You hear stories about stuff going missing in the post - I never had anything go missing... until now!

A first class pre-printed bank envelope I posted a week last saturday still hasn't got there, and I'm bloody furious about it I can tell ya. I can already hear somebody saying "You should have sent it recorded delivery" - but why? Doesn't first class post work anymore? And there was nothing of value in there, it's just caused me a sh*t load of inconvenience and delay.

And what the hell has happened to the delivery service? It's terrible! My post arrives anywhere between 10:00am and 1pm and it seems to be a different person everytime. Where did the local friendly postie go?

This is just one of a number of so called 'public service' companies which has gone down the pan in recent years and it's about time somebody got a grip.

Grrrrrrrr :rant:

Even if you'd sent it recorded delivery RM do not guarantee it getting there - you pay 66p extra just to get a signature. However if you then want to see that signature you have to pay another £2-odd. Recorded delivery is just a money-making scam – you’re just as better off getting a free certificate of postage – the compensation if it goes missing is still the same.

Originally posted by RockDrummer
You hear stories about stuff going missing in the post - I never had anything go missing... until now!

A first class pre-printed bank envelope I posted a week last saturday still hasn't got there, and I'm bloody furious about it I can tell ya. I can already hear somebody saying "You should have sent it recorded delivery" - but why? Doesn't first class post work anymore? And there was nothing of value in there, it's just caused me a sh*t load of inconvenience and delay.

And what the hell has happened to the delivery service? It's terrible! My post arrives anywhere between 10:00am and 1pm and it seems to be a different person everytime. Where did the local friendly postie go?

This is just one of a number of so called 'public service' companies which has gone down the pan in recent years and it's about time somebody got a grip.

Grrrrrrrr :rant:

I used to be a postie but got out before The Changes. But I can tell you that the bosses-Alan Leighton the saviour of Asda supermaket (he sold it to Wal-Mart) have screwed the workers big time. You may have heard about the posti pay-rises? What you did not hear was that the workload was increased. some pay-rise for an extra thrity quid. He also split the offices so they were working against each-other. Divide and rule.
And by the way, the post is not late. That is the new time of delivery. As dictated by the privatised post-office. It aint no public company. A few years back when Royal Mail wasn't making as much money for the government as it used to, they cut them free.
When de-regulation comes in soon, anyone will be able to apply for a licence to deliver. No longer will a first class stamp be enough.
Never trust the post office with anything important. Most of the old guard are leaving, bringing in un-trained casuals who don't give a damn about customer service.
Believe me, send anything special delivery and not even recorded delivery.
Also, Sheffield delivery rounds are some of the most difficult in the country. Its notorious.
Don't blame anyone except the bosses.
Rant over. Thanks for listening.

:D look on the bright side its going to get worse

trust me im a postie ;)

The trouble is the sheer volume of mail, that is increasing every year, and Royal Mail management don't appear to have allowed for this. With rounds getting bigger and pressure to cut overtime, staff are pushed to the limit. There appears to be no forward planning. Its all about making profit. If it wasn't so profit driven then the service wouldn't suffer. Basically the price of stamps needs to be raised. And more staff need to be employed. You get what you pay for. If something is really important send it Special Delivery.

Originally posted by Zenmaster
Its all about making profit. If it wasn't so profit driven then the service wouldn't suffer. Basically the price of stamps needs to be raised. And more staff need to be employed. You get what you pay for.

Too right. So lets raise the price of the stamps and get more staff in. Whatever it takes. The problem at the moment is that we're NOT getting what we pay for.

I've had loads of stuff nicked from my mail too. just about every birthday one or more cards either go missing or get opened and the tenner removed.

I just don't feel I can trust the royal mail anymore.

The postal service really annoys me too, it can come at any time, sometimes really early like 8.30, up until mid-day and beyond sometimes. Whats going on! I've never had anything go missing though, that must be a nightmare when its something important. I am annoyed though when you get a card through saying that they brought something that needs signing for or too big for letter box, then ring this number and arrange for it to be re-delivered and they say oh we haven't got it back yet or oh they cant deliver it so you end up trawling right to the sorting office to collect yourself, they might as well introduce self collection cos it would probably be quicker in the end!

I sold something on ebay and the bloke never got it so I posted their form to claim for it and not heard anything yet. I hope that letter hasn't gone into the RM black hole too!

I agree that recorded delivery is a waste of money.

the claim system is rubbish too

Originally posted by PoStMaN
:D look on the bright side its going to get worse

trust me im a postie ;)

Was there a pun intended there, since the RM Sorting place is in or near Brightside isnt it??

royal mail is a big scam....

try claiming off them. they lost a parcel of mine 2.5 years ago, which had valuables inside. I insured it upto £500 (true value was £500+ of items inside). I have shown them proof of purchase, details of the box contents and 2.5 years later they still wont pay up, despite accepting they lost it....

I hope they go down the pan.

RM is fecking useless - i don't give a monkeys about posties who say they aren't earning enough - get another job - don't do a ****e job of the job you're doing at the expense of US who pay your fecking wages - it's a bloody disgrace -

we pay for postage and we expect delivery - first class stamp - does the name not suggest it will be sent first class - you don't buy a first class train ticket and then told you have to sit in economy nor that the ticket you've just bought is worthless - the train has left without you and there isn;t another and that you can't get your money back !!!

i hope deregulation brings the end of RM !!

I ordered Xbox Music Mixer from Amazon in 2003, the item "allegedly" got lost in the post according to Amazon, so I cancelled the order and got a refund.. Lo and behold though, the ****ing thing turned up 2 days later... My initial thoughts were that Amazon messed up but then it dawned on me that RM are retarded.

No offense Postie or any other RM employees on here.

It is impossible to deliver mail the same time everyday. Unless the mail is going to be generally later in the afternoon. Mail usually arrives earlier on a tuesday and saturday because there is significantly less of it. And it also depends what time of year it is, summer light, autumn/winter heavy and so on. Some days you may get 40kg for a round, and other days 90kg, so you can't get the mail there as quickly if there is more of it.

Plus it depends who is delivering the mail. If its the regular postie it will get there earlier, than a stand in delivering it for the first time.

Over 90% of first class mail does get there the next working day. (Don't know exact figure) We do have one of the best postal services in the world. I've lived abroad and had things go missing on numerous occasions. But I've never had a birthday card get lost in the post in Britain.

The logistics of delivering millions of items everyday, its amazing the post works as well as it does. Sometimes items may appear late, when in fact they were posted later than the date stamp, and royal mail get the blame.

Do people realise that once competition is opened up, it will still be royal mail delivering the items. You will only be paying for the likes of TNT and DHL to deposit items to royal mail sorting offices. Royal Mail delivers to every household in the UK. Other companies won't because there is no profit in it.

Recorded delivery is not a waste of money. More care and attention is paid to these items, so they are less likely to be missorted. I usually keep recorded deliveries seperate from the rest of the mail and ensure it goes to the right place.

And by getting a signature there is added security, as well as proof of receipt.

Here's some statistics,

Royal Mail deliver about 82 million items daily to 27 million addresses.
I think everyone does an amazing job to make this happen.

Source:
www.royalmailgroup.com

Here's some more statistics for ya...

92.3% of first class letters were delivered on time in June (best performaing area in Britain was... wait for it... Sheffield (!!) at 96.9%) BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3190327.stm)

So if they're handling 82 million items a day, it means 6,314,000 items are not being delivered on time or being lost - every day. Over 6 million items a day late or missing - not exactly brilliant that is it?

If I order a steel bar for a piece of machinery, and I need it to be exactly 100 mm long - I'm not going to ask a firm who work to 92% tolerance amd I? 'cos I might only get a bar 92 mm long, which would be useless.

And it never used to be impossible to deliver mail at the same time every day, give or take half an hour there it was, every day.

There isn't over 6 million items being late or lost everyday.

That 82 million also includes: metered mail, 2nd class and overseas mail.
The majority of mail is metered or second class. So in order to get a truer picture of the number of late and lost 1st class mail you would need to find out what the percentage of the 82 million items are 1st class.

I'll see if I can get some stats.

Royal Mail should be able to ensure mail arrives before a certain time, or roughly the same time each day. But management has not been able to keep up with the growing amount of mail. They simply need more staff. Maybe I should go into management. he he he

In 2003/04 only 0.08% of all mail, 16 million out of 21,000 million letters did not arrive at the correct destination, or was declared lost because of serious delay.

Of this only 0.005% or just over 1 million were stolen.

And 2 million counted lost due to delay, but did arrive 15 or more days later.

Source:
http://www.royalmailgroup.com/news/expandarticlea.asp?id=1331&brand=royal_mail

Originally posted by Zenmaster
Recorded delivery is not a waste of money. More care and attention is paid to these items, so they are less likely to be missorted. I usually keep recorded deliveries seperate from the rest of the mail and ensure it goes to the right place.

And by getting a signature there is added security, as well as proof of receipt.

Really? I wonder who signed for my Special Delivery concert tickets today when the house was all locked up with nobody home. I was very surprised to see them on my doorstep when I finished work today, and not at all surprised that Royal Mail were unable to connect me through to their customer service complaint line a short while later.

Originally posted by Rich


No offense Postie or any other RM employees on here.

Dont worry used to it :D

But you did get your item for free ;)

Originally posted by Rich
I ordered Xbox Music Mixer from Amazon in 2003, the item "allegedly" got lost in the post according to Amazon, so I cancelled the order and got a refund.. Lo and behold though, the ****ing thing turned up 2 days later... My initial thoughts were that Amazon messed up but then it dawned on me that RM are retarded.

No offense Postie or any other RM employees on here.

So youre admitting on a public forum that you skanked Amazon for a refund when you actually got the game, albeit a little later than expected? Now whos retarded?

After reading this thread, I have been having nightmares and kittens simultaneously about the safe arrival of a very important package I'd consigned to Royal Mail at 6.30pm on Monday evening. My relief when it arrived this morning is immeasurable.

Like others have said - delivering 82 million items a day - there's going to be mistakes and plenty of them. When deregulation comes in Royal Mail will still be doing the sorting and a fair chunk of the delivery if not all. No one else has the infrastructure, knowledge or manpower to do the task. Quite how it's all going to be implemented remains to be seen as well - different coloured post boxes, large choice of stamps?!?! :)

What's happened? My guess is that it's been deliberately run into the ground in order to soften up public opinion in preparation for deregulation/competition/privatisation. There's also a relentless media campaign to slag off RM, which will sound familiar to anyone who remembers the run-up to rail privatisation. What a great success that was!

Originally posted by Zenmaster
Do people realise that once competition is opened up, it will still be royal mail delivering the items. You will only be paying for the likes of TNT and DHL to deposit items to royal mail sorting offices. Royal Mail delivers to every household in the UK. Other companies won't because there is no profit in it.

Erm - if there's no profit in it then how are RM making the profits they are?!?

I would be interested to see what proportion of the mail that goes missing is non-standard (ie, not just plain letters) - I'm talking about credit cards, packages and parcels, birthday cards etc - anything worth nicking in other words. The vast majority of my mail that has gone missing has been stuff that you can tell might be something nice to have - never the plain letters!

Originally posted by fnkysknky
different coloured post boxes, large choice of stamps?!?! :)

I hadn't thought of that - what a bloody nightmare that would be.

Electricty, Gas, Trains, Buses, postal service etc. They've all caused more trouble for yer average Joe in the street since they were privatised or de-regulated or whatever it is. Blokes coming round telling you they can save you £30 a year if you switch to Scottish Power... wow!; one train company arguing with another about whos fault it was somebody got killed; hundreds of different coloured buses trying to saturate the same route to get the same customers (sod the traffic implications)... and so on.

Yes having a choice is great... most of the time... but I don't want to have to decide whether I should buy a TNT stamp or an RM stamp or a god knows what stamp and which post box to post it in. I just want to post a letter and know it's going to get there.

It's like this an'all...

"Hi, pint of Lager please"
"Stella, Carling or Fosters?"
"er, Fosters please"
"Carling's on offer at £1.80 a pint"
"Okay Carling then"
"Normal or extra cold?"
"CAN I JUST HAVE A PINT OF BLOODY LAGER??"

Originally posted by RockDrummer

Yes having a choice is great... most of the time... but I don't want to have to decide whether I should buy a TNT stamp or an RM stamp or a god knows what stamp and which post box to post it in. I just want to post a letter and know it's going to get there.

Precisely. Personally, when it comes to essential or near-essential services, what I want is not choice. What I want is a reliable service at a reasonable price, which is what we had with the Post Office before Thatcher and Blair got their hands on it (and to a certain extent still have, despite the depredations).

recieved yet another parcel through royal mail yesterday that had been opened before it reached me, at least this time it had been sealed back up with some brown tape, even if some of the contents were no longer wrapped... just shoved back in. makes me wonder how it is that my parcels get opened, and in a couple of cases, the wrapping completely torn off in the post...?

Originally posted by banesmabes
Erm - if there's no profit in it then how are RM making the profits they are?!?



I didn't explain it well enough. Profits are made when delivering in bulk from business to business and door 2 doors (eg. leaflets), as well as large contracts with companies such as Amazon. When competition opens up companies will hive off the profitable parts of the business, leaving the socially unprofitable parts of the business to Royal Mail (eg. birthday cards).

Competitors will concentrate in cities and urban areas where they can make a profit on delivery, but show no interest in delivering to remote areas.

Originally posted by Zenmaster
I didn't explain it well enough. Profits are made when delivering in bulk from business to business and door 2 doors (eg. leaflets), as well as large contracts with companies such as Amazon. When competition opens up companies will hive off the profitable parts of the business, leaving the socially unprofitable parts of the business to Royal Mail (eg. birthday cards).

Competitors will concentrate in cities and urban areas where they can make a profit on delivery, but show no interest in delivering to remote areas.

No interest in remote areas? That's probably why all we ever get's spam and other blue bin fodder.

Originally posted by SatanInHeels
recieved yet another parcel through royal mail yesterday that had been opened before it reached me, at least this time it had been sealed back up with some brown tape, even if some of the contents were no longer wrapped... just shoved back in. makes me wonder how it is that my parcels get opened, and in a couple of cases, the wrapping completely torn off in the post...?

Your mail gets past around a lot of people before it gets to you, if it's a parcel then it's more likely to get damaged as it's easier then damaging a letter. You should see the state of some post bags after it's been raining :)

Originally posted by fnkysknky
Your mail gets past around a lot of people before it gets to you, if it's a parcel then it's more likely to get damaged as it's easier then damaging a letter. You should see the state of some post bags after it's been raining :)

thats quite understandable, that parcels can get opened, if they are wraped in parcel paper or something, i have never thought anything of parcels that i have recieved being open if they are packaged in this way but the last one was in one of those padded envelopes, which was stuck down with selotape to begin with + the contents were sent wrapped aswel inside the envolope + arrived not wrapped.. wrapping just shoved inside with the contents!

You'd be surprised - they all get chucked on each other etc and even the hardiest parcel can come out the other end looking like **** :D

even if the envelope does come open though.. how would half of the contents come unwrapped?

sorry, i will shut up now as i know i am probably wrong, just a little fed up now. specially as i now have to pay for a replacement item + postage of that... just for it to be smashed about again!