Royal Mail is rubbish
My colleague James brought to my attention this morning an article saying that online retailers are growing concerned about the impact of Royal Mail’s absolute uselessness on their businesses.
The worst postal strike for nearly 20 years is “destroying online companies” and will hit internet Christmas sales because customers can no longer buy confidently over the web, industry executives warned last night.
Really? Customers in general must be slow. Royal Mail lost my confidence a long time ago. In fact, I’m not sure how you’d even notice that there’s a strike on, since the normal service is so awful.
I’ve witnessed a postman actually sign for a ‘Signed For’ package himself before leaving it outside for my neighbour to collect. If she’s lucky.
I’ve had two packages disappear so far this year, and another take three weeks to reach me from north London. On another occasion, I received a card to tell me that a package hadn’t been delivered and was waiting for me at the infamous Mandela Way depot. When I turned up to pick it up, they had nothing for me.
Speaking of the sorting office, if Royal Mail fails to deliver a package, it ends up back there to be collected at the your own inconvenience. Technically, you can call to arrange for redelivery. In practice, they don’t answer the phone. The card warns that it takes at least 48 hours for an undelivered package to return to the sorting office. I assumed that this was a cover-your-arse estimate—it’s only a couple of miles from my flat to the depot—and foolishly turned up a mere 24 hours later to pick up one parcel. No. It really does take 48 hours for Royal Mail to move a package a distance that I can cycle in under ten minutes.
When you turn up at the sorting office, you realise how backwards the system is. There appears to be no automation at all: finding a parcel is achieved by someone disappearing into a back room and trying to find it.
Even when they’re not on strike, they’re rubbish. I’m sure that as much blame lies with the management as with the staff, but I find it hard to have any sympathy for any of them.
It’s no wonder that, at the depot, they have to work behind toughened glass, and that there’s a sign saying that violence against staff will not be tolerated. People get angry for a reason, and the smug, indolent incompetence of the place would make the Dalai Lama see red.
I accept that postal deregulation has been done in a way that disadvantages Royal Mail, hamstringed by its universal service obligations. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t buck their ideas up. Otherwise, they’ll drive away their remaining customers.
In the meantime, the smart retailers won’t be hurt by postal disruptions: they have already realised that not using Royal Mail is a selling point.
2007-10-11 21:17 UTC. Comments: 36.
Damian
Wrote at 2007-10-25 17:15 UTC using Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP:
I’ve just got home from work to find 2 large parcels, packed with christmas presents from family, standing on our doorstep. No note was left, so they could have been stolen without us knowing (well, until the family member asked if we had received them of course).I have just phoned up and complained, I’ve been told that the delivery manager will be informed and the post(wo)man spoken to. We’ve already had presents gone missing previously and Royal mail didn’t want to know.
Hopefully the dunce who delivered these today will be fired on the spot!
rsmini
Wrote at 2007-10-28 17:51 UTC using Firefox 2.0.0.8 on Windows XP:
Well I work very hard for Royal Mail on 12 hour nights and I am proud that everything I do in my job is correct. So please do not tar all Royal Mail Workers with the same brushRay
Wrote at 2007-12-17 16:36 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows XP:
I found this site by typing “royal mail are rubbish” into google and low and behold there it was!I was interested to know that it wan’t just me who can never contact my local delivery office. I am sure that the phone is in a locked room with “beware of the leopard” on the door. The latest offer is a “free” service which allows you to collect your own mail from a “local” “delivery” office. In what way is this a service?
Over the years, my “local” office has been moved to increasingly inconvenient locations if you use public transport. I am sure it is the management who are largely to blame for this situation (as is the case with most large organisations). The annoying thing is that they probably believe that they are actually improving customer service while it is constangly declining.
M Parker
Wrote at 2008-01-11 13:31 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows Vista:
I heard the postperson delivering my mail today (I was about 3 feet from the door) and heard the letters dropping onto the floor in the porch. I went to collect them and found amongst the letters a card stating a parcel had not been delivered because I was not in!No-one knocked at the door or rang the bell (bell working). This has happened before as well! Are they too busy to deliver parcels & shove the card through then dash off?
I rang to complain as this is an inconvenience now – I am off work ill and will struggle to collect it. They cannot redeliver till Monday & this is too late – besides – the same thing might happen!
I am told that if I send someone else to collect it I must give them my passport, drivers licence or credit card for ID!!!!! No chance! Don’t even have a credit card but if i had It wouldn’t be leaving my possession. Was also told the person collecting the parcel for me would need similar ID of his / her own.
My complaint was not even being logged and I was aware no record was being made & I had to insist they log it officially before any details were taken – so it seems apparent that many complaints probably never get recorded.
On top of this I frequently get mail addressed to other persons – in same street or adjacent streets & have to deliver these myself. Worse still, there is a pink envelope, unopened & undelivered it seems, that was lying on my front path near my gate on Wednesday (not addressed to me or neighbours) but got blown into street as it was very windy. The letter is soaking & filthy so I have no intention of picking it up & delivering it or putting it back in the postbox. The postperson seems to have ‘dropped’ it when delivering my mail on Wednesday.
Get rid of the ‘Royal’ part – you expect top class service with ‘Royal’ in the name. There is nothing Royal about this service unless Royal goes with inefficiency, poor service & ignorance.
K.Pams
Wrote at 2008-02-06 13:55 UTC using Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP:
I dont understand why it takes a Large Letter 3 Days to be posted from China to UK and when your not in they leave a card saying you must leave it 48hrs before you can pick it up?? (the sorting office is 5mins away from home?) it takes them longer to drive it around their area after many deliveries and drop it off to be sorted it to allow you to pick it up then it takes to travel around the world.What do they do with the letter in that 48hrs?
chief sausage
Wrote at 2008-03-27 12:30 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows Vista:
royal mail sux big time, i hope the the royal warrant gets took off them and the post offices that keep them afloat are tendered out to the likes of citylink and other good companies. If it were a level playing field and the backbone which is the post offices were not there to support them they would die a slow painfull death… and i hope they do.how hard would it be to empty the van of undelivered parcels at the end of the day at the collection office? (other companies manage to!)
48 hrs to take a parcel less than a mile after it has taken only 24 hrs to travel from south of europe is a complete joke.
why cant they have staff to man these offices after 12 oclock midday so people can collect their parcels on the way home from work? (other companies manage to!)
they have a nerve to go on strike because management wanted them to work till a certain time instead of bunking off after they have finnished their rounds!!! of course they are just going to chuck the parcels back into the system instead of sorting them out for us to collect if it means they can go home early! I have no sympathy for any of them and i hope they all wake up one day without a job because they are lazy b*$tards.
DIE ROYAL MAIL DIE…
RG
Wrote at 2008-05-09 17:39 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows Vista:
The Royal Mail levels of service are an absolute disgrace. Several times I have had parcels go missing, turn up days or even weeks late and I always get a card put into the mail box and never an ring at the door for attempted delivery of an item even if I am in the house.Also as many other people have asserted here the fact that you have to wait 48 hours before going to the local delivery office to collect an item is a complete joke. Furthermore last year the opening hours of the local delivery offices were cut so that they close at 12.30 most weekdays, a total inconvenience to people who have to work.
I also regularly get mail addressed to other people in my mailbox.
I’m currently waiting for an international delivery of tickets to an important sporting event that were sent express 2 day delivery from Spain. Of course the item got to the UK safe and sound but now 3 days letter the item is still working it’s way through the painfully slow Royal Mail system and is still in London in a sorting office. Of course once it actually gets to where I live the postman will simply leave a card telling me to go to the local delivery office after 48 hours so by the time all that happens I’ll probably have missed the event.
The Royal Mail is the least customer focused, worst performing and quite frankly pathetic service known to mankind and it’s a disgrace that they retain the Royal part of their name.
And of course if you want to complain or speak to someone about any problems you have you either cannot speak to an advisor but only an automated service that referes you to the website or the phone just rings out!
Me
Wrote at 2008-05-28 15:30 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows XP:
I agree totally with every comment here. I ordered an item from the web and paid extra for next day delivery. I awoke next morning before 8.30am to find a card left informing me of an intended delivery. The card on the back read please leave 48 hours. This I find abhorrent after paying for the additional fast delivery. I couldn’t contact my local delivery office by phone (u guessed it – no answer) so I drove there (before 12.30) to be told that the item cannot be given to me for another 48 hrs. When asked why I was told the item must go through sorting again. Absolute rubbish. Why management has not addressed this I do not know. Appalling. The title ‘Royal’ used in conjunction with the mail is a slur on the good name of our monarchy. It’s time to bring in some competition!!!MG
Wrote at 2008-07-09 21:53 UTC using Unknown browser on Unknown OS:
You guys are lucky to get cards. In the last two months I have ordered three items online. Two of the items were returned to the seller because no cards were ever put through our letterbox. The other item was returned to the seller and was open with items missing/stolen. Needless to say there was not a card left for that one either. When I pay for recorded delivery the least that you should be able to expect is a card saying that they were unable to deliver the package. It would appear that Royal Mail can’t even get that right. I’ve started to have items delivered to my workplace because then at least someone is there to sign for it.vijay
Wrote at 2008-07-21 00:29 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows XP:
HiMy experience as a customer with royal mail is even worse every parcel returned to the depot has either been stolen or mysteriously gone astray. Their customer services are worse than useless despite contacting them dailyly regarding the parcel to make sure i could collect it they failed to do anything after a two week period.
The best thing i heard was they were condution a official royal mail review into my rubbish post which should be sorted in 48 hours however 2 weeks later the wonderful official review had done nothing.
The sooner we have a decent reasonably priced alternative to royal mail the better. This organisation should not be allowed to hold customers to ransom ever again
Rosie
Wrote at 2008-10-30 14:36 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows Vista:
I honestly don’t understand what is so difficult about ringing the doorbell and then waiting for a normal length of time for somebody to answer before throwing a ‘sorry we missed you!’ card through the letter box and sprinting back to the van! I paid over double the usual postage charges so that my parcel could arrive today as if it didn’t arrive in time for this afternoon it would be completely useless to me, but I’m now wishing I hadnt bothered. I may as well have walked the hundred or so miles to the headquarters of the company who I ordered from and walked all the way home, I would have had the product a lot faster!As the doorbell rang at 7am this morning I actually heard the letterbox go at the same time, 20 seconds later when I was down the stairs I was greeted with an irritating card saying I wasn’t in…..of course I was in! It was 7am! ..more to the point, how would they know I wasn’t in if they didn’t wait for a response? It also irritates me that they didn’t just put the parcel through my letterbox, they don’t seem to have a problem not obtaining a signature when they leave my parcels outside on the doorstep, but when its actually small enough to go through a letterbox, the need for a signature suddenly becomes vital!
I now have to wait 48 hours to collect the parcel even though I can practically see the post office from my window! ...what do they do with it for 48 hours??
G
Wrote at 2008-10-30 17:12 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Windows XP:
I also found this site by typing in Royal Mail are rubbish into Google. Well written article, it is all 100% true and I sympathise with you.I have a Dad who’s worked in the transport industry for 30 years and he get’s just as annoyed as me at these companies who seem to be run by complete clowns that just cannot provide a decent service (Royal Mail, City Link and so on).
Sorry to say, but the person who said City Link are a decent company – they aren’t . They are losing £millions every week simply because they cannot provide a decent service – just like Royal Mail. I also thought Parceline/DPD were decent as well but I’m also having my doubts after experiencing a similar “card them before they can get to the door to sign for it” event.
The reason that these companies do that is because if they “fail” the delivery, their statistics are negatively affected; however, if they chuck a card through your letterbox, they cover their behind. Prime example – my flat mate recently was expecting a phone through DPD on a “guaranteed next day” service. It got carded two days on the trot to some mysterious house (they apparently carded it to the wrong address because they couldn’t find our flat – despite us living in South West London … but in reality it’s pretty obvious they just didn’t have the resources in the area to deliver it)... Says it all really.
willaim
Wrote at 2008-12-11 19:38 UTC using Safari 525.22 on Mac OS X:
I am a postman and I find it absurd that you think we don’t want to knock and wait to see if your in before putting a notice left card through. I hope and pray everyday on delivery that every single one of my customers who have parcels that day is in so I do not have to carry them around with me. Putting a notice left card through means more work for the postman.. not less like some of you think. first of all we have to stand there writing all the details out. then we have to carry the parcel with us the entire way round, and if they keep mounting up then by the time we come to collect our last bag (yes, another thing you assume incorrectly, we don’t just have one bag of mail to deliver) there will be no room for the mail.I do however have sympathy for some of your comments. getting letters that are not yours posted through your door is not acceptable and especially not finding a letter on the pavement. Like any company there are some workers that fankly don’t give a shit or are completley incompetent (i know a few in my office) but please don’t tar us all woth the same brush.
It is christmas now, and like every single year the majority of cards that are posted will ahve wrong numbers on, wrong streets or best yet no address apart from the town and name. I find and deliver these misaddressed cards to every single one of my customers . I have yet to be thanked. yet if there wrongly addressed cards were not delivered i could magine a conversation like ‘did you get my card?’ ‘no, it never came’ ’ bloody postman’ .
nuff said
Kevin Benson
Wrote at 2009-02-13 13:42 UTC using Internet Explorer 8.0 on Windows XP:
I live in the Burley Park area of Leeds and I have been having a terrible time of late with postal deliveries. I had a package delivered from Australia to my parents house in Manchester and it took 1 week to arrive. The package contained a CD with information about my family history but I wanted my Dad to be able to see it before I did.Thisis obviously very important to me and I doubt the personwho sent it to me willsend another one. My dad then forwarded it to me here in Leeds. This was last friday (6th feb) and I have still not recieved my package. It has now been a week and there is no sign of my mail. How can it take this long to deliver something from Manchester to Leeds? I know we have had a bit of snow but this is going beyond the joke. Either it’s been lost in the system,or the postmen in my particular area are lazy b*stards. In the last 8 days we have had one delivery of mail. We have often suspected thatourpost arrives in batches. Silly questionI know but has anyone else experienced problems like this? I tried to complain to the customer services helpline but after about ten minutes of keying in numbers and listening to an annoying computer generated answering service I managed to get through and was simply told to wait a further week before an investigation could be launched. Why do we have to put up with this? Im only 24,I shouldnt have to be whinging and complaining like this til im at least 60!Stew Davies
Wrote at 2009-02-16 23:17 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows Vista:
Like another on here I typed in Royal Mail is rubbish. I know 2 postmen, brothers, who went into being postmen because their father was and they are great.But for the rest of them… A letter addressed correctly, post code etc but the street name misspelled. Sent to a different numbered house with a different postcode, that sounded a little like the name on the letter!! Post came today at 5.40pm, ominous when usually it comes in the morning, perhaps my regular postie has been downsized. Mind you as nice as she is as a person, she simply makes a lot of mistakes posting mail in the house next door etc, giving me mail for a completely different street, this happened a lot at my old address. My postie mates tell me its incompetence as the postie sorts their own mail, but nothing will be likely done as they can’t go around sacking them for making mistakes.
Very dissapointed
Debi
Wrote at 2009-02-20 09:00 UTC using Firefox 3.0.6 on Windows XP:
My postman himself is great and does actually made a effort to ensure parcels are delivered on time unlike many of the previous post (wo)men we’ve had! A previous postwomen didn’t knock, shoved a card through the door, I was stood at the door as i’d seen her coming towards the house so she made no attempt to see if I was in! I opened the door and no post women in sight, she must have actually ran up the street! I ran to the top of the street shouted the post women saying she had just put the card through could I have my parcel and she replied have you got any ID! NO sorry , when i’ve just chased you to the top of my street in my pjs of course I had no ID (this women had delivered 1/2 a dozen parcels to me every week and still asks for Id), in the end she made me run back home and get the while you were out card and ID!Last summer we had 8 parcels all go missing in the same month, after numerous emails and phonecalls my husband was told they had been mistakingly placed in the wrong basket, ????? WTF these parcels had postmarks of over a months range, how do you mistakinly put 8 parcels all on differant days in the wrong basket?????? Last month i had to wait 3 weeks for a first class parcel and am again stuck in waiting for a parcel which should have been here four days ago. The service is certainly getting worse not better.
Huw
Wrote at 2009-03-26 00:55 UTC using Firefox 3.0.7 on Mac OS X:
Joke, post sorting office is only open 7 til noon, you have to wait two days to pickup parcel for some reason, you get red carded without being knocked on for…and then when you have to take half a day off work in order to pickup your parcel, you find a petition to ‘save the post office from privatisation’ in front of you, and it actually has signatures on it, who the hell would sign that abomination of a petition?
ARGHHHHH!!!
Emanuel Crisp
Wrote at 2009-04-23 23:34 UTC using Firefox 3.0.9 on Windows XP:
To throw a little more second class mail on the fire, my experiences with Royal Mail have also been truly horrendous.An item sent next day guaranteed delivery didn’t arrive the next day, it arrived a day late. The guarantee, it turns out, means you can get your money back on the postage. Unfortunately that is only worthwhile if you value your time at approximately 1/5th of minimum wage. It’s not hard to see why the items don’t arrive on time.
“Online tracking” I thought and entered the tracking code into their website. So where was my parcel? “Not delivered”. That’s right: whilst every other company’s online tracking tells you where your parcel is at every step of its journey to the nearest nanometre, Royal Mail’s tracking has two possible statuses – not delivered and delivered. Perhaps I’m stating the obvious, but that isn’t telling me anything useful. If the parcel had been delivered I would have been made aware of it by the PARCEL IN MY HANDS and would have no need to track it online. Incidentally, the staff at the collection depot have access to the special, secret, web-based tracking system which stores useful information not deemed suitable for consumption by us proles. I have seen the printouts!
So on the 2nd day, after having wasted the previous day’s pay taking time off work to wait for the package, the card was popped through telling me I needed to wait 48 hours before collection. By this stage 48 hours was not an option (the package contained tickets for an event and I was leaving early the next day). I managed to find a number to call for the collection office, an industrial unit based as far away from any public transport links as possible.
Strangely, the number didn’t have my local area prefix: it had a an 087something code. 5 or 6 menu items in I was disconnected. Another attempt and I got a human after an inordinately long wait (on my dime of course). As the person was evidently not at the collection depot and not even within 100 miles of me I asked for the actual number of the depot. I was given the number i had JUST DIALLED. I informed the call centre operator of his slip-up and asked him to look for a number with a geographic area code. He put me on hold and came back with one. Hurrah!
Other people posting in this thread will be way ahead of me here. I rang the number, hoping to be able to check that my parcel was indeed at the depot before the magical 48 hour deadline. It rang. Forever.
I gave in and made the long journey to the collection depot. Desperation was starting to set in at this point. I got to the depot and queued patiently. When I got to the desk I expressed surprise at seeing the depot fully staffed – why did nobody answer my phone call? The crushingly frank answer from the woman behind the bullet-proof glass: “The first thing we do when we come in in the morning is unplug the phone… otherwise it just rings and rings all day.” I challenge readers to think of another workplace where that would not be a sackable offence.
But those trifles were in my past now…
“Could I have my package please, I have the card and some ID”
“It’s not here.. it must still be with the driver in his van”
“When does he bring it back at the end of the day? Can I wait for him?”
“He doesn’t bring it back and he’ll have finished his round by now”
“So where is my package?”
“It should have been dropped off at a post office near the end of his round”
So the kind woman agreed to ring around local post offices to see if they had my parcel. Steel yourself. None of them answered the phone. Not one. She called four. Presumably the Post Office picked that trick up from the Royal Mail. So I managed to rustle up a lift at short notice to take me around the local post offices before they closed and try to collect the damned thing in person. At this point the irony of having a mail service actively hiding my mail from me was not lightening my mood.
The first post office was closed. Why? Well because it was a Wednesday afternoon and unlike every other business in the Universe, post offices can still keep ridiculous opening hours based on some long-forgotten Druidic calendar. I realise that the Post Office and the Royal Mail are different entities, but they seem to share a customer-resentment ethic.
The second post office didn’t have it.
The third post office was adamant that my postman always dropped off his packages there, but that he hadn’t dropped anything off today.
“So any idea where my package might be?”
“In his van”
“Which is where?”
“At the depot I guess”
“Which is now closed?”
”...yes.”
.. and so the search party was called off for the night.
The day of my trip I got up early and made the half-hour trek to the collection office for opening time, waited another 10 minutes for them to open up, customarily late, and finally managed to collect my package a whole hour before my departure.
Good old Royal Mail. Let’s hope they’re gone soon.
CIN
Wrote at 2009-04-24 16:56 UTC using Firefox 3.0 on Windows XP:
Hi, I’ve linked to your site from my Royal Mail compaint site, along with others – a lot of people are sick of Royal Mail!http://www.cin.greenisp.org/royalmail/
Mufty
Wrote at 2009-06-05 13:57 UTC using Firefox 3.0.10 on Windows Vista:
To the postman Willaim (William?) who commented above:Why do you think what people have said is ‘absurd’?
I have a relative who works for the post office and she has told me that some postpeople don’t even take parcels out with them, just pre-filled cards, because they don’t want to carry the parcels!
Our postperson I know for a fact never rings the bell – just shoves a card through when we’re in, it’s happened about 4 times in the last few weeks.
Hmmmmm?
helen
Wrote at 2009-06-20 22:11 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows XP:
Ok where on earth do i start…I notice we have a comment from a postie himself…stating that he wishes every one of his customers were in to sign for parcels so that he wouldnt have to carry them…... Ok so we wont tar you all with the same brush..BUT its very hard when i have witnessed first hand at this putting a card through the door and not knocking…et me start at the beginning…I was standing at my kitchen window washing up breakfast pots… postman walks past …spots me…delivers my letters…i go fetch them from letterbox..return to sink and start opening my mail only to see the postman … SNEAKING…(yes sneaking) BEHIND my car and i hear him lifting letterbox quietly (so quiet my dog didnt murmur)..i just thought he must of forget a letter..i go to fetch it..and its a CARD..stating he tried to deliver a parcel..i thought what the hell..he didnt even knock…i dashed out the house chased him up the road..caught up with him holding the card..and said HEY you didnt knock..i`ll have the parcel please…HE stood there mumbled an apology and said Oh sorry i dont have the parcel with me its at the sorting office… i said why on earth did you put card through stating you had tried to deliver a parcel..he said it was a mistake…i said what so theres no parcel..he said ermmm well yes there is you can collect it from the sorting office.. i complained about this at the sorting office..but i dont think my complaint was lodged..BUT this has happened several times since..so i say it makes PRETTY LIGHT WORK for many posties who cant be bothered to carry the parcels in the first place..much easier to SNEAK a card in our letterboxes and have us COLLECT THE VERY MAIL that someone has paid THEM to deliver… OH to top it all….I have plastered my house MY PORCH even my kitchen window..ALONG with my bins with my NUMBER HOUSE ...but still they just deliver my letter 2 doors away…i couldnt make my house any more clearer..so please if anyone has any advise about the channels to go through to lodge a serious complaint i would appreciate the info..IVE HAD ENOUGH…....Thanks
Lee
Wrote at 2009-07-08 16:52 UTC using Safari 525.20.1 on Mac OS X:
I would like to thank the royal mail for successfully losing 4 of my parcels out of a possible 5 in the last 3 weeks, also sometimes not even turning up for 2 weeks straight when my postman does turn up he just puts the sorry you were out card through the door without knockingMat Hunt
Wrote at 2009-08-28 13:16 UTC using Firefox 3.5.1 on Linux:
I remember growing up as a child, the postman popping in for a cup of tea and a piece of toast, we all knew who he was and it was a very friendly affair and the deliveries were there before you went to school.In my current address in Reading, I have ordered a number of items which were not delivered, one of them were by recorded delivery and I STILL never received anything. I managed to obtain compensation for them which isn’t too bad.
I have been on the receiving end of the infamous cards before, I am sure they (I am speaking of our postman) never bother to ring the doorbell. It is just sad the way that the service has deteriorated over the last 20 years.
I have to say that the Royal Mail are the best of a bad bunch, some of the other delivery companies make Royal mail look very good.
noleen, NI
Wrote at 2009-08-29 13:28 UTC using Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP:
m starting uni on the 14th sept, have sent my ORIGINAL exam certificates and my original birth certificate.that was 16 days ago..the uni still havent received it, i cant get through to any of the numbers and nobody in riyal mail will help me.. so now i probably wont get into my course cause of ROYAL MAIL… i am so utterly disgusted at this!! whata farce. can somebody on this blog please help?William Wallace
Wrote at 2009-09-10 19:26 UTC using Firefox 3.5.2 on Windows Vista:
The Royal Mail in London is a disgrace, they have been taken over by incompetent managers and crooked postman.I recently tried to set up the call and collect service in Kilburn, which is where you go and collect your post yourself. I thought to myself that there is less chance of the postman stealing my letters or delivering them through the wrong door. Unbelievable 7 weeks later they still haven’t set it up for me. The next time I go down that office I will get arrested for beating the living daylights out of the manager!
At the moment I’m waiting on 3 very important letters, which are at least 2 weeks late and 3 packets from eBay, which have failed to show up. To test out the local service I posted two first class letters to myself on consecutive days, and they haven’t shown up yet and that was 10 days ago. I posted them 5 minutes walk form the sorting office, what a complete joke.
Once upon a time I was a Postman in Scotland and if you delivered a letter through the wrong door and the customer complained and you got hell for it. In London they couldn’t give a dam.
I remember a few years ago before I quit working for them, a guy got done for stealing packets and on the day in question I know for a fact that there was 12 packets in his work frame, that were not for his own delivery. He was selling them on eBay and making a small fortune. How many thousands of packets he had stolen before he got caught is anybodies business.
Royal Mail is in chaos and they haven’t got a clue how to fix it, in the mean time the public has to suffer and have their life’s messed up by their incompetence.
Alex
Wrote at 2009-09-16 12:52 UTC using Safari 531.9 on Mac OS X:
Don’t bother with the General Personal Enquiries number on the Royal Mail website – a waste of time! Use the Business Enquiries number and act like you want to do business with them. When you get to a Business Service Adviser ask them to redirect you to Customer Services. That’s the only way I managed to get to speak to a real person!MailHater
Wrote at 2009-10-09 10:32 UTC using Firefox 3.0.14 on Linux:
There’s a new place to vent about Royal Mail and how useless they are – http://ww.rubbishroyalmail.co.ukWhy not come along and join us?
MailHater
Grant
Wrote at 2009-11-17 11:47 UTC using Internet Explorer 8.0 on Windows XP:
As an online retailer I am totally fed up with Royal Mail. The strikes are over and their service is still nothing short of useless. I get several e-mails a day from customers asking where their items are. If it was economic I would avoid using Royal Mail at all costs but couriers are too expensive except for larger items.1st class and recorded delivery items taking 7 to 10 days to arrive is becoming commonplace now. (if they get there at all). I have now reached the point where everything goes second class as there is no point in paying for a 1st class service and not getting it.
Some of these lazy workers in Royal Mail need a good slap. How many other companies could you get away with being paid for a shift and clearing off as soon as your round is finished? Hurry up and de-regulate the postal service and get some other companies in who are ready, willing and more than capable of doing a better job.
Ms R
Wrote at 2009-11-17 17:39 UTC using Firefox 2.0.0.20 on Mac OS X:
Royal Mail at Mandela Way Sorting Office SE1 are well known for identity theft, “missing” letters and packages….or can we be more accurate and just admit that the postal workers have been “stealing”. Some of the managers and delivery people are clearly dishonest and do not deserve a job in the public arena. I have had over 8 packages not arrive in less than a month along with important letters. When I questioned the delivery person. They became rude and aggressive. I than contacted my MP Simon Hughes and also contacted Royal Mail headquarters to report the ongoing situation.Its been over a week and Royal Mail HQ still say they have had no response from Mandela Way sorting office. The post person still is on duty. Tip toes past my door knowing they are guilty for my post not being delivered. It physically makes me sick. Royal Mail needs to be brought to justice.
Mr TM
Wrote at 2009-11-17 20:46 UTC using Firefox 2.0.0.20 on Mac OS X:
Royal Mail arent what they used to be.They employ criminals who take advantage of the publics good hard earned money. We pay for a crap service that has gone to the dogs. There needs to be government and police intervention. The postal workers do not deserve immunity.
Kate
Wrote at 2009-12-31 13:49 UTC using Firefox 3.5.6 on Windows XP:
What I loathe about Royal Mail is their total inability to respond to a redelivery request.I always wait two or three days before I request online and then set date for three or so days on from that.
NOTHING EVER ARRIVES.
I put in a complaint, I don’t even get a response.
I’ve waited in all day today waiting for a redelivery. It hasn’t arrived. I expect they’ll bring it on Monday when I’m at work.
Derby Sorting Office, Midland Road, Derby – you are a total and utter disgrace.
Dan O'Toole
Wrote at 2010-01-07 13:28 UTC using Firefox 3.5.7 on Windows XP:
It seems to be a blanket policy now for Royal Mail not to deliver parcels but instead turn up to your door with the red slip already filled out to say you weren’t home! I’ve witnessed this a number of times now and what’s worse is that I can only collect the parcel between 6:30am – 1pm mon to fri or before 10am on a saturday morning… very difficult as a single man working a full time job !! 20 years ago we had two deliveries per day and you were guaranteed your morning mail before you left the house for work.. in fact you could practically set your watch by the postman, the second delivery was around noon… now you’re lucky if you get your mail before noon ! My mother told me recently that back in the 1940’s people would write messages on postcards such as ‘would you like to come for dinner tonight?’ and the recipient would receive the post card the same day it was posted… amazing !! from the best and most proud postal service in the world to the worst and most pathetic… such a shame!Ackers
Wrote at 2010-02-24 13:19 UTC using Firefox 3.6 on Windows XP:
Great comments.. Agree with everyone on RM totally useless. terrible customer service. New website really customer complaint unfriendly, nearly every contact link or problem page takes you to “Sarah the useless problem solving search engine” don’t make laugh. As for the telephone customer service same old “press 5, press 3, press 4” press until the veins in my forehead are ready to pop, and then if your lucky and patient you eventually get through to some poor sod who’s already sick of the 1000’s of previous callers they dealt with that day so they ain’t too helpful, and of course everything is dealt with at the prerequisite “we need 48 hours to check that out”I’ve also had other people’s mail, and other people have had mine.
Latest problem for me concerns “special delivery” paid for this service and waited in all day, no package no delivery attempt note, so went on line, checked the tracking number and what do you know amazing package has been delivered and signed for! but God knows where to because I haven’t got the damn thing. So here we go again got to try and find out “who, where and when” just like a murder mystery, maybe someone could kill off Royal Mail or perhaps it would be a mercy killing!!!!
Paul T
Wrote at 2010-03-05 16:18 UTC using Firefox 3.5.8 on Mac OS X:
People I have a message and that message is VICTORY.I am at home with a broken leg and am wearing a leg brace. Waiting for the iPhone to be delivered I was watching, avidly, the “tracking” website when it changed to…
05 Mar 2010 13:27 London Bridge Delivery refused, signed for by FATIMA, using Saturn
05 Mar 2010 08:44 London Bridge On vehicle for delivery
05 Mar 2010 02:32 London Bridge Confirmed at depot
04 Mar 2010 12:10 London Bridge
There is no Fatima here or in my block (I am on the resident’s committee).
I called the number and they said the parcel had been refused and I said
“No it hasn’t, I have been here all day with my cleaner and my builder who is working on my front door. Neither of them are called Fatima and they have not seen him”.
“He must have gone to the wrong house”, she said.
I said that it was impossible since my flat is number 43 but there is not a house in this road with the number 43. The woman actually said “You must be mistaken, you were probably in the toilet or something”.
They said they would ”...re-arrange delivery…” “STOP” I said, “You can’t re-deliver what you did not attempt to deliver in the first place.”
She replied “okay we will get him to return…”
“He cannot return if he has not been here, tell him to turn around and deliver my parcel”.
“I can’t do that” she said, “he is on another delivery”.
“Well” I said, “that should be easy since he won’t bother going to that house either so he won’t have a problem returning straight away”. She spoke to him, with me listening, and he said he would “try” to redeliver at 4pm.
Anyhow I immediately called two more times and spoke to two more people and put them through the same grilling. The third one said “Haven’t you already called here?”. “Why yes”, I said, “Its just that you seem to be staffed solely with pathological liars so I thought I should make sure”. They spoke to the driver blah blah blah.
At 4pm the driver turned up with the parcel, muttering something but wouldn’t look me in the eye. I said “Fatima says to say hi”.
Mark Walker
Wrote at 2010-07-10 08:06 UTC using Firefox 3.5.10 on Windows XP:
My mother sent me 50 pounds cash down in a card, not recorded but first class and it went missing.That was nearly 2 weeks ago.She has sent me another 50 pounds recorded and i have missed the postman this morning because i work 12hr nights and i was asleep.Now have to wait 48hrs to go and collect it. Absolute disgrace and the word Royal should be removed from their name.
Mr G Foley
Wrote at 2010-09-07 18:36 UTC using Firefox 3.6.8 on Windows 7:
All my mail now gets delivered next door. Before that I used to get some of my mail the rest was missing and some mail for an address in the next street.One Saturday I was on my drive and the postman walked up and handed me a letter. I did not recognize the name or the address on the letter so I ran after him and handed back the letter. He told me he was new on the job so it did not matter. I bet that person never got that letter.
At least my neighbor does not mind posting my letters through for now.