to think royail maail workers are idiots

[carriedababi]

so sick of royail mail.

what other options are there for sending thigs off inthe post?

is parcel force royail mail?

anyone else that and deliver letters post?

I agree with BadgersPaws.

I also think I may be a bit jaded because I live in SW London too.

Badgers I do believe some of the poor practices in the RM were introduced by management in an effort to speed up the service, ie introducing the rule that you could go home as soon as your round is done, rather than at the end of your shift. Management thought it would speed up delivery, but human nature being human nature, and this being a low paid low respect job posties were dumping mail, or delivering it poorly (ie wrong addresses etc) and buggering off home early. It was such a stupid policy for management to introduce because any numpty could see it would be abused. That's one of the conditions RM are striking to maintain.

JAMM - I used to live in SW London, and we used to have to go the collection place in Lavender Hill in Battersea all the time because the postie couldn't be bothered to bring parcels out with him. I collared him once to ask him why and he said "oh most people are out in the week anyway, so they're not in to get a signed for package so we don't even bother bringing them out"

I am cancelling our Lovefilm membership, costing 15quid a month for maybe one DVD. Not that bigger deal for me to not have Lovefilm, but it is surely going to hurt them so they will either go under (which will mean either more people out of work) or they will make alternative arrangements and bypass RM.

SW London here as well.

But presumably the mgt could just tell them to fuck off and get new staff since so many people are out of work at the minute?

I don't think that you can sack someone for going on an official and legal strike.

Another SW resident that's sick of the postal service. I've also had cheque books and credit card intercepted on several occasions.

I've had a postal delivery today, the first since last Friday.

To call a strike that will almost certainly lead to huge loss of business and therefore huge job cuts is bonkers.

As for those "you were not in" cards it's apparently reasonably common for Posties to fill them in either in the depot or on the go and pop them through your door without knocking. I know I've definitely had cards when I've been home all day with a working door bell and no loud music/TV on.

Why do that?

Well knocking and waiting takes time.

Why bother when you can go home as soon as your round finishes.

Juney, you can't sack people if they're on a legitimate strike... whether you think their reasons for striking are legitimate is another matter.

I'm seriously starting to think I ought to start posting Christmas cards in the next couple of weeks!

Ahh right I see

It would be dreadful if there were no Royal Mail - what molly said about couriers is so true. The City Link nearest depot is Bicester - about an hours trip from here (and back) and I nearly had to go there once to pick up a parcel.

The only way I avoided it was by camping on my own doorstep from 6am til he turned up at 2pm.

Headfairy I have mixed emotions about your last post.

Whilst I am not surprised that they can't be bothered bringing the parcels I am astonished you managed to track your postie down!

And also a little !

I suppose like all businesses responsibility has to lie with the management.

Sorry last post but one. Was bit slow typing as DS decided to throw himself off sofa lemming-style (I did catch him btw)

I received a letter from a government department that had been sent by TNT. I now cannot remember which department (get so many!) but I remember asking dh why journalists hadn't made more of the story because it does seem like, slowly but surely, business are opting to move away from RM and use people like TNT. We have accounts with Sky, Barclays and BT and I think they all use TNT too.

If Amazon make a decision not to use RM for Christmas post, I imagine that would be a bit hit to RM's pocket.

JAMM we did used to have the same guy all the time... until about a year ago he did the same run each day. We even used to say hello every morning when he saw me in the road, plus he's seen me in the middle of the day, we've even had a discussion about me being a shift worker too, so having days off mid week etc, but he still managed to miss the irony when he told me he didn't bring our parcels out with him as we weren't in during the week. Erm, we had a long conversation last week about how nice days off midweek are!

I think they will regret doing this right now as already some big firms are cancelling their contracts and the union guy they have on the tv always sounds like he is throwing his toys out of the pram.

RM rang me last week to say there never was a parcel I had been left a card for. I really wish I had been in to take the call as the parcel was right there and I have emailed but surprise, surprise, no reply.

I used to be okay mail wise until I moved down here (south coast, Portsmouth). In 2 years the longest length of time we had the same postie for was 6 months. before then and since then we ar elucky if we get the same one for a week. Sometimes we get no mail at all on the whole street, then we all get huge bundles on the saturday. The mail gets delivered anytime between 1pm and 5pm, but on a saturday is all done and dusted by 9am and postie is driving back to sorting office.

I have just startd an offical complaint, which apparently gets the postie and his manager into disciplinary action territory, as we often use Keepsafe when away, and every single time I set it up, they still deliver the mail, and then RM refunds me. Yet they never get to the bottom of the problem it just keeps happening. So I put in an offical complaint which is being dealt with by the area manager. I think part of the problem is that we never have the same postie for long, but how difficult is it really to see a big sign above someones name int eh sorting office saying "don't deliver to this address whatever date"

mollythetortoise -- no, if I miss a RM packet I have to nip 5 mins down the road to the sorting office and pick it up. If I miss a RM parcel (as ddelivered by ParcelForce, as apparently the rest of the RM only delivers letters and packets) then I have to go miles away to the back end of beyond far outside the range of public transport to pick it up, or do the complicated arrange redelivery thing, or pay to have it delivered to the Post Office (which must be easier for them than delivering it to my house, but they still want to charge me for it). None of these options is particularly easy because eight times out of ten the reference number for the parcel that I need to quote isn't filled in on the card. Most of the courier companies are much the same, but if my lovely CityLink driver misses me in the morning he'll try again on his return trip later in the day (CityLink do have some downright daft policies, mind you, so I am aware that I have an unusually lovely driver).

I do like my regular posties, but my word you can tell when they go on holiday or off sick. And much as I like them I am absolutely convinced that someone somewhere in the system is operating a do-it-yourself mail consolidation service because we'll frequently get no mail at all for two days and then what looks suspiciously like three days' worth of mail on the third day. And stuff does repeatedly not turn up at all (SW London as well, funnily enough...)