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Usual Royal Mail pre-Christmas chaos already started?

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deniser

deniser

Free Member
Jun 3, 2008
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London
I'm already getting lots of the "where is my delivery?" queries which I usually get in December for my packets which go first class recorded.

On querying this I was told that there is already a backlog of post in the sorting office as there are not enough staff and constant management changes are creating chaos.

If it's already like this in a relatively quiet early November, what will happen in December? Anyone else having problems?

I think I'm off to sign with a courier firm for one month!
 
No problems here just yet, Royal Mail have only managed to lose 1 order so far this month.
 
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Not with the post office...I wish they would get things right for other people. As I hate courier companies...expecially where i live. 55 miles from London. As the main courier companies only have pick up points in Ipswich and Basildon ....which is a journey to far..

Whereas most towns have a post office pick up point..

Sorry but I am writing from a customer point of view.. Don't even get me started about City link...!!!
 
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We haven't had any problems (yet), but I do know that RM are looking at cutting jobs in our area before Christmas - clever:mad:.
 
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Some of the mail centres have issues, there is a mail centre closure program working to a head at present, Crewe had a march on 29th October, Milton Keynes on 15th nov. Quite a few job losses proposed.
 
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It's interesting this.

My local sorting office are busy recruiting for the silly season even though they anticipate it being quieter than last year. I actually had a chat with the guys and gals in the sorting office on Tuesday and they reckon that year on year, amount of orders posted are the lowest for a long time. Apparently it's not just major business' who have suffered but smaller ebayers as well.

That aside, last week was my worst on record for non delivery of orders:eek: As deniser says, if it's getting worse now, what's it going to be like in four weeks time.

Mister B
 
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We are probably slightly unusual in that our town always has more jobs than workers. They have a staff shortage now and I just don't think they will be able to find the people to recruit to make up the shortfall.

I still can't fill my Saturday position - even sixth formers are too fussy - even though I am paying £1.50 over the minimum wage for a really cushy job.

People are definitely delaying their Christmas shopping this year and I worry that it will all come at once in December when Royal Mail will struggle to cope with it.
 
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deniser said:
I'm already getting lots of the "where is my delivery?" queries which I usually get in December for my packets which go first class recorded.

On querying this I was told that there is already a backlog of post in the sorting office as there are not enough staff and constant management changes are creating chaos.

If it's already like this in a relatively quiet early November, what will happen in December? Anyone else having problems?

I think I'm off to sign with a courier firm for one month!
Click to expand...

I was just about to start a thread about the Recorded Delivery service- what is going on??! We are getting so many complaints - either they're not updating online or they're not actually delivering the packages! It's crazy! :(
 
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deniser said:
I still can't fill my Saturday position - even sixth formers are too fussy - even though I am paying £1.50 over the minimum wage for a really cushy job.
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£7.25 p/h (assuming it's £5.75 + £1.50) .. to a sixth former?! What can they possibly require the money for! :D
 
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Yes, I've had 4 parcels lost (1st class recorded), 2 cheques lost and 1 parcel damaged in the last 10 days.

I can't even face filling in the forms at the moment, I start seeing red before I even fill in my name....
 
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Royal Mails seasonal intake includes data entry staff etc. Al ot of seasonal staff don't start until next week .
We haven't had any issues yet, customers who need things urgently are contacting us to upgrade to special delivery.
Debating at the moment whether to use special delivery regardless througout December to save the hassle.
We need to find a courier who can compete on price with Royal Mail, our parcels are usually under the kilo you see.
 
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Blush said:
We need to find a courier who can compete on price with Royal Mail, our parcels are usually under the kilo you see.
Click to expand...

Good luck & if you find them, let us know would ya :)
We're trying to set up the Royal Mail Tracked Service before December - hopefully that will be better than Recorded...
 
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No problems so far, I tend to use 2nd class recorded, had a client email me since she was so pleased to have received her parcel in under 12hrs from time of ordering.

Not bad for a 200 mile shipment.
 
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I've just sent out my first orders on Monday (first class) from London. One has not yet reached Bristol as of today...for those in the know, is it normal that a first class can take more than 3 days and will still be delivered?
 
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I had one arrive recently after 6 weeks! After I had already refunded the customer and put in a claim for a missing parcel. Luckily the customer was honest and phoned me to pay for it again.
 
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Gosh at least your customer was honest, but how frustrating!! Well I've got my fingers crossed that this turns up within the next few days and in the meantime may look at something that at the very least has a tracking option available. I offer Special Delivery too, but of course that is a little more pricey.
 
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starsgazing said:
I was just about to start a thread about the Recorded Delivery service- what is going on??! We are getting so many complaints - either they're not updating online or they're not actually delivering the packages! It's crazy! :(
Click to expand...

As far as I can see, Recorded Delivery Service gets no different treatment from RM to ordinary first or second class post (which I still find by far the best option for parcels valued at less than £32 to me and above this I use Special Delivery, which I can't remember ever having had problems with). I say this because I or one of my staff take our parcels to the sorting office (just up the road from us) every day (more reliable than having them collected), and the staff there treat it like ordinary PPI 1st or 2nd. class post, whereas they take great care with SD.
The only advantage of using RD is from the customer point of view. Some may think that this service is less open to fraud (although in fact I think there is no difference between it and ordinary post).

Barrie
 
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Recorded Delivery/Signed for is less open to fraud from the customer, as you know whether or not it's been received by someone.

It is not a guaranteed delivery delivery service. It is not a tracked service. It has no more insurance than the first class stamp.
 
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Boxby said:
It has no more insurance than the first class stamp.
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Except that the Royal Mail won't entertain claims for missing items without a recorded delivery number or will make it virtually impossible. They make it hard enough even with a recorded delivery number as they write to the recipient saying "If you do not reply to this letter we will assume that you have received the parcel".

Of course no stranger who has had already had his refund is going to bother to reply in writing by post to Royal Mail to say "actually I didn't receive the parcel and I am replying out of the kindness of my heart when there's nothing in it for me."

I always have to point out that actually they could just type the tracking number into the online tracking thing and check that way...... So I can only put it down to making the claim as difficult as possible knowing that people don't have the time and energy to pursue it and will give up.
 
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deniser said:
Except that the Royal Mail won't entertain claims for missing items without a recorded delivery number or will make it virtually impossible. They make it hard enough even with a recorded delivery number as they write to the recipient saying "If you do not reply to this letter we will assume that you have received the parcel".

Of course no stranger who has had already had his refund is going to bother to reply in writing by post to Royal Mail to say "actually I didn't receive the parcel and I am replying out of the kindness of my heart when there's nothing in it for me."

I always have to point out that actually they could just type the tracking number into the online tracking thing and check that way...... So I can only put it down to making the claim as difficult as possible knowing that people don't have the time and energy to pursue it and will give up.
Click to expand...

I have claimed in the past for undelivered items sent by 1st class mail only, and eventually got a cheque, even though I had to wait ages. The one time I claimed a couple of years ago for a recorded delivery item, which the customer said had not been received, but the RM claimed had been delivered and signed for, the RM could not produce a copy of the signed for slip. Apparently this is not uncommon, either because the postman cannot be bothered to get a signature, or the slip is lost. I could only get the same compensation as if it had been sent by 1st class post. This is when I decided to no longer use RD. Honest customers (which fortuneately the vast majority of ours are) will not notice any difference, and fraudulent ones will probably know this anyway, and try it on.

Barrie
 
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starsgazing said:
I was just about to start a thread about the Recorded Delivery service- what is going on??! We are getting so many complaints - either they're not updating online or they're not actually delivering the packages! It's crazy! :(
Click to expand...

That happens at most times. The recorded delivery online proof is a farce.
 
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Another 2 recorded lost....

What is the situation regarding refunds/replacements? I would rather wait the 2 weeks so I can submit a claim before refunding customer but, although some are willing to wait, some people won't.
I have one customer demanding a refund even though I only sent a week ago....

Not sure how best to proceed; other e-tailers - how do you deal with situations like this?
 
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DaisychainBaby said:
I've just sent out my first orders on Monday (first class) from London. One has not yet reached Bristol as of today...for those in the know, is it normal that a first class can take more than 3 days and will still be delivered?
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It is not unusual for first class mail to take 5+ days but the chances of it turning up after 5 days are getting quite slim - you need to weigh up whether to ask customer to wait a bit longer or resend depending upon cost of parcel.

You need to politely ask the customers with delayed parcels to check in outbuildings, with neighbours and at their local post depot or post office even if not carded (cards have a habit of not being found/left) as these are good sources of delayed parcels.

We get parcels back nearly every day marked as 'not called for' by the post office. Delivery has been attempted, often next day from dispatch, but customer has not gone to fetch/check post depot. Also neighbours can sit on parcels for days not bothering to take it round, afterall, it's not their parcel or their job to deliver it.

Also check delivery address again as this is sometimes wrong - house number wrong or similar.

I do sometimes wonder at people arranging to have a top hat delivered to their house when they are out and then querying where it is when it wouldn't fit through the letterbox.

We had a cracker this week with City Link, customer had to go to Docs so put note on door, "Do NOT leave with neighbours,". Guess what? C-L DID leave with neighbours. Turns out tis some sort of horrific crack house and old couple who ordered live in bodily fear so could not go round to ask for parcel. Poor people. We got City Link to uplift the parcel but the customers still didn't want it after it had been in the next door house. some you win.....
 
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Although RD offers poor tarcking, since most are seemingly never entered on the RM website, in the last year I've had only a couple go missing, the clients I have have been faultless, no fraud or anything like that.

On the odd occassion someone has mentioned they have not received their parcel, after asking if they have inquired with neighbours etc I offer to chase it up, and always reply within three hours the local collection depot has it waiting for them, and to call them to either re-arrange a delivery or to collect, 90% of the time they do and RM have it.

The posties just don't leave cards.
 
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Royal Mail has recently automated the recorded/signed for service, and has issued posties with PDA's to collect the signatures etc. Just recently started being rolled out.

Good news is that the PDA process has been proven to work really well.
Bad news is that the posties hate it because it's very time consuming for them.

So will it solve the problem?????
 
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Good news is that the PDA process has been proven to work really well.
Bad news is that the posties hate it because it's very time consuming for them.

So will it solve the problem?????
Click to expand...

Guess it will depend on how much the posties wish to retain clients.
 
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MH1 said:
Guess it will depend on how much the posties wish to retain clients.
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Posties aren't bothered about retaining clients, Posties are simply concerned with getting the mail out as quickly and efficiently as possible. They have nothing to do with the selling of postal services, in fact this is done by a completely serperate commercial organisation. There's logic for you! Post Office Logic.
 
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Rhyl Lightworks said:
The only advantage of using RD is from the customer point of view.
Click to expand...

It does us a world of good too. The number of chancers that we get that say they haven't received an item, then once we enter their tracking # & see they've signed for it & relay the information - they disappear. We'd have to spend a hell of a lot of money replacing goods if it wasn't for RD. Until theft from e-tailers is regarded as seriously as theft from physical stores, we will continue to use signed for services.
 
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fluffyslippers said:
Another 2 recorded lost....

What is the situation regarding refunds/replacements? I would rather wait the 2 weeks so I can submit a claim before refunding customer but, although some are willing to wait, some people won't.
I have one customer demanding a refund even though I only sent a week ago....

Not sure how best to proceed; other e-tailers - how do you deal with situations like this?
Click to expand...

- Get them to fill in the 'recipient' side of the Royal Mail declaration form & send it to you.
- Once that comes back, send them a replacement or refund.
- Then once 2 weeks is up, take a copy, fill in your 'sender' details & send it off to Royal Mail who should reimburse you.
 
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Over the last two weeks the amount of 'Where is my order' questions has shot up with orders sent via the Royal Mail. When we have investigated the majority of the orders have been at the local sorting office, where the postman has tried to deliver and then hasn't left a card at the address.

I can only presume this is because they are busy, but it's not good (and very frustrating!).
 
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I also think that at this time of year customers get more anxious about when they can expect delivery and ask "wheres my order?" after about only 1 day!
 
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The online tracking does not always get updates, posties do not always post the cards either if customer isn't in, especially this time of year as there are a lot of temp christmas workers.
Luckily we have never actually had to go through with making a claim our parcels have always turned up, although one poor lady was returning several dresses to us.She orderd quite a lot but only wanted to keep one.she then returned the rest but didn't use recorded.heaven knows where the items went but they never came back to us in the shop.She can't claim full amount as she used normal post and we can't refund her as we don't have the items back.
I think is somone cam along and could compete for smaller parcels/packets etc Royal Mail would be in trouble, but apart from delays we are ok.
 
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Well.

The Royal Mail is one of the high profile employers announced in the Pre Budget Report as joining the National Employment Partnership programme with the government based on getting as many people into work as possible.

So presumabley, we'll have loads more posties, and letters & parcels will all be promptly delivered on time. :)
 
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