Royal Mail

[bluebox12]

Hi I know these things have happen and I'm willing to be told to leave it and get over it. There is more to life etc believe me I know.

Should I email them and tell Royal Mail I'm not happy?

My husband has been away for weeks (still has a few to go) and as it was my birthday yesterday had ordered me something to be delivered here. I had no idea what it could be. His big or shall etc.

On Friday I kept a look out for any delivery drivers / post men / couriers.

We have a ring door bell - fully charged. I kept my phone with me whilst home and I can also receive notifications on my Apple watch.

At 1pm I noticed a "while you were out card" from Royal Mail on the floor.

I was disappointed as I was home all day but didn't know if this was the item my husband had sent or something else I had ordered.

I immediately went online to rearrange the delivery for the earliest being today (Monday).

Saturday came and went. No parcels so I was assuming the missed item was the one from my husband (my birthday present).

Just now the postman (not our usual one who usually chats about previous deliveries etc) knocks on the door says hi gives me a parcel.

It's a large pink rectangle box with "Fresh Flowers" written on the box.

Obviously the flowers are dead.

I'm not blaming them. Maybe whoever tried on Friday didn't ring the bell and just knocked. Maybe I didn't hear the knock. However surely you would then try the bell or try a couple of neighbours.

I am in a lot during the day and the post man and couriers often knock on my door with parcels without knocking on the addressee as they know I'm in.

Maybe my immediate neighbours were out but wouldn't you try a couple of others knowing that you had fresh flowers in the box and that by Monday they would be dead?

Also on Saturday I had a knock on the door. I knew the lady as she is a mum at school and I know the house she lives in. We don't have the same surname. She lives at a different number to me and on the next road.

She had both my daughters new and old passports in her hand. Both in separate envelopes with my name and address on.

I know accidents happen but with both these things happening within a day of eachother it's pissed me off.

Having re read what I've just put it does sound petty of me but at the min I'm in a low place and it upset me at the time.

Thanks

I'm a postie and I can say I always try my hardest to deliver fresh flowers to a neighbour. I will say that I always ring the bell and knock the door and honestly if I ring say 5 of the video bells a day only maybe once is it answered. Quite often I try to deliver to a neighbour and they will say that the won't take them in for the neighbour which is up the them really but I find it funny when the next day they are out gabbing with the person who's parcel it is.

As for the wrongly posted mail I can only say that it does happen and it isn't done on purpose but to maybe explain it a little I'll give a wee example of my week last week so I'm in Tuesday to sat and I'm on a different route every day each of theses routes has between 700-800 doors on them many of the streets are south street/lane/way/place etc and 2 of the routes I've never done until that day. In the morning the sorter has put 5 south way into 5 south place and im just trying to work out where I'm going while watching out for dogs and trying to deliver all my parcels so I don't have to carry them all and it's also pouring with rain. I'm not saying any of this is an excuse but it's not as simple a job as people think it is. Anyway I hope you get something sorted about the flowers etc!!

@TopEndChops bang on. Willful delay of the mail is a sackable offence. You're wasting your breath pal.

@curseofthepharaohspoodle hi I understand that however the road next to me is Dxxxx Place and I'm sxxxxxxxx Road so I don't know how they could get mixed up when sorting.

@bluebox12 yes, of course we have taken flowers back. If there's no answer and neighbors aren't in its our duty to take care for the parcel and return it to the delivery office. The florist would have received a tracking email/text notifying them the parcel had been returned to the delivery office and should have informed your husband that this had happened or even given him the tracking number so he could track it personally.

This sort of stuff happens all the time. Usually because they’re too lazy to carry the parcel. Or sometimes they don’t knock because they don’t want to wait for you to answer, and they just dump the parcel somewhere. Once I was in the hall and saw the “sorry” card come through my letterbox - I opened the door and said can I have my parcel please, and he didn’t actually have it!

Royal mail have had huge cuts since privatisation, staff numbers have been cut, many are off sick with stress, there's a high turnover and a bullying culture as bad managers to try to make postmen do unpaid work to meet unreasonable targets. Unfortunately this leads to an unreliable service. IMO Rm should set a standard for a secure post box on the edge of the property that is big enough to fit parcels, thereby reducing time wasted walking up drives, trying to post things into tiny floor level letter boxes and dog bites.

@Peachsummer surely you see the irony in calling someone who walks 10 miles a day lazy?

Would the box not fit through the letterbox? Every set of flowers I've had delivered has been in a letterbox friendly box for precisely this reason. I'd be miffed if they'd taken it back to the office when it would have fit. Not so much if they couldn't get to my door (flats).

Hi no the box was approx 8" x 20" x 6"

Hi, I'm also a postie and rules can be slightly different at different offices, even different postmen will think differently, but personally if it's flowers or anything fresh I won't take it back to the office unless absolutely necessary, I will go to immediate neighbors but no further than that unless I know they are definitely in as royal mail push us to the limit of what is actually possible in a day, if it's fresh flowers very often they will be left in the blue bin, between the bins, by the back door, but some people are so paranoid about security they will leave NOWHERE to leave a parcel, as for your doorbell, most people have them but don't actually answer them so a lot of postmen don't use them, but then people moan when they didn't ring the doorbell that they don't answer, people are quick to slate postie's but if you tried the job you'd understand the pressure we are put under, and a lot of it is due to royal mail not the actual postie themselves

My complaint isn't that didn't knock on the door (even though I was in) or that they didn't try my neighbours. It's that the box clearly stated fresh flowers which they knew would die

I really don't understand what you want then after this above. If you weren't in / didn't hear and are willing to accept that neighbours weren't tried / in / able to take the package, what did you want them to do?

Peachsummer surely you see the irony in calling someone who walks 10 miles a day lazy?
Walking ten miles is different to walking ten miles carrying parcels. Which is what they’re supposed to do, and what they’re paid for.

@welshy71 100% both the new and old passports were delivered to my neighbour letterbox. Both in separate envelopes.

Both mine and my husbands were brought to my home by a courier and I had to sign to say I had received them.

I never check the ring notification on my app if I'm in. I know it takes way too long and by the time you check the caller will have gone.

There is an alley behind my home and you can get to my garden through the back gate.

Does RM have a policy regarding fresh / perishable items?

I've already stated why I couldn't collect.

Also I would have rather my husband didn't waste money and postage on sending said items however he had been in the Middle East a while and had to order via the internet.

@Peachsummer what you are saying doesn't even make sense. If we left parcels at the office intentionally we would get the sack.

@welshy71 I think you need another job if it's causing you this much stress. I've known our postman 24 years. I've not slagged off the postal service. I just wondered if it was worth sending an email.

How do MN posts randomly show up on google? Anyone?

Blatantly place marking so I can show this thread to DH later (he's an ex postie and very happy about it!)

Does RM have a policy regarding fresh / perishable items?

They get treated exactly the same as every other item... delivered according to the delivery method selected by the sender (1st , 2nd, tracked, signed etc).

Perishable items are regularly returned to the delivery office if delivery can't be made. If you have no safeplace (and 'behind the bins' doesn't count!) and there's no answer, then returning the parcel to the office is the only option.

@welshy71 How do you explain all the posters on this thread saying they caught a postman delivering a card and when they opened the door the postman didn't have the parcel then?

Also, it's my birthday today and my mum, sister and neices and nephew sent me cards. All put in the post together. The card from the kids didn't arrive, but the other 2, that only had the flap tucked in, not stuck down, did arrive. The kids stuck theirs down. That leads me to think that the only explanation is, the postmen have opened the unstuck ones and put them back in the post after seeing there's nothing in the cards, but because they've opened the other one, tossed it as they can't deliver it now.

I'll say it again, they are thieving cunts. The kids would have drawn me pictures and put handprints etc in too.

@Eliza9919 anecdotes about your shitty birthday cards and people saying the postmen leave parcels at the office isnt fact. Also, you have spent your birthday commenting on posts on Mumsnet? Shit me. Bet you're a right laugh

Just complain to the florist, they are responsible for the delivery as it is part of the service you pay for - I am sure there are small prints to say they aren’t but morally they are and they will often usually to make things right.
A similar thing happend to me with fresh flowers and the florist redelivered a new bouquet for free.

ChavMcQueen I was at work today as I've spent the last 2 weeks at home expecting and then having a miscarriage so couldn't really have more time off today. And I don't really feel like celebrating and making a fuss.

Is that up to your bday activity standards?

So yeah, those shitty cards you refer to from my dn&n would have cheered my day right up seeing as I couldn't visit home because my car is on the blink as well and it took 2.5hrs to get home.

My experience with the Post Office doesn’t bear out all the criticism they are getting from some posters - the Postmen/ women where I live do a really great job and the staff in the sorting office are beyond helpful.
Although I don’t know for sure, because I’ve never been in the sorting office other than to pick up something I cannot believe that parcels are left behind and cards written by the postmen before they go out on their rounds. When I see them out delivering they resemble pack horses as their bags and trolleys are overloaded.
I sell on eBay and use Royal Mail second class with proof of postage for everything. I can truthfully say that I have never had one item (and I’ve sold hundreds) that hasn’t arrived and there have been many that have even been delivered the next day - so there can be no complaints about that.
For myself I’ve never had anything I was expecting not arrive. If I’m out there’s either a note to pick up from the sorting office or to tell me it’s been left with a neighbour or pushed under the back gate. Neither have I ever had a note to say a delivery was attempted when I was at home.
Please don’t think I am implying that just because I’ve never had a problem others can’t possibly have had them. I do though take some of the claims about poor service and thieving with a pinch of salt as my experience just doesn’t bear this out. For years on and off I have been a mystery shopper for Royal Mail and have never had anything I was expecting not arrive when it should, or any of the many items of different shapes and sizes I have had to post not arrive at their destination.
I know what I’ve said doesn’t help the OP in anyway - but I couldn’t just read all the awful things that have been said about the Post Office and not make it known that my experiences have been entirely positive.
As others have said I think the OP should make contact with the florist who sent her gifts so that they can take up the matter with Royal Mail themselves.

Take photos of the dead flowers and packaging to send to the florist. Ask them where the other items were sent and to confirm that they were sent.

It is possible they were badly packaged and damaged, the kind of circumstances when what was left would have been delivered in a bag with an apology note. However a broken bottle would have caused a mess and not been delivered at all. That still doesn't excuse the lack of delivery.

You have received generic responses, the only way to deal with those is to keep complaining until you get somewhere.

With respect to the knock on the door comment being adequate, it appears to me that there was no knock, it was an excuse to shove a card through and scarper without being seen on the Ring whereas ringing the bell would have shown up what actually happened.

I had a recorded delivery package shoved through my neighbours letterbox, no signature collected. I have a postie that signs for parcels on my behalf (not the same one) and he has had to stop leaving parcels on doorsteps as they were being stolen. Have also had a sorting office where cheque books and cards were stolen, that one made the papers, and received cards ripped open (another area).