Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Royal Mail

[Paul_s]

Hi, I have to say that the postal service at my end has always been good. My postman knows when I'm in, out walking the dogs and will pop back later. If its a parcel he'll pop it round the back in the green house or leave it with a neighbour.
I also give him £5 every Christmas

Hope your parcels turn up soon Steve.

Same here, I try not to order stuff around Christmas as I know I'll be waiting an age for it to turn up... I don't mind though.

I would always try and use Special Delivery as it offers tracking/insurance and is the best way to send mail - albeit more expensive but it gives you peace of mind...

 

[korruptor]

Just received post from the 3rd of December.

Good work Dundee post office!

 

[SAS1979]

Just received post from the 3rd of December.

Good work Dundee post office!

Better late than never I suppose!

 

[Tuxon86]

I'm still waiting for a parcel from Amigakit sent by Airmail since the 22nd of December. I received yesterday a parcel sent to me on the 2nd of January from Australia via surface mail...

 

[despot67]

As some of you know I also work for Royal Mail, but on the business side dealing with Meter Mail Revenue Protection.

I can also confirm that this winter we have seen a huge rise in parcels moving though the system, and a big drop in letters being posted. I don't however accept that such late deliveries of mail are due to a backlog. We managed to clear the whole floor of the distribution centre every night over Christmas, so there was nothing left in the building each night. This can only mean a problem exists at the delivery offices and not the distribution centres. We were even receiving all the collections from parts of Scotland during the bad weather, sorting it the same night and sending it off again early the following morning, so there was little more that could be done from our part of the business.

In fact we had some much casual labour over Christmas that a lot of evenings they were running out of work to find them to do during the evening shifts. This was down to the fall in letter mail and the rise in parcels being posted. It was very noticeable this year. The volume of letters being posted has really fallen, but parcels have increased a lot. And with new services like Tracked mail being offered, and taken up by companies such as Amazon, it has really increased the volumes being shipped.

Privatisation of Royal Mail will be bad for everyone. The level of service will drop dramatically, and we could end up seeing service levels similar to many other countries with parcels no longer delivered door to door, but instead requiring collection from the post office. Regardless of what anyone things, Royal Mail delivers an amazing service. Door to door delivery for the price of a stamp, with most items arriving the next day... and with a level of items passing through the system on a daily basis that any of the competitors would never see or be able to handle.

If there is a failing in Royal Mail it is casual labour and bad management. The majority of the Line managers wouldn't be able to manage anywhere else. They wouldn't have the skills of know how. And the casual labour are not kept in check because of this. Most nights you see them getting away with standing around talking whist work needs doing, or the managers have ordered to many casual staff for a specific night so you have 20 of them and only really work for 5. Equally most of them as students and don't care at all about the job or the customers, so work as slowly as possible or treat items with little respect. This is the failing within the workforce from my own opinion.

I agree about the casual labour and yes some managers just don't understand "Man Management" as its not a requisite anymore but this is the way I was taught. Not all managers are bad though, I started Management 15 years ago and worked my way throught he ranks on ability not how to "kiss rear". I have been here for 25 years but I only ask for what I could do myself and lead by example. There isn't a job I haven't done and do get respect for it.
All businesses have faults its just that as we are a huge organisation our faults can be magnified but as you state privitisation won't cure anything just make the bad bits worse?

 

[Station240]

Royal Fails problems seem to extend to overseas parcels as well. Bought replacement CCFL for my laptop, sent on the 5th Jan, finally arrives today 18th. It used to take 1 week or so, but now its 2 weeks for this and the last item I got.

 

[despot67]

Royal Fails problems seem to extend to overseas parcels as well. Bought replacement CCFL for my laptop, sent on the 5th Jan, finally arrives today 18th. It used to take 1 week or so, but now its 2 weeks for this and the last item I got.

How long did the part of the journey take from arriving down under to delivery though?

Remember its a long way for a postie to walk?

 

[dabone]

I received my ACA1230/28 today, as of this morning Royal Mail still had it listed as preparing to ship.

Amigakit told me that all of the packages that used to be put onto planes are now shipping by boat.

Royal mail airmail tracking = complete and utter &*^&**(^%


Later,
dabone

 

[despot67]

I received my ACA1230/28 today, as of this morning Royal Mail still had it listed as preparing to ship.

Amigakit told me that all of the packages that used to be put onto planes are now shipping by boat.

Royal mail airmail tracking = complete and utter &*^&**(^%


Later,
dabone

If a company charges for airmail then they get airmail - if not its surface mail so check the postage they charge compared to the service given as we only send it by the means our customers request?
And we send it via normal chartered flights same as the majority of companies as we only own our own fleet for UK and channel islands etc.

We never send an item by a service less than a customer pays for as we are not allowed to do so by law - so Im afraid if its going by boat then it aint Royal mails fault?

 

[StrontiumDog]

From www.postoffice.co.uk ...

USA
Start date: 18th November
End date: Ongoing

Updated message regarding USA delays

The United States Department of Homeland Security is continuing to require increased security measures for items carried on passenger airlines. As a result, some mail entering the US from around the world, and including the UK, that would normally be sent via passenger aircraft must now travel by other means, including ships and cargo planes.

Most items, including personal letters and cards, magazines, CDs, DVDs and lightweight packets, will be delivered in the US within a few days of posting. However, there are delays of about two weeks for some heavier packets. These delays are currently affecting stamped items, franked items, and items posted under contract, with the exception of Destination Sort™* items.

Royal Mail is very sorry for these unavoidable delays. We have implemented a number of contingency plans to ensure as much of our customers’ mail reaches the US as quickly as possible and are continuing to work to minimise disruption to our customers, whilst ensuring we comply fully with the US directives and regulations.

 

[Harrison]

There is a new buzz word project at Royal Mail called "World Class Mail". It's meant to be a new initiative to make RM the best in the world. Something to be proud of and for the rest to look up to.

It's a complete joke. Bring in some guy from Japan who is an expert in improving business performance, and has 5 pillars of working practice, stick a lot of money into a separate fund for this new project to spend however they wish, which is funny when we were not meant to have any extra money anywhere. And what have we seen to date?

Surplus managers who didn't really have a job suddenly being given World Class Mail expert roles, sent on loads of courses and then able to stand around all day with disagrams and dicuments discussing things with all the other managers and not actually getting anything done.

OK, a lot of new CSS machines have been installed and the old machines gone, which is a good step forward, although that was all the modernisation agreement from before and not actually a part of this new project really. But only half of these new sorting machines are allowed to be used at the moment (the rest sitting their mothballed) because of a CWU agreement not to touch them until an employee bonus is paid later in the year.

WCM specific... we now have a lots of blue lines painted on the ground where we are trying to work, and being told equipment isn't allowed to be within those blue lines because of the new World Class Mail rules. And what is within those lines during the shift? Nothing. Everyone is now bunched up trying to work in close conditions while the floor is empty inside these boundaries. Madness.

And I have just had to step back in amazement at the Management recruitment going on in my place. Anyone can volunteer to get management training, which is perfectly fair, but it is definitely who you know and are prepared to do some brown nosing to that gets the jobs. And just because you sign up for a course in Manager training should not automatically means you become one FFS.

One guy did the training a couple of years ago and turned out to be very good. He had been running an area for over 12 months successfully as a line manager, then this Polish girl who has only been in the country a couple of years and has quite bad English decided to train for management, and now the other guy has been told he has to step down and return to split shift normal postman duties for 6 months to allow her the chance to be a manager. The problem is she hasn't worked in most of the jobs in the building, only ever having worked on the ancillaries on the back of the IMPs stamping letters so it is a complete joke. The guy she replaces has over 10 years experience working on the machines and doing every other job in the building.

Even more of a joke. I was walking past her area the other night and she asked what the yellow surcharge boxes were for!!! No wonder we are losing money.

This is why RM is failing.

Another guy currently being given a chance as a Manager is an ex drug addict and stutters and jitters so much he has to talk really slowly to be understood. The world has gone mad.

 

[Justin]

got my Prometheous delivered next day, so still no complaints here

 

[rkauer]

Skillganon's 3000 ROM didn't pass through Royal fail, I'm afraid.

One more (negative) point to they...

 

[fitzsteve]

The package I sent on 22nd Dec to Greece didn't arrive either

It was sent by registered mail as well!

Oh well filled out and sent the claims forms, one less Blizzard SCSI kit in the world oh:

Steve.

 

[Hell_Labs]

Where's my motherboard, pat?

WHERE'S MY MOTHERBOARD

 

[zaxon]

Where is my floppy from Blankshare and HellLabs board send to me? Based on my previous Ebay experience al postage must be recorded.

 

[davideo]

My little post delivery lady is such a star - I think I'm in love with her - she goes beyond the call of duty to make sure I get my post.

Always leaves me a note to say where she has hidden it this time, i.e. in the shed through the cat flap, in the recycle bin, or with the neighbours

Dave G

 

[StrontiumDog]

@ Davideo

Sorry dude but she is obviously a sh*tty link infiltrator that slipped through Royal Fail's shirker-not-a-worker xmas recruitment program.

She will be eliminated asap thus restoring the status quo of crappy mail delivery throughout the land.

As a gesture of goodwill, we would like to advise you that your next delivery will be placed in the following locations ...

At the bottom of the goldfish tank inside the plastic castle (won't fit? we'll MAKE it fit)
Hung from the overhead telephone cables 4 streets away
Propping up the wonky table in the hall
And finally masquarading as a tesco trifle in the bottom of the fridge (probably tastes the same too)

Your "While you were in" card will of course not be shoved through the letterbox as a curtesy, and consequently will be used to light the bonfire of the local tribe of hippy tree-huggers trying to stop the building of another bypass.

 

[grahamit]

Had a delivery left on the doorstep the other day. Signature required too!

To be fair, I think a lot fo the guys there do try to provide a good service, but they are let down by the lazy ones.

As for the "World Class" bit. Well, the company I work for has been trying that line for about 10 years now. Don't think it has achieved anything

 

[Paul_s]

The sooner someone invents a teleporter the better. None of this RM malarky... although I don't have any complaints.

The US mail has become paranoid.