Royal Mail - late deliveries - what is happening?

[Sue]

This is not about late deliveries, but honestly ...

Yesterday I heard a load of stuff being shoved hard  through my (small) letterbox.

I went to pick it up and the pile  included a very bent (so bent that the cardboard was completely  broken across) cardboard backed envelope clearly marked in large red letters "Please do not bend."

I went out holding the envelope,  and the postie (one I had never seen before) was now two doors down, so I said (fairly politely I thought, under the circumstances), "Excuse me, this says on it do not bend".

He just scowled at me.

When I opened it, the contents were unusable - it is  something which needs to lie flat, and it is now permanently bent.

I have complained to Royal Mail, and the sender is kindly  posting me a free replacement, so I just hope it isn't delivered by the same postie. GRRRRR.

I also hope this isn't the calibre of the new posties they have taken on. Can they not read? Do they not think to try ringing the bell if something won't fit through the letterbox? 

ETA: My lovely regular postie delivered the replacement today, together with another packet also marked "Please do not bend".

He  must have made a special trip, as surely usually this would not have arrived for weeks 😮

Edited November 1, 2024 by Sue

[Azalea]

You and Yours Radio 4 are doing a phone in about the postal service tomorrow.  They want to hear about your experiences of sending and receiving post.   Email them beforehand at:   [email protected].       

[Sue]

6 hours ago, Azalea said:

You and Yours Radio 4 are doing a phone in about the postal service tomorrow.  They want to hear about your experiences of sending and receiving post.   Email them beforehand at:   [email protected].       

I don't think they would be happy if I phoned in, I'd be ranting on for hours 🤣

[Azalea]

13 hours ago, Sue said:

I don't think they would be happy if I phoned in, I'd be ranting on for hours 🤣

The presenter will gently and kindly cut you off.   

[Happyme5]

LOL. I called the  ITN news desk the other week.  They asked if I would be happy to on the news.  I declined.  But the young lady did say that she also had problems with letters that she had sent out.  

[MaryT]

For those of you who don't know, the problem with Royal mail deliveries in ED has been going on since before Covid, when they closed our local sorting office. There are very some real consequences to residents. For example, for the 3rd or 4th time in recent years, I've recieved a PCN notice, 2 months late, so that the fine has increased from £65 to £195 in the interim. Our previous MP, Helen Hayes was fully aware of the mail delivery problem and tackling Royal Mail about this. The new MP, Ellie Reeves, seems less active. My emails are forwarded to Royal Mail, who give the same generic excuses they've used for years, sickness absence, recruitment problems, blah blah, all of which they say they are 'resolving'. My suggestion is that you email Ellie Reeves MP (or whoever your one is since the boundary changed) and ask them what they're doing about it!

[Sue]

1 hour ago, MaryT said:

For those of you who don't know, the problem with Royal mail deliveries in ED has been going on since before Covid, when they closed our local sorting office. There are very some real consequences to residents. For example, for the 3rd or 4th time in recent years, I've recieved a PCN notice, 2 months late, so that the fine has increased from £65 to £195 in the interim. Our previous MP, Helen Hayes was fully aware of the mail delivery problem and tackling Royal Mail about this. The new MP, Ellie Reeves, seems less active. My emails are forwarded to Royal Mail, who give the same generic excuses they've used for years, sickness absence, recruitment problems, blah blah, all of which they say they are 'resolving'. My suggestion is that you email Ellie Reeves MP (or whoever your one is since the boundary changed) and ask them what they're doing about it!

Helen Hayes made sterling efforts to prevent the closure of the Sylvester Road delivery office, including attending a public (I think. I was there, anyway!) meeting about it, and coming to a demo outside the delivery office.

The demo was publicised locally, but only about  half a dozen SE22  residents turned up, which was embarrassing  and  didn't exactly show Royal Mail that there was any strong local feeling about it 🙄

When the delivery office closed, whilst  Helen was still our MP before the boundary changes, she made great efforts to get the service from Peckham improved, including more than one (I think) visit there.

Sometimes the service would get better for a short time, then it would just deteriorate again.

Some of the underlying causes are indeed due to the Sylvester Road delivery office closure, but I suspect others are due to poor management both at local and higher levels, plus wider issues with Royal Mail at a national level.

I'm not sure that Ellie Reeves could succeed where all Helen Hayes's efforts didn't, but by all means encourage her to try!

I wonder whether bombarding the CEO with complaints might have more of an impact, but I wouldn't hold my breath, not least because he would probably never see them, and even  if he did, some minion in his office would just send a polite standard reply.

[jazzer]

hit them on twitter

[Sue]

1 hour ago, jazzer said:

hit them on twitter

Yes, better idea! 

[geh]

heartening to see that normal service has resumed.  Missing items that should have been delivered 17th April.....nothing......

[Penguin68]

My postal deliveries in Underhill have dropped back to less than once a week, from a quite regular 3 (should of course be six!) - is it just my walk or have others also recently deteriorated? Still getting the more remunerative parcels. 

[Sue]

My daughter in Oxford has similar problems.

I had to send something (of no monetary value) to her by Special Delivery yesterday, just to make sure she actually got it within a reasonable time scale

ETA: And then  I coukdn't even log in to the Royal Mail app to effing track it.

I just kept getting a message saying "sorry, we are experiencing high demand. Please try again."

I GOT THIS MESSAGE EVERY TIME I TRIED AGAIN

So eventually I went onto the Royal Mail website and managed to actually track it. I paid for delivery by 1pm.

The tracking says their "service guarantee is to attempt delivery by 1pm the next working day" and "exceptions apply to some addresses".

But it also says "we normally expect to deliver to your address between 12.26 and 6.26pm"

What exactly have I paid for? The service I would "normally  expect"  from buying a first class stamp?

This is Oxford, not some tiny village in the middle of nowhere. 

It eventually arrived after 6pm.  I suppose I should be grateful it arrived at all.

🤬

Edited May 7 by Sue

[Sue]

22 hours ago, Sue said:

My daughter in Oxford has similar problems.

I had to send something (of no monetary value) to her by Special Delivery yesterday, just to make sure she actually got it within a reasonable time scale

ETA: And then  I coukdn't even log in to the Royal Mail app to effing track it.

I just kept getting a message saying "sorry, we are experiencing high demand. Please try again."

I GOT THIS MESSAGE EVERY TIME I TRIED AGAIN

So eventually I went onto the Royal Mail website and managed to actually track it. I paid for delivery by 1pm.

The tracking says their "service guarantee is to attempt delivery by 1pm the next working day" and "exceptions apply to some addresses".

But it also says "we normally expect to deliver to your address between 12.26 and 6.26pm"

What exactly have I paid for? The service I would "normally  expect"  from buying a first class stamp?

This is Oxford, not some tiny village in the middle of nowhere. 

It eventually arrived after 6pm.  I suppose I should be grateful it arrived at all.

🤬

So. Last night Royal Mail customer service kept me waiting a quarter of an hour with no indication of the wait time,  then closed the service down at 6.30pm.

This morning I waited half an hour to speak to someone.  

First they told me to make a claim via their website, then reluctantly agreed they could do it on the phone.

They required both my and my daughter's name, addresses, postcodes and email addresses, plus my phone number. WHY?

THEN they told me a CHEQUE for £9.85 would be sent to my address!!!!!!

No compensation for everybody's wasted time, just the Special Delivery (hollow laugh) fee back.

I did point out a) we weren't in the Stone Age and b) this cheque would probably either never arrive or be stuck for months in the local delivery office beneath mounds of other mail which never gets delivered.

I felt very sorry for this guy. I hope he is well paid. What a terrible job to have.

So now, assuming I ever get the cheque, I will have to queue up at the Post Office to pay it in.

Having already queued up to post an item for a non existent service in the first place.

GRRRRR.

Can I be bothered to write to the CEO? No, probably not. I'll just get some bland standard letter back sent by some other poor person with a terrible job.

Edited May 8 by Sue

[Steve888]

On 29/01/2025 at 16:27, jazzer said:

hit them on twitter

This is what i've been doing. About 1 Delivery a week in Crystal Palace Road. They always say they've checked and 'no issues in the area'. Absolute b0llocks. I say to them check again. Next stop writing to CEO. 

Utter shambles.

[Happyme5]

We only get 1 delivery a week here just around the corner.