RMweb Premium polybear Posted February 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 10, 2015 I noticed purely by chance a parcel tucked up in the roof beams of my outside canopy porch (i.e. no doors etc. - just a canopy). No idea how long it had been there, or who delivered it. Turned out to be a DMR Etched Brass Loco Kit...... Has anyone also noticed the growing habit of the postie signing for "recorded/special delivery parcels themselves, rather than the actual customer? polybear 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny Emily Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Quite a few years ago now when my other half was doing an Open University course, we found a note from RM through the door saying "Parcel left in wheelie bin". It rather beggered belief, as what sane person would put a parcel in with the rubbish. It was bin day, and the bin was out because it was being emptied. The parcel must have gone in the bin lorry and it contained all of the textbooks for my partner's degree course. When I called RM, they tried to claim that they would never leave a parcel in a bin, despite me having the written note to prove that they had. My partner scanned and sent the card to OU, and I assume that they bent RM over and raised hell. Replacement books came out with an alternative courier the following day. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 The UPS man was unsympathetic both times (same person) and had poor customer service skills. Nothing specific to UPS, there, and can be applied to almost the entire population of "service". Using a pretty wide generality, I have experienced far worse service in the past from GPO and ParcelForce/Royal Mail than from any courier. But there are always exceptions. Most of these couriers are franchise businesses and often the drivers are pushed to the limit. Many of these individuals have no or little training and not much business sense (they would not be a franchisee if they did). They also have to deal with the general public (the most unreliable and obstructive part of the operation) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium NGT6 1315 Posted February 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 10, 2015 I do make a point of tipping the posties around here (as long as there are no reasons to complain, which as previously stated very rarely exist), given what I have read about their working conditions. In cities such as this one, they will often have to climb countless flights of stairs in a day while loaded with often heavy parcels, so I have taken to usually meeting them roughly halfway down the staircase (we're on the third floor). Knowing that all the time they have to spend climbing stairs will also eat into the tight tour schedules they must certainly have – judging how "on edge" some of them seem. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Maybe it's because this is a fairly remote area, but I find that all the couriers and posties I meet are quite friendly and helpful. I'm sure there are limits to their goodwill and helpfulness, that I haven't seen them pushed to, but I don't think I've seen any behaviour that anyone could object to. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWeatheringMan Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) I noticed purely by chance a parcel tucked up in the roof beams of my outside canopy porch (i.e. no doors etc. - just a canopy). No idea how long it had been there, or who delivered it. Turned out to be a DMR Etched Brass Loco Kit...... Has anyone also noticed the growing habit of the postie signing for "recorded/special delivery parcels themselves, rather than the actual customer? polybear Hi, Having recently been buying several dozen diecast buses from an auction site they have almost all been delivered by RM or MyHermes and the experiences have been interesting as below. Before going into these i'd just mention that some while ago on another thread I mentioned the day that I found a card through my door upon returning from a hospital trip informing me that a parcel had been left 'in the green box' - which delivery service it was I forget now as its some months ago, but its hardly relevent - as you can guess, the 'green box' was one of our weelie bins - know how you feel JennyEmily, although luckily for me it was not bin day. What words can describe such total stupidity. Now going back to more recent deliveries of buses: Royal Mail/Postman - 'signed for' parcels being left with no signature collected and being told 'dont have handheld with me as shortage at office'. ditto - parcels being handed to one of my sons who was walking dog some 300 yards from our house and postman signing handheld himself. I have always understood that it is illegal for a postman to hand over any item in the street but could be wrong. ditto - 'signed for' parcels being left on front doorstep when house was empty - no idea what was done about signature. MyHermes - signed for parcels delivered correctly with a knock on door and signature requested in a polite manner. ditto. - non signed for parcels - knock on door and parcel handed to one of us with a pleasent 'thankyou' from the young driver. ditto. - non signed for parcel when we were all out - parcel placed at side of front door step in fairly discrete and sheltered place and card put through lettterbox saying what had been done. These are the experiences over the last few weeks. We have seen Royal Mail acting in a somewhat less than expected manner and MyHermes agents providing a service that has been beyond all complaint. Incidently its important to say that both RM (in letterpost and ParcelForce forms) and MyHermes have delivered everything with no delays. As has so rightly been pointed out by other posters the final level of service is down to individual personalities. I think that the examples quoted above of MyHermes service do show that its not fair to judge all by the low standards of the few. Our local MyHermes driver is in his mid 30's, very pleasent and polite and does appear to make some effort to provide a good service. Such a shame that such efforts are spoiled by those who dont seem to care. Over the last year or so we have seen occasional threads that seem to show a situation the other way round to what we have seen - I feel its important to keep the balance and report that over the last few weeks we have seen MyHermes in a far better light than RM. Regards Edited February 10, 2015 by TheWeatheringMan 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) MyHermes - signed for parcels delivered correctly with a knock on door and signature requested in a polite manner. That reminds me One of our neighbours has a small buying habit with QVC. She is at work all day when the MyHermes lady calls to deliver some half dozen parcels a day. The MyHermes lady is affectionately known locally as the QVC lady and knows to deliver to a number of alternate households. We are known to be in most days and so frequently sign for parcels fo several of our neighbours. (also with other couriers as well as GPO. Being a good neighbour is the only way or nothing gets delivered or is simply encourages the throw it over the garden wall mentality. We all partake of the internet for buying these days but the courier and delivery services are just not in the same world. It is about time that an alternative to the closed door and small post box was found, or deliveries geared to a schedule of when there is someone at home to take receipt. Edited February 10, 2015 by Kenton Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Jonboy Posted February 10, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 10, 2015 Something people may or may not have noticed is Royal Mail introduced a "tracked" service for businesses that send a lot of parcels out a few years back. This is a service where the postie signs to confirm they have delivered it to the addressee, a neighbour or a safeplace rather than the receiver signing for it. They also changed the rules to allow delivery of "signed for" parcels to a neighbour. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 My regular postie asked me if it was alright to sign stuff off himself, had no problem with that as it saves on a trek across town to the sorting office which is at the end of a long dead end road with a couple of schools on it and a large part of the towns commercial premises. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mike Bellamy Posted February 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 10, 2015 Couple of examples from about ten years ago when I was regularly sending shipments of documents to Israel. We sent about 10 parcels a day or two before Christmas and were then closed until New Year - in Israel they just had Christmas Day off and every day since then had been emailing, faxing and leaving phone messages about a missing delivery. Came back to work and had to sort it out - eventually found that they had all been delivered except one and they all had the following tracking data East Midlands - Heathrow - Johannesburg - Cape Town - Heathrow - Tel Aviv So they had all been put on the wrong plane to South Africa by mistake and in all that messing about one was lost never to be seen again. Another time the shipment was on a DHL van due for delivery when it was subjected to an armed hijack, valuable goods taken and the rest set on fire - another difficult job to work out what was missing and get it replaced . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I will admit to submitting my wallet to quite a large volume of torture via the means of online auction sites, and I appear to have been one of the lucky few to escape major problems.Every time, it has been RM or PF who deliver the parcel. And every time, it seems the same process happens. The postie always knocks, waits, and if there's no reply, slips the "You were out" card through the door with respectable "Sober Spider" handwriting, with clear instructions of either "Left at NoXX" or "Returned to Post Office". We've seen less of the latter in our area of late, and a large increase in the former. As we get on well with our neighbours, this doesn't pose any issues.However, while our post has avoided such meanderings, that's not to say others post hasn't ended up at our door. I can remember quite a few occasions where letters addressed to people in different streets, with different house numbers has ended up on the floor in our hallway. Rather than contact the delivery company, we tend to just pop the post round ourselves to the rightful owner so they get their post quicker, than if it was sent back into the system. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 My house has the same name as one in the local town, and a letter addressed to the other one arrived yesterday! I put it in the letterbox marked "Wrong [house name], Try again!". I'm wondering if I'll see it again! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2865 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Im starting to think my order from London Road has been lost. Either RM, USPS, or my uni's mailroom are to blame. Theres £60 lost until I figure out what went wrong. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Saunders Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I find the biggest problem with Royal Mail is that they apply terms and conditions, telling you that it is nothing for you to complain about as it is for the Consignee to complain! Mark Saunders Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted February 11, 2015 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted February 11, 2015 (edited) Nothing specific to UPS, there, and can be applied to almost the entire population of "service". That's fair enough, but this guy was (i) unsympathetic and (ii) worked for UPS. As such, he certainly didn't represent his employer very well. It was when we tried to find out from UPS where the h*ll he was, while CTMK was wasting her two days sat in waiting for him to show up, that their 'tracking' system showed just how inadequate it was. The phone number was, predictably perhaps, a recorded message and not a real person. Most of these couriers are franchise businesses and often the drivers are pushed to the limit. Many of these individuals have no or little training and not much business sense (they would not be a franchisee if they did). That does appear to be true, Kenton, and whilst I can sympathise with the over-worked and underpaid in any line of work, as a customer of these delivery companies it doesn't make their poor practices right. They are making money on the backs of these individuals (and us). They also have to deal with the general public (the most unreliable and obstructive part of the operation) True, but I am not unreliable or obstructive (unless provoked... ). As for Royal Mail, we are at least fortunate enough to have an absolutely brilliant postie, who's dry wit and humourous response to the general burdens of his work is most refreshing... Edited February 11, 2015 by Captain Kernow 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Im starting to think my order from London Road has been lost. Either RM, USPS, or my uni's mailroom are to blame. Theres £60 lost until I figure out what went wrong. Thats not your problem, but the sellers (sorry John). distance selling rules protect you. LRM will have to claim from their carriers and provide you with a replacement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 My house has the same name as one in the local town, and a letter addressed to the other one arrived yesterday! I put it in the letterbox marked "Wrong [house name], Try again!". I'm wondering if I'll see it again! I received a letter for someone in the wrong county (twice), same house number and road name, but was for a person in the north (not south east). From memory the post code was DE (I am in WD) postman blamed it on the automatic reader but the letter was very clearly written. I gave it back to him and it was re-delivered to me 3 days later. Eventually I took it into the post office and not seen it since Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 The carrier who delivered my phone (well within the stated delivery time) enabled me to track the item via the internet, I could see where the driver was (even showed him in the school car park) and how many packets to be delivered in front of mine, thankfully most places had multiple deliveries as I could not see how he could deliver all of them within the allotted time. These guys do have to put a shift on and I can see why the Royal Mail workers union is making so much noise, I guess burn out is quite common and I doubt if their income after costs is very high Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted February 11, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 11, 2015 Slightly off at a tangent but I can see how some get into trouble with couriers. Recently sold a garage door closer on Ebay, as you can imagine it's a big heavy lump with a steel bar and chain. It was listed as pick up only. Now as you can guess had a few bids and the lucky winner lived in......Sheffield...fine if you live in Yorkshire but I happen to be in Bedfordshire which is just a few miles away. Contacted the purchaser and they said if I was willing to pack it somehow they would pay me and arrange a courier, so I packed it and weighed it and sent them the details. Back comes a Hermes label and I note on it that the weight is 10kg max....this thing weighs just under 30kg. so I contact the buyer and tell them and they reply "don't tell the courier, they won't notice". anyway courier comes to collect (4 hours late) and she is a slip of a thing about 5 feet tall. she gives me a receipt and says "here we go again, another p!sstaker" taking it to her car she said that when it gets to the other end they will be charged for the extra weight, but that sometimes it can get nasty. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sheep Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 £25 fine + additional fee I believe for being over weight. I've got a motorbike petrol tank I need to shift, it's been drained and vented but still stinks so no courier will touch it. I've said this in the listing bug no one reads it and then gets upset when I won't courier it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jol Wilkinson Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Im starting to think my order from London Road has been lost. Either RM, USPS, or my uni's mailroom are to blame. Theres £60 lost until I figure out what went wrong. I would suggest an email to London Road Models asking when the package was sent so that they can take the appropriate action. LRM's proprietor uses Royal Mail for the majority of orders, who seem to offer little by way of compensation for standard 1st or 2nd class delivery. Perhaps he will have to review that and increase his postal charges to cover RM's failings. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianthesnail96 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Only had call to grumble once really, I can't remember the name of the courier but it was a fairly small one- the parcel was only a 1l bottle so nothing big. Delivered towards the end of the week, note through the door and presumably no attempt to leave with neighbours (there's generally someone at one or both of my immediate neighbours and they are more than happy to take stuff in for us). Rearranged delivery on the offchance as the depot was miles away (30 mile round trip- and I'm not exactly in the sticks here) and with the traffic there's no way I'd have got there in time after work, unfortunately I was otherwise engaged on the Saturday too. Same "sorry you were out" letter and they'd only hold it for 7 days, so it got returned to sender. Ended up paying again for Royal Mail, left on the doorstep a day later no worries. My favourite one was the Parcel Force courier who, with a rather large and awkward parcel (a car fuel tank), managed to open the side gate which I struggle to do at 6ft (bolt on the garden side), go down into the back garden, bypass Shed A (padlocked) and put it in Shed B (not locked), before shutting up the shed & bolting the gate shut behind him. This was great, except he didn't leave a note to tell me. It wasn't until I contacted the seller to ask if he'd posted it that he checked the tracking info which said "in shed"... I knew where to look the next time, I've had a few in there now! I have had a few (including signed for) where I've asked the seller to instruct the courier to "leave in boot of car in garden- not locked" which was generally what happened- obviously only for low value/ hard to break items. I've since reanimated the car though & moved it elsewhere so I've had to resort to hoping the neighbours will take stuff in. Did catch the Hermes chap about to do a runner and leave the parcel on the porch Saturday morning (I was still in bed when he rang the bell, he did try the bell twice and wait for a while so no complaints there, I should be less lazy) but given that he was about the same size as the parcel & really didn't want it back in his van, it wasn't going to get wet and with the van on the drive it couldn't be seen from the road/ pavement I've no problem with that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2865 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Thats not your problem, but the sellers (sorry John). distance selling rules protect you. LRM will have to claim from their carriers and provide you with a replacement I dont blame him in the slightest. Hes been very helpful about it all. I would definitely order from him again if my wallet recovers. (Poor college student and all) I would suggest an email to London Road Models asking when the package was sent so that they can take the appropriate action. LRM's proprietor uses Royal Mail for the majority of orders, who seem to offer little by way of compensation for standard 1st or 2nd class delivery. Perhaps he will have to review that and increase his postal charges to cover RM's failings. The package was sent on the 29th. Already knew that. But what strikes me as odd is an order from ehattons that shipped on the 2nd arrived on the 9th. Both shipped RM and handed off to USPS. And yeah, the shipping price is definitely harmful to him when the courier screws up. Would understand paying a bit more for postage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium John M Upton Posted February 12, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 12, 2015 (edited) This was what I found courtesy of Hermes a few weeks back... Fortunately the N gauge coach inside was fine. Hemes are also masters of the drop parcel and run like hell manoeuvre where from knock on the door to speeding off in their van is a matter seemingly of nanoseconds... Now DPD on the other hand decided to put a parcel in my recycling bin on bin collection day!! Edited February 12, 2015 by John M Upton Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium NGT6 1315 Posted February 12, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 12, 2015 Putting parcels in bins is something I have certainly never heard about over here! I mean, provided that 1) one specifically gives instruction to do so and 2) has made sure the bin in question won't be collected in the timeframe in question, I guess it'd be all right, but I personally would certainly not want an item I'd then have to handle with bare hands to be put in such a place. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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