So annoyed!!!

A nephew posted to me back in September. He is in UK and I am in Ireland. He sent me a scan of the envelope to confirm address etc but put the wrong amount of postage on it ( two second class instead of two first class). I am still waiting. Back in the day, you could pay the missing postal charge on receipt.

My daughter lives in Eastbourne. November last year her birthday card took 2 weeks to arrive. I'll be making allowances this year!

Sadly Travels, this happens almost everywhere. In this village, the local F'book last month was lit up with "where is my post?" comments, assorted mail delayed for up to 2 weeks. It turned out that THE postman (just the one!) was ill, and there were no other staff. If they'd contacted the Parish Council, a set of sub 'posties' could quickly have been assembled, like the 'need any help' band of volunteers in Lockdown.

People anticipating Xmas cards rolling up in time for Easter (but which year?!) might like to try an 'E-Card', lots of firms but we use jacquielawson.com who have a very good range.

Courier forms (for parcels) get a barrage of complaints too, almost every day that local F'book has a picture of the bottom of a front door, with a parcel that was 'delivered' -- and the would-be recipient is asking "whose door is this, my parcel isn't with me?". And that's because drivers have to deliver a million a day (?!) and neither they nor the firm cares much exactly where they went, just glad they're not in the depot!

Should have mentioned that we both live in Sussex!

Royal Mail hasn’t been fit for purpose since it was sold off. That should never have happened. In fact I can’t think of any service that has been privatised and hasn’t got much worse. We need the next government to renationalise a lot of these services to see any improvement.

My DH had to request new bank cards when original ones never arrived. The replacements were apparently delivered to the wrong address. (Around the corner from us). He found the envelopes quite by chance on the pavement outside that address! Horrified. At least there were no accompanying pin numbers.

The last two birthday cards I sent to my grandchildren have never turned up. I have stopped sending cards but I do send them a present using Amazon and gift wrap. So far all their presents have turned up. I know that if they don’t then Amazon will correct the error.

Royal mail is poor. My friend posted a birthday card to me at the beginning of the month in which my birthday was on the 12th, the card actually arrived on the 31st. She lives less than a mile away.

I agree that Royal Mail service is awful here. I don't receive post until there are several items together, always sent and potmarked with different dates. On the other hand, I posted a birthday card to someone in Arizons, USA allowing a couple of weeks for delivery. It arrived 3 days later.

Postmarked, not potmarked!

Nothing is the same since Covid, that’s for sure, even here in the US. You can no longer rely on snail mail. Sometimes they will surprise you.

I do know our postal system is working really hard to overcome the Covid debacle “stigma” AND the verbal uprising by consumers. Now, they just keep hiking prices.

I hear you about Christmas cards - I love them, but my list gets shorter every year.
USA Gundy

Last year my christmas card to Bristol arrived 10 days after New year.
Last month a letter to Bristol was 20 days and a small package to Northern Ireland 1st class took 8 days.
I'm finding evri takes only 3 days for parcels and RM 48 2-4 days now. With the storm we've had probably all will be delayed now.

Perhaps we should all sue Royal Mail for Breach of Contract! When we pay for our stamp, we enter into a contract with Royal Mail to deliver our post in the expected timescale denoted by the amount of postage we pay, so we fulfil our side of the contact by agreeing to their terms and paying the price - but they fail to deliver (literally) on theirs. If they had to fight a collective legal case, they would probably have to go out of business, then the government could start it up again as it was before, when it worked! ... or perhaps Amazon should just take over - their deliveries are far more reliable!

Sent my daughter her birthday card on Monday as I wasn’t sure if I would be able to visit her on the day of her birthday today .. (Friday) as it happens I turned up at her house just before the postman came and delivered it so I could’ve save myself a stamp ..

My sister posted my bday card on 9th Oct for my bday on 12th. I received it on 30th oct. She couldn’t believe it. I sent her from my ring door bell to her. I told her hand delivered would have been faster. 🤦🏼‍♀️

We must be the exception to the rule. Our postie is great, and although we don't check how long mail takes to arrive we've never noticed anything being particularly late. The odd card over the years, but not a general thing. Statements, birthday cards, etc seem to arrive at about the expected time. No one has complained that things have arrived late, at least not in this country. We ordered something online one day a few weeks ago and it was delivered next day by Royal Mail, which surprised us as we weren't expecting it for about 2 days.

We had a large cheque go missing in the post, of course we cancelled it but then we had to go to pay in person to get it in before the end of the tax year.
Our letter post seems to be coming every other day now, though parcels are better and we even had one delivered on Sunday afternoon.
Last Christmas we were advised by our post office that the sorting office was so full of unsorted mail due to the strike that it just wasn't worth sending anything. A few of our own Christmas cards were delivered to us in mid-January and I do wonder if some of that backlog every arrived at all.
I never expect anything to arrive the next day, even if it is relatively local and is posted first class.

I very rarely use royal mail now I don't trust them to deliver important documents but had to last month so used special mail.
Also I think it's about time they dropped the Royal part of the name and replaced it with uk mail they don't deserve that anymore.

I'm lucky if I get a delivery once a week. Ok noone writes to me but it's as though they wait until I have several letters before I get a delivery.

I phoned the hospital about my letter of confirmation for my cataract operation on Monday. They said it was posted on 23rd October but has not arrived. They have now emailed it.

100 years ago there would be several deliveries a day. Ofcourse we have alternative ways of communicating now so the post will gradually die out

I can’t fault our postman. Our usual couriers are fine too. On the other hand, when I hear that something will be delivered by ParcelForce, I just wait for things to go wrong.

If you’re sending important documents consider using a courier if you’re not happy trusting them to Royal Mail Special Delivery.

RM is seriously understaffed. When our lovely postie is on leave there’s no-one to replace him to do his round. It’s ridiculous!

I send a voice message or video call family who live away after so many either late, or never delivered cards.

We pre arrange calls, it's only a few minutes out of each of our day, but is so personal.

Even sending cards well within the posting guidelines, they arrive late, so very disappointing.

However, I've found on occasion, Moonpig seem to overcome postal delivery delay for whatever reason.

I posted a birthday card for my nephew last Saturday. First class.
He still hasn’t received it. What a waste of time/paper and money.
It’s his birthday today 😐🤦‍♀️

Why are we paying £1.25 first class when they don’t get there for weeks?

It just struck me that this year I won’t have to post a single xmas card. For several years I have donated to charity instead of buying cards and stamps. I had several elderly Aunts so just used to send them all one as older people like receiving post.

Sadly, the last two Aunts have now passed away, so no more cards. 😢

I sent a New Home card to my great niece and 2 weeks later she rang to say she hadn’t received it (I’d put a cheque in it and asked her to let me know when it arrived). I cancelled the cheque and arranged for one of my children to send the money via bank transfer. A couple of days later she rang to say she had to attend the post office and pay a charge to collect an item of mail… my card! It had a sticker on saying the stamp was a forgery. I bought the stamp at my local post office and have used the other stamps in the book without a problem. When I complained at my post office they told me that unless I had a receipt (I didn’t) I couldn’t prove I’d bought the stamps from them and there was nothing they could do. I’m furious 😡