Gransnet forums

Chat

Royal Mail

(43 Posts)
watermeadow Sun 04-Jun-23 18:50:05

Is it still called that? If so perhaps the King could sort them out. The service appears to have collapsed. I get post once or twice a week now, a bundle of items delivered late along with lots of junk mail.
There’s just one collection from the post boxes so if I post a letter on Saturday after 7am it doesn’t even get collected until Monday. My last birthday card sent to a grandchild 1st class took eleven days to arrive.
What will be next to die, after the NHS, Council services, the rail ways? Third World Britain.

Mollygo Sun 04-Jun-23 18:53:22

We still get post every day, but like yours, it often consists of ‘proper post’ bulked out with junk mail.

AreWeThereYet Sun 04-Jun-23 19:01:49

Our postie does the rounds every day but rarely calls on us as we don't get much mail anymore. He's been our postie for nearly 30 years and is brilliant. We do see him every Monday, which is usually the day the 'junk' is delivered, whether we have mail or not. I once asked him if he could just dump it rather than deliver it, as it just goes straight in the bin anyway.

Ilovecheese Sun 04-Jun-23 19:08:11

But, but, it is a private company now, so it must be better than before!

midgey Sun 04-Jun-23 19:37:10

Apparently if the postie can get the sack if they don’t deliver the junk!

GrannyGravy13 Sun 04-Jun-23 19:47:32

I see our post lady every day in all weathers.
We get less post as DH and I always choose the paperless option.
Haven’t had a problem with cards arriving on time.

Jaxjacky Sun 04-Jun-23 20:11:14

We see out postie every day too, not sure about now, but 20 years ago they got paid extra for delivering the ‘junk’.

Kim19 Sun 04-Jun-23 22:13:35

Intetestingly, I saw a postie delivering today. I said that I didn't know they delivered on Sundays. His somewhat rueful response 'Oooh yesss......'

Germanshepherdsmum Sun 04-Jun-23 22:31:50

Our postman calls most days except Sundays. Just one collection a day except Sundays from the local post box, but not a problem. Years ago there were two deliveries and two collections Monday to Saturday, and even a delivery and a collection on Sunday and a delivery on Christmas Day. It was once the case that you could receive a letter in the morning, send a reply and hear back at tea time! Now of course there are emails and phones. The postman has to deliver anything addressed to you even if it’s junk, he can’t just throw it away.

cornergran Sun 04-Jun-23 23:05:37

At the moment we get one or at the most two deliveries a week. The official, published explanation is staff shortage and machinery breakdown. It’s making life difficult.

silverlining48 Sun 04-Jun-23 23:17:21

We saw a red van with a postwoman delivering mail today. We hardly get any mail but on a Sunday?
Never!

albertina Tue 06-Jun-23 11:13:50

I think it's all very sad.

Finding a post office these days is difficult. They are often tucked away inside supermarkets or at the far end of towns.

Not sure why it all changed and why they are losing out to other companies. Even ebay seems to promote other companies ahead of the post office for delivery.

SillyNanny321 Tue 06-Jun-23 11:14:23

If lucky two posts a week so good job appointments are sent by text & email now! Missed a couple through letter arriving too late! Costs so much to send a birthday card now. Had to post two cards yesterday. 1st Class, which is a joke, cost £4.50 as had to put both cards in a large envelope. No guarantee it will be there by Saturday!

icanhandthemback Tue 06-Jun-23 11:17:55

Our postman can't read. We are always getting letters for another address with the same number but different road. It is so irritating.

missdeke Tue 06-Jun-23 11:22:13

The only post that we get in our village now comes once a fortnight and it's delivered by a volunteer! Haven't seen a real postman in months.

Aldom Tue 06-Jun-23 11:32:18

Most of my 'stuff' is paperless, but the postwoman comes to my road at least twice a week.
I'm not far from Oxford, but we have a sorting office in the town. Parts of Oxford have fewer deliveries, something to do with the sorting office? I once posted two cards simultaneously. One to Shropshire, second class the other to Oxford (16 miles) first class.
The Shropshire card arrived the next day (2nd class). The Oxford card took three weeks (first class).

suelld Tue 06-Jun-23 11:44:39

My Postie is lovely, really missed him when he was off for a few months having had a hernia op. Luckily he is back. He knows to WAIT after ringing to enable me to struggle downstairs.
The Royal Mail also Collect from home, which is wonderful for not lugging parcels to the PO. Just book and pay online and he collects the next day. When the system was down one day I had to go to the PO, where I discovered that some of the online services are cheaper, or not even available at the PO, and only available online. For me here in SW Wales the RM are great. Touching wood but all deliveries have been finest far too.

harrigran Tue 06-Jun-23 11:48:19

Rarely get post these days and only see them deliver about two or three times a week. My friend, who lives half a mile away, sent me a birthday card which took 13 days to be delivered. Strangely the envelope had been franked four times so I could see it had been in and out of the sorting office confused

inishowen Tue 06-Jun-23 11:51:10

Here in Northern Ireland we get post 2 or 3 times a week. There is very little of interest, its mostly junk mail.

sazz1 Tue 06-Jun-23 12:12:33

My sister's 60th birthday card took 3 weeks to arrive 1st class post. Last month a small parcel took 2 weeks to arrive. Both were Bristol area Patchway and BS4 sorting offices have problems atm. Read over 50 comments on an Internet site with people waiting for recorded delivery parcels up to 5 weeks.
I'm now using Evri and so far much better 3 to 5 days but a bit more expensive for over 1kg. At least it gets there and has tracking.

longpinknails Tue 06-Jun-23 12:30:52

They don’t work very efficiently, I can vouch for that. Sometimes we’ll get a parcel delivered by a RM van and an hour or so later, another parcel will get delivered by a different RM van.

Pjcpjc77 Tue 06-Jun-23 13:03:54

Having same problem as you.
In one week I only received 5 pieces of mail. One letter I received was dated 2 weeks prior to delivery!!
What had happened to the Royal Mail, going downhill fast in my opinion
If they can't be bothered delivering mail to people's letter boxes anymore (now they got their pay rise)! Let's do it the American way have a bank of locked mail boxes that way Royal Mail can get rid of thousands of employees and we might get a reasonable postal service.

nanna8 Tue 06-Jun-23 13:15:30

We get a delivery twice a week. That’s all. Worse than the days of the pony express but that’s Australia for you. No one even bothers to complain any more.

grandtanteJE65 Tue 06-Jun-23 13:22:32

But do you honestly know many people who would be likely to send you a letter, or even a bill, through the post?

For years postal services have been becoming poorer and at the same time much more expensive to use, so nowadays anything important enough to need your immediate attention is sent by e-mail or fax.

We get two local newspapers and advertisments from local shops once a week. Apart from that a letter perhaps once every three months or so.

Does the UK not have an online service where you can decline junk mail? We have, and it works - we only receive ads from firms we want them from.

biglouis Tue 06-Jun-23 13:31:49

The Royal Mail also Collect from home, which is wonderful for not lugging parcels to the PO. Just book and pay online and he collects the next day. When the system was down one day I had to go to the PO, where I discovered that some of the online services are cheaper, or not even available at the PO, and only available online

I have a weekly business collection from my home and sometimes order an ad hoc one mid week. These collections are a life saver for a non driver like myself. They work out cheaper and far more convenient than having to get a taxi to the post office and wait in a queue.