I need to rant to someone about my postman!!!

If you don't want to go to the sorting office just go online to royalmail.com and book a redelivery.

Nannypiano - I used to share a milk round with my former husband. I changed batteries in smoke alarms, light bulbs, posted letters (well, you'll be passing the box anyway won't you dear?) helped complete forms for benefits claims (it was going to help them pay our bill after all!) and provided entertainment to the lads on a local farm where I reversed the car and trailer to turn round at the end if my little bit of the round. They used to strategically park their tractors to make it more difficult then watch from the barn doorway! I enjoyed those times, but it was not a job, it was a way of life with very long and antisocial hours. BTW, we are 'mourning' our lovely Post lady - she got a new job! But we did wish her well ... grudgingly!!!! Hermes here - very good and Amazon too. When we first moved here we had a few parcels 'delivered' over a 6ft wall, despite being marked Fragile!! Thankfully those days are long gone.

I had four late Christmas cards in January this year, all correctly addressed and posted well before the last posting date.

gillybob

He probably didn't have the parcel with him Craftycat! Its a sneaky trick but some of the posties (not mine he's brilliant) don't bother to bring the parcels out with them. It used to happen to me all the time when I lived in my last house. Our sorting office is the same. There is no-where to park without paying extortionate charges in the town centre.

My house is sometimes like an Amazon mini sorting office as the postman knows I am normally in on a friday afternoon (early finish) and gives me parcels for what seems like the entire street (mostly young people out at work). i don't mind 'cos he's lovely and I feel sorry for him humping them around.

We've had this happen too, my husband opened the door as the postman was pushing the card through saying he'd missed us and the postman had to admit he didn't have it with him. For many people Royal Mail don't offer a parcel delivery service at all, just a collection service from your sorting office, which often isn't local. In Dorset it can involve an expensive bus journey to pick it up, or parking fees higher than the cost of delivery. No wonder people prefer couriers.

My regular post woman is great, leaves parcels in our agreed safe place and gives me extra time to get to the door. Obviously I don’t have this relationship with her reliefs but when parcels are returned to delivery office there’s always the option to rearrange delivery. Some areas of Sheffield have been experiencing lack of mail deliveries with this being explained as due to staff shortages. On the whole no complaints

Plus if I'm ACTUALLY IN why on earth would I change the delivery date???

Ele19

No one seems to have mentioned the ease of going online to get your parcel redelivered on a day you know you will be in rather than trek to sorting office?! Have nothing but good to say about my posties here & get fair amount of parcels, maybe they like ringing doorbell to catch me in my dressing gown!

Really? Funny as I have done this and delivery came three days later, granted it was at the time slot but we weren't in as it was two days late!!! As I've said they're a bunch of lazy idiots!

I can beat that!! Just before Christmas an order of some very expensive boots arrived by so called 'royal' mail parcel I was IN car on drive etc. Then went out to shops.returned and noticed card shoved in letterbox but stuck between inner and outer flaps saying 'parcel blue bin' WTF!?!?!? failed to mesh. BIN DAY!!! Parcel? Nope! Bin empty? YEP!! boots? GONE!!!. Luckily sender I wired and Resent I tried to contact post office and spent25 minutes looking online for contact!?!? None other than phone number so reluctantly then spent another 25 minutes holding on without answer In Queue! Disgusting and cannot see how to get round it. I told supplier what had happened and that they're really taking a risk using royal mail as they're worse than other carriers. They were unperturbed. Know will only use sellers who use either for DHL or Hermes etc NEVER use those using postal service. I had another allegedly "signed for" shoved in letterbox sticking out yet my DS had paid for services it was gift card what I'd it had been stolen from letterbox? P.O. had said that I HAD signed even though I never did. They're a bunch of idiots imo

We have a brilliant postman in this rural area, he's local so knows everyone, that's a real bonus when it comes to some of the way out spots and very odd addresses!
However a parcel posted on December 7th in Canada arrived yesterday, last year one posted in late November 2020 didn't arrive until March 2021!
I think the British postal system is pretty good when taking everything into consideration.

Complain loudly. That postman might well do the same thing to others who, unlike you, are not as mobile or capable.
On the other hand, although I’ve come across stupidly nasty posties myself, I must point out that there are many more who go beyond just doing their job properly. One of my many postmen always ignores it, but the others always take notice of my note asking “ Could you open this for me please”
Bottles of bleach, glass bottled sliced gherkins, those new fangled plastic containers of washing liquid tablets and
quite regularly I’m afraid, NHS brown bottles of tablets. Childproof openings they might have. But they are also old lady proof. The posties open them all for me.

Our regular postman is good. However, the temps that appear from time to time are appalling!

2 very recent examples :-

1) letter and small parcel ( paperback book) delivered to an obviously empty house round the corner. House has no gate, boarded up window, doorbell removed, general air of no one living there. Owner had died some months ago, house passed to daughter, not local, only visited occasionally. Temp postman put a card through our door saying " sorry, I've delivered to wrong house". We put a note through the door, but it was a couple of weeks before we recovered the post.

2) Waiting for urgent ( very expensive) medicine for our poorly cat. Had been dispatched, but not delivered to us. No red card through door or anything. Finally went to local parcel office on spec, and explained. Lady confirmed they had it, but needed the red card. Explained the postman hadn't left one, didn't make a difference. So the medicine for my poorly cat was sat on a shelf behind her, and she wouldn't give it to me, even though I could prove who I was. Had to wait for them to re-deliver the following day. ( Cat is improving, I think, but would have benefitted from starting the treatment earlier.)

The temps just don't seem to care.

I posted a Christmas present to my sister in Italy on 15th December and she still hasn’t received it!

I get you craftycat Ive been on Twitter to them over same issue. At least they answer there...so worth it.
It is infuriating. In my case the Royal Mail website doesn't even list where the delivery office is. I happen to know. You can drive and park there but god forbid if you couldn't it is so out of the way on an industrial site by dual carriageway- no use to pedestrians or users of public transport and quite a long drive for me.
Postmne rarely ring the bell, and depending who it is don't leave in the safe place. Some do some don't.
And there is a great sign in our delivery office saying how rudeness to staff will not be tolerated...always a sign that they might deserve it - not personally but as a business.
Also when did find them on website to find their opening times because they have weird opening times (eg 6am - 2pm) and every day different which used to be printed on the card...not any more..it said it was open and it wasn't. No sign saying sorry. Three other users had turned up by car too. I agree I avoid companies that use them such a nightmare. And to think we own most of it. Bit garbled but it needs saying and I'm in a rush

My postie is very good, though he bangs so loudly on the door, if he has a parcel, that I nearly have a heart attack! My next-door neighbour gives him, and other deliverers, Magnums. An expensive exercise, but she's soft-hearted, better-off than me, and it certainly keeps them sweet!

I don't have any problems with parcel deliveries by the postman or couriers but I know postmen have longer rounds as a result of Royal Mail cutting staff over the years and they now have more to deliver as we are all ordering stuff online. I think Royal Mail was better in public ownership and it should not have been privatised and Post Offices split off.

If it’s your regular postman that you are talking about, I would make a complaint to the post office about their particular member of staff.
It seems he is or was totally ignorant of your situation, he has a job to do and to do it well. He gets paid to do the job.

Ditto, LauraNorderr, I thought the same.

We have very friendly postpeople in this village. Although I am housebound I might be in the loo when they come so they leave anything round the back door if I don’t answer. Same with Hermes and Amazon.

My postman is great and even if I'm not in I can arrange a redelivery.

I'm lucky with our postman and any couriers that deliver. I've come home to notes saying they've put a parcel on the back step or in the shed.

My post people are lovely, yours sounds like a nightmare.
I would complain in writing to the postmaster.

My postie is excellent as is our local delivery office, he knows where everyone likes there parcels left if not in and always bangs on the door, I try and use companies that specifically use Royal Mail as couriers class us a 2 day delivery area and charge stupid prices

I want to be a postie; I keep looking for jobs in my town. If I get one, I promise to be a good one!

My postman is very good, but YODEL is another matter the problems I’ve had with this company, the last one being they were supposed to make a delivery to me certain day certain time the chair I sit on is in the window so I sat there all day reading at the time he was supposed to come I received a text saying he had come I wasn’t home and he had left a card, all of which were lies and neither was there a card left.
Hubby was also home and no way did anyone come

We had a lovely postman who disappeared when Covid started he was an older man so I hope he just retired. We have had a constant stream of newbies some ok but some unable to read or count. I got sick of delivering letters to other houses even in the next street so complained on twitter and my husband had already complained on email with a very poor response, put them back in a postbox. Which we did unless it looked important such as a hospital post mark. In the end we caught the lazy young lad handed him the wrongly posted letters and put him straight. He is ultra careful now.