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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I HATE ROYAL MAIL

101 replies

bebarkered · 25/10/2020 13:45

Royal Fail haven't delivered my package that I ordered online 14 days ago. I have telephoned them, and, you can't speak to anyone. I have a tracking number and, I am unable to track it (automated service says "you cannot track this item"). I filled in a contact form online. This is the reply I got from them :

Thanks for contacting Royal Mail

[email protected]
to me
Thank you for contacting us

I’m sorry there was a delay in delivering items of mail and can fully understand your concerns.

Throughout the coronavirus crisis, we’ll continue to deliver the most comprehensive service we can to all our customers. However, along with other organisations, we’re experiencing increased levels of employee absence due to illness and self-isolation.

Despite our best endeavours, it’s likely some areas of the country will experience a reduction in service levels due to coronavirus-related absences at their local mail centre or delivery office. However, your enquiry has been logged under the reference shown above.

I’m sorry for any inconvenience caused and assure you we do all we can to minimise disruption during these unprecedented times. We’re committed to keeping the mail moving – delivering letters and parcels across the UK, including to those who find it difficult to leave their homes.

Thank you for contacting us and I hope this resolves your enquiry. If you need further help, please visit our Help and Support Centre at www.royalmail.com/help or www.royalmail.com/coronavirus.

Regards
Royal Mail

I immediately filled in a second contact form. I've just received a reply. This is what it says :

Thanks for contacting Royal Mail

[email protected]
to me
6 hours agoDetails

Thank you for contacting us.

I’m sorry there was a delay in delivering items of mail and can fully understand your concerns.

Throughout the coronavirus crisis, we’ll continue to deliver the most comprehensive service we can to all our customers. However, along with other organisations, we’re experiencing increased levels of employee absence due to illness and self-isolation.

Despite our best endeavours, it’s likely some areas of the country will experience a reduction in service levels due to coronavirus-related absences at their local mail centre or delivery office. However, your enquiry has been logged under the reference shown above.

I’m sorry for any inconvenience caused and assure you we do all we can to minimise disruption during these unprecedented times. We’re committed to keeping the mail moving – delivering letters and parcels across the UK, including to those who find it difficult to leave their homes.

Thank you for contacting us and I hope this resolves your enquiry. If you need further help, please visit our Help and Support Centre at www.royalmail.com/help or www.royalmail.com/coronavirus.

Regards
Royal Mail

WTAFF?
Has any else experienced this?

OP posts:
tommika · 25/10/2020 21:40

Open an ‘item not received’ claim in eBay

It sounds like the reference that you have is just a receipt, and will be annotated as delivered when complete. But not a true tracking number, as you would be able to follow that tracking number in the system

I’m inclined to say the seller hasn’t insured it either - as I doubt Royal Mail would be accepting something declared over £100 without tracking
None of that is your problem

If the seller has tagged the reference number on the eBay sale then eBays team will see the status as well
Start the claims process and ultimately eBay will refund to you unless the reference is updated as delivered
The seller would then claim from Royal Mail for loss - but only to the extent of the insurance

You say you would have been willing to pay more for insured and tracked postage, but the seller is responsible for appropriate postage and should offer that

Back in the day sellers would offer cheap item prices and high postage costs as eBay fees were on the sale only and not on the postage - so putting the postage price higher kept more of the money for the seller, now the fees are charged by eBay and PayPal on the overall total - you have paid a total for the item and to get it delivered to you. That hasn’t happened so you can claim back. If it turns up at a later date then you are obliged to pay back your refund

tonsattingforbjudes · 25/10/2020 21:40

When sending perfume by Royal Mail it MUST be declared at the counter, sent in original packaging and not have a volume of more than 150ml.
I know this as I've posted perfume in the past!

MolyHolyGuacamole · 25/10/2020 21:47

RM is a mess. Delivery offices still only operating for 2 hours in the morning, despite other businesses returning to normal. Won't try a neighbour to buzz them in if I'm not in (live in flats) when they used to. I've been shocked to find Hermes reliable of late. They at least have the option to deliver rona local collect points, and returns are easy too. RM is being left behind.

Clarinet53 · 25/10/2020 22:08

My husband is a postie. They are currently splitting shifts. One week a 6 am start the next a 9 am start. This is to be able to socially distance in the office. They are also not van sharing. So deliveries are going to arrive at different times.

The amount of packets and parcels has been hideous. The Amazon prime days didn't help this.

The staff are stressed and are being subjected to bullying tactics by managers.

The things my husbands tells me make it seem an awful place to be at the moment and there is still Christmas shopping to come

Torvean32 · 26/10/2020 00:38

@Clarinet53

My husband is a postie. They are currently splitting shifts. One week a 6 am start the next a 9 am start. This is to be able to socially distance in the office. They are also not van sharing. So deliveries are going to arrive at different times.

The amount of packets and parcels has been hideous. The Amazon prime days didn't help this.

The staff are stressed and are being subjected to bullying tactics by managers.

The things my husbands tells me make it seem an awful place to be at the moment and there is still Christmas shopping to come

Posties are amazing. They've worked all the way through the pandemic with little thanks. I appreciate my post woman very much.
PercyKirke · 26/10/2020 00:49

So what? This is the seller's problem not yours. Why are you bothering with all this. Tell the seller you've not rec'd the stuff and let them deal with Royal Mail. The seller is the one paying them after all, not you.

Royalmailpostie · 26/10/2020 06:41

@Torvean32

Thanks for the kind words, us posties do appreciate that. We are trying our best, especially with the situation were all in over the country. I wish there was a lot more ppl like yourself. 👍

Loveletters123 · 26/10/2020 06:43

@Torvean32 thank you for your support. This thread and previous threads about postmen on Mumsnet are quite upsetting to read. It still seems acceptable to bash postmen, calling them ‘lazy sods’ as one poster wrote and worse but if the same was said about a different profession eg nurses, there would be uproar. There are good and bad people in every profession, most postmen have worked their socks off throughout the pandemic and provided a vital service and are still doing so. If you want to see how lazy a postman is walk a mile in his shoes

BefuddledPerson · 26/10/2020 06:51

I agree that RM staff are working very hard. Of course they are impacted by not being able to work normally.

I will be interested to hear how you get on with opening a case via eBay - that's the correct course of action.

BefuddledPerson · 26/10/2020 06:52

If you want to see how lazy a postman is walk a mile in his shoes I understand they walk very fast with very heavy bags so I won't, I'll just appreciate them from here!!

FuzzyPuffling · 26/10/2020 06:52

Just throwing my two-pennorth in here, in support of Royal Mail. (whilst acknowledging the deep annoyance of the OP)

Our local postie is definitely "old school" in that he knows the people on his round, knows where to hide parcels ( to avoid a 25 mile round trip to retrieve them), delivers things that are ( very) wrongly addressed and keeps an eye on us all. Feel the love, Richard the Cornish postie!

Monsterpage · 26/10/2020 07:18

Another thumbs up for Royal Mail here. Been providing a great service here in the face of increasing parcels and post. I posted a birthday card to my brother first class last week. Arrived in the morning the next day. Can’t ask for better than that.

MyOwnSummer · 26/10/2020 07:31

If the tracking number doesn't track at ll, the most likely explanation is that you were given a wrong tracking number or that it was never scanned into the system at the point of entry. Meaning that it likely never left the seller's premises.

ThePollutedShadesOfPemberley · 26/10/2020 07:36

This new scheme where postpeople are collecting parcels and post as well as delivering must be a nightmare for them.

I get why RM are doing it but what a PITA if you are a postie.

My postie texts me when I have a parcel. I pay him for this in beer.

I luffs him.

DiscoMoo · 26/10/2020 08:44

My postie is excellent too. We didn’t see him for a while and worried that he may have been ill so when he suddenly reappeared we were very pleased! He said he’d been doing nights because they were short on staff, and actually the day he told us that he’d just come off a night shift but was still out on his round! We know when he has a day off because our mail comes later.

Erictheavocado · 26/10/2020 16:08

Unfortunately, RM is awful here and has been for as long as I've lived here (over 30 years). I only use RM when I have no other option. I do feel for the staff who are having to work in such difficult circumstances, however, I also think ir's easy for RM to use Covid as an excuse.

contactusdeletus · 26/10/2020 16:20

I don't want to jump on the bandwagon of attacking RM, as I'm sure they're under enormous pressure lately, what with COVID, the uptick in online shopping and the pre-Christmas rush. But I have noticed they're incredibly slow to deliver. It's reached the stage where if I see a site delivers Royal Mail instead of by courier, I reconsider my purchase.

One thing that does confuse me - does Amazon have some sort of priority postage? It seems they're the only outlet unaffected by this slowdown, and I'm not sure why that would be. I hate giving them money and would much rather support small businesses, but you reach a limit when your refunds are taking weeks to process and basic items taking a fortnight to arrive. And then Amazon drops them on the doorstep within days like it's nothing.

GoldenRuby · 26/10/2020 19:02

@Lilyargin - the Horizon scandal was about the Post Office, not Royal Mail. They have been separate companies for years,

tommika · 26/10/2020 19:49

@contactusdeletus

I don't want to jump on the bandwagon of attacking RM, as I'm sure they're under enormous pressure lately, what with COVID, the uptick in online shopping and the pre-Christmas rush. But I have noticed they're incredibly slow to deliver. It's reached the stage where if I see a site delivers Royal Mail instead of by courier, I reconsider my purchase.

One thing that does confuse me - does Amazon have some sort of priority postage? It seems they're the only outlet unaffected by this slowdown, and I'm not sure why that would be. I hate giving them money and would much rather support small businesses, but you reach a limit when your refunds are taking weeks to process and basic items taking a fortnight to arrive. And then Amazon drops them on the doorstep within days like it's nothing.

Amazon have their own logistics infrastructure, and are sending out from their warehouses and just have to distribute. Royal Mail and couriers etc have 3 steps - receive, sort, distribute
Maray1967 · 26/10/2020 20:15

Just received a parcel sent RM 24 - has taken almost 4 weeks to turn up. So 24 days rather than 24 hours. Another parcel took well over a fortnight. Letter post is fine here, but parcels are something else. I’m told by someone whose relative works for RM that there are major staffing issues in the main sorting office due to Covid.

melj1213 · 26/10/2020 21:14

One thing that does confuse me - does Amazon have some sort of priority postage? It seems they're the only outlet unaffected by this slowdown, and I'm not sure why that would be.

Amazon do their own distribution from their warehouses on a massive scale, of course they have a better infrastructure for getting parcels out quickly when its purpose built for efficiency.

Lookright · 26/10/2020 21:38

I have never posted on mumsnet before but just wanted to contribute to this discussion as I am an online business seller on various platforms including ebay and amazon, with Royal Mail as one of our main carriers as well as hermes, dpd and amazon logistics for our seller fulfilled prime items.

Royal Mail have struggled the most since March but this is not surprising considering the fact that they work in very different ways to the other couriers. The delivery offices are operating fewer hours, they have let a lot of the account managers go and it seems to a very stressful environment as our regular drivers tell us.

As sellers of products that have been in demand, we have been working very hard all throughout to get orders fulfilled and delivered in time with our own staff also being reduced so I do feel it is quite unfair to blame the sellers for delivery delays.

As for Royal Mail tracking numbers, the standard Royal mail service for sellers is 24 or 48 Confirmed delivery and tracking for these parcels only updates once a delivery attempt has been made or item delivered by the postman. This is a service provided by royal mail and is not the sellers fault that it does not show anything - it is not an end to end tracking service like hermes etc and it does not mean seller has not send parcel, in fact, on amazon and ebay, tracking details automatically are sent to buyer as soon as label is generated as the systems are integrated with Royal Mail etc.

Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 are end to end tracked but only available to sellers with huge volume of parcels per year.

Also, sellers are not compensated by Royal Mail for lost parcels on the confirmed service and they require that we inform customer to allow up to 14 days for delivery.

Sorry for such a long post, I just wanted to share some information that may help.

Dogdaysarehere · 26/10/2020 21:45

I’m in Yorkshire not far from your seller. We haven’t had post (letters) delivered for 10 days now. They are only doing parcels every few days.

OhCobblers · 28/10/2020 00:03

Reading with interest. Have posted and received loads recently. Regular second class. However a parcel sent 2nd class signed for (so not a thorough tracking service) has still not arrived 15 days later.

But I am receiving post every day so does this means it really is lost?!
Do I really stand a chance of receiving it after all this time? Losing hope. Very expensive present (over £100!)

Royalmailpostie · 28/10/2020 06:52

Your not covered up to £100 only up to £50 I believe. If a valuable item above £50 special delivery would of been your best bet. As up to £500. Please check with post office before sending item.