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[TailUK]

Finally received a parcel from the Component Shop after 2 weeks (1st Class post)  I had begun to wonder where it had got to.  Judging by the state of the parcel it's been laying around under foot, somewhere enroute.  Somewhere wet by all indications.  No wonder people prefer to use Couriers.

[Brian60]

In answer to your question, about the same time it went from public to private ownership.

[RST]

Ouch, something went wrong there but was that the only packaging?  Jiffy bags are not indestructible.

How many times have RM let you down or was it just this once?  I'm afraid this is how I expect almost any parcel to come from a courier these days (except Hermes where I expect it to be stolen by their staff again).  I have to stand up for RM these days, the service is normally superb and it's shameful they're not used allot more.  I think it's some sellers that might prefer couriers, I certainly don't and go out of my way to avoid anything coming by them.  I order elsewhere if I see delivery by courier these days.

I had a delivery from Component shop recently and all went well by RM -but if they're the seller then they're responsible until it reaches you.  You need to contact them though looking at that I'd say you have a strong case (unlike that servo I guess).

[tizdaz]

Royal Mail went down hill many moons ago, I have had a few letters/parcels arrived in a mess, but the worse to date for me was a good few years back when one sunny afternoon I was doing my gardening (as you do!) then some chap walked up my path with a large parcel bag that royal mail use for sorting parcels etc. Anyway he came upto me & pulled out an empty parcel box & asked if this belonged to me, i looked at it & it had my address details on the shipping label so yup, i said it did, he then explained there has been issues over the last 12 months with delivery's in this area from royal mail (at this point he then explained he was part of the fraud/investigation team at royal mail) Anyway he then handed the large parcel bag to me & asked me to go through it to confirm that all inside did belong to me!?


There was about 30 parcels & prob double that of letters to! Turned out.. The delivery woman, (yup postwoman) instead of delivering, had been taking lots of mail back to her own home (which was same area as her delivery round) & she had been stashing all the mail in her house! Apparantly she would open the mail take out whats inside if it was of any value then just stash the evidence in her house!


But in all fairness, this isn't really Royal Mails fault as anyone could decide to just do this no matter what company they worked for, although in saying this we were not offered any kind of compensation whatsoever, yup we prob could have took it further but thinking back Royal Mail should have of at least done something in terms of comp as that year we had a lot of parcels & letters disappear!!


But anyway, like i say.. as of recent years, Royal Mail is poor & there postage prices are high which does NOT reflect there "service".

[RST]

But anyway, like i say.. as of recent years, Royal Mail is poor & there postage prices are high which does NOT reflect there "service".

I disagree, apples for apples their prices between RM and Parcelforces are quite CHEAP compared to couriers and I admire anyone who can get me a letter or parcel delivered these days for the cost.  RM / Parcelforce offer a timed service -and largely flat rate pricing in the UK -none of tis zone shenannegins.  If I use a courier, prices for me are usually at least 300-400% more and  transit times are at least doubled with no tracking or accountability inbetween.  And I know for me at work we get deliveries by Hermes and Yodel (usually a week late with no tracking) -the door opens and the parcel is simply "launched" on the concrete  floor about ten feet inside.  No signature collected.  Returns are prevalent as they are at my home address where they are non-delivered.  I sometimes have to pay up to £50-75 for a weeks courier service at work (usually turns up after 2 weeks and often broken) which RM / parcelforce can do for £15-20 on a 2 day tracked service, job done.

I have only had one gripe recently about RM last year as they sent a parcel back to me rather than who it was addressed to.  BUT my neighbour in Inverness signed for it -and when he handed it back to me I did ask why he signed for a parcel clearly addressed to a Liverpool address and didn't get a cognisant answer -DUUH!!!!  OK RM were wrong there and wouldnt give postage costs back but DUUH on my neighbour who signed for it!

My real gripe with RM is not RM but Post Offices (separate businesses).  Why do I have to que for 45-60mins to see a teller in Inverness, any time of day or day of week.  They have 2 counters open out the 6 new ones put in for the refurb. They have one lady on the door purely trying to direct you towards self service, and another in the self service area.  But most need to speak at a person in the counter, and most of the time the self service doesn't seem to work.  Strapped for cash the PO may be but it's an hour long wait because there's half the number of on the counters and they just will not pull the other staff onto them!  If they had the other two counters open the que would be minimal.  It's like Tesco these days, lots of staff in self service area standing chatting or assisting on computers, nobody left on real checkouts.

[tizdaz]

I disagree, apples for apples their prices between RM and Parcelforces are quite CHEAP compared to couriers and I admire anyone who can get me a letter or parcel delivered these days for the cost.  RM / Parcelforce offer a timed service -and largely flat rate pricing in the UK -none of tis zone shenannegins.  If I use a courier, prices for me are usually at least 300-400% more and  transit times are at least doubled with no tracking or accountability inbetween.  And I know for me at work we get deliveries by Hermes and Yodel (usually a week late with no tracking) -the door opens and the parcel is simply "launched" on the concrete  floor about ten feet inside.  No signature collected.  Returns are prevalent as they are at my home address where they are non-delivered.  I sometimes have to pay up to £50-75 for a weeks courier service at work (usually turns up after 2 weeks and often broken) which RM / parcelforce can do for £15-20 on a 2 day tracked service, job done.

I have only had one gripe recently about RM last year as they sent a parcel back to me rather than who it was addressed to.  BUT my neighbour in Inverness signed for it -and when he handed it back to me I did ask why he signed for a parcel clearly addressed to a Liverpool address and didn't get a cognisant answer -DUUH!!!!  OK RM were wrong there and wouldnt give postage costs back but DUUH on my neighbour who signed for it!

My real gripe with RM is not RM but Post Offices (separate businesses).  Why do I have to que for 45-60mins to see a teller in Inverness, any time of day or day of week.  They have 2 counters open out the 6 new ones put in for the refurb. They have one lady on the door purely trying to direct you towards self service, and another in the self service area.  But most need to speak at a person in the counter, and most of the time the self service doesn't seem to work.  Strapped for cash the PO may be but it's an hour long wait because there's half the number of on the counters and they just will not pull the other staff onto them!  If they had the other two counters open the que would be minimal.  It's like Tesco these days, lots of staff in self service area standing chatting or assisting on computers, nobody left on real checkouts.

Each to there own, For posting letters, yup i still use royal mail..but for parcels...no chance. There are lots of couriers out there much cheaper than RM with better service, i've used a good handful over the years with no issues except for once with City Link (who are now gone lol) a few times last year RM left there so called "delivery attempt" card was left.. even though i was in at that time, they didn't even knock just posted the card through the letter box needless to say i opened the door & explained that to attempt a delivery it helps to knock on the door & this happened a few times off different postmen, so it's a trending thing when they cant be bothered to wait around to get a signature. I've also worked for RM in the sorting office & knows what goes on.. Anyone who thinks there parcel is handles with care.. lol ^^ but this goes for any delivery company, so don't think that RM are above the rest, because they are at best on par!

[RST]

City Link

...they were an exemplary courier for me!  I couldn't belive when they went to the wall.

We had a good courier up here called AJG Parcels but they were taken over by Menzies and the difference in service was night and day.  I made a point of speaking to a few of the guys who were dropping off in AJG vans long afterwards as they were welcome, compared to a s**t service there has always been from Menzies, the AJG guys were appreciative of the comments but confirmed that transferring to menzies was a "s**t deal for customers and every service was downgraded".  Menzies is not a good courier as far as recipients are concerned.


...I think it may to be where you are in the country and what kind of service you expect.  I can't fault RM or Parcelforce up here in Inverness.  There is only one other courier I would use which is Paisley Feight -but they seem more agents / freight forwarders.  They have however poven superb in the past and no idea how they manage to send anything delicate over such a distance without any real packaging.

[TailUK]

I had a chance to test the servo last night.  Would you believe it still works! That's little Chinese lady on minimum wage - 1, Postal workers - Nil.

[chuffy]

Still got a first class family run PO in Raunds with a Postmistress, not unlike a Head Mistress of years ago in many ways.


Post and parcel delivery staff have been in post for years, must be the semi-rural thing.



I digress.


Paul.


Yes I've just spotted that! So no need to make another post re that point.

[Tug Fanatic]

RM around here is really good.


I remember in the 1970's when the whole thing went on strike for a month so in some ways it has improved. 

[Howard Q]

As I live on an Island Royal Mail and the Manx postal authority are an important link to the outside world, in this I can say the service on both counts have been very good, I recently tried to post some spare tx batteries to a friend in the uk, but our post goes by plane so were not allowed, (aviation rules),the cheapest I could get by courier was £18, this was for 2 x 8 pack AAs in a jiffy bag, and that was depot to depot, not depot to home address, so I asked the girl in our local post office to give me a price if posted within the uk, £1.84, so I found a friend  who was travelling by boat and showing him what was in the envelope, (He is a model builder), asked him if he would drop it in a letterbox at his destination, this he agreed to do, the jiffybag and contents arrived two days later, so comparing courier to RM is not a realistic option. Howard Q.

[tigertiger]

I think that If any organization treats its people badly enough for long enough you are going to change the culture and morale, to the point where some no longer care.
Some offices are very good, but others...

[Grumpy Dave]

Our RM posties are very good. There are three of them and they know where to hide parcels if I'm out. The last few RM deliveries were within 2 days , one arrived the morning after I ordered it.

[boatsdelboy2]

I too have good posties that know where to put things when I am out and always leave a card thru the letter box to say what they have done also sent boats thru parcelforce and never had a problem.