What to do about Royal Mail?

[RFS]

 

How do I get my parcel when I have no card?

 

 

Keith

 

You got an email saying it was out for delivery so that should contain the tracking number.  So all you should need to do is to go online to RM and reschedule the delivery. You don't need the card for that.

[Bill]

If it’s any comfort I could have made the same posting except for changing the title from Royal Mail to Canada Post. I had an item that was sent tracked mail from 50km away, it got all the way to our local distribution centre and then disappeared. I called the sender and after a “suitable pause” for the CP wheels to turn the package was declared dead and a replacement was sent. Two months later I got an email from Canada Post to inform me that the package had been found and returned to the sender. And don’t get me started on tracked mail from the UK. I can follow it until it leaves the UK and then -nothing- until it shows up on the door waiting for a signature. Our service doesn’t track things seemingly even though you pay extra for the “service”.

 

Cheers,

 

David

The Canadian Post used to make all the tracking data from abroad available, but suddenly stopped letting the public know a couple of years back....

The reason for this remains a mystery,

but if you look at their website you will soon learn that the resident programmers have issues with understanding the way Canada Post functions,

and this could point to the root of the problem.

Probably not their fault as Canada Post probably has no idea as to how it functions as an entity..

But Canada Post does share tracking data with the appropriate country of origin.

So for example the German Post Office website lets me know that that my parcel has arrived in Canada..

I can then surmise it will probably be five to ten days before I get the parcel 

(It may also have been sent to Richmond B.C because someone mistakenly thinks that Nova Scotia is on the West Coast..)

Then I can again check with the German/French/Norwegian Post Office that I have received it..

(A seemingly pointless exercise but useful if the expected parcel did not turn up..)

So there is a viable way round a problem that has no viable need to exist..

But I have also discovered that un-tracked parcels arrive in better than half the time it takes for tracked ones to arrive..

[kevinlms]

Hi all

 

Yet again I'm having trouble with Royal Mail

 

So I e-mailed Royal Mail on the Friday,one week later I have heard nothing.

 

How do I get my parcel when I have no card?

This is not the first time this has happened and RM always deny the claim that they didn't call. They are nothing but crooks, lying to cover their *rses.

 

Keith

They haven't lied in this case, they have just ignored your email.

 

Best off to phone the call centre and get the tracking down process started. Moaning here, without even attempting to follow it up personally, is just going to raise your blood pressure.

 

An apology to those RM etc employees, who have found your post rude & insulting, would be a good idea.

 

I have worked for large corporate employers and I could only ever do the best I could with the information/process given to me.

 

It wasn't unusual for customers to lie about being in attendance, when they weren't. Annoying when the feedback is that, there were 9 people in the house & 4 cars in the driveway. I knew the address I went to was correct, because a/ I attended it the previous week and b/ They read out from the card I'd left, in the letterbox! Yeah sure, I knocked on the door with a feather!

 

Yes, I did get the job of going back to the same house and resolved the issue. My parting shot was to tell him, to not complain that people were home, when they weren't! He had no answer.

[melmerby]

You got an email saying it was out for delivery so that should contain the tracking number.  So all you should need to do is to go online to RM and reschedule the delivery. You don't need the card for that.

I have now rescheduled for a delivery this coming week, although I had to make up some of the details as the web form won't let you leave them blank. ( I tried and it was rejected)

The problem originally was that without a card I couldn't collect the item, which I could have done on several days last week and my preferred choice, but wasn't sure when there would be someone at home for a re-delivery.

 

If I have offended RM employees, sorry.

I was not intending to personally blame anyone, rather the system itself.

My experience when things go wrong has not been particularly good.

 

Keith

[Cmax]

Keith,

 

Thank you, appreciated.

 

Gary

[hayfield]

I have found both the Royal Mail and the Post Office to be excellent, I use both quite a lot and have nothing bu praise for both companies. There was a time when the service they offered went down hill, but that was a long time ago. I have spoken to their call centres (about missing items) a couple of times they were spot on both times, could not fault the service offered.

 

Hermes at the moment seems to be going the same way, after a few bad experiences they now seem to be getting their act together. Had a UPS delivery 2 days ago and DHL in December, and again top marks for for both as far as efficiency goes, with DHL there was an issue at Charles De Gaulle airport which delayed the item due to a mechanical break down  

 

I think in the end its down to the weakest link in the delivery chain, plus mistakes do happen to everyone but as said that is where service kicks in and you find out how good a company really is.

 

To all the Royal Mail posties out there, a big thanks as you all are doing a great job week in week out 

[Sir TophamHatt]

An apology to those RM etc employees, who have found your post rude & insulting, would be a good idea.

An apology that the person probably won't mean?

No point.

 

I used to come across so many people that "demmanded an apology", even though it wasn't going to change their mood or make things any better.

Thus I would often think that there was no point. It's just empty. Or is it that it makes the person feel big? Or are they more interested in demeaning the person who is apologising? If the latter, who is worse then?

 

I'm not on anyones side though.

I generally find Royal Mail pretty good. But wish the parcel delivery man would learn to leave parcels in my safe place rather than giving them to a neighbour.

The normal letters and small items postman is great. Nearly all others leave parcels. Just the van man doesn't, which is rather annoying.

 

But it's like many companies.

They're pretty good when they're working, but if something goes wrong, the company seems to be the worst at dealing with the problem.

[10000]

The Canadian Post used to make all the tracking data from abroad available, but suddenly stopped letting the public know a couple of years back....

The reason for this remains a mystery,

but if you look at their website you will soon learn that the resident programmers have issues with understanding the way Canada Post functions,

and this could point to the root of the problem.

Probably not their fault as Canada Post probably has no idea as to how it functions as an entity..

But Canada Post does share tracking data with the appropriate country of origin.

So for example the German Post Office website lets me know that that my parcel has arrived in Canada..

I can then surmise it will probably be five to ten days before I get the parcel 

(It may also have been sent to Richmond B.C because someone mistakenly thinks that Nova Scotia is on the West Coast..)

Then I can again check with the German/French/Norwegian Post Office that I have received it..

(A seemingly pointless exercise but useful if the expected parcel did not turn up..)

So there is a viable way round a problem that has no viable need to exist..

But I have also discovered that un-tracked parcels arrive in better than half the time it takes for tracked ones to arrive..

 

I've sent parcels to B.C. a few times, untracked, and they arrived OK.

 

Talking to ex pat Brits in B.C.some of them have expensive items shipped to a pickup point in the USA then they make a day trip or long weekend into the States to pick up the items.

 

The model railroad shop in Renfrew said if I wanted  anything sending to the UK they wait to ship until they have enough non Canada items to post then drive down to the States to send them rather than trust Canada Post 

[Gareth Collier]

 

I generally find Royal Mail pretty good. But wish the parcel delivery man would learn to leave parcels in my safe place rather than giving them to a neighbour.

The normal letters and small items postman is great. Nearly all others leave parcels. Just the van man doesn't, which is rather annoying.

 

 

Unfortunately this comes down to RM delivering the Queen's mail and working to a different rule book. All other couriers can leave parcels wherever they want but RM had to gain permission from parliament to even be able to leave parcels with neighbours which was only granted 4-5 years ago. Previously they had to be delivered as addressed. RM are still not allowed to leave parcels unattended unless your safeplace is lockable by the RM employee.

Obviously posties do have arrangements with customers to leave parcels somewhere on the property but they do this off their own back. Management know it happens and always say you can leave a parcel somewhere safe at your own discretion. Discretion means 'we know you do it and why you do it and it keeps the number of undelivered parcels down but if it goes missing or the customer complains you will be taken down the conduct route'.

Your regular postie is therefore happy to take the risk whilst the van driver isn't for which I can't blame him. Bottom line is deliver it to a neighbour and your job is safe, leave it somewhere safe and your trusting the customer with your job. I no longer leave anything as I have been down this route having been stitched up by a customer in the past.

[melmerby]

I finally got my parcel this afternoon.

The Postie did what I expected the previous one (a different postman) to do which was to open the porch and put the parcel in (no signature required) and what normally happens in these cases.

 

I also got a reply from RM customer service apologising for what happened and telling me the DO manager had been informed to ensure it doesn't happen again.

 

I wonder whether one of the problems is the lack of regular Postmen, at one time you would get the same Postie for years, now it seems to be unusual to get the same one for any length of time and you might see several  different ones in a short period of time.

 

Keith

Edited April 24, 2018 by melmerby

[kevinlms]

An apology that the person probably won't mean?

No point.

 

I used to come across so many people that "demmanded an apology", even though it wasn't going to change their mood or make things any better.

Thus I would often think that there was no point. It's just empty. Or is it that it makes the person feel big? Or are they more interested in demeaning the person who is apologising? If the latter, who is worse then?

 

I'm not on anyones side though.

I generally find Royal Mail pretty good. But wish the parcel delivery man would learn to leave parcels in my safe place rather than giving them to a neighbour.

The normal letters and small items postman is great. Nearly all others leave parcels. Just the van man doesn't, which is rather annoying.

 

But it's like many companies.

They're pretty good when they're working, but if something goes wrong, the company seems to be the worst at dealing with the problem.

Your exactly right, 'demanding an apology' is no good, but that isn't what I asked, so irrelevant.

[kevinlms]

I finally got my parcel this afternoon.

The Postie did what I expected the previous one (a different postman) to do which was to open the porch and put the parcel in (no signature required) and what normally happens in these cases.

 

I also got a reply from RM customer service apologising for what happened and telling me the DO manager had been informed to ensure it doesn't happen again.

 

I wonder whether one of the problems is the lack of regular Postmen. at one time you would get the same Postie for years, now it seems to be unusual to get the same one for any length of time and you might see several  different ones in a short period of time.

 

Keith

A disturbing trend worldwide, to devalue the pride in doing a job well. Instead its replaced by cost cutting measures, to the extent people don't want to do the job, because it doesn't have an ongoing future. Or to put it another way, if management only care about 'bonuses' why should anyone else?

[Gareth Collier]

RM's decline came when privatisation came in. Profit ranked above service with the shareholders dividend the driving force. Cost reduction is the easiest route to short term gain and staff were the biggest cost so that's what gets cut first. Eastbourne used to have 78 rounds which has been reduced to 64 with the extra added to the remaining routes yet you still only have the same time to complete the delivery. In addition between 4 and 6 rounds are also not covered each day so you either have to take even more out with you (it's called lapsing), it goes out on overtime or more often doesn't get delivered. A parcel may say it's out for delivery but if there are no staff to do the delivery it won't get delivered.

This situation is only going to get worse which is why I'm getting out.

[newbryford]

 

 

I wonder whether one of the problems is the lack of regular Postmen, at one time you would get the same Postie for years, now it seems to be unusual to get the same one for any length of time and you might see several  different ones in a short period of time.

 

Keith

 

RM tried that a few years ago round our way to "rotate" the rounds that the posties did.

 

Service went downhill.

Now we are back to the same regular postie - unless it's day off/holiday and service is back to it's previously good level.

 

To such an extent that if anything is undeliverable at our house, he leaves it at wife's workplace as it's on the same round and that's open 24/7/363 (364 in a leap year)

[Zomboid]

I wonder whether one of the problems is the lack of regular Postmen, at one time you would get the same Postie for years, now it seems to be unusual to get the same one for any length of time and you might see several different ones in a short period of time.

 

Maybe it's different elsewhere, but based on amateur handwriting analysis on the cards that come through my door, I have a regular postman pretty much every day, which has been the case in the years I've lived there.

[Dunsignalling]

Hi all

 

Yet again I'm having trouble with Royal Mail

 

A week Monday gone I ordered some items from Gaugemaster.

Friday morning I got an email to say that the parcel was out for delivery.

I waited in vain for a delivery even watching the postman walk straight past my house.

Later that day the tracking site said that the postman had called (he hadn't) and left a "something for you card" (he hadn't)

As there was to be no one guaranteed to be in for a few days I thought I would collect from the depot which isn't too far away.

But No card, No collection.

So I e-mailed Royal Mail on the Friday,one week later I have heard nothing.

 

How do I get my parcel when I have no card?

This is not the first time this has happened and RM always deny the claim that they didn't call. They are nothing but crooks, lying to cover their *rses.

 

Keith

Maybe you need to live somewhere else....

 

Apart from occasionally getting stuff that should have gone next door or to some houses round the corner with a confusingly similar address, I've never had any real problems.

 

Set against the random games of hunt the parcel experienced with much lower volumes of traffic received via "couriers", RM are paragons of virtue round my way.

 

John

Edited April 24, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[hayfield]

RM's decline came when privatisation came in. Profit ranked above service with the shareholders dividend the driving force. Cost reduction is the easiest route to short term gain and staff were the biggest cost so that's what gets cut first. Eastbourne used to have 78 rounds which has been reduced to 64 with the extra added to the remaining routes yet you still only have the same time to complete the delivery. In addition between 4 and 6 rounds are also not covered each day so you either have to take even more out with you (it's called lapsing), it goes out on overtime or more often doesn't get delivered. A parcel may say it's out for delivery but if there are no staff to do the delivery it won't get delivered.

This situation is only going to get worse which is why I'm getting out.

 

 

Gareth

 

This is something I do not recognise either at my previous address or the new one. Granted at one time both the Royal Mail and the Post office were suffering with change, moral seemed low and the service was very patchy. But that was quite a few years ago, seems that the past 10 years the quality of service given by the Royal Mail has been top class, Post office counters has taken much longer to sort itself out, but for the last few years it also seems to have recovered.  There now seems a new found pride with the employees and am very pleased with the service given both as a sender of items and recipient. You are correct its down to the staff both locally and nationally

[melmerby]

Maybe you need to live somewhere else....

 

John

Although RM doesn't have a problem routing mail or parcels (Birmingham is my nearest town/city and is also my postcode town) some of the other carriers get confused as I actually live in Worcestershire

I had a parcel a couple of weeks ago despatched from Leicester (35-40 miles as the crow flies) via Bristol (somewhat further) and then to Worcester for onward delivery.

It is also further to Bristol from Leicester than it is to Worcester. Talk about round about.

 

Many carriers deliver fom Worcestershire depots, most are further from me than their Birmingham depots. RM/Parcel Force always come from Birmingham.

 

Keith

[Gareth Collier]

 

 

This is something I do not recognise either at my previous address or the new one. Granted at one time both the Royal Mail and the Post office were suffering with change, moral seemed low and the service was very patchy. But that was quite a few years ago, seems that the past 10 years the quality of service given by the Royal Mail has been top class, Post office counters has taken much longer to sort itself out, but for the last few years it also seems to have recovered.  There now seems a new found pride with the employees and am very pleased with the service given both as a sender of items and recipient. You are correct its down to the staff both locally and nationally

I'm sure it comes down to regions and management. Modernisation that the SE undertook 5-6 years ago appears to only being introduced now in some areas. An example of how senior management in our area operates is as follows: In the run up to Christmas it was obviously busy and there was a lot of overtime available. Our new area manager decided that volumes would drop in the week before Christmas so instructed our office manager that there was no overtime budget for that week. He knew it wouldn't so ignored the directive and maintained the same levels of overtime.

A couple of days before Christmas the area manager paid a visit and had a heated conversation with our boss which was overheard by many of us. It was along the lines of 'Why have you agreed overtime when you were advised none was available?'. 'Because it was still very busy but we managed to get everything delivered and on time'. 'Yes you did, but I see your staff getting out on delivery on time and appearing happy and you do not appear to be stressed, that is not what I expect or accept!'. I expect the area manager had a bonus riding on overtime levels so sod customer service. It's why I'm getting out.

RM should never have been privatised as it is not a business that can visit every address in the country 6 days a week and return a profit. TNT tried introducing their own postmen in larger cities. It only lasted a matter of months before they realised it was a loss maker so pulled it and that was without having to adhere to the universal service license. Parcels subsidise letter delivery but the amount you are expected to deliver along with all the mail is becoming farcical. I fear it will not end well.

[Bernard Lamb]

Maybe you need to live somewhere else....

 

 

 

In my case that would probably be a good idea.

My road is the name of a tree.

Follow this with lane, close, court in the immediate vicinity and then add in the variations in the two letter postcode area and the chances of items going AWOL becomes quite large.

Bernard

[newbryford]

In my case that would probably be a good idea.

My road is the name of a tree.

Follow this with lane, close, court in the immediate vicinity and then add in the variations in the two letter postcode area and the chances of items going AWOL becomes quite large.

Bernard

 

The key is to live in a village with a unique name for the UK, with a street address that is also unique to google maps.

 

The only problem then is stuff being delivered to the house either side - who are both very good neighbours, so no problem there.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Dunsignalling]

Although RM doesn't have a problem routing mail or parcels (Birmingham is my nearest town/city and is also my postcode town) some of the other carriers get confused as I actually live in Worcestershire

I had a parcel a couple of weeks ago despatched from Leicester (35-40 miles as the crow flies) via Bristol (somewhat further) and then to Worcester for onward delivery.

It is also further to Bristol from Leicester than it is to Worcester. Talk about round about.

 

Many carriers deliver fom Worcestershire depots, most are further from me than their Birmingham depots. RM/Parcel Force always come from Birmingham.

 

Keith

Interesting. My few issues stem from there being two similarly named locations close by, "xxxx Road" (where I live) and "xxxx Villas".

 

When firms type in "xxxx", computers etc. always offer the alternatives alphabetically, so "road" always comes up first and operators in a hurry often don't look any further.

 

I've had a regular postie for a couple of years now. She's become familiar with the problem where couriers obviously don't. The problem almost always originates with business senders.

 

John   

Edited April 25, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[hayfield]

In my case that would probably be a good idea.

My road is the name of a tree.

Follow this with lane, close, court in the immediate vicinity and then add in the variations in the two letter postcode area and the chances of items going AWOL becomes quite large.

Bernard

 

 

This is the benefit of a well motivated postman who knows the area and the potential for mistakes where roads have similar names

 

I do wonder though as at our old address which was in the WD (Watford) we would get the very occasional letter for a similar named road up north, I guess machines reading written post codes 

[melmerby]

The key is to live in a village with a unique name for the UK, with a street address that is also unique to google maps.

 

The only problem then is stuff being delivered to the house either side - who are both very good neighbours, so no problem there.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Or you could live in a village where the road wasn't named and the houses weren't numbered (I did)

The address format was:

 

House Name

Village Name

PostTown

Postcode

County.

 

N.B. the Post Town was 9 miles away

Never had a problem with Royal Mail but couriers were foxed and often had to ask where a certain house was.

 

Keith

Edited April 25, 2018 by melmerby