Missing post since sorting office moved to peckham

[TheDutchman'sUncle]

Penguin 68 - I pride myself on a broad vocabulary. However I missed 'adumbrate' what a great word, resolved to now use it as often as possible thank you - from Latin umbra, shade.

Our Postie informed us that had Sylvester Road been extended under the porch (and had the house on the corner not been sold off, which was the original Post Office, now too late) that there would have been enough room to work and accommodate the volume of mail.

Of course we asked him why he hadn't spoken up at the time of the meeting - his response was a shrug, and the opinion that the decision had been taken.

There were other politics involved with staffing.

Whatever happened to the advent of the Management Consultancy Report before final closure.

We take mail and small parcels into the city with us now, Mount Pleasant bound and have the same delivered to work address, although this is not possible with personal cards, bank statements etc of course.

Sylvester Road should never have closed, a bad decision exacerbated by lack of forward planning in not providing at least a bridge between Sylvester Road closure and the newly overwhelmed premises in Peckham, just as you describe.

'Post early for Christmas' never rang truer.

[se22cat]

It still stings that the Silvester Road office closed, it being just a 10 minute walk away, the staff being really good and it always just being there and now taken away gets my goat up, and the local posties have never looked unhappier and they have a bloody hard job as it is.

I have no connection to the company below, but have used them to send parcels (and have parcels sent to me) without ever having an issue, nothing missing, no packages damaged and the price not much difference, sometimes even cheaper than the Post Office, definitely worth a look if you want trackable packages sent securely - in my experience. I think the only drawback is iirc they only send within the UK.

https://www.myhermes.co.uk/

[Penguin68]

But there is no issue about sent mail, just received. And we have no control over the choice of carrier when we are the recipient. That's our problem.

[tomdhu]

JW Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> tomdhu Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > MatthewGBCN Wrote:

> >

> --------------------------------------------------

>

> > -----

> > >

> > > However :

> > > The purchases can be refunded if under Ebay,

> > > AliExpress and Amazon guidelines and their

> each

> > > own guarantee .

> >

> > Perhaps you should have clarified this by

> advising

> > that it is not Ebay or Amazon who bear the cost

> of

> > the refund but the private seller (ie the

> sender)

> > who uses these platforms.

> >

> >

> > As a small local business that uses Ebay, I

> incur

> > a total loss on every package that Royal Mail

> > fails to deliver. Plus as a Royal Mail

> Business

> > Account holder there is no facility to make a

> > claim for recompense from Royal Mail. I dont

> even

> > get the cost of postage refunded.

> >

> > So the customer gets a refund or replacement

> and

> > the small business supplier is entirely out of

> > pocket.

>

> Hi tomdhu - I imagine it?s tine consuming and not

> always successful, but there is a claim facility

> for business account holders, here

> https://business.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/de

> tail/a_id/648/~/how-to-make-a-claim---royal-mail-b

> usiness-account

Hi JW

Yes,that is the theory but not in practice. It doesnt apply if you have a business account that uses "RM48". RM48 is the most widely used service for businesses. OBA (On-line Business Account) holders who print their own bar-coded labels and who pack their own mail sacks, get a 20p discount off the standard rate (?2.95) for sending a 1kg package.

Supposedly, this is because the OBA holder is doing all the work rather than have someone at the Post Office counter sticking on a postage sticker with a bar-code. As part of the deal to get the 20p reduction, there is no claim facility with RM48. Hence a lost package is a gross loss ie it's the total cost of your product plus packaging, sundries, the fees you have paid out to Ebay and PayPal plus the cost of postage paid to Royal Mail.

In practical terms it comes down to arithmetic and probabilities. A 20p saving on postage must be balanced against the average product selling price. Hence on a ?18 product ( my average product cost) I just need to loose one package out of 90 package sent, to wipe out the benefit of getting the discount.

But it is the time it takes to investigate if a "missing" parcel is really missing or is a false claim for "Item Not Received" that really sticks in one's craw. The difficulty of investigations are compounded when the Royal Mail local depot fails to do an "Acceptance Scan".This is done when they receive akll the mail bags for local post Offices and OBA account holders. If they are in a rush they dont scan all the parcels to pick up the 2D barcode. Hence any tracking record thereafter is non-existent - even though the parcel will in all probability get delivered. A few dishonest recipients (who can see the absence of a tracking trail) will initiate an INR.

That plus an INR becomes a negative statistic on ones Ebay matrics. Get more than 2% of these and Ebay hike their fees by 40%. Yes 40%.

[Sue]

Sue Wrote:

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> I ordered three items online on 21 November which

> I need for next week. They are all gifts.

>

> All were sent around the same time.

>

> The one via a courier arrived a couple of days

> after it was despatched (might have been the day

> after, can't remember).

>

> The two via Royal Mail have still not arrived. One

> was despatched on 22 and one on 23 November.

>

> I have had virtually no post this week at all.

>

> How on earth are they going to cope at Christmas?

> I thought that was the supposed reason the office

> was moved from Silvester Road?

Well, this morning the postie delivered a package to me which was sent well after the two missing ones.

So I said I was still waiting for two items which I needed this week.

He said he would "look in his van". Surprise surprise, some time later he appeared at the door with the two missing items (sopping wet but luckily dry inside).

Now. All I can assume is that they are carting round a backlog, but delivering the most recent items first and not attempting to put items for the same address together.

I am grateful to have got them in time to give them to the recipients, but I do wonder when they would have eventually appeared if I had not asked where they were .....

I'm not blaming the postie, who was helpful. It's an ongoing system failure, it seems.

ETA: I have had three deliveries this morning, after a week of virtually zilch.

[singalto]

I have had no post for several days..

[kford]

Several parcels missing, no calling card. This is why I always use Hermes.

[Tropicbyjennifer]

I have spoken to a friendly insider. I will keep the anonymous for their sake. I didn't receive a lot of my post and in fact started receiving post for other door numbers and even other roads! Apparently the posties are under pressure not being able to get their whole round done in their shift time and even though they asked their manager if they could start where they left of the previous day, the manager said no start from the beginning. So if you are at the end of a posties round, like i am, you never get your post and it just backs up.

That is criminal.

[Sue]

kford Wrote:

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> Several parcels missing, no calling card. This is

> why I always use Hermes.

There isn't a problem with parcels sent from this area.

The problem is with items being delivered, and therefore you don't usually get a choice as to who delivers them.

[mayo]

Just queued at post office for 40 mins to be told that it is now 48 hours between a missed delivery and being able to collect at PO rather than 24 hours as stated on the card so my item wasn?t there. What a wind up. I suggested they alter the cards accordingly or at least have a sign up at the PO to save people queueing unnecessarily but don?t hold out much hope that they will do either. So please bear this in mind when collecting!

[JohnL]

mayo Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Just queued at post office for 40 mins to be told

> that it is now 48 hours between a missed delivery

> and being able to collect at PO rather than 24

> hours as stated on the card so my item wasn?t

> there. What a wind up. I suggested they alter the

> cards accordingly or at least have a sign up at

> the PO to save people queueing unnecessarily but

> don?t hold out much hope that they will do either.

> So please bear this in mind when collecting!

They need someone to check the queue with the parcel list (triage type thing) if the queues are going to remain this long.

[Sue]

mayo Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Just queued at post office for 40 mins to be told

> that it is now 48 hours between a missed delivery

> and being able to collect at PO rather than 24

> hours as stated on the card so my item wasn?t

> there. What a wind up. I suggested they alter the

> cards accordingly or at least have a sign up at

> the PO to save people queueing unnecessarily but

> don?t hold out much hope that they will do either.

> So please bear this in mind when collecting!

Pissups and breweries spring to mind.

[AshbySE22]

we receive our post in batches, normally once a week we will get a weeks worth of post rammed through the letterbox!

[singalto]

I've had Post twice this week, 8 items in one go.

[geh]

SE22-Newbie

yup!, ran out and complained to the postman on Sat after he rammed a weeks worth of post though my letter box ripping half of it.

His response? incredulity followed by:

"you can always make a complaint"

probably won't ever get a delivery again.

[kford]

Another parcel missing this week. Ebay seller had to refund, poor chap.

[pecksniff]

Collected a parcel on Thursday and noticed the collection card displayed extended opening times on most days but forgot to ask whether this was just for the Christmas period. However did inquire about whether there was still any outstanding post from Silvester Rd and they suggested that most of it should have been delivered by now due to having limited storage space.

[sandyman]

Yesterday I received a card for a missed tracked delivery which had to be signed for so I arranged for a redelivery on Saturday when I knew I'd be in.

Just got in and it's been delivered today(Friday), it was just put through the letterbox, not signed for.

Can't decide whether this is good service or appalling service. It's getting to the stage now where I'm just happy to get deliveries without having to hike to Highshore road.

[Penguin68]

This week I have received deliveries (so far) each day (Monday to Friday) and I know of nothing now outstanding. I have also received communication from the office of 'The Chairman and Chief Executive' which indicates that the problem is known about at that level, and that they believe (hope?) it is being addressed. Of course, promises of improvement have still to be met by delivery of same, but I am slightly more hopeful than I have been. Hopes and expectations can always be dashed of course.

[Bic Basher]

I've had no post since Monday. There's Christmas cards that haven't arrived yet and I'm still travelling to central London to collect foreign magazines instead of the postal sub.

[IlonaM]

We've made the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/15/royal-mail-queues-lengthen-as-depots-close-across-uk

[jimmyraj]

Presumably an advantage to having the Guardian editor, Kath Viner, living in SE15, and experiencing the same problems!

IlonaM Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> We've made the Guardian:

>

> https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/15/r

> oyal-mail-queues-lengthen-as-depots-close-across-u

> k

[craigmelson]

The most guardian thing ever - a fr Not page story on their website about a rich area of London losing a delivery office. Love how apparently it takes an hour to get to Peckham though . .

Went there on sat and it was a,long queue, but no longer than what I?ve had at the silvester road one.

[singalto]

Not everyone in this area is rich and how long the journey to Peckham takes very much depends on where you live! I live near Sylvester rd so even if I had to queue for ages, it was easier than taking two buses each way to Peckham. You could also drive to Sylvester.

[craigmelson]

I know not all more, just thought it revealed who the guardian is catering for!

If you lived in central London it wouldn?t take an hour to go to Peckham.

It is annoying, but it really isn?t that bad. In 2018 can?t expect 1960s services to operate in the same way. My only objection is that they didn?t add in more counters at Peckham