great central Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 I'm wondering if it's just our area,not really rural, (or is it just me) that suffers from delays in their post . Anything sent Royal Mail gets here promptly, a package posted last friday in Leicester was here saturday morning But anything sent by what I call MickeyMouse post takes anything up to week if it gets here at all. This is especially true of utility bills, last week I got a 'not paid' letter from BT, not surprising as I hadn't had the original!!! That was for broadband, the phone bill arrived 2 days before it had to be paid, having taken 5 days I duly paid the bills, but not after a lengthy phone call to explain all this and avoid late payment charges The nice lady said she would send a duplicate bill anyway, which arrived this morning, 4 working days BT use TNT post This morning I have received a 'not paid' letter from EON for the club gas bill, which was sent out on Friday again, the original sent out on the 28th April, unseen Eon use UKMail The annoying thing is that BT want to charge me for the failings of THEIR mail delivery company, Eon are chasing me for money which I have no idea that we owe Now not wanting to appear cynical, is this just a ploy to get more money out of us, as they apply late payment charges to something you don't know about because they choose to use an inferior mail service Does anybody else find this a problem or is it really just me?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mike Bellamy Posted May 19, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 19, 2010 As far as I know the final delivery through your door is still from Royal Mail. The private companies deal with bulk delivery to sorting offices and get discounts because they sort the mail into postcode order. However I guess the Royal Mail treat it as low priority as it's taking away their business. Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dseagull Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 As far as I know the final delivery through your door is still from Royal Mail. The private companies deal with bulk delivery to sorting offices and get discounts because they sort the mail into postcode order. However I guess the Royal Mail treat it as low priority as it's taking away their business. Mike Partially correct - the bulk sorting is done by TNT et al, and the delivery is by Royal Mail - however it is treated in exactly the sameway as normal First Class/Second Class mail, and Royal Mail are legally obliged to treat it as equal to 'their' mail. Whether the way the market has been deregulated is morally right or not (Essentially, private companies can 'cherry pick' whereas Royal Mail have a universal service obligation to deliver to every house in the country...) is another matter entirely. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dilbert Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 I think the problem is unnecessarily complex and due to a certain extent to organisational structures that do not always work effectively. A recent example is that of a registered (ie signed for parcel) that took four weeks to deliver - at least it arrived! On the flip side I have a corporate plastic card (for business expense travel) which is owned by the company I work for and yet the responsibility for ensuring that repayments to the credit card company are made in due time is my responsibility. I have always posted cheques to clear the balance on a timely basis. I should add I have personal plastic (gold) cards with the same credit company. The most recent statement regarding my corporate card had an item where I was hit for a €4O euro penalty due to late payment. This statement was received on a Saturday, so I called the 'Customer Service Centre' the same day to find out about what had caused this penalty. CSC : "Sorry no information can be given on your corp. card, you'll need to call Monday morning". dil : : "but the service states 24x7 on the card, where is the problem?" CSC : " this service is only available 24x5, you'll have to call on Monday"... dil : "OK, can you please run a check on my personal gold cards?"... CSC : "Yes no problem"... (interlude : go thru identity validation checks) CSC : "And what can I do for you concerning your personal cards? Everything appears to be in order"... dil : "Everything is in order, I want you to cancel both personal cards" five seconds of silence later... CSC : "Are you sure ? Why are you taking this action?" dil : "Because both corporate & personal cards are in my name and yet you can give me info on one and not the other. Please action the cancellation of the requested cards". Epilogue I called the credit card company on the following Monday morning and extracted a telephone number for the finance dept. It transpires that there was an internal courrier strike that was delaying processing of payments from the postal address to which I had sent the cheque and this being forwarding to their clearing centre about 50 kms distant. And yet I was getting hit with penalties for late payment... Within 48 hours the penalty had been lifted, my cheque had been processed and the credit card company has two cards less to count on. Just waiting for the publicity machine to crank into action...dilbert Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 Not Royal Mail but DCL. Carded me twice according to them.......big joke. When I eventually got to talk to a real person at DCL she promised to put my parcel on the van next day and I even got a comfirmatory e-mail confirming Friday 14th Delivery. Then at 5pm that afternoon someone phoned to say that as the parcel had not been delivered within 10 days DCL were 'entitled' to return it to sender. Which is what they did! I had to check the Calender to see we weren't still in the 1970s. Hang on a minute, a van has just stopped outside our house....... Ureeeka, parcel just delivered! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammer Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 It's not without good reason DCL are known as DCHell by their former call centre workers in Glasgow. Apparently they are abysmal employers and due to incidents such as the above, the call centre workers get no end of grief - and of course, they are just the drones, with no say over company policy/idiocy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 "Curriors are the bain of our lives" is common currency in business nowadays, yet in the beginning (1980s) they were a great help to small businesses. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 I'm wondering if it's just our area,not really rural, (or is it just me) that suffers from delays in their post . Anything sent Royal Mail gets here promptly, a package posted last friday in Leicester was here saturday morning But anything sent by what I call MickeyMouse post takes anything up to week if it gets here at all. This is especially true of utility bills, last week I got a 'not paid' letter from BT, not surprising as I hadn't had the original!!! That was for broadband, the phone bill arrived 2 days before it had to be paid, having taken 5 days I duly paid the bills, but not after a lengthy phone call to explain all this and avoid late payment charges The nice lady said she would send a duplicate bill anyway, which arrived this morning, 4 working days BT use TNT post This morning I have received a 'not paid' letter from EON for the club gas bill, which was sent out on Friday again, the original sent out on the 28th April, unseen Eon use UKMail The annoying thing is that BT want to charge me for the failings of THEIR mail delivery company, Eon are chasing me for money which I have no idea that we owe Now not wanting to appear cynical, is this just a ploy to get more money out of us, as they apply late payment charges to something you don't know about because they choose to use an inferior mail service Does anybody else find this a problem or is it really just me?? I would advise making an official complaint to both companies. I managed to stir npower into action this way. Time will tell if the dispute is finally resolved however. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lankyphil Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 Partially correct - the bulk sorting is done by TNT et al, and the delivery is by Royal Mail - however it is treated in exactly the sameway as normal First Class/Second Class mail, and Royal Mail are legally obliged to treat it as equal to 'their' mail. Whether the way the market has been deregulated is morally right or not (Essentially, private companies can 'cherry pick' whereas Royal Mail have a universal service obligation to deliver to every house in the country...) is another matter entirely. Almost Well, prety much correct, but to clarify, TNTPost, UKMail etc etc etc print bills etc straight into postcode batches... I.e. they print all the CH23s together, then the CH24s etc etc, tie them up with damme plastic straping then wait for Royal Mail to come and pick them up from THEIR depot. We then have to collate that days worth then they get resorted into CH23 4.., CH23 5.. and so on... Pretty much as you say, the private companies have te monopoly, and Royal Mail picks up the pieces and the slops afterwards... Oh, and they actually have to deliver them as well... *Forcibly removed from soapbox* :D:D:D Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Rickard Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 Almost Well, prety much correct, but to clarify, TNTPost, UKMail etc etc etc print bills etc straight into postcode batches... I.e. they print all the CH23s together, then the CH24s etc etc, tie them up with damme plastic straping then wait for Royal Mail to come and pick them up from THEIR depot. We then have to collate that days worth then they get resorted into CH23 4.., CH23 5.. and so on... Pretty much as you say, the private companies have te monopoly, and Royal Mail picks up the pieces and the slops afterwards... Oh, and they actually have to deliver them as well... *Forcibly removed from soapbox* :D:D:D And this way is supposedly 'better'. Hmmmmmm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammer Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 And this way is supposedly 'better'. Hmmmmmm I think the word you're looking for is *cheaper*. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Rickard Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 I think the word you're looking for is *cheaper*. Ah. Now it makes sense! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidBelcher Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 Essentially, private companies can 'cherry pick' whereas Royal Mail have a universal service obligation to deliver to every house in the country... Apologies if this is at all political, but it does smack of the situation by which the railways were hamstrung - as far as goods traffic went - in the post-war years; road haulage could "cherry pick" in a similar way, BR had its "Common Carrier" obligations and had to cater for every Tom, Dick & Harry. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidBelcher Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 Pretty much as you say, the private companies have te monopoly, and Royal Mail picks up the pieces and the slops afterwards... Oh, and they actually have to deliver them as well... Delivering picked-up pieces and slops? Sounds like a few pizza takeaways I've used in my time. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 45156 Posted May 20, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 20, 2010 (Essentially, private companies can 'cherry pick' whereas Royal Mail have a universal service obligation to deliver to every house in the country...) is another matter entirely. Exactly so, but this is not only the case with the Royal Mail, it is also the case with telephone service - BT has a Universal Service Obligation to provide telephone service to any property in the UK (although sometimes the subscriber's share of the cost of getting service to a very remote property reners that obligation effectively impractical) - the only exception is a property where the service cannot be provided without physical danger to the technician (s) carrying out the work. Virgin Media (cable) is allowed to pick and choose the streets that it serves, so has largely cherry picked the big cities and towns, and some of the other companies offering service only do so by taking over, or "piggybacking" an existing line. Another example of the level playing field. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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