Royal Mail survey of postal times

[deniser]

I'm half way through my survey this week of what happened to everything I posted on Monday.

What shocks me so far is that everything posted by Royal Mail to Northern Ireland, Scottish Highlands and even the Shetland Islands was delivered the next day.

These are meant to be the loss making parts of the delivery network yet they are working the most efficiently.

22% of items posted 2 days ago by 1st class have not arrived yet but 78% have either been delivered or delivery was attempted.

I am waiting to see what happens to the undelivered and the courier ones which are on a slow service so I need to give them a bit more time.

 

[Consistency]

I think because the Royal Mail has a reputation, it is easy for many people to blame Royal Mail for late delivery when they have not even posted it.

There are of course problems but I do not think they get enough credit by far.

 

[sysops]

I think because the Royal Mail has a reputation, it is easy for many people to blame Royal Mail for late delivery when they have not even posted it.

There are of course problems but I do not think they get enough credit by far.

What a ridiculous thing to say. Are you serially suggesting that retailers don't dispatch goods, then blame it on the RM? To what end?

 

[Consistency]

What a ridiculous thing to say. Are you serially suggesting that retailers don't dispatch goods, then blame it on the RM? To what end?

OOOhhh can I give you a hand down from that horse, you may have to stretch a bit though?

I did not say retailers, I said many people.

I have rarely, very rarely ordered something and it not arrived with Royal Mail but look at businesses like E-bay, E-bay sellers are being ripped off left right and centre with this customer is always right attitude by them saying not received it, must be Royal Mail, and then paypal refund.

How many of us have been waiting for payments to hear, I have sent it but it must have got lost in the post. It buys time.

Bigger businesses suffer this too, they forget to pay their credit card bill, get a late payment fee then to get out of rant and rave that they sent it, but it must have got lost in the post hoping the fee will be waived, knowing full well they never sent it.

Because Royal Mail has a reputation of so many letters being lost, being unreliable etc, it is an easy thing for dishonest people to blame them and it is a no show and someones word against Royal Mail. There are some dodgy retailers out there no doubt.

 

[sysops]

You make very little sense. I seldom block people, but for you I will make an exception.

 

[Consistency]

Your blocking me does not make a difference to my life, if it makes you feel better so be it.

You accused me of saying that retailers say that they have dispatched goods when they haven't and blame Royal Mail, I never said any such thing and then said it was a ridiculous thing to say.

 

[refinedline]

Your blocking me does not make a difference to my life, if it makes you feel better so be it.

You accused me of saying that retailers say that they have dispatched goods when they haven't and blame Royal Mail, I never said any such thing and then said it was a ridiculous thing to say.

I agree with what you have said. I am sure that some people do just blame Royal Mail because it is an easy option, and more credible than saying "oh, I haven't posted it yet".

I don't know so much if many retailers would do this, but certainly eBayers and some people sending payment/documents via post.

I don't think that there is much wrong with Royal Mail in general, I tend to find them rather efficient. Only time there is problems is when you get to them striking.

 

[Deleted member 74679]

another big fan of Royal Mail here. Most items I send out arrive next day, or the day after - and that's sending second class.

 

[deniser]

Here's part 2 of my survey - this is based on fact, not speculation.

100% of the items I posted with My Hermes on Monday on a 2-5 days service have been delivered on day 2.

I am impressed I have to say given that My Hermes is costing me 23p less per parcel on average.

So 100% My Hermes (delivered) v. 78% Royal Mail (delivered or delivery attempted).

What's also interesting is that My Hermes includes no attempted deliveries (because they deliver mainly after school/in the evening which suits my customer base), every single parcel was delivered either to the recipient or a neighbour.

Royal Mail's 78% includes about 18% which were not delivered but a card was left because the people were out.

So in terms of people actually receiving their parcel within 2 days it is 100% My Hermes and 60% Royal Mail.

Obviously I only tried my survey on one day's postings but it was a Monday, our busiest day.

I will report back what happened to the remaining 22% of the Royal Mail parcels when I find out what happened to them as they are not trackable until delivery is attempted.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

What a ridiculous thing to say. Are you serially suggesting that retailers don't dispatch goods, then blame it on the RM? To what end?

As consistency says, not retailers - people.

You've never heard the saying "the cheques in the post"?

I think probably every business out there has heard that one at least once and known that no, it's not. The cheque is really in the desk drawer.

 

[deniser]

I think because the Royal Mail has a reputation, it is easy for many people to blame Royal Mail for late delivery when they have not even posted it.

There are of course problems but I do not think they get enough credit by far.

That's why I did my little survey; not because I haven't posted it but because I want to see what the performance is actually like.

Conversely MH has also come in for a lot of criticism.

The real test of course will be when something out of the ordinary happens such as a strike or bad weather.