to wish that online companies would just use Royal Mail

[AKMD]

I do buy quite a lot online but recently have been wondering whether it would actually just be easier to brave the car parks, queues and tantrums (from DS) of shopping in the real world because courier companies are just so annoying. If you can actually speak to a human being then they can only reschedule delivery for a workday morning, when I am... um... at work, and the depots are so far away it's ridiculous (City Link 30 mile round trip, another was 60 miles - I left that one). Only a few of them will let you designate a 'safe place' and I hate it when they leave packages with my neighbour because she is so sweet but also very ill and I don't want her to be bothered.

Royal Mail is fine. The postman uses his common sense and just leaves the parcel by the back door or in the shed if it's raining. On the odd occasion I've had to collect a parcel the sorting office is just outside the town centre.

AIBU to wish that online companies would stop using low-cost couriers for home deliveries and just use RM?

YANBU, I avoid shopping on Amazon because I hate bastard Yodel so much, my local posties are lovely & v.helpful!

MIL ordered a present for DS via Amazon....placing bets on when/if it will arrive!

Royal Mail for me too. If I am not in they drop it at our local post office which is 5 minutes walk away.

I really wish online retailers would give people options about which service to use. The customer is the one with the local knowledge about which company is most likely to deliver at convenient times and give good service.

Good inside perspective Cly. From my end though RM is much better :)

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I would definitely like a choice - sometimes Amazon uses RM, other times it's City Link and there's no way of knowing which it will be, which is rather irritating.

I don't like Royal Mail. When I find out my parcel is being delivered by Royal Mail I groan. It's always late.

I work for a company that uses couriers so let me explain why we only use the royal mail for letters and not goods.

Their service is crap. They only track if something has been signed for, not where it actually is. With a courier, I can see every step of the way where my parcel is. Furthermore, my courier always pre-emptively phones me if there has been a delay for whatever reason. The royal mail not only does not tell anyone, but it expects you to wait some silly amount of time before it deems something to be 'lost'. This can be 5 weeks for international goods, which is unacceptable. If I sold you something, took payment up front, then told you you had to wait 5 weeks before I could refund you, you wouldn't be happy with that level of customer service. In our experience the postman is far more likely to misdeliver, damage or otherwise lose the goods than our courier is.

Can't you get your goods delivered to an alternative address, such as your work or the home of somebody you trust who will be in? That's what I do. It's a pain sometimes, but it's the easiest, surest way.

Sometimes the company wont let you change the delivery address once you realise that they are using a crap company with a depot an hours drive away.
Sometimes the thing that you have ordered isnt appropriate to be delivered to work eg wine.

I find all the delivery drivers pretty good around here - dhl are particularly excellent.

But I'm a SAHM so at home a lot and we live rurally so easy to leave things safely here.

When I worked it was a very different matter.

I've just been battling this online!
Finding it impossible to order from a lot of websites because they 'don't post to northern ireland' WHYYY?! These imbeciles think it's going to cost more but it's part of the UK and costs NO EXTRA. The same people also refuse to post to isle of man, Scottish isles etc, it's infuriating.
I emailed some asking why my custom wasn't wanted and they say their dispatchers don't go 'abroad', or that it costs them extra in insurance. Those delivery companies are farcical.

EvenBetter - Most couriers do charge extra to deliver to NI and islands etc (I live on the Isle of Man), whereas the Royal Mail don't. I guess it's fair enough as the goods have to travel by air or sea, which will obviously cost more.

For that reason I always opt for companies that either use RM or don't charge extra for off mainland courier delivery.

I'm fine with most of the delivery companies, so if rm is more expensive i am happy for companies to use others.
Lucky for me the lady opposite works for one of the home delivery companies so if i miss a delivery she can bring it back whenever she can see im at home
must be a pain for people who work and are out all day though

SpamMarie - it's very easy for your courier to tell you where a parcel is - at the depot waiting for the recipient to make a long round trip to pick it up.

I got a parcel safe. Honestly, its brilliant - no more trips to the depot, no more silly cards and Royal Mail and all the couriers seem to know what it is.

Another vote against RM here. We pay £££'s at work to have the post collected & delivered. Recently the morning post comes 1 hour before the afternoon post is collected. This apparently is to fit in with the driver schedules. (ongoing complaints obviously).

Clearly the staff are the most important priority in RM. Not customer service.

Fedex costs half as much as a parcel through Royal Mail and we never get any complaints about them.

AKMD congratulations on your pregnancy

I just saw Royal Mail van pull up - was expecting a parcel either yesterday or today so headed straight to door. Guy ran up to my drive with per-written you were out card and I caught him trying to post through my door . He had to go back to the van and get the parcel. I have no idea what he was playing at.

I'm mostly in - SAHM and have had this a lot recently with normal post as well - it is a trip and bus fair into town to go to depot though parcel force sometimes drop it round the corner post office.

The other companies I've had no issue with maybe I've been lucky?

Thanks Hearts :) 12-week scan on Tuesday and can't wait to tell people!