Lousy service from Royal Mail

I got a card yesterday, posted with first class stamp and postmarked 15th December, 15 days to come from the next county. The sorting machines have been eating the post too I have had three pieces of post in shreds and delivered in a plastic bag.
Our estate has one postbox with a collection at 9am on five days a week.
When I was a child you could post a letter in the morning and have it delivered by the second post at lunchtime.

We can be quick to criticise or feel aggrieved when things go wrong but do not always notice when deliveries are smooth and efficient.
I have one collection a day in the village, around 4.15 and I regularly find that first class post arrives anywhere in the U.K. the next day!
Our postie is also a gem and has realised that if he does not want the unedifying sight of Maw in her pj’s, anything too big for the letterbox is absolutely fine on the doorstep!

I can only echo what tinafl has said. My son a postie (currently off work with Covid) has worked continuously long, long hours to try and get the post out on time. Geekesse - walk a mile in a postmans shoes, have a little compassion please.

Spangler you’re right re the photo taken in Bristol sorting office, wether or not used by postal workers union to drum up sympathy I wouldn’t know.
What I do l know however is that In Essex most sorting offices could have provided same picture .
My son is postie in this region and has been working seven days a week sometimes 12/15 hours a day. Their vans have been packed full with parcels to deliver that’s without the extra Christmas post to deliver , he has told me how demoralizing it has been to go out each day and come back to more and more parcels waiting to be delivered, so maybe a bit of sympathy wouldn’t go amiss.
All delivery firms suffered through the Christmas period and most posties have worked all through this pandemic so think we all need to be a bit more understanding as Hettie 58 said we can’t really expect normal service at present.

I only use Royal Mail for letters (small and large). The click and drop service is brilliant. I would not use them for any parcels.

I've sent five parcels with presents (Christmas and Birthday) this month. The last one was a week before Christmas Day. They all got to their destinations in two days. One parcel was nearly 3kg. All parcels were insured and they all cost nearly half what Royal Mail charge.

The company was HERMES. I've used them more and more this year for delivery (2-5 delivery rate). They have had a bad record, and it does depend on the couriers. However, I believe they've have really upped their game and I will continue to use them. The drop off is so easy. Much easier than queuing at the post office. My local PO is tiny so can only let one in at a time.

My daughter sent her present to me by HERMES and again it arrived safely after 3 days and was left in our safe place.

Our Hermes delivery lady {Beverly} is lovely.

Sharon103 how many Christmas cards have you received past Christmas day? We had four today, four yesterday and fourteen last Tuesday.

What did surprise me and I can't make up my mind if I'm pleased or not, Hermes delivered an Amazon package at eight am on Sunday 27th December. I'm pleased that it arrived, but not if it's exploiting low paid workers.

There's been no problem with the post where I live. We have a lovely cheerful postie.

We do have to remember that this year people have had to post more cards and gifts than ever before. They've done their utmost I'm sure.
I read that Royal mail were prioritising parcels over cards which I can understand.

And they have the cheek to increase the postage !

Teacheranne Wed 30-Dec-20 23:27:21
I saw some photos of all the parcels stacked up in a huge Royal Mail warehouse in mid December and am not surprised some parcels were delayed.

That photo was taken in the Bristol sorting office. It was the postal workers union that used it to drum up sympathy, but come on, if you are looking for sympathy it's in the dictionary.

You see Royal Mail trucks with 500 years service displayed on them. 500 years and they still can't deliver on time.

What is annoying is that The Royal Mail suspend first class delivery throughout December, but the post office still ask if you want first or second class stamps.

The beginning of December was fine, then it tailed off and stuff was a week late so I for one reckon that I had to wait until the Christmas break was over until receiving presents that should have been delivered before Christmas. No trouble with other deliveries.

Hetty58

Is this a joke geekesse?

They are doing their very best - but we're in a massive pandemic (or hadn't you noticed?) with a huge death toll.

'Normal' service really can't be expected or achieved right now!

No, it’s not a joke, and I’m perfectly aware of the pandemic. I’m not blaming an individual postman or postal worker. My gripe is with the organisation.

If RM know they can’t fulfil a guarantee to deliver in a particular time frame because of Covid 19, they should say so and not sell that particular service. I checked online before paying extra for special delivery to make sure the service was still running, and that next day delivery was still guaranteed. It is dishonest to sell a service that is not available.

Thankfully i haven`t had a single problem with the post but if i had it would be covids fault.
Our postie is working like crazy bless him,as i`m sure they all are.

Our postal service is wonderful in my neck of the woods
Our postman is so helpful, our deliveries come at about 8am when we are usually in but if we get a parcel he leaves it somewhere and pops a note through the door.
I can’t remember any parcel or letter going astray or taking ages to arrive.

I use DPD next day delivery but Parcels2go will give you the best price as they compare senders.

Don’t forget we had a thread recently about the grave danger ⚠️ we are all in from licking envelopes!!!

Perhaps the posties around the world are all succumbing ....

Give them a break for goodness sake . We are in a pandemic.

Christmas and birthdays don’t come as a surprise .
Get yourselves organised in good time or make other arrangements to send gifts and good wishes . There are plenty of alternatives these days . Life is different now , move with the times.

Rant over .

I don't use RM for parcels, I don't want to have to spend ages risking infection queuing in a post office, and they are more expensive, plus I don't want an interrogation in front if everyone else on what is in the parcel. With a few clicks on the laptop I can pay and print out a label for a national courier, then drop it off at my local Budgen, where there is no queue. When Christmas was cancelled, they got the large, heavy box of presents from London to Scotland in less than 24 hours, and I could track it all the way.

Is this a joke geekesse?

They are doing their very best - but we're in a massive pandemic (or hadn't you noticed?) with a huge death toll.

'Normal' service really can't be expected or achieved right now!

I used the Royal Mail Click and Drop collection service which was very efficient and the last-minute cancellation of my Christmas meant I had to send children’s presents by Next Day Special Delivery - did all the paperwork on line (paying, printing labels etc) and just dropped them at the Parcel Office (no queues)
No problems.

I’m not exactly enthralled by RM either. Someone posted an item to me on Tuesday and paid for guaranteed next day delivery and it still hasn’t arrived. My postman that delivers the parcels is a nightmare. He doesn’t seem to knock or maybe taps lightly. I’m constantly finding ‘we tried to deliver’ cards in the hallway after he’s been when I’m at home. I’m fed up of having to go to the delivery office to pick things up and there’s nowhere to park and double yellows everywhere.

A couple of weeks ago I went 3 days running and I’d been home on each occasion when he called. The man in the office gave me a number to call to complain as he said he must be doing it because he can’t be bothered to wait for me to answer the door. It never happens with DPD, Hermes or the other carriers. I’m not deaf or disabled so I think he writes the card out before he gets here! I’ve just returned from picking up yet another package and I was in when he pushed the card through.

I haven’t rang to complain yet - season of goodwill and all that but I will if he keeps doing it.

It’s been a very trying time for all. However I’ve only been getting mail abiut twice a week if I’m lucky. When it dies come I can see from the dates on stuff they’ve been stockpiled till there was quite a bundle. Magazines that have been weekly delivered come in twos and threes but I am grateful to them for all their efforts. However Amazon has been amazing and I will continue to use them in the future for presents.

I booked a delivery with Parcel Force, via Interparcel, on line on Monday. 2 big parcels were collected at 2pm on Tuesday and delivered to my daughter’s address in Devon before mid day yesterday, Wednesday, and I watched my family opening their presents on Facetime at 2pm. Really impressed with the service and worth paying for. I was able to track their progress & amazed to see they went via Basingstoke which is considerably east of where I live! (I had hoped to have delivered them in person before Christmas, but ‘events’ overtook me......?)
Oldwoman70. My DD tells me that since Covid, all Australian post is delivered to a hub in Melbourne and then sent on, eventually, to the rest of Australia which is why it is taking so long

Oldwoman70

Let's have some sympathy for the hard working posties. I spoke to my postman the other day and he looked exhausted but still managed a smile and cheery word. Christmas is a busy time any year but this year even more so with people posting more - how many of us had to wait in long queues to get into the post office?

I have family in Australia - cards and letter which normally take around a week are now taking anything up to 6 weeks to get to them!

I agree. My postie has been working 12 hour shifts as so many of his colleagues are off sick or having to isolate.

A friend has just told me that she would have to have paid £36 to send their family Christmas presents via Royal Mail. In the end she sent them via Hermes for £11 and they collected them from her house!

These are unprecedented times and all delivery services are under pressure as never before. As others have said, they’re understaffed and many who are still on duty are working very long hours. I think most people understand the situation and wouldn’t be upset about a delay, though I agree it’s very annoying if you pay so much for a special service and don’t get it.

I did a Christmas post round as a student and have had the utmost respect for postal delivery people ever since. And things are so much more difficult for them now when we’re buying such a lot online.

From all the complaints on social media about deliveries, it’s not just Royal Mail who are struggling. Our Hermes man is up and down this street so often DH actually thought he’d moved in.

I recently had to submit a claim for a lost parcel sent to France. I filled in the lengthy form and attached relevant receipts etc., only to have it returned after approx. 3 weeks because I had been given a slightly out of date form at our local PO. The new form is almost identical to the original form and in a letter they stated that these forms are often out of date as they change them. What for I ask myself?

Apparently it can take up to 90 days to possibly get a refund.