Royal Mail delivery

[singalto]

I get post once or twice a week and found 4 parcels left on a neighbour?s doorstep.

[Sue]

Truly terrible service.

[Nigello]

A postcard sent to Germany took two days recently; one to Japan took 3, both posted from SE22 late in the afternoon. I think it is hit and miss but on the whole, now that the big woes of the pandemic and its knock-on effects on the post have waned, it is still a good service.

[Spartacus]

I think the issue is local delivery not outgoing mail as that's sorted by a central office not a local office.

[Sue]

Spartacus Wrote:

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> I think the issue is local delivery not outgoing

> mail as that's sorted by a central office not a

> local office.

Yes, definitely local delivery

[Penguin68]

Having been regular complainer (back-in-the-day) I ought to note that in my neck of Underhill deliveries have been 'back to normal' now quite consistently for several months. When our regular postie is off (leave or whatever) coverage is patchy, but otherwise deliveries are fine (I did have a card and PIN intercepted earlier in the chain, probably in the delivery office based on where the first thefts occurred - but this has been an endemic problem for years).

Most things posted arrive very quickly - the few 'lost deliveries' I have had (parcels) cannot be attributed to problems at the delivery end specifically - they may well have been further up-stream.

I suspect they are still operating on a knife's edge regarding staffing and coverage, but they are no longer consistently appalling by any means, and when our postie is 'on' they are positively good and reliable (as they always used to be 'back-in-the-day' before the delivery office in Silvester Rd caught a cold and then closed).

[Nigello]

Agree with P68 - it is a good/very good service with occasional bad experiences in my view. I mostly get first class mail, even sent from hundreds of miles away, the next day. Covid and other factors have made it very poor at times but it is good now.

[Mountain walker]

Sad to report that in our part of SE22 the delivery service appears to have deteriorated. Letters and cards taking ages to arrive, if at all. Several magazines missing along with online purchases. Does anyone know if I can make a trip to pick up post from the Peckham Sorting Office?

[KidKruger]

There are no obstacles to you making your way to peckham sorting office.

[Sue]

Absolutely crap service lately.

Packages taking weeks to arrive.

[colb2015]

KidKruger Wrote:

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> There are no obstacles to you making your way to

> peckham sorting office.

If you are expecting a package and know it's been sent can you just go to the sorting office and ask for it?

[KidKruger]

There are no obstacles to you making your way to peckham sorting office to enquire where missing post is.

[niozza]

Good question, Kerry.

FIL talked to a postman yesterday (haven?t seen them myself for over a week!) and said that is mayhem down there so wasn?t advising to try the sorting office.

Whether that?s true or not I can?t say, but they warned about a potential wasted journey.

[Lynne]

No post for about a week. Surely someone's sent me a card?

[fatfightersforever]

An NHS urgent appointment letter from Kings took 14 days to arrive! (the appointment was long gone but I'd received a text and phone call so did attend). It cost the NHS 72p for this dreadful service but I'm wondering how much more it's costing them in missed appointments...awful!

[colb2015]

KidKruger Wrote:

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> There are no obstacles to you making your way to

> peckham sorting office to enquire where missing

> post is.

Indeed. But I'd rather not waste my time if they are unwilling to assist in checking. Judging from niozza's response it seems likely it would be a wasted trip.

[rupert james]

Just had a royal Mail delivery arrive when he asked my wife do you have a BT delivery expected she said let me ask my husband.

His retort, "Do you want it or not"

No parcel in his hand but knew what were were expecting.

When she returned to say yes he was getting into his van and just drove off.

Seems the whole system is broken. Impossible to speak to anybody.

[James_C]

Has anyone had any post (letters etc.) today ?

[Penguin68]

Has anyone had any post (letters etc.) today ?

Yes, my postie is back from his 10 days leave. I suspect (I don't know) that leave has been discouraged in the last weeks before Christmas, which means many took leave owing earlier which may explain poor service just around now. As there is no slack at all for cover. Where rules only allow 5 days carry-over for leave, and if the leave-year ends at the year end (but it used for the Post Office I know to end at the end of March, but may have been changed more recently) you may understand while people may be taking time off. Hopefully things will get back to normal (even for those walks where 'normal' hasn't been acceptable in the last months with no regular postie).

[James_C]

That makes sense. I have no issue with post taking a little long than expected so that the postie can take some holiday. Which road are you on if you do not mind me asking ? I am waiting for some important post at the moment.

[kiera]

Penguin68 Wrote:

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> Has anyone had any post (letters etc.) today ?

> Yes, my postie is back from his 10 days leave....... there

> is no slack at all for cover ................Hopefully things will get back to normal.......

Which undoubtedly means that your postie will be dealing with new incoming post - he will not be going through the two weeks' worth of post which has accumulated during his absence, Judging by last year, the backlog of arrears will not even start to be cleared until the New Year. It was February before I got my Xmas cards which had been posted early

[James_C]

Has anybody else received post this week?

[Mountain walker]

I spoke to the relief postie in our road today. According to him our regular postie is off with Covid,there is not much cover, sorting office is short staffed and the staff are dealing with lots of tracked Covid test deliveries. He didn't think a visit to the sorting office would be productive. Not a very promising outlook.

[Marjoram]

I shopped early for Christmas online, but I have not yet received 6 items which were posted to me in the last week of November, 2 of which were sent tracked. These items will be small packages, not parcels. The only packages received since then were posted to me within the last 7 days. Letters, however, seem to be coming through normally. One company has sent me out a replacement for an item as it didn?t arrive, but that hasn?t arrived yet either. We have a very hard working postie in our area, and I did manage to speak to him briefly on Thursday. He said there were piles of undelivered mail in the sorting office and that therefore it would be impossible to search through them to find my items, but that he hoped they would be delivered eventually. However, he couldn?t say when. He said that Covid absences were badly affecting staffing levels. He always does his best, so I didn?t press him any further, but things at the sorting office are clearly very bad right now.

[Sue]

Marjoram Wrote:

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> things at the sorting office are clearly very bad

> right now.

It seems to me that things at the sorting office have been clearly very bad since the Sylvester Road delivery office was closed and our deliveries now come from Peckham.

Royal Mail should be unprivatised, if that's a word. All it cares for now is profit for its shareholders. Any care for a reasonable, let alone good, level of service went out of the window ages ago.

Covid is just a convenient excuse. Meanwhile our old sorting office was sold for flats.

So-called 24 and 48 hour tracking is an absolute joke.

And the posties' workload is increased because they now have not just the original package to deliver (eventually) but its replacement as well when the first one doesn't arrive.

And then the counter staff at the Post Office have extra work to do when one of those two items, whichever finally arrives last, has to be returned.

It's an absolute shambles.