Royal Mail

[sheva]

I suppose it`s too much to ask Virgin to stop interrupting my favourite TV programmes with unwanted adverts?

 

[Amanda P]

We've fixed that one. We never watch live TV, except occasionally the news or weather forecasts.

Everything else is on a DV recorder. Skip the adverts when they arrive. I haven't watched an ad on TV for years.

 

[snorri]

I can put a 32p stamp on my letter or a 41p stamp. Are you saying it costs them 9p more to get on with sending it a bit quicker? I cannot see that it would.

No, it doesn't cost more to send items a bit quicker.
The additional expense comes in the cost of storage space required for items which have to be held over for delivery next day.

 

[ianrauk]

I can't believe people are getting so upset at junk mail. What does it take just to pop in your recycle bin. Blimey.

 

[Amanda P]

I can't believe people are getting so upset at junk mail. What does it take just to pop in your recycle bin. Blimey.

I say again, if someone came and stuffed waste paper through your letter box, wouldn't you be annoyed? Since I'm not remotely interested in anything the mailing companies are trying to sell, and in fact would avoid buying anything from anyone who marketed it that way*, to me, it's no more than waste paper.

In these parts, it won't be collected for recyling if it contains window envelopes or anything with glue in. So to get it recycled, I've got to painstakingly open every envelope, sort out the unrecylable bits and dump them, and then put the paper in the recycle bin.

But the bigger issue is that this stuff is a teriffic waste of paper. If we could stop companies sending it, it wouldn't need recyling, because it wouldn't ever be printed in the first place. In my view, it's a completely unjustifiable use of resources.

OK, I wouldn't write to the Times about it. But if I can't moan about it in this thread, where can I moan about it?!

*If a product is any good, people will queue up and buy it. If they have to send me junk mail to make me want it, it's either no good or it's stupidly overpriced. I haven't yet seen much evidence to disprove this thinking.

 

[ColinJ]

But the bigger issue is that this stuff is a teriffic waste of paper.  If we could stop companies sending it, it wouldn't need recyling, because it wouldn't ever be printed in the first place.  In my view, it's a completely unjustifiable use of resources.

I agree with you.

OK, I wouldn't write to the Times about it.  But if I can't moan about it in this thread, where can I moan about it?!

You could email the Times about it, to avoid wasting paper?

If a product is any good, people will queue up and buy it.  If they have to send me junk mail to make me want it, it's either no good or it's stupidly overpriced.  I haven't yet seen much evidence to disprove this thinking.

Actually, despite agreeing with you above...

I got some junk mail from Lidl the other day and while transferring it to the recycling bag, I spotted that they had a special offer on for Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 750 mL for £1.12, about a third of the price that I normally pay. I took a chance and bought 4 bottles of it, saving me about £8. It could be that it is absolute rubbish, but if it is acceptable quality then that junk mail was actually worth reading.

I suppose the argument is that if people don't know about bargains then they wouldn't be queing up to buy the stuff in the first place. I never normally shop in Todmorden where the local Lidl is situated, but when I worked out how much I'd save I decided it was worth a quick return trip. 

 

[ianrauk]

I say again, if someone came and stuffed waste paper through your letter box, wouldn't you be annoyed? Since I'm not remotely interested in anything the mailing companies are trying to sell, and in fact would avoid buying anything from anyone who marketed it that way*, to me, it's no more than waste paper.

In these parts, it won't be collected for recyling if it contains window envelopes or anything with glue in. So to get it recycled, I've got to painstakingly open every envelope, sort out the unrecylable bits and dump them, and then put the paper in the recycle bin.

But the bigger issue is that this stuff is a teriffic waste of paper. If we could stop companies sending it, it wouldn't need recyling, because it wouldn't ever be printed in the first place. In my view, it's a completely unjustifiable use of resources.

OK, I wouldn't write to the Times about it. But if I can't moan about it in this thread, where can I moan about it?!

*If a product is any good, people will queue up and buy it. If they have to send me junk mail to make me want it, it's either no good or it's stupidly overpriced. I haven't yet seen much evidence to disprove this thinking.

Same as where I live. However they have never failed to take my recycling because of the windows or envelopes. And if they were to complain, then I will tell them to complain to Royal Mail.

Don't get em wrong. I thoroughly agree with you about being a terrific waste of paper. But not something that should be high on ones agenda to get upset about surely.

And moan away.. please.. makes for good forum reading..

 

[Bird Brain]

Royal Mail are one of those organisations that people seem to hate, but I reckon will miss greatly after its inevitable privatisation or demise.

I don't hate them even though I have had the odd problem with them.

I can't believe people are getting so upset at junk mail. What does it take just to pop in your recycle bin. Blimey.

The posties job would be much easier without that crap.

 

[Spinney]

Same as where I live. However they have never failed to take my recycling because of the windows or envelopes. And if they were to complain, then I will tell them to complain to Royal Mail.

Don't get em wrong. I thoroughly agree with you about being a terrific waste of paper. But not something that should be high on ones agenda to get upset about surely.

And moan away.. please.. makes for good forum reading..

I think you can put window envelopes etc in the cardboard recycling. In our area, even things like books can be recycled in the cardboard skip (the ones that are too tatty to go to charity shops, that is!)

 

[ianrauk]

I don't hate them even though I have had the odd problem with them.




The posties job would be much easier without that crap.

...you don't say...

 

[MrGrumpy]

Mail is a 'free market'....just not in the ways it should be.
Royal Mail does not set its own prices, it is obliged to ask/beg the regulatory body Postcomm for price increases, which seems more interested in allowing other operators to enter the market than giving Royal Mail a fair chance of competing properly. The universal postal service is loss-making, but it is a legal requirement, and 2nd class makes more of a loss than 1st. At the moment, Royal Mail can neither make money on its own letter business (because of those restrictions on pricing) nor charge those other companies who use 'Downstream Access' (where they process it & then hand it to us for delivery) what it actually costs for us to process that mail.
If you think you're being ripped off, please remember that UK mail prices are still amongst the lowest in Europe, and much cheaper than in Germany (for example).

+1

you put it more eloquently than I could have. Don`t see TNT or Deutche Post delivering a letter for 41p to Highlands and Islands. The universal service is a millstone but a necessary one, its a bit like the telecoms market, cable companies came in and cherry picked the best parts and ignored the rest. Same is already happening with the mails market. The regulator appears to be siding on ourside for once, since DSA mail has brought us to our knees, but funnily enough TNT et all are not happy? Wonder why!

 

[postman]

Who cares they have been running it down for years .

But nobody will listen to the Union .They have been fighting for years .But you cannot take on a Government and expect to win .

Once it's gone and it will go .When they get costs down to make it look attractive to buy into .

The people will say Why oh why .

 

[vernon]

Isn't Royal mail's existence now sustained by junk mail, birthday and religious festival cards, bills, Ebay and Amazon?

I can't remember when I last received a hand written letter.

 

[Arch]

Isn't Royal mail's existence now sustained by junk mail, birthday and religious festival cards, bills, Ebay and Amazon?

I can't remember when I last received a hand written letter.

We sometimes find bits of letters torn up in the recycling, and the odd words saved make for fun reading sometimes. One fragment last week read "David grow up Mother", which was amusing, since we gave it to our colleague, David.

Today we found a bit that read "I've had 5km couple of hours lunch most enjoyable". These bits of paper are like surreal telegrams....

I got a handwritten note a couple of weeks back, with some photos of my nephews from my sister. And I sent a handwritten note with a copy of Velo Vision, to my mum, on Saturday. She rang up to check there wasn't supposed to be anything else in the envelope, as it was raining so hard that the end of the envelope had dissolved, and the magazine fell out of it as they came through the door...

 

[ianrauk]

The price of a first class stamp. Getting a letter from one place to the next, and more often then not the next day. It's a bleedin' bargain. IMO they should put the price of first class stamp up to 50p second class 25p. Well worth the money.