Royal Mail

I prefer to use Royal Mail. We have a brilliant postie and rarely have anything going astray or get other people's mail. Most things we've ordered recently have been delivered very quickly. Christmas was a bit hit and miss because of the strikes but most cards arrived before Christmas. Unlike the courier services who seem to deposit things wherever they feel like - our local Facebook page is always full of posts from people trying to rehome packages or looking for lost packages.

I posted a first class large letter yesterday, allowing plenty of time for it to arrive before the event. It arrived today. No complaints about Royal Mail from me at the moment.

I once sent a postcard from the US while on holiday. It arrived at the office 18 months later! Apparently a resentful postman had taken his load of post and hoarded it in his loft. It was finally delivered when the facts were known and he confessed! I'm sure this doesn't happen very often, and think we do well in the UK when I talk to friends in Austria and also in Australia.

Grantanow

Looks like the Royal Mail dispute is over. 10% over 3 years and a cash sum. Of course it's private sector so entirely affordable and no impact on inflation!

Eh? Is this sarcasm?

Looks like the Royal Mail dispute is over. 10% over 3 years and a cash sum. Of course it's private sector so entirely affordable and no impact on inflation!

JackyB

Are you sure you got the format of the address correct?

I live in Germany and nearly all the mail I get from the UK has the postcode in the wrong place. HMRC don't even put the postcode, even though I have explained it to them. Post from them takes months.

Also, if handwritten, 7s and 1s are often confused as they write them differently over here.

A friend of mine is a postie and she was delivering in a place nearby called Wörth. She had a letter in her pile addressed to Fort Worth - the letter had been posted in the US, but had somehow ended up in Germany in a town with a similar-ish name.

HMRC are terrorising me. Their post takes months to arrive always with the threat of a £100 fine and I don't owe any tax but nobody seems to read my replies even sent by recorded delivery.

Royal Mail are excelling themselves for me right now, after poor service over the winter months. A friend posted some plants to me from Gloucestershire at 4pm yesterday. They were in my letterbox when I got up this morning.

I also got a postcard from my small GS which took five days to come from France. I’ve also sent a parcel to my son in the US. Following its journey, it was even being processed over a weekend but has now been stuck in Chicago for days and days. 🤷‍♀️

Within the U.K. I have used Click and Drop a lot for parcels lately - including some big ones - and have almost always been pleasantly surprised at how quickly they’ve arrived.

Just last week I posted a fair sized parcel to a niece who’d just had a baby - posted via Click and Drop in the afternoon - arrived with her (SW London to Merseyside) the following day.
Credit where it’s due…

Should add, our postman will collect - for free - and I did use that service once for 2 extremely heavy ones, but I usually drop them when I’m going into town anyway.

Baggs

Does Royal Mail do deliveries outside the UK?

I have visions of British posties trundling all over the Continent on old-fashioned bicycles! 😀

My parcel was tracked so I could follow its progress, but it did get lost in the system for over a week, presumably going by pigeon post.

I was very pleased that my airmail parcel, which should have arrived at an Australian destination within 5-7 days apparently, only took three weeks to get there.

It seemed to get stuck at a hub near Heathrow, but could have been in transit, who knows. Then Australia Post is a law unto itself.
🙂

I don’t think the delay in this case has got anything to do with Brexit. However I live in the UK and rather more often than I’m happy with, I don’t receive mail posted to me from within the UK. And Mail I post to places within the UK get ‘lost.’ I think the service Royal Mail offer nowadays is very poor and has been poor for some years.

Louella12

Absolutely nothing to do with Brexit. This card was possibly lost abroad. Why blame Royal Mail? You have no idea what happened.

**. **.

Starting from the bottom line of the address, the post is sorted accordingly. So The first stop for a letter abroad is the central post office, usually in the capital city. From then on it's in the hands of the post office of the country concerned.

Does Royal Mail do deliveries outside the UK?

Are you sure you got the format of the address correct?

I live in Germany and nearly all the mail I get from the UK has the postcode in the wrong place. HMRC don't even put the postcode, even though I have explained it to them. Post from them takes months.

Also, if handwritten, 7s and 1s are often confused as they write them differently over here.

A friend of mine is a postie and she was delivering in a place nearby called Wörth. She had a letter in her pile addressed to Fort Worth - the letter had been posted in the US, but had somehow ended up in Germany in a town with a similar-ish name.

Well our mail is probably the worst in the world so that plus the UK issues- don’t bother posting,basically.

I too had important Mail which was tracked severely delayed. It was due to Royal Mail being hacked. It had nothing to do with Brexit. There is no compensation for tracked overseas mail either.

Wasn't the Royal Mail overseas service hi-jacked by hackers which resulted in mail and parcels being delayed or lost?

Absolutely nothing to do with Brexit. This card was possibly lost abroad. Why blame Royal Mail? You have no idea what happened.

You can't assume it's the fault of the Royal Mail if it was addressed to a foreign country.

Doubt it’s the Royal Mail to blame here. Once the card has left the UK the responsibility lies with the mail company of the EU country. Some are not as efficient as here.

I got a Christmas card at the start of April. Posted from the UK in December, before Christmas !

SueDonim

Wouldn’t you need overseas postage for it? I don’t think First Class is adequate outside the UK.

I should have explained that I checked the first class stamp price for that country and also stuck an airmail sticker on.

Cards for Europe require Airmail EU stamp.

It is nothing to do with Brexit!
If you send letters cards etc within Europe you need to send airmail.

Wouldn’t you need overseas postage for it? I don’t think First Class is adequate outside the UK.