The postal service

One delivery a day here. In this Suffolk village the post office inside the village store was closed without warning five years ago. This was not the wish of the shopkeeper. Since then only a two hours a week mobile service early in the morning. One collection five days a week. No use if you have no stamps and don't know the weight of the letter. This large village is considered a " hub" village. Might as well be in the remotest area. Now unable to drive, I am scuppered.

Well we had lots of post today so I think that our postman has caught up. On Tuesday we had a couple of parcels as he decided to do the small parcels left from last week! He is excellent and doing a good job in difficult circumstances. It's management that's the problem.

BlueDaisy You’re so right! I have a relative who’s worked for RM for donkeys years and is horrified at what’s happening. What used to be a well-oiled machine is now in chaos. Morale is at a very low ebb.

Despite complaining about the poor service generally, I will say that our postman is very good (usually) and very cheerful.

I ordered some items online and could choose the method of deliver, either Evri, Royal Mail standard which was £1 more or Royal Mail Special Delivery £2 extra again.

Last time I ordered from the same firm Evri delivered within two days. I chose Evri again even though I have heard complaints about them.
🤞 this parcel arrives as promptly.

My tracked international parcel is still waiting to leave the country.

We sent some damaged old style notes to the Bank of England by special delivery, the next day they were delivered back to us. I took the letter back to the local post office where the assistant just laughed and threw it back into the same sack as previously. We didn’t hear anything so I rang royal mail to explain the problem and that the tracking was not working. A very grumpy man told me he couldn't help yet because I had to wait at least 28 days before reporting it. Luckily we heard back from Bank of England with a cheque but had a very stressful couple of weeks whilst we were waiting.

midgey

My Mother’s Day card arrived safely….yesterday!

But as I said, a package went 2nd Class from England to Wales in just 18 hours. It's all very hit and miss.

I think that Royal Mail is one of the worst run businesses in the U.K.

My Mother’s Day card arrived safely….yesterday!

Our post is "hit and miss" too, I've started sending cards out 2 weeks before the actual date they are for, I'd prefer for them to get there really early rather than late. And don't forget that stamp prices (and all postage) go up in price on April 1st, I'm stocking up on stamps now at the current price !! As long as they have 1st and 2nd on them they can be used no matter when they are brought.

Just had Royal Mail return a letter from me dated from October which I sent to my solicitor !

Just wanted to say that although the postal
service is very poor the posties themselves are unfailingly cheerful, friendly and helpful. I don’t blame them at all, quite the reverse, they’re working under very difficult conditions.

Bluedaisy

Callistemon21 the head of Royal Mail Simon Thomson is earning £540k a year with £47k a year rise.
Yes my DS delivers to some of the hubs but one in particular that is usually busy hasn’t been used in months which is strange, he’s been told it’s because there’s a problem with the computers! Simon Thomsons allegedly wanting to privatise Royal Mail and sell off bits of it. Personally I don’t know how he managed to get the job as he’d already mucked up BA?

Oh, I wonder if he will get a bonus when he achieves his aims? Who is pulling his strings?

All this modernisation isn't improving the efficiency or speed of the service.

We still have daily deliveries, sometimes twice a day (morning and late afternoon), also once on Saturday and Sunday. Our regular postie is a really nice guy, always cheerful. When I once mentioned that I had missed the post at our village P.O. he said 'No problem I'll take it for you'. And now he often asks if I have any mail to go. I shop online a LOT and most things arrive on time or earlier. But I do wish our local P.O. would open at their stated times, they often close early or don't bother to open at all!

I live in a rural area and my postie is wonderful, as was his predecessor. Unfailingly cheery, he has to navigate his way round our potholed riddled road which frequently floods. He will even collect anything I need posted. I feel the postie has a hard job and remember spending a very fraught few days delivering copies of the telephone directory with my two sons - the money I was paid went to them. It was hard work - bad roads, blisteringly hot weather, people demanding additional copies, etc. By day three we had had enough and decided to jack it in. Afterwards I learned that no one wanted the rural routes as they involved so much driving. The one urban street we had was one where every house had a long driveway or loads of steps. Never again.

We only seem to get post two or three times a week nowadays. My Dh had to go to the sorting office and he met our usual very nice postie working there, at the time of day he would usually be delivering our mail. Maybe they’re short-staffed?

I’m fairly sure we didn’t get all our Christmas mail. There are too many missing names for it to all be a coincidence.

OH sent a smallish parcel by first class recorded delivery ten days ago, and it took a week for it to be delivered to the recipient. The same item was then posted back to him later that same day (as agreed, following a test on the item), also by Royal Mail, and was delivered back here the very next day.

The service is just so random, so totally unpredictable now.

Last year I got my daughter’s Christmas cards in February and I posted my granddaughter’s birthday card in the middle of September for her birthday on the 4 October and she’s still waiting for it! I won’t ever post cards again. I will take birthday cards when I visit or give them to them when they come to me. That way my grandchildren won’t get disappointed.

My Mum's Postie was poorly in January - no post for two weeks so I went to the sorting office to collect it.
I was very sad to discover that the post for his round hadn't even been sorted, so when he came back to work he had a huge backlog to sort and deliver.

We have an Easter egg ready for him to show our appreciation.

I am still waiting for my Mother’s Day card which was posted 1st class two Mondays ago. My son is very upset that I haven’t got it yet. Parcels are arriving in a timely manner but I have had no letters for over a week. What is happening 😤

In the 1930s if you posted a letter to a local address in the morning it would arrive in the afternoon! 1d , one penny.

i cant fault our Postie we live in the country side but whatever the weather he delivers and when he is away we still have our post delivered by another postie who also comes what ever the weather

I run a small online business and post internationally. I always pay for tracked and signed delivery but have had no proof of arrival for well over a year. What are we paying for?!

I’m amazed that the post office isn’t run ragged delivering Saga brochures. We get approximately 2 every week even though we requested they stop sending them. We are more than capable of finding a Saga cruise via email/websites. Nearly all mail items we receive could be classed as junk with 9/10 items going straight into recycling without even being opened.

Isn't privatisation wonderful.