Postal strike megathread

[jubby 10]

Easy answer to that is firstly seal the bin so they can't leave things there (and also report the postie) and secondly check it when you put anything in it.

 

 

Firstly Why should I have to seal it - they shouldn't leave there in the first place

 

Secondly I do

 

Thirdly I have two blue bins, so why should I have to check daily the full one to see if someone has left something in it.

 

Now the posties are paid to do a job and 99% do a good one, but it should be 100% I am paying for the service either directly by buying stamps or indirectly by paying companies who in turn have to pay RM to deliver items.

 

I am very tempted the next time it is left in the blue to report it missing and claim (as its mostly ebay purchases the seeler can prove it was posted) and I will probably get the cost back. I am honest so this is why I have just complained and not tried to claim.

[Mathom 10]

Well yes, why should you have to, but at least you do know what is happening, and you have somewhere you can complain to. Plus you can do something to prevent it happening. These commercial companies won't even let you complain, let alone do anything about it.

[banesmabes 10]

I dare say that if the strike was taking place in an industry that doesn't directly affect the general public, then the majority of people would be on their side.

 

However, because the public are directly affected, then everyone is moaning about it.

 

I wouldn't have thought anyone would even notice or have an opinion either way if this was in industry. Most strikes take place in the public sector anyway - perhaps the workforce are just a little too resistent to change? You can't be that way in industry otherwise ultimately your company would go under and everyone would be out of a job. Look at M&S - they didn't change their strategy for years, started floundering and ended up making loads of redundancies as a result. Thankfully they seem to be back on an even keel now - but no one in a competitive marketplace can afford to be complacent or demand that things should always remain the same. Unfortunately many RM workers have worked in a monopoly for many years and are having trouble understanding the demands of the newly competitive market they are operating in.

[SUPERTYKE 10]

The strike is going to inconvenience many, myself incliuded, but good luck to them - hope they have some joy.

Having said that, if I get another letter from my bank that looks like it's been tampered with I'm going to grab the posty before the letters hit my door mat.

No knowing who's doing it but I aintavinit!

[Yellowrose 10]

Only found out about this today after reading a notice on our local post box. My mums birthday is on the 10th so Ive no chance getting her card there on time. She'll roast me alive ... no excuses!

[Whatif wewin 10]

I dare say that if the strike was taking place in an industry that doesn't directly affect the general public, then the majority of people would be on their side.

 

However, because the public are directly affected, then everyone is moaning about it.

 

Not everyone is moaning.

Those of us who bother to find out about the reasons for such action, realise that the postmen have to strike as they have no other way to sort out the extremely poor way they are going to be treated.

[Rob_1 10]

The strike is going to inconvenience many, myself incliuded, but good luck to them - hope they have some joy.

Having said that, if I get another letter from my bank that looks like it's been tampered with I'm going to grab the posty before the letters hit my door mat.

No knowing who's doing it but I aintavinit!

 

There's a 99% chance it's the machines that are causing the damage. thicker letters or things with lumps and bumps are even more prone to getting caught when going through the sorting machines. Thats why birthday cards are often ripped open at the corners as they have a lot of badges, decorations, coins etc in them., it's very very rarely someone looking to steal anything.

 

No-one is going to open mail from your bank. What could anyone possibly do with your account number and sort code apart from pay money INTO the account?

 

Damaged letters should be put in a damage bag before going on delivery, but as a postie sorting thousands of letters a day I know how easy it is to not spot it until you get to the house, then it's a case of deliver it damaged (and risk a compaint).

 

 

Now the posties are paid to do a job and 99% do a good one, but it should be 100% I am paying for the service either directly by buying stamps or indirectly by paying companies who in turn have to pay RM to deliver items

 

Could you please name any profession where 100% of the employees do a perfect job.

[Lisspot 10]

well i cant wait to be on strike im dying for a lie in...knowing my luck they'll call it off. Like Rob said as well about a guy starting and then phoned in saying he didn't like the job...when I started another woman started with me and she didn't last she was talking to me saying shes always wanted to do a postie job oh yeh not when she found out how hardd it was.

[rob12 10]

Jubby- you should phone up the delivery office and tell them that how you want your post delivered if you are not there. They can only do something about it if you let them know.

[hillsbro 32]

No-one is going to open mail from your bank. What could anyone possibly do with your account number and sort code apart from pay money INTO the account?.

 

Well, I have worked as a postman (1968-76) and for a bank (1976-2002) and so I have seen the situation from both sides of the letter box, and of the counter.

 

A well-known scam involved postal workers (mostly in the London area, and controlled by well-organised "big men") stealing from, or tampering with letters from banks that contained new credit cards. This was one reason for the introduction of the "chip and pin" system, which should eventually stop most of the thefts. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/03/16/cmfraud16.xml

 

But there are VERY few crooked postmen and sorting staff, and often mail is lost due to a postman's bag being stolen from him (there were evidently 261 cases of this in 2004, for example). But as with anything else, a few bad ones can get the rest a bad name, and overall we can't complain about our posties. As I wrote in post #81 on this thread, we have the best postal system in the world. Not perfect, as there are always a few rotten apples in the barrel, but we often don't appreciate the high standard of service that we get. If postal workers' pay and conditions of service deteriorate (and they inevitably must, as we live in the real, modern world - for example when working for the bank I didn't get a pay rise from 1992 to 1996) then Royal Mail won't be able to recruit such high-grade staff, and we will all be the losers in the long run. It's a hard world out there, and it will be harder for Royal Mail and its employees, thanks to the unfair competition imposed by Brussels.

[banesmabes 10]

well i cant wait to be on strike im dying for a lie in...knowing my luck they'll call it off. Like Rob said as well about a guy starting and then phoned in saying he didn't like the job...when I started another woman started with me and she didn't last she was talking to me saying shes always wanted to do a postie job oh yeh not when she found out how hardd it was.

 

You can say that about pretty much any job though. Where I work (care industry - which is HUGELY undervalued) it's not unusual to have people leave after only a few days because the job isn't what they expected - some even sooner than that, and a significant minority leave within the first few months - some people are just like that. They have in their minds that the job is sitting round drinking cups of tea with little old ladies, but when they see the reality, the hectic shifts where you barely have time to breath never mind drink tea, then they realise it's not what they imagined. But it doesn't mean that we don't have some staff who do LOVE the job and stick with it for decades - despite being on minimum wage, with NO pension, doing unsociable shifts for no extra pay.

[hillsbro 32]

You can say that about pretty much any job though. Where I work (care industry - which is HUGELY undervalued) it's not unusual to have people leave after only a few days because the job isn't what they expected. They have in their minds that the job is sitting round drinking cups of tea with little old ladies, but when they see the reality, the hectic shifts where you barely have time to breath never mind drink tea, then they realise it's not what they imagined. But it doesn't mean that we don't have some staff who do LOVE the job and stick with it for decades - despite being on minimum wage, with NO pension, doing unsociable shifts for no extra pay.

 

Quite right. No job is a bed of roses, and the carers who visited my late mother were wonderful, hard-working people. I gave up my job as a postman as I saw a chance to work for a bank. The work (and of course the working hours) were different, and in many ways the job was harder (office work can be very stressful). There were many occasions when I could have just packed it in, especially when the fierce competition in banking led to new pay scales. My colleagues and I were "overpaid" according to the new scales and so we didn't get a pay rise for over four years. But we didn't strike - even if we had, it wouldn't have got us anywhere. In the end I retired after 26 years on an adequate pension, and was able to care for my mum at our home for four years. I hope the postal workers' strike can soon be settled; the workforce are likely to be the losers in the long run, strike or no strike. It's a hard world.