Royal Mail, why have standards dropped and prices risen?

More and more people here are using private services because our post offices only deliver once or at most twice a week. I suppose it is because there are less letters because of email. A world wide problem probably. The parcel se4vices are much cheaper if you use private carriers. Sad.

I'm on holiday in Devon. Yesterday I sent postcards to my grandchildren in Cornwall. The postcards cost 55p, postage £3.60. 😄 I sent them first class in the vague hope 🤔 that they will get there before I see the children next week. I haven't sent a postcard for decades. Watch this space. 😂

First class mail can be a lottery but second class seems to be left in a pending pile until someone can’t ignore it any longer.
Have sent an email to our MP as have many of our neighbours.

I live in SW London. Yesterday, 24th March, I received a Christmas card that had been posted first class on 22nd December from about 10 miles away from me

I can’t fault my postman, he’s brilliant, but the service is dire. It’s so unpredictable - one week I’ll get a wad of mail secured by a rubber band, then nothing at all the following week. A hospital letter from Sunderland to Durham took 10 days to get to me, but a birthday card and gift from my Sis-in-L posted 3 weeks ago has gone ‘missing’ presumably stolen somewhere in the chain. Weirdly, on 13/3 I had 2 deliveries!

We seem to get post about 3 times a week. I am friendly with both posties. I am amazed by the size of the sacks they have to carry as it is full of smaller parcels. They said as people leave as they are all fed up of the working conditions they are rarely replaced. They are down 20 workers at the moment. They have been given a bigger round to do in the same time. They have also been told that parcels are priority and to deliver the letters when they can. They are both understandablly very upset with this.

It’s awful where I live. My friend (who lives about a mile away) sent me a birthday card on 15th February. I’m still waiting for it. I’m waiting on letters from the hospital which have just not arrived. We generally get a large delivery once a week, but obviously it’s not all getting through. My husband is going to a meeting with our MP next week to discuss people’s concerns.

Nationally it’s poor, but I can’t fault our local postal service, they are very efficient and friendly, in fact they recently won the best sorting office in Wales annual award.

JamesandJon33

Of course we all got our increased Council tax letters on time.

Nope! Not had mine yet 🤣🤣

The BBC Breakfast programme is looking into the post office practices, and reporting regularly on its programme. On a personal note, on January 13th I received, one Christmas card and 2 birthday cards (birthday New Years Eve) all posted well before Christmas. I have been sending my daughter who lives over 50 miles away, some correspondence that she needed, not able to get to see her so posted (3 weeks running) an envelope containing the bits she needed by 1st class mail and they all were delivered the very next day. Are we being held to ransom, to get mail delivered next day by paying for the extortionate 1st class stamp ?
Martin Lewis suggests buying bulk stamps ( 1st and 2nd class) before they go up the first week in April, I bought some today at the post office, hope others can do the same!!

I think it must be to do with scale. When I lived in SE London our local social media groups were full of complaints about mail going missing, late arrivals, damages in the post etc. Now I'm in a remote part of the SW, living on a farm with a long driveway. Our postman arrives every day, nothing that's expected on a certain day is ever late, and we never have damaged parcels. On top of that the postman is friendly and cheerful. Fabulous service.

Because its 2026, all standards morals a nd manners are gone, nothing works, especially people, they are all glued to their phones, cant string a sentence together a d it's only going to get worse

Things come in bunches here too. I send birthday cards 10 days in advance. Recorded delivery here is like putting a label on saying steal me. Several things have gone missing this way.
I sent recorded some irreplaceable badges to my gt niece in Nottingham. The empty envelope arrived. I went to my depot, and they referred me to the receiving depot, who refused to answer their phone or acknowledge. I complained in Linked in to someone who kept posting how wonderful Royal Mail is. Bless him, he gave me contact details for lost property in Belfast. No reply at all. Claim refused because I could not give them a replacement value. Not willing to even look.

Royal Mail was sold off to a Czech billionaire I believe, and it's not been the same since. If I was King Charles I would have to insist on the removal of the name Royal, I wouldn't want my name on such a profiteering company that cares not one jot about it's customers.

I have sent a couple of cards to my sister's address, around 100 miles away, recently. Both have been posted first class and correctly addressed with the post code. Neither have arrived.

“Perhaps it has a connection with the 'gentle parenting ' culture in the UK, whose children are now participating in running these institutions.

Some parents today refuse to hold to schools' rules and complain loudly if their child is disciplined.”

What strange and irrelevant comments, fancyflowers.

Because they can and this incompetent government couldn't care less.

Also l would think that the volume of post had decreased due to emails etc.

Plus they are now lots of delivery firms.

That Czech billionaire bloke who bought the Post Office has probably sucked any profits out of it and wants to get rid.

Lastly £1.80 to send a first class letter. You decide?

I was wrong, I can't find any reference to it in the book.

Fallingstar

I have read novels from the Victorian era where a letter posted would arrive by horseback the next day. I think this could even have been the case back in Jane Austen’s day. Of course there was substantially less mail but perhaps if we go back to horseback deliveries it would be quicker 🤣

I may be wrong, but I believe there were two deliveries a day in Jane Austen's time. Didn't Mr. Bennet's letter about Lydia's whereabouts arrive by the afternoon post?

I have read novels from the Victorian era where a letter posted would arrive by horseback the next day. I think this could even have been the case back in Jane Austen’s day. Of course there was substantially less mail but perhaps if we go back to horseback deliveries it would be quicker 🤣

Standards have dropped in every walk of life as far as I’m concerned!

Of course we all got our increased Council tax letters on time.

There are no Royal Mail postal trains any more.

As Dickens says, privatisation!

Royal Mail is a joke here! Our mail was delivered to our neighbours house and we had to wait until after 6pm to retrieve letters! And there’s no way to complain about this online……you’re advised to visit your local sorting office and speak to the manager!