Saltire]

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When we lived in Hampshire we had no end of problems with our mail - if we paid for keepsafe, the mail was always delivered, we could go days and days without any etc.
SO anyway, I set up a keepsafe when I was away in May, and got mail delivered still, although it was only on one day.
So have set up another one for going away this week, but the confirmation letter hasn't arrived so I rang Royal Mail. They told me not to worry the serivce "should" go ahead and if it didn't not to worry then I'd be refunded, but surely thats not the point is it?
They said that I could pay for the service but they couldn't be sure it would be enforced as it is up to the postie themselves to notice things like that, not the mananger or RM

I get v fed with the Post Office. You pay extra for a first class stamp and its touch and go whether it will actually get there the next day. They have such a long "lost items" policy that you just know it happens a lot. You may as well tie your letter to a donkey, slap its bum to get it going and hope for the best.

That's the same with everything Royal Mail does. There are no guarantees, you can pay for a service like recorded delivery yet they do not guarantee that the letter will actually be delivered.

Since we moved further North the service we get regarding actual mail delivery is so much better - we have a proper regualr posite, rather than just some random postie who ahd finihsed his own round doing ours then giving up haf way through, and doing th same the rest of the week with the result that whole streets could go a week or more without mail, then get it all delivered when they felt like it

Why charge cusotmers then? Last year 12 of my recorded delivery items were "missing", all sent out to Ebay buyers on the same day, all recorded. 3 of the items then turned up, just stuck through the letterbox with regualr post.

I ams till waiting for 5 items that were sent recorded delivery to me in october 2008, round about the time of the strikes

Mingg - Recorded Delivery is not a guaranteed service. It just goes into the ordinary mail and gets no special handling.

No but Royal Mail sells it saying "gives you complete peace of mind with proof of posting and an electronic copy of the signature available online", so you'd think that they would deliver whatever you are sending and it does have a barcode so once it has been handed to Royal Mail surely it should not go missing?

I agree with Mingg - the whole point of sedning something recorded delivery is that you are supposed to get proof of delivery, and proof of posting

If they are saying that paying for a service doesn't give you the right to expect that service to work (recorded,keepsafe etc), then it should all be free

Recorded is useless. useless. if no one signs for it they have no info. it is all dependant on a person signing for it. but if no one does, they have no trace. and then you have to wait weeks before you can claim, and then weeks till you get the money.
useless.
the system is fundamentally flawed.

They do my head in, I paid extra for guaranteed next day delivery and it took 4 days...I phoned to chase/complain and was told they could put me through to the complaints department but all they would do was apologise. Thanks.

Maybe you should call Postwatch or whatever the consumer body that's supposed to monitor Royal Mail is and report this?

Well, I am expecting to come home to a pile of mail next week - haivng paid £8.95 for keepsafe, but I am not holding my breath it will actually work.

No wonder they have no profits if they keep having to refund people for services they have paid for that went wrong

Our postie never asks for a signature on recorded delivery items. They just get shoved through the letter box with everything else, unless they're too big, in which case they're left by the back door.

Crap really and I know I ought to complain but I never seem to get round to it.

I think it depends very much on the postie.

When we lived in town the service was rubbish. One postman actually chucked a parcel intended for our neighbour over our locked garden gate when they were out. We were away for a week on holiday, and they couldn't have got it back unless they broke the gate down. It got rained on and was wrecked - it was a nintendo something or other. How ridiculous!

Now we live out in the countryside and our postie Malcolm is fab. If we leave post out he'll take it for us instead of us having to drive a mile to the post box and he'll bring parcels back the next day if we're out for any reason. Good old Malcolm!