Postal dispute

[Salazaar]

I've been having a bit of a difficult situation with Royal Mail since I moved in to my new flat and I was wondering what other people's thoughts were...

The flat shares a front door with the neighbour, which has a trade button that allows access between 6am and 11am but no letterbox. There is then a short set of stairs which leads to the two main doors for the flats, each of which has an individual letterbox.

So far the postman has been coming in the front door but leaving the post on the bottom of the steps rather than delivering it through the letterbox where my neighbours, or anyone who bothered using the trade button, could get at it.

I've tried reporting it to Royal Mail a number of times now and I've finally had a response which basically said that the postie wouldn't go up the stairs because he felt he needed to 'keep his foot in the [outside] door' in case it shut and he ended up trapped. Understandable up to the point that you realise that the door doesn't lock from the inside, it's on a normal handle and latch and would need to be in such a state of direpair that the handle would have to fall off before it trapped anyone anywhere. It would be a hazard to the residents in the event of fire if it did lock!

So am I being overly picky that my mail is left for anyone passing by or is Royal Mail just making excuses for a postie who can't be bothered to climb a flight of stairs?

[matty-hodgson]

Do you own the flat or do you rent?

If you rent you could maybe ask the landlord if they could put you a sealed letterbox just inside the door? Then your letters will be safe and the postie can carry on being lazy .

[GoNz0]

the postie is lazy

[Bugbait]

If the individual flats are registered as separate delivery points (forgot what Royal Mail call it exactly) then I was told they have to deliver to the points unless it's inaccessible or dangerous to do so. Although they're claiming it's "dangerous to do so", I don't think it's justified based on what you've said. How you go about proving otherwise is beyond me, sorry.

We had a change of regular postman a while back and the new one kept leaving the mail in the downstairs foyer, accessed via a Trade button similar to yours. I complained to Royal Mail and they confirmed that the postman is required to adhere to the above. The next day we started getting mail in our mail slot again. So yeah, he was being lazy.

[GoNz0]

leave a brick or block of wood at the door with a label on saying "postman anti lockin device, place in door and deliver the mail you lazy bastard""

[Salazaar]

leave a brick or block of wood at the door with a label on saying "postman anti lockin device, place in door and deliver the mail you lazy bastard""

That really made me lol!

As to the rent/own thing, it's complicated cos while technically I own my flat, I pay a service fee for the communal bits.

I'll just keep pushing the complaint and see how far I can take it. I think RM have a semi-independent team seperate from their normal complaints team for taking things further.

[Hicks12]

It is the postie being lazy but tbh if it was me i would avoid doing that because i would feel that im entering to far (from what you describe). However the best solution i find is to try and meet the postie face to face (if you know their regular posting times) that way you can just give him/her a gentle notice to actually post it to your letter box.

Although my postie has been excellent, only thing i needed to ask mine was to request that if no one answers the door in the future then just leave the parcel in the shop next door, he always follows that except now when kevin coopers finally closed a few months ago .

[petercook7]

sometimes they do the same, i know how you feel.

[Salazaar]

I thought I'd update this because I got a resolution on the matter a few weeks ago.

I ended up sending a large number of emails back and forth with the RM complaints department, none of which had much success, they kept fobbing me off with the same glib answers, I kept saying that wasn't acceptable.

In the end I ended up logging a complaint with the second line RM complaints office, which operates independently from the main organisation and sending a freedom of information request asking for the risk assessment that should have existed for the door had it been a real risk.

After a few weeks I got a very apologetic letter from their customer services team saying that their rep, the delivery manager and a union rep had been out to look at my door, agreed with my assessment and that my mail would resume properly.

I was also promised a personal apology from the delivery manager which never arrived, but I'm not going to push that one any further.

[tiggerai]

We've got the same arrangement - outside door etc. No issues here.

Lazy Postie tbh.

[Salazaar]

Or one who was too dim to work out how a door works, and a lazy manager.

I dunno, but I've got my post back so I'm happy!

[Tumble]

I thought it was a fire regulation that you HAVE to be able to open a SHARED door from the inside without a key regardless, whether it's locked or not...

[Lucio]

I thought it was a fire regulation that you HAVE to be able to open a SHARED door from the inside without a key regardless, whether it's locked or not...

Yup, any door along the primary escape route has to be openable without the use of a key.

[Salazaar]

Try explaining that to the RM 'customer services' team...