Royal Mail Health …… do they really think we are that stupid?

Last week I waited almost a week for a package from within the UK to be delivered to me.

Packages to my customers in the USA take not much more than that - average 7-10 days. When I began selling online in the early 2000s an airmail package to USA took 4/5 days. Things have not improved with Royal Mail.

Many of my corporate buyers (Film/TV and theater companies) want items like yesterday. Fortunately Fedex and the major couriers can pick up from me on monday and deliver to NYC next day.

What is it with mail services? Here the postal service from the GPO is disgusting, no other way to describe it . What is happening is that people are using more and more private companies, unfortunately. We are lucky to get 2 deliveries a week and we are not out in the bush. Funnily enough, a parcel from the UK takes just over a week which is excellent but send something to just the next suburb and it will take - a week. Go figure. So you are not alone - it seems to be a worldwide issue.

I use pharmacy4you I think, there are so many.

I've had a lot less trouble with their service than I have using the traditional method.

The medication arrives almost in a day, and there is the option of canceling the order, and they will send the prescription to one of your choosing.

My few friends have said many times that they use such and such a chemist, and they're happy to pick up my pills, but that soon wears thin, then I end up paying £15 round trip to go and get them myself.

I also now never get the "We owe you" slips, which were a constant, meaning that friends ended up trailing around different chemist's to find out who had any in stock.

Then I would get to the point where my meds were running out, my friends didn't want the bother of having to constantly call in to the chemist, or be told its now in a different branch.

Some of the meds have taken months to wean onto, but I ended up without any for days at a time...

we get our prescriptions delivered free from our pharmacy...
Charleygirl5 £5 for one box is expensive,,,

I get all of mine and my husband's medications from an online pharmacy via Royal Mail and have done since the onset of Covid. We have never had a problem with late or missing deliveries. I think it's amn excellent service.

My local pharmacy used to deliver free but now if one cannot pick them up they can be delivered but it is a fiver a box, not cheap. I would find it cheaper to get a local taxi firm to pick up and deliver.

I used to be with Pharmacy2u, they were delivered by Royal mail, no problem with deliveries but problems with Pharmacy 2u. They do deliver controlled drugs that wasn't the problem. The problem was even though my order was the same every month, they'd email to say there was a problem getting this drug or that drug. You could never rely on them to deliver the drugs you needed on time. People on Morphine can't just take a break for several days until they get the drugs in stock. This happened for months on end. I cancelled and used a local pharmacy which I can't get to but family members can. Sometimes they have to go several times to get the full prescription but I've never just been left hanging unlike Pharmacy 2u.

I still fetch my own meds despite offers of delivery. This is because I think it's good for me to have to go out, try to park, stand in the queue, etc.
I know I'm being stubborn, but I like it.
I'll have to give in eventually, but until then...

Susan56

A friend to collect the medication from now on I should have written.

Can you imagine what the deliveries will be like with the Christmas post🤦🏼‍♀️

Yep, it’s not reliable enough. I certainly won’t be trusting it

A friend to collect the medication from now on I should have written.

Can you imagine what the deliveries will be like with the Christmas post🤦🏼‍♀️

My mum’s pharmacy now uses Royal Mail to deliver her medication.

A month ago we realised there was no medication in the house.To cut a long story short her medication had been returned to the pharmacy for two weeks and as the pharmacy were short staffed no one realised.

The result of this is she is now in hospital and as of today we don’t know if she will ever get back to her own house.

We live some distance away and at the time of this incident we were on holiday.The pharmacy assured us the method would not go wrong and mum accepted no medication had been delivered as she trusted them and thought they would deliver what she needed.

The reason she didn’t accept the delivery is that by the time she got to the front door the postman was long gone.

We had arranged for a friend to collect her medication from the pharmacy but sadly too little too late.

I am on some controlled drugs, so surely they can’t post those?

The prescriptions are sent 48 hour recorded delivery. You can track them and they are given priority. Ordinary 1st and 2nd class is an afterthought.
I know this as DD1 is a senior Royal Mail manager.

We pick up from our local chemist but it is going to close soon and the nearest then is a 20 min drive away. So might have to rely on Royal Mail though am not impressed with them where we live. 2 letters about appointments at the hospital didn’t arrive and if I hadn’t checked each time we would never have known. Also anything I order to be delivered by Royal Mail, even first class, never arrives within a week, am lucky if I get it 2 weeks later. Also our mail gets delivered to other addresses near us, quite often neighbours bob over with our mail, then we Bob back with theirs.

My husband is a part time delivery driver for our local pharmacy this is to keep him busy and supplement our pension. He has told me the lovely things people say to him and the little chats he has with people. He loves it and has often gone back after his time if there’s a problem with medication or the person wasn’t in. I love him for that😉

Never had a problem with Pharmacy2u.

Many do not have a local pharmacy to lose, so this could be very well received.

It depends where you live I suspect. I’ve never had anything lost, the local sorting office is excellent, and the postmen are known to the community and are very reliable. You can only speak as you find I think, and this is one of the benefits of living in a rural community.

I use pharmacy 2 U, we have a small independant, and a small Boots, we are in an area that has a pharmacist and staff shortages, unfortunately both are closed sometimes several days without a pharmacist, making them unreliable.

Our pharmacy deliver - free.

All our meds come online. Never any problem and it beats long queues in the local Chemist.

I’ve never had a problem with Royal Mail delivery of specific items ordered from third parties, they’re better than Evri. I do use our local pharmacy for prescription drugs, but their range of other goods is limited, so I order online.

Athrawes

No, I don't think I'd ever use Royal Mail to deliver medication. Things get lost!

That’s what my Mum says when I pointed out she could get her prescriptions delivered.

I will carry on collecting my medicine from the pharmacy in the next village.

No, I don't think I'd ever use Royal Mail to deliver medication. Things get lost!