Royal Snail Mail

[alan p]

Sorry to bring this hoary old subject up again, but items ordered 19 Oct , dispatched 20 Oct 1st class signed for still not arrived, track and trace says we have it!! They seem to want to keep it? supplier says its a common thing.

 November mag out on the 23rd no sign.

Is it just me or are we paying silly money for a service that's not being supplied.

[alan p]

Could the moderaters put this under a separate topic as its not related to Warbird Kits  

TA

[Denis Watkins]

The Queens Image on a postage stamp, was guarantee enough to ensure safe delivery in the past.

Now, we do, as you say, pay extra for the goods to get to their destnation.

It is not right.

[dave parnham]

I don't know which part of the country your in Alan but you have to remember everything was being delivered by post during Covid last year and its now approaching the busiest time of the year as people gear up for Christmas.

As a 37 year man at Royal Mail i can honestly say its not being Run properly across many offices and walks are failing daily with shortages of staff and they are only hiring 25 hour contracted youngsters who have to work Sundays delivering Parcels and get two days off in the week leaving even bigger staff problems.

Tracked items and special delivery items are priority and letters and recorded stuff can be left undelivered for two or three days. Its a total shambles. 

[Don Fry]

Lads, please look at directors salaries. Lads please look at sharp end salaries. Compare and contrast.

[dave parnham]

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians!!

Our Office has two Office Managers? Hands in pockets standing watching for two hours literally doing nothing for 95 grand a year!! 

Trust me we are all fed up with this situation and Christmas will be delayed or a Nightmare for many..... i suggest you get your Christmas shopping done now to avoid disappointment.

[Eric Robson]

last week I ordered some spares from Leeds model shop they arrived next day by normal R.M. On Friday last I ordered some sundries from  Model fixings after 3-30pm they arrived next day via R.M. No complaints about the service in the North East.

[kc]

In all fairness I have to say we seem to get a good service from Royal Mail here even though our regular postman seems to have been replaced recently.   Good work from employees here  in Essex.

RCME November came last week as expected.

[Rich Griff]

95grand a year !!???

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

My posties are First class and doing a tough job, no complaints here. KEY workers indeed.

 

[dave parnham]

yes Rich Griff Delivery Office Manager 95 at least two under them on 45k and i can count at least 8 line managers under them to control some 200 staff roughly. That's an office that's far too small for the town its in but has since acquired the next town and three villages all crammed in like sardines.

And Royal Mail is currently restructuring the business at the mo.

Too complicated to go into but quickly.......... as no one is posting actual proper letters anymore due to text, watts app etc. Then traffic is down.

So your office with say 100 deliveries in it, needs to be paired down to say 70 deliveries (all rough figures) and those 30 deliveries get shared out to the remaining 70.

So your average delivery duty has three hours indoors prepping mail and a 4 and half hour delivery span and 40 min break. 

It doesnt take a genius to work out that more indoor prep has to be lost....yes.... lost because the union agreed pay deal also includes an hours cut to a 38 hour week.

Oh and you all have to absorb more mail into your delivery span. Bear in mind that most delivery men prep two deliveries plus because of staff shortages they then have to delivery that lot by themselves which cannot possibly be done before the 14:20 deadline. Hence one delivery gets covered one day and only the Tracked items go out on the second Delivery and vice versa next day.

 

its far more complicated than this simple example as many of us work a 48 hour week for 4 weeks and then get a week off. But of course they want that stopped too!

  

Edited October 25, 2021 by dave parnham

[Don Fry]

At least you are not an apprentice coffee machine operative.
And you exercise. And, I have found, wandering about, you see some entertaining sights. Glass half full. 

[dave parnham]

Don i absolutely love my Rural Village delivery which i do alone over 5 hrs span the customers are all great but then ive had the same village for erm 32 years!!

 

But im already looking forward to my 3 weeks off in January in the shed ?

[GrumpyGnome]

Postal service here in rural East Yorks is fabulous. Not a single bad word to say about it. Like all big organisations, there are some bits very good and some bits very bad.... we have all good bits.

[martin collins 1]

3 hours ago, dave parnham said:

I don't know which part of the country your in Alan but you have to remember everything was being delivered by post during Covid last year and its now approaching the busiest time of the year as people gear up for Christmas.

As a 37 year man at Royal Mail i can honestly say its not being Run properly across many offices and walks are failing daily with shortages of staff and they are only hiring 25 hour contracted youngsters who have to work Sundays delivering Parcels and get two days off in the week leaving even bigger staff problems.

Tracked items and special delivery items are priority and letters and recorded stuff can be left undelivered for two or three days. Its a total shambles. 

Just retired from Royal Mail after 28 years service, during that time i worked at three different offices due to house moves to different parts of the country. Royal Mail service varies from office to office depending on the management and systems in place. The last office i worked at was slickly run and the mail was always cleared from the office despite shortages of staff on many occasions unlike one of the other offices i worked at............... 

[Graeme White]

Postal service around me is great, never an issue. Some days I can count up to 5 different post deliveries up my road. I do feel there could be some way to improve this operation.

[ken anderson.]

maybe up here in the north east its a bit less frantic...............but i cant fault the royal mail service either...suppose like every large company they have their ups and downs...but satisfied ne..1.

 

ken anderson...ne..1...postal dept.

[Cuban8]

Had a letter from a relative who lives on South Uist delivered to us in Essex within 36 hours. Pretty good going I reckon. I didn't work for RM but before I retired I did serve as an engineer maintaining all sorts of kit from sorters to large inserting machines that put together stuff like your credit card or bank statements. My job was ok as a contractor to the customer, but believe me the staff operating the kit were worked into the ground to hit targets that were constantly moved upwards and all for peanuts pay. Not a nice industry to work in if you're on the shop floor IMHO.

[alan p]

Update

Parcel arrived this lunchtime, local postie is gold standard? I had a word and postie sorted it from delayed mail due to delivery priorities.

The Indians are working hard? shame about the chiefs. So thats 7days, ordered articles from a supplier yesterday lunchtime Yodel on doorstep this afternoon.

[Erfolg]

Generally speaking, the letter service is generally good.

 

However in the case of "Parcel Force" it is quite different. Only this week another card popped through the door, whilst I was in. No door bell, on knocking on the door. This is not the first time, either.

 

However their competitors, do deliver, no cards., lying on the mat One company even returns the sane day  when neither of us are in. A very different level of service. It just seems that only "Parcel Force" are living in the past. This is both in respect to service and cost structure for parcel services.

[Mike T]

We must be lucky (I speak for my street).  All of our delivery services including Parcelforce have been uniformly superb, particularly during the worst of the pandemic and lockdowns.  Special mention to Parcelforce, who carted some parcels all the way down to our greenhouse, instead of leaving them where I'd asked which would have seen the contents ruined in a heavy shower.

The downside is that our two lovely east-european postie ladies, who were around almost every day during the earlier lockdowns, now seem to have disappeared, which is an absolute crying shame...

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Never ever had an issue with Parcel Force, tothers mostly good as well.

[kevin b]

The only issue I have with Parcel Force is it takes (on average) 8-10 days for a parcel to travel from the U.S. (West coast), through our customs to reach the local (30 miles away) depot. It then takes Parcel Force 7 days to get a letter to me requesting a customs payment. The parcel then arrives the following day.

I now chase the tracking and as soon as I see it has cleared customs and has arrived with the depot I pay the customs charge online. The parcel then arrives the next day    ( 7 days later I still get the letter requesting payment).

 

 

[GrumpyGnome]

6 hours ago, john stones 1 - Moderator said:

Never ever had an issue with Parcel Force, tothers mostly good as well.

 

Ditto

[EvilC57]

I recently had an important document delivered to me by RM Special Delivery signed for post. It dropped on the mat with no knock on the door from the postman for a signature. Checking the tracking number shortly afterwards on the Post Office website, it correctly said that the item had been delivered, and had an image of what was supposed to to be the recipient’s signature, which certainly wasn’t mine - so presumably signed for by the postman, or persons unknown in the local sorting office. I suppose they would blame Covid, by saying they’re minimising social contact, but it seems to me we’re paying a lot of money for a special service we are not getting.

 

It seems to me that there is a danger in this, in that if the item is accidentally delivered to the wrong address and disappears, you have absolutely no recourse.

Edited November 7, 2021 by EvilC57