Royal Mail!!

[Lettuceandtomatoes]

Was expecting a parcel today, 24 hour tracked, in all day only to discover a card through the door. I didn’t hear the knock even the dog didn’t. Went online to redirect only to find ‘sorry something went wrong’. Called them and the earliest is December 5th. This is such rubbish and sick to death of the tap and scarper approach with them.

I use Royal Mail for my business and have only ever had one issue in three years.

But the flip side is I never get parcels delivered to my own house as they never knock on the door. It's less than a foot away from the sofa and I can see people come to the door and put the cards through the letterbox - they definitely don't knock!

On more than one occasion I've got up when I've seen them and they've not actually had the parcel on them but at least they had the grace to look embarrassed 😬

But if they deliver to my in-laws (who have a porch) the parcels are always delivered and left in there with no issues so I just get all my mail sen there now.

we have been told that our local post office are not accepting / delivering any parcels now until this friday- so not only are they striking in the busy lead up to christmas they are avoiding collecting parcels on the days they are open. This probably isn’t the same for all royal mail, but we are rural so the next nearest post office is a 15 mile drive away. (all the village post offices send to the main one in the town)

forgot to add, they were saying this on monday this week

My postman is fantastic. I cannot ever fault the service I get from him or his colleagues.

Our posties are fabulous too

You're the idiot if you think RM can remain the same as it was in the 20th century. The whole business model has changed, documents and letters are mainly sent electronically these days leaving it mainly a parcel business competing against yodel, dpd evri etc who can offer better delivery times at lower costs.

This is what they are up against its change or die when you are no longer a public service/ monopoly as CWU have failed to realise.

RM will end up losing market share, mass redundancies and all those redundant posties will find plenty of jobs with RMs competitors where trade has moved, only without their union negotiated terns generous sick pay etc.

Talk about an own goal !

They have gone downhill. Obviously strikes don't help, but they are obviously striking for a reason due to pay and conditions.

We are waiting on a parcel that should have been here Monday at the latest.

Should never have been privatised. A large chunk of RM is owned by a Czech billionaire. We all know what happens when we vote Tory and services are privatised, but always seem surprised when they are shit.

I paid for signed for delivery containing my original birth & marriage cert and decree absolute.
I found it poked through my letter box in the afternoon. If it had been raining hard they would have got wet. I was in when it was delivered.
What's the point of paying for this service if they just 1/2 stick it through the letter box?

@Metabigot Royal Mail are already making people redundant. They already plan to make 11,000 more redundant. Then bring in agency workers on minimum wage to cover that loss, because they actually desperately need staff. They just don't want to pay them a living wage. Thanks to the Tories and Brexit for this mess.

There has been absolutely no issue with moving with the times and a changing business model. The issue is with all the nefarious terms they are trying to enforce on the employees. But hey carry on believing the shitty false narrative being pushed in the media! Great to see Simon Thomson lying his way through some tv interviews this morning.

Haha hilarious you consider Evri offering a better service.

I must admit that it's not just Royal Mail, its everything. It is the age of shit. Everything is shit at the moment and the UK is going to bollocks. We all look so deflated and weary like we can't be bothered in this country.

Evri actually is a better service at the moment! Their workers are actually working not striking. And it's £2.29 to send a parcel via ebay compared to £2.85 with Royal Fail so what's not to like!

It's not hilarious if it's accurate.

RM offer no tracking facility, just a rudimentary "it's at x place" "it'll be with you by 3pm" then 3pm comes and goes....and it's not with you.

You have as much chance of speaking to someone on the phone at RM as you do Evri - zero.

The sorting offices are in awful locate, with shit parking and open for a minute time frame in most cases.

Evri are shite, but in many experiences on this thread alone, currently, and for quite some time, RM are worse.

I don't know enough about the pay/conditions/strike reasons etc to have an opinion on that. So I won't give one.

But RM isn't a sacred cow, it is underperforming and this whole "answer your door" stuff is stupid, when again, we've seen people, many people, say they never even knocked.

People complaining about the service isn't a personal attack on postie's, it's a complaint about a service. A paid for service. A paid for service that is often more expensive than its competitors, but with less to offer.

I don't know enough about the pay/conditions/strike reasons etc to have an opinion on that. So I won't give one. *
*
There's plenty of articles on the internet when you can find out exactly what is going on, and not just the propaganda peddled out by RM bosses with their million pound salaries plus bonuses. Plenty of people on here have commented though, my comment wasn't directed at you was it. At the same time the information on why the service is so shit currently is online as well. It's nothing to do with your posties being lazy and EVERYTHING to do with the fat cats at the top destroying the service from the inside ON OURPOSE. They want the public to be blaming the lower scale employees. They want to swoop in and 'save' the service by doing the exact thing that will destroy it all!

A few years back I was coming down our stairs (which had the front door at the bottom) as the post lady put through the "sorry you were out card" without knocking. I opened the door and asked why she hadn't knocked well you're not usually at home

I worked 4 on 4 off at the time, so was actually quite often at home 🙄

Our posties are lovely and do a great job (and our Evri delivery woman is amazing too)

However I can confirm that in our area at least they are often sent out with cards in lieu of larger parcels. I can confirm this because my office is next to the front door so I see them as they pull onto the driveway and when I open the door to collect the post I am handed the card along with our letters and and an apology that the parcel will need to be collected. I assumed it was normal practice when they were a bit understaffed? We live off the beaten track and I'm sympathetic that there's only so much space in their van. I will admit to purposefully ordering larger things from companies that use other couriers though!

Surely the answer is to support the strikes in the hope that better pay and conditions improve staff retention and reliability?

I'm at the point that I won't order if somewhere uses Royal Mail for delivery. I rarely get letters as most stuff is done online now. If I do, it's a duplicate of an email I have already received.

I got fed up of receiving cards saying "sorry we missed you" when I had watched the postman just pop the post in the letterbox and not attempt to knock or even have a parcel. I would only know there was a card when I picked up the post a few minutes later. Doing this with morphine I needed for the weekend on a Friday was the last straw.

That’s strange. Our cards always give us the option of redelivery next day (or another day that suits) or calling into the sorting office next day and picking up.

I'm going to join previous posters in avoiding businesses who use RM as their courier. Things take so much longer than with other carriers. For example I'm waiting for an order that RM have had since Thursday sent by the 48 tracking service. It now won't arrive until Friday at the earliest. How is 8 days 48 hours?

In contrast I ordered something sent via DPD. Order made on Wednesday. Package arrived Friday. I made an order sent via Evri on Friday. It arrived yesterday.

Fair enough! I've had to put a laminated card above my doorbell "this works, please use it" and a separate card when actually expecting a parcel: "mobility issues, please be patient".
My posties & delivery people are very kind and helpful as a result. Doesn't everyone know these days how much pressure for shit pay delivery people get?

Major retailers are beginning to actually advertise that they don't use RM for deliveries to encourage customers now.

Fenwick has a banner saying 'don't worry, we use DPD' or something to that affect on their website.

It'll be because they have nowhere to store parcels for several days if they're no longer being collected.

Happens a lot to me they knock lightly and leave a card, which I don't hear, unlike the doorbell which I would hear and respond to when working from home. Then I end up having to go to the postal delivery centre a week later to collect it. So annoying, when I'm literally there in the house.

We've just got a ring doorbell.it alerts us to motion so we can actual see who is outside. It alerts if a doorbell is pressed.

It's interesting how many just dont even bother knocking or ringing the door bell.

At least the other delivery companies leave the parcel in our ‘safe place’ even if they don't knock. For some reason the royal mail deliveries won't do that for us.

I do answer the door if it is knocked or bell pressed. But we are three floors. It takes time to get downstairs.

Ours never leaves it though.
It always goes back to the delivery office regardless if how many times I go online and our in a safe place.

Just reading the posts- this is SO bad