Royal Mail, the good and the bad.

[peterb]

I bought something on EBay earlier this week and the seller agreed to send it first class, signed for on Thursday. I tracked its journey down to my local delivery office.

This morning I was up reasonably early, went to the front door and found a failed delivery card. There were two cars parked outside, people in the house, no-one heard the door bell ring (it is loud!) so I guess he saw the curtains closed and couldn't be bothered to wait for the door to be answered.

So next opportunity to collect is Tuesday. Not happy.

BUT,

On the off chance, I went to the local delivery office in case he had finished the round early and I could pick it up. The woman behind the desk was very apologetic, but explained there was nothing she could do as she didn't have the contact details of the driver, and he probably wouldn't finish his round until after the depot closed.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight when there was a knock on my front door (about ten minutes after the depot closed) and there was the woman from behind the counter, in her own car, with my parcel.

So a large brickbat for the CBA postman, and a big bouquet for the woman behind the counter who knows the meaning of customer service!

[Hoonigan]

That's nice! That really is nice.

[TeePee]

That reminds me of City Link (do they still exist?). They used to have someone go around in a car dropping off the 'We missed you' cards instead of parcels. They used to get very upset when you opened the door and caught them at it.

[GoNz0]

I bought something on EBay earlier this week and the seller agreed to send it first class, signed for on Thursday. I tracked its journey down to my local delivery office.

This morning I was up reasonably early, went to the front door and found a failed delivery card. There were two cars parked outside, people in the house, no-one heard the door bell ring (it is loud!) so I guess he saw the curtains closed and couldn't be bothered to wait for the door to be answered.

So next opportunity to collect is Tuesday. Not happy.

BUT,

On the off chance, I went to the local delivery office in case he had finished the round early and I could pick it up. The woman behind the desk was very apologetic, but explained there was nothing she could do as she didn't have the contact details of the driver, and he probably wouldn't finish his round until after the depot closed.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight when there was a knock on my front door (about ten minutes after the depot closed) and there was the woman from behind the counter, in her own car, with my parcel.

So a large brickbat for the CBA postman, and a big bouquet for the woman behind the counter who knows the meaning of customer service!

Must live near you

That reminds me of City Link (do they still exist?). They used to have someone go around in a car dropping off the 'We missed you' cards instead of parcels. They used to get very upset when you opened the door and caught them at it.

Nope they went tits up a few years ago.

Amazon logistics are next to useless, pretending to visit until you say you have CCTV and no one has been to the door today. They make no excuse when you say that!

[fredsmith999]

I used to hate royal mail. Then I discovered Hermes! Now I love royal mail.

[virtuo]

If I ever get a good story about RM I'll share it, if I shared my bad experiences I'd get a warning for post count spamming

Nice to know they employ at least one human somewhere in the country.

I'm expecting that they'll soon start just posting out "you can now collect your parcel" cards rather than go to the effort of bringing them to your door. If it was a bit cheaper to use I'd probably go with that kind of service.

[bytejunkie]

If it was a bit cheaper to use I'd probably go with that kind of service.

There is that service, its called Collect+, its not too bad actually

[GoNz0]

If I ever get a good story about RM I'll share it, if I shared my bad experiences I'd get a warning for post count spamming

Nice to know they employ at least one human somewhere in the country.

I'm expecting that they'll soon start just posting out "you can now collect your parcel" cards rather than go to the effort of bringing them to your door. If it was a bit cheaper to use I'd probably go with that kind of service.

Actually they do. At least an old postie I no longer have the pleasure of seeing once carded me without knocking, just posted the card with my mail. I was stood in the hall so I clocked the card and caught her before she got off the drive, she admitted she didn't bring it as it was quite heavy & didn't expect me to be in (under 2kg or she wouldn't be bringing it anyway) and it was in the red box a few streets away. I told her obviously I was in and would be for the next few hours so she could bring it back. I wasn't an arse as she had a point, valid or not I normally would be at work.

To give her credit I was carded by the same one quite a while later and she came back with the parcel saying she saw my van was back as she headed up the street then found a package she had missed for me and brought both back. Probably scared I would report her

[BobF64]

she admitted she didn't bring it as it was quite heavy & didn't expect me to be in (under 2kg or she wouldn't be bringing it anyway)

Apparently its a "tactic" so that Royal Mail, and its workers, don't get in trouble for "delaying" the post.

Sometimes the parcel never even leaves the depot.

Personally, whilst I consider such a trick as fraud, I'd at least prefer them to start having cards that say "we have a parcel for you, but we don't want to deliver it, please come collect or arrange for a delivery date", at least then you know its at the depot.

[GoryMadLogger]

Should try ordering stuff with hermes they just abandon it outside in the rain

[Mortalcio]

One time I ordered with Royal Mail and told them to leave it with my neighbours they left it in the wheelie bin...

[agodin]

had this a few times, although I have never had anyone turn up with the parcel afterward, so /raise for the lady

[GoNz0]

Should try ordering stuff with hermes they just abandon it outside in the rain

You forgot to add at a random house

[carlaevans]

Wow so there are still some very nice people around, huh? That's very lovely.

Some posties are so lazy!