The Post Office are at it again!

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goo_mason

Champion barbed-wire hurdler
Location
Leith, Edinburgh
I had problems last week with a guaranteed-next-day-by-1pm Special Delivery from the Royal Mail.

Item never showed on Track'n'Trace at all, until 12.50pm when it suddenly appeared as having been delivered and signed for. Obviously not by me, as I'd been sitting in waiting for it. So I phoned Royal Mail, who said it had probably just been mis-scanned at the depot and would still be on the van, late, because of the Xmas rush. I was told to wait longer as it WOULD get to me that day.

Well, it never did, so I phoned again after 5pm. I was told it had definitely been delivered and signed for, but it could take up to 72hrs for the electronic signature record to appear on the system. Had I checked with my neighbours ? (Well, yes - but since only I was in during the day, it wasn't them). I was told to go and speak to the staff at the delivery depot the next day, and reclaim my postage for Amazon (as it cost me almost £9 for the service).

Then, after checking all evening to see if the scanned signature had appeared, the tracking system suddenly said that they'd tried to deliver but I wasn't in, so they'd left a card. Blatant lies of course, as I'd never left the flat all day - and there was NO card.

Card came through with the post the next day, so I trailed up to the depot to get the package - but surprise, surprise..... the package hadn't come back in off the van despite over 24hrs having passed. I was told to go away and come back the next day.

Next day, I went up again. Still not back, said the man - but because the liar who 'delivered' it hadn't written the date or the parcel number on the card ( I wonder why, apart from covering his back ?), they weren't sure where it might be in the depot. When did I get the card ? When I said, "Yesterday - a day AFTER the supposed attempted delivery", he went back and spent 10 minutes raking for it, and eventually managed to find it for me.

So - another job poorly done by the Royal Mail. If they know that they'll never meet the guaranteed special delivery time at this time of year, they shouldn't offer the service. Neither should they then just pretend to have tried to deliver it when they realise that 1pm has gone so there's no point making any effort any more. Lying to customers is NOT the way to run a business.

When Amazon used City Link, the 1pm deliveries always arrived in plenty of time. I guess once Amazon have had to refund thousands due to the Royal Mail failing to meet the guarantees, they'll abandon them again like they did before. Obviously standards have not improved.

Grrrr.
 

Dave5N

Über Member
Well, I sent a package to London yesterday afternoon special delivery.

It arrived safely just before half ten this morning.

Our local sorting office are really really helpful, as are the posties that deliver the mail.

Maybe it's a city thing.
 

yello

Guest
Over The Hill said:
If the postie went where would I get my supply of elastic bands?

Good point. I've only just run out of the red ones the London postie used to use. They don't use them here. I may have to *gulp* buy some.
 

tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
I post and receive a lot of parcels through Royal Mail for work and although there has been the odd problem, I think the service is generally impressive. We used to deal with a private courier firm who were hopeless to the point that they sent me an email to say something had been delivered and signed for when in fact it was still sitting on my desk as they hadn't picked it up yet. As a resident of the Republic of Ireland, I find the postal service to be far inferior to Royal Mail. You don't realise how lucky you are.
 
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