Lousy service from Royal Mail

I agree Royal Mail are not the cheapest but my family and I sent guaranteed 24 and 48 hour deliveries all over the country in Christmas week so that presents would be received in time for Christmas. I was sceptical they would arrive but all were delivered in their promised timeframe. The most outstanding service was from the Parcelforce division who collected a large parcel in London during the afternoon of the 23rd and delivered it to rural Devon at 8.30am on the 24th. I thanked the driver for their excellent service and appreciate all the workers who contribute to our deliveries during these difficult times. They are going out to work and potentially exposing themselves to infection by Covid whilst we can stay safe and warm at home. Their pay has not increased to reflect the increased volume of work or risk involved and I appreciate the service provided both by Royal Mail and other delivery services at this time.

The Royal Mail are saying their problems are being caused by the Covid crisis. However, all carrier companies are facing those same problems and restrictions and virtually all others are without doubt performing much better.

We ordered a new toaster on 1st of December and it arrived on the 21st via Royal Mail which was the very day we had warned the supplier that should it not arrive we would have to cancel and physically go to the shops and buy one, something we were reluctant to do in the current crisis.

The Royal Fail would a better name for the organisation at this time I feel.

Let's have some sympathy for the hard working posties. I spoke to my postman the other day and he looked exhausted but still managed a smile and cheery word. Christmas is a busy time any year but this year even more so with people posting more - how many of us had to wait in long queues to get into the post office?

I have family in Australia - cards and letter which normally take around a week are now taking anything up to 6 weeks to get to them!

I have also experienced delays during December with RM standard services, so I paid £7.50 for their guaranteed overnight delivery so that my grandson's gift got to him in time.

Am I allowed to ask which courier companies others have used? Thanks in advance.

Royal mail is usually very good where my daughter lives in the SE. If I post something from NI at 5pm she normally gets it next day. But her birthday card was posted a week before her birthday recently and she got it 4 days after it. I think it just can't be helped at the minute. People will understand.

I saw some photos of all the parcels stacked up in a huge Royal Mail warehouse in mid December and am not surprised some parcels were delayed.

At our local sorting office at the same time, well over half the staff off with Covid or were self isolating so the other staff were working seven days a week and very long hours to try to clear the back log and empty postboxes. I felt vert sorry for a young postwoman I spoke to who had worked ten days without a day off. Our deliveries were very disrupted, I only got a couple a week and even one on a Sunday.

But no one round me was complaining as it was not the fault of the hard working local posties, they were doing their best under very difficult circumstances. However, if you paid extra for special deliveries, then I can understand your frustration. I too have used couriers to deliver large heavy parcels as they often collect from the house and are cheaper, particularly for overseas.

I sent 3 very large parcels last month to Lisbon for the same price as one delivered by Royal Mail. They were picked up from the house and delivered to my son’s door in six days. A couple of weeks ago I sent another slightly smaller parcel. I’d chosen to have it delivered five days later. It was picked up at 2.30 from me near Manchester and it was delivered at 11.00 am the following day via FedEx to Lisbon. Way cheaper than Royal Mail again and incredibly quick.

I am also not pleased with the Royal Mail. I paid £4 to post a small, light parcel first class to a friend who lives locally. It took seven days to deliver it and this was early December. By contrast, I sent two large cartons of Christmas presents to England by courier. They cost less than £6 each and arrived in thee days with a door to door service. The RM parcel service is not getting my custom again.