To be a bit fed up with Royal Mail

[SisterFarAway]

Over the last four weeks not a single company in the building my office is in has received any mail, no letters, leaflets, magazines, etc. nothing at all.
I contacted Royal Mail two weeks ago on Twitter only to be told that they are doing all they can to deliver mail as quickly as possible. Since, I have tried to reach them on phone, but gave up as I cannot waste "at least 30 minutes" on hold.
Today I contacted them on Twitter again only to get this response:

"Despite our best endeavours, it's likely that some areas of the country will experience a reduction in service levels due to Coronavirus-related absences."

Now, don't get me wrong, I fully understand that there are service disruptions, even expect them as almost nothing is running as normal at the moment. All courier companies we use currently have delays, it is just the "new normal".
But having no mail in four weeks is not "a reduction in service levels" it is no service at all.
Our company alone would have received somewhere in the region of 120-150 letters in that time frame. There are another 10 companies in the building, so there would probably be a whole sack just for our building. There are another 12 office buildings on our stretch of the road.
While most companies are WFH most of the time, mail still gets checked regularly and the landlord ensures the front doors and letter openings are accesible during normal office hours.
This is in Central London, so not like they have to make a detour somewhere remote to deliver.

Just to add, I only go into the office a few days a week for stuff that cannot be done remotely, everyone else in the company is WFH, so it would be me who has to deal with any mail. As we import a fair few shipments a week, we get letters from HMRC regarding duty and VAT all the time. These have to be checked against other papers. Even if we got our mail now, I would mean at least two extra "office days" as this is not something that can be done from home.

AIBU to expect a better response?

It’s frustrating but if they have no staff to either sort or deliver it, what can they do?

I think what you really need to do is write to the coronavirus and let it know how inconvenienced you are by the post not coming.

Complete lack of understanding about what's going on.

The Royal Mail are struggling for staff at the moment,so many ill or self isolating.They are doing the best they can.

So yes you are being unreasonable.

YABU I’m afraid. There’s a global pandemic going on, it’s a shame you haven’t got your post but in the scheme of things not important.

It's the same where I am.

Our sorting office for the whole of mid and north wales is now in Chester. So what's happening is our post is not being prioritised. That's assuming organisations are sending any.

We haven't had post every day for years anyway. Currently twice a week, if you are lucky e.g. In the last six weeks only twice have we had post.

I'm due letters from the dwp that I MUST have, I can guarantee they won't allow my money to continue "just" because of covid-19. My jobcentre is still open ffs doing interviews and expecting people to get work. I'm also due letters to defer my student loan. I need the evidence. I don't have money to cover payments just because the DWP are too busy and Royal Mail have decided everyone in half of Wales no longer exist.

The problem might be highlighted by covid-19 but this is what happens when services are run on as few staff as possible.

This isn't not understanding what's going on.

It's facing huge debts I cannot cope with on top of already having financial problems and the rare times I get through to someone listening to their complaining is not acceptable - that's probably why the wait for banks, dwp, Royal Mail etc are hours long.

They are 3 times busier than they are at Christmas, they don't have PPE, no one is applying for the vacancies they have ...

Just be patient. Nobody is having a good time right now

YABU

I can guarantee you that the company that bought my student loan will not take a little thing like covid-19 as an excuse not to have the evidence they need so I can defer, all their website has is a note about needing to be patient because of lack of staff. Nothing at all about what happens to those who need to defer and can't through lack of evidence.

My bank removed my overdraft because my benefits were over a week late. I've had no confirmation of my benefits despite asking weeks ago. The bank were completely unsympathetic when I spoke to them saying I should have planned for late payment by a week.

Don't get me started on the dwp still insisting on disability assessments - those claiming ESA/UC/PIP for disability may find their income completely stopped due to lack of post and expected to apply for UC, which is fine if you have the documents to do so and can manage on thin air for weeks.

I am sympathetic, but some post should be getting through. I bet it's still getting through elsewhere.

I'm still waiting for my letter from Boris. 🤣

I really wouldn't worry about boris' letter I can't see it'll be of any use. Unless you're out of toilet roll. I'm expecting mine around July at this rate.

I sent a small parcel of essentials to my mum the other day , to tide her over til I could get a delivery slot for her . It fitted inside a shoe box.
I took it to the post office and was told that Royal Mail were not delivering parcels for now and that my parcel would have to go via Parcel Force. So I handed over £26 plus and left the Post Office, to see a Royal Mail van pull up outside.
Desperately wanted to go back inside and protest but the length of the queue put me off.

I know its hard going, but it isn't the same everywhere and i for one am so grateful to my postie.
He looks absolutely knackered, staff numbers are massively down and he's asthmatic, but not chronically.. being furloughed isn't an option for him so he has no choice. He's 60 too, so no spring chicken.

I have relatives working in the postal service, they are exhausted and doing the best they can, you are being massively unreasonable.

Don't get me started on the dwp still insisting on disability assessments - those claiming ESA/UC/PIP for disability may find their income completely stopped
DWP suspended face-2-face assessments from 17th March. Payments for those already in receipt of these benefits is continuing at the same rate whilst alternative arrangements are being determined to be able to re-assess claims in the future.

I'm sending important post by Special Delivery. It's not cheap but it definitely arrives within 48 hours, usually 24.

And I'm very grateful to the post office and royal mail staff, and I say so. We're not in Greendale any more.

YANBU
Yes there may be staff shortages so things taking longer/fewer deliveries would be reasonable but no mail at all is not. Businesses still need mail to run. There are still deadlines to be observed. Delivery mail.is what Royal Mail DO.

@Becca19962014**It's the same where I am.

Our sorting office for the whole of mid and north wales is now in Chester. So what's happening is our post is not being prioritised. That's assuming organisations are sending any.

We haven't had post every day for years anyway. Currently twice a week, if you are lucky e.g. In the last six weeks only twice have we had post.**

I'm in North West Wales and haven't noticed any disruption. Still see our regular postie out everyday.

@menthollyinsane
You can have mine if you like,
It’s really not that interesting.
I’ll send it recorded delivery 😂

Okay, I accept I am unreasonable.

However, this is the statement on their website:

"Normal deliveries and collections should take place throughout the UK this week. However, despite our best endeavours, it’s likely some areas of the country will experience some level of disruption due to Coronavirus-related absences at local mail centres or delivery offices. We’re working hard to collect, process and deliver as much mail and parcels as possible in difficult circumstances."

Might try to reach them again on a day I WFH just to see if there are further issues going on. I have a friend who lives one road over and they get mail at least twice a week, so in that light, it just seems a bit odd.
Of course, they could try to get a lot of low volume private letters out, rather than huge amounts of business mail. Who knows.

Now that I've written that, I'll probably get a sack full tomorrow.

Nothing but praise for Royal Mail at the moment our postmen have been great!!!!

Can you arrange to collect from the Mail Centre/Sorting Office or is that not allowed at the moment?

I'm waiting on our milk tokens by the time I get them they will be out of date I've had no letters for weeks but have had a couple of parcels delivered through royal mail. It's not royal mails fault our postie told me he's doing 3 other posties rounds as well as his own poor guy is overworked and looking exhausted.

@FliesandPies I was about to suggest the same thing. My company has arranged to collect their post from the local delivery office and we have a rota for staff to go in every other day.

I’ve been receiving mail. In fact I wish I could stop getting uneccesary Mail.

But on the other hand the company I work for would normally have posted about a hundred letters last week business to business. Question if we’ve posted half a dozen. We’ve used email wherever we can and as we are partly furloughed have been generating less anyway.