To ask why parcel delivery services are so terrible?

[InveterateWineDrinker]

So, I've ordered a couple things for home delivery. It's quite a rarity for us: unlike some neighbours who have multiple deliveries every week even once every three months is unusual for us.

Yesterday, Royal Mail emailed at 5.25am to say that a parcel would be delivered between 12.50pm and 4.50pm. Signature required. Fine, I rearranged my day to make sure I'd be at home.

Then they emailed again at 2pm to say it would be delivered between 5.45pm and 7.30pm. Inconvenient and irritating, but there you go. It didn't actually arrive until 7.55pm, which meant I had to get a slippery, dripping DC out of the bath to stop them drowning while I went downstairs and signed for it.

Also yesterday, DHL WhatsApped me to say that the other parcel would be delivered tomorrow, signature required. Again, I re-arranged various commitments to ensure I'd be at home. Just now, they've WhatsApped again to say it's out for delivery now and due between 11.45am and 1.45pm - a whole day early. I'm not at home because I'm out doing something I'd planned to do tomorrow and rescheduled on the basis of the information they gave me less than 24 hours ago.

What is wrong with these people?

Nope, our Postie often leaves it at our local post office rather than taking it back to the depot. It's definitely something that they do.

Yes and I cant work out which one they choose- there seems to be no rhyme or reason. Sometimes it's the depot and other times it's the post office. Its really quite annoying

And yet that's exactly what ours does.

You should report that to the Delivery office. But double check you didn’t select it as an option on your account.

The post office won’t be paid for handling your parcel or dedicating the resource to holding it for you. So seems odd they accept it.

Why would I report/complain when it's a lot more convenient to pick it up in our village rather than drive to the nearby town's sorting office?

And no, not an option on my account, these are parcels/letters sent by random clients/supplier without me even knowing they were on their way, so I'd certainly not set them up as delivery elsewhere.

I bought a parcel storage box and its been a game changer. I've let Royal Mail know its a 'safe place' as well as all the other couriers. I highly recommend getting one!

A couple of my neighbours have asked if they can get parcels put in it as well. I've said that's fine but I'm not liable for any damage/missing deliveries.

Could you get one? Then parcels magically appear in it!

If you set it up once it will default - that’s my point.

you should report it because it’s illegal. There is no reason you can’t still get it taken to the post office, just select the option to rather than getting it taken there illegally and the post office not getting paid for it

Lately, even Amazon has been letting me down. Delivering things a day late or at 10pm at night when I pay for Amazon Prime.

There isn’t always an option offered for this! Where there was, I certainly used it.

Nope, not set up as these are post sent to my business address for which I've not set up an account. I've checked for my personal account at my home address for which I do have the app set up and that has no re-delivery settings either. So, no, I've never set up either address to default for local PO delivery.

Ironically, just remembered a couple of months ago, a parcel was sent by a client and because there was no one in the office, Parcelforce (part of RM) took it upon themselves to deliver it to a post office in the next village, so that kind of proves that there's no default set up. Still better than having to drive to the sorting office though!

@Badbadbunny I have no settings set up either and mine still randomly goes to the post office

I'm completely fed up with all of the services apart from DHL at the moment! Evri keep losing things, only gets sorted if I contact them - which to be fair, does always seem to get sorted as a person from the company does always contact me and gets in touch with the depot on my behalf. . Royal Mail have, so far this week, failed to deliver 3 things, plus I've got another 3 things out for delivery today that were supposed to be delivered by an hour ago, still no sign. I'm sick and tired of it -it's not like the service is cheap anymore!
The worse thing is our postman is on holiday, so there's somebody else doing his round and so far this week, he's not delivered anything! So, he's doing a great job - not!

It isn't just the delivery lot, whoever packs them are often quite bonkers too. I had 2 separate deliveries of pots in 1 week (from 1 order I made) and both arrived separately smashed to bits. No "FRAGILE" label or tape, zero pading other than newspaper! Guy carrying the box to the front door was the same both times and clearly heard it jangle as he carried it, but still he delivered them after they had separately been driven across the country for several days, only for them both to be returned by me the next. I mean, why?

Maybe it is just a massive front, like the vape shops etc and this is just jobs for the boys to cover a massive cartel?

Maybe it is just a massive front, like the vape shops etc and this is just jobs for the boys to cover a massive cartel?

I'm fairly certain Royal Mail is like that...

I am totally fed up of evri. I ordered my mum a football shirt for her birthday and evri never delivered it. Royal mail are rubbish too. If i get a time slot between 11:00 and 14:00 i will get my parcel at 17:00 if i am lucky.

Coincidentally I’ve also had a massive saga with the inefficiencies of Royal Mail today as well as over a 30 minute hold on the telephone to talk to someone in an attempt to sort it all out! It’s really not good enough- working people can’t just wait in all day with no idea what time frame there is for delivery. Unfortunately I don’t know what alternatives there are for getting delivery of items ordered. Judging by online reviews I gather Royal Mail is always this bad.

I order a fair bit online, and honestly, I've had no issues at all. The various apps have worked well for me, and our local Evri driver is a superstar. We can even message him on our local Facebook page. A local Royal Mail employee from the sorting office nearby is also very active on our local Facebook page, and will go in search of items for people.

IT IS!!!

I've had very few problems, nice people generally. My daughter did deliveries for a while, covering local villages at weekends , going all over the place. It's a poorly paid difficult job.

All mine are brilliant. Turn up on time, friendly drivers,text just before delivery.

Mine are really good! Only had a few failures in years of multiple daily deliveries/sending. I do think it's area specific, and also whether you have a safe place. Lockers have always worked fine for both sending & delivering more theft-susceptible items.

When I bought a laptop from a company hundreds of miles away (UK) I used the Royal Mail collection service, which worked brilliantly. It was exactly like a private courier, at about 100th of the price.

With high-value international purchases, I think you have to go with one of the big names and - for extra confidence - arrange to collect it from one of their drop-off points. We have a little local newsagent that handles DHL shipments, customs requirements managed seamlessly.

I think a lot of the frustration is because they simply don’t do the basic things you mention. Like knocking and waiting. They don’t knock nor do they wait. I had one guy suddenly appear right in front of my window in the small space between my fence and my house, poking around. No idea who he was. I went to the door to ask what he was doing and he muttered something about the bell not working. I asked why he didn’t knock, no answer to that. There’s a bin right next to my front door which would have been a really obvious place to leave a parcel if that’s what he was trying to do, so no idea why he felt the need to squeeze past that bin and start nosying around on my property and alarming me.

I’ve also had RM say they’ve tried delivery without knocking and without leaving a card. So in other words they just haven’t.

This is the one that really pisses me off. I mean just ring the bell. Fair play to Royal Mail though where a few weeks back the delivery person did this so I rang them and said the delivery person didn’t even come to my house or ring the bell and it’s medication ( which thankfully RM could see it was coming from xxx pharmacy)

The customer service person called the local office and got them to redeliver that same day.

However on Weds I was expecting a delivery, and it had gone way past the estimated time, it was just by chance I had to go downstairs to open the communal door for the washing machine delivery and I saw my parcel on the floor.. the RM delivery driver didn’t even bother to alert me or ring my bell to get the signature etc.

Delivery services in the UK is so bad and just getting from bad to worse

It's the usual story: pay peanuts get monkeys. If you want a reliable delivery service with timed deliveries it will cost more. The consumer could help, by displaying the house number/name where it can be seen from the road, and if you live down a unsigned lane with a house every 1/2 mile use "what 3 words" to give the driver a chance.