Royal Mail GRrrrrr

[derek]

I have been posting toddler t-shirt to customers for over 6 months and I always use pre-paid postage printed from the Royal mail site.
Being that they are very small t-shirts they fit perfectly in a large letter envelope and have all been posted this way, until now the person at the Post office looked at the package and said "oh large letters are they?" are replied yes they are below the measurements required, she then proceeded to scrunch the item up which let air into the bubble envelope and tries to half heartedly push the said t-shirt through the letter box sizer on her desk, "it does not fit she says" I reply "well if you flatten it back down it will do its the air puffing it up".
I then added "if it is a problem I will pay to put extra postage on it." "YOU CAN'T DO THAT" she howls, we do not get payed for these items, you will have to pay the full and proper postage again???
I replied NO WAY.
So she said then when they get delivered your customer will have to collect them and pay the excess postage at their post office.
Why should they pay extra when only halve of the job has been done? IE: item not delivered as should be?
So I have had to warn my customers of this and have asked that if this is the case then to let me know and I will refund the difference via paypal to them.
No wonder the postal system is collapsing around us, I will now use couriers instead and not bother with the post offices.


Derek

[Charlie_]

Had the same problem with one post office so now use another one half a mile further away. But not one problem there in 2 years now. Use a different post office.

[phoenixalpha]

I have used two post offices in the last four years or so. One local, one not so local (but was local at the time), and the local sorting office. The not so local one was an absolute nightmare. It was if they were specifically aiming to annoy me as I used smartstamp so they didnt get any profit out of it. They made me weigh every single package (and some days there were as many as 60-70 packets) and they would check every one with their wee guides, despite the parcels all being the bloody same. This office was a "gold standard" office and had won awards from the Royal Mail for their customer service. Nothing was above them. They would have huge queues and they would still force me to weigh every package.

Anyhoo the new one I go to - everything was, up until a couple of months ago, no problem. I could go in drop off a box full of packets and they would put them into mail sacks for me, or if they could be handed to the postie in the box they would do that for me. Until the most recent price rise - then they started questioning everything, asking me to weight one or two parcels, and then testing one or two parcels and then just passing the rest, but this is every time I go in now. It's like they have been instructed by head office to run the rule over everything. But I've seen them charge large letter prices on almost every letter than comes thru the door, as that 5mm gap doesnt do much apart from just the smallest letter. Most cards these days dont go thru ther 5mm gap.

[WorthDoingRight]

Well you wouldn't mind paying if the service was up to scratch would you? 1st class post to this address means it may arrive in a week, 2nd class post to here might arrive in 2 weeks. Hong Kong post to here arrives often in a couple of days!WTF is it with RM service standards these days. It is a disgrace :frown:

[bigj2552]

Well you wouldn't mind paying if the service was up to scratch would you? 1st class post to this address means it may arrive in a week, 2nd class post to here might arrive in 2 weeks. Hong Kong post to here arrives often in a couple of days!WTF is it with RM service standards these days. It is a disgrace :frown:

these days ???...its been on a steady downward run over the last 5yrs...and its gonna get worse

[phoenixalpha]

1st class postage used to mean next day, now it means 2-3 days. My postie has stopped delivering anything that isnt a DL or C4 envelope (apart from all the junk which they deliver regularly). Anything more than a C4 or DL I have to go pick up from the sorting office. I have caught our postie trying to slip a card through our door for pickup and when I asked why he hadnt delivered this small package as I was in, he said that he had tried to deliver it the day before. I said that would be impossible as I had only ordered it the day before and it was posted out in the hope that it would get here the next day, he shrugged and said it wasnt his decision. He just got the cards. So when I went to complain to the local sorting office, they couldnt explain why it hadnt gone out. So I made an official complaint to which nothing was done apart from a "we'll try to ensure all packages get delivered in a timely manner in future".

Funny though that my mail for the next couple of weeks arrived in a rather ... dishevelled state like it had been dropped in puddles or left out in the rain.

[Ian M]

I really do feel for everyone who has had various problems with Royal Mail. If you want to know how bad things can really get with deliveries try some of the cheaper courier companies who are really bad. Last year I sent 2 parcels to 2 customers using 2 different couriers. One parcel was sent to Melbourne in Australia via DHL & it was with my customer in just 48 hours. I sent another one to Exeter using City Links 24 hour service & that took 96 hours to get to the customer.

I have nothing but praise for RM as we have a wonderful postman & the one before him was just as good too. My local Post Office are superb too & I can't fault any of them. Fair enough there has been the odd occasion where I've had to go to the sorting office & again the service has always been very good. In the past few weeks I have sent several orders to Australia & every customer has received their orders in just one week & in excellent condition. Everything I send 1st class is nearly always delivered the next day which in my book is superb service.

[Renniwano]

I have had issues with RM but not down to the actual postman..

I had a card put through my door while I was sitting not far from it.. when I called the depot to make them aware of this.. I was kindly told that the parcel was too big to bring out on the round and the card had been pre-written..

When I explained that I had no way of getting up to the depot and what would happen to my parcel.. she said they would make sure it came out the next day !!

WHY is it too big one day and not the next..

Sometimes I think it's down to how lazy the depot guys are with sorting.. I have had this a couple of times.. and when it's something you're waiting for you wish you'd paid the extra to get it couriered !! lol

[WorthDoingRight]

Well this new scheme of just leaving your parcel with your neighbour if you are out is likely to be used as an excuse for missing parcels etc

[Ian M]

I have had issues with RM but not down to the actual postman..
I had a card put through my door while I was sitting not far from it.. when I called the depot to make them aware of this.. I was kindly told that the parcel was too big to bring out on the round and the card had been pre-written..
When I explained that I had no way of getting up to the depot and what would happen to my parcel.. she said they would make sure it came out the next day !!
WHY is it too big one day and not the next..
Sometimes I think it's down to how lazy the depot guys are with sorting.. I have had this a couple of times.. and when it's something you're waiting for you wish you'd paid the extra to get it couriered !! lol

I do know that a lot of this is down to the managers in the sorting offices. My postman was telling me sometime ago that they are not allowed to leave the sorting office until the manager tells them they can leave to go on their rounds. He also said a way they have been saving money is to cut down on the larger deliveries they do from a van. It's cheaper to get the customers to go to the sorting office than them delivering it to the customer. I get the impression the postmen would love to go back to how it used to be if they could.