Royal Mail

[South Shire Fox]

Has anyone else had any ridiculous delays recently? I appreciate its Xmas but sending a first class letter almost 3 weeks ago for it still not to be received is an absolute joke 

[SouthStandUpperTier]

Been thinking for a while now that their only real interest is in delivering parcels, as that is where most of the profit is.

[goose2010]

2 hours ago, South Shire Fox said:

Has anyone else had any ridiculous delays recently? I appreciate its Xmas but sending a first class letter almost 3 weeks ago for it still not to be received is an absolute joke 

I had this issue but then realised I put an old stamp on it without a barcode. It still got delivered but took about a month 

[pazzerfox]

I am still waiting for 2 X Christmas presents that i ordered back on the 5th December which was sent via RM!  I haven't even seen a Post person delivering near us for a couple of weeks!  It's just more incompetency i'm afriad.

[FoyleFox]

Quite a lot of people near me, NW Leicestershire have been posting in our local groups that they're only receiving mail once or twice a week. And that those items have taken ages. We generally don't receive a great deal of mail or been expecting anything specific, so I've not really noticed. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

4 hours ago, South Shire Fox said:

Has anyone else had any ridiculous delays recently? I appreciate its Xmas but sending a first class letter almost 3 weeks ago for it still not to be received is an absolute joke 

You should try working for them!

[Trav Le Bleu]

All the stories you hear in the news about being told to leave letters and get the parcels done, which RM leaders keep denying....

 

100% true.

[ithuriel]

Once it was privatised,  service came second to profit, like everything else that has been privatised by the government but what can you do, Labour, Conservative, Lib/Dem, they are all in it for themselves.

Just find it funny that the further into the future we go the more Dickensian things are getting.

[isaidno]

Our postman threw a parcel marked up fragile over our fence into the garden. It was a personalised piggy bank for my niece which smashed into pieces 

[Tommy G]

25 minutes ago, isaidno said:

Our postman threw a parcel marked up fragile over our fence into the garden. It was a personalised piggy bank for my niece which smashed into pieces 

Penny for your thoughts at the time 

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, Tommy G said:

Penny for your thoughts at the time 

Am I right in thinking you're a postie too?

 

Oh, and apologies to @isaidno 

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

To counter what has been said my experience with them leading up to Christmas has been fine, obviously can’t say on letters as don’t know what’s incoming but regards parcels we’ve ordered leading up to Christmas been as expected in terms of delivery times, and our postman is sound always asks how we are etc very polite.

[South Shire Fox]

Thanks for the replies. Slightly reassured that my post is more likely to be delayed rather then ‘lost in warehouse’ or stolen. Generally cannot believe how unprepared they seemingly are for the sheer volume of post they know they will be handling at this time of the year though.

Edited 22 December 2023 by South Shire Fox

[Tommy G]

2 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Am I right in thinking you're a postie too?

 

Oh, and apologies to @isaidno 

I deliver but I’m not a postie 

[steve555]

3 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Am I right in thinking you're a postie too?

 

Oh, and apologies to @isaidno 

Think you might be referring to me. My username on here used to be TOMMY G, but changed it when I realised there was another Tommy G already on here. Yes I'm a postie at Meridian.

And you're definitely right when you say parcels get priority over letters. Also tracked parcels get priority over standard ones , we've had standard parcels lying around for days. So a tip for anyone posting, use the tracked service over standard service every time.

[Trav Le Bleu]

4 hours ago, South Shire Fox said:

Thanks for the replies. Slightly reassured that my post is more likely to be delayed rather then ‘lost in warehouse’ or stolen. Generally cannot believe how unprepared they seemingly are for the sheer volume of post they know they will be handling at this time of the year though.

Basically - and I think this has happened with several large companies - during the Covid pandemic they were able to get by with less staff.

 

But that's cos everyone was pulling up trees because a) it was really, really important then and b) we all thought that we'd be working 120%, but it's just going to be a few months and then it'll be all over, back to normal.

 

Of course, it never did. The "new normal" was banded around a lot as covid died down, but it was probably felt most in the service industries who had worked through the pandemic.

 

No one would drive their car with their revs constantly over the red line (not for long anyway), but that's basically what RM and some other big companies have done since 2020.

 

My round is about 25% larger than it was then. RM will argue that there's a lot less letters and that is perfectly true. However, it not that simple, cos it takes as long to deliver 850 letters to 700 homes as it does 3000 letters.

 

Furthermore, parcels take much longer to deliver than letters. Yesterday I was trying to deliver a parcel whilst my colleague was delivering letters in the same street. By the time I'd tried the 3rd neighbour to get it off my hands, he'd delivered to half the street, about 40 houses.

 

Actually, during the pandemic, despite very high parcel traffic it was relatively easy. No traffic on the roads, practically everyone was in and essentially we were doing knock-door-run as we weren't supposed to be near to anyone else (not a rule that was observed in the sorting office btw), whilst the letters being delivered was the bare essentials. Certainly not thousands of pizza leaflets, Mecca bingo offers or holiday brochures.

 

Personally, and this is across the board in the entire UK business landscape, I think customer service is a thing of the past. You'll get what you're given and be thankful for that!

 

Sorry, rant over,

 

Edited 22 December 2023 by Trav Le Bleu

[SemperEadem]

15 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

All the stories you hear in the news about being told to leave letters and get the parcels done, which RM leaders keep denying....

 

100% true.

Aye our postie at work told us this.

[The Blur]

In the interest of offering balance,   I live in South Derbyshire and have no issues with delivery/attitude of my postie.  

[The Syrup]

32 minutes ago, The Blur said:

In the interest of offering balance,   I live in South Derbyshire and have no issues with delivery/attitude of my postie.  

Same here in Melton. No problems and the postie has normally delivered by 10am. 

[Thefox81]

Same with my postie. Friendly and always on time. Got him a case of lager as a thank you. Same with binmen. Think theyd cracked a can open before theyd even got back in their lorry 🍺🍺🍺