DPD-1 Royal Mail - 0

[Taffycat]

Yesterday, we realised we were running out of wild bird seed. Shock-horror! Our poor little feathered friends can't be without food, particularly over Crimbo... so, had I left it too late to order more?

Seems not. I ordered the usual brand and 20 kg quantity from Amazon, yesterday morning. It qualified for "Prime" delivery... but frankly, as it's Christmas Eve today, we weren't that confident about seeing it this side of next week!

Wrong...! Good old Amazon dispatched it promptly and, at 8:45 am, the DPD driver delivered it. Jolly good service I call that. Well done Amazon and particularly DPD couriers.

Can't give quite the same praise to Royal Mail though... because another parcel we're expecting, has just been sitting in the system for several days, despite being dispatched immediately and "expedited" delivery paid for. Guess we will see that sometime in the New Year then....

Our "foot" postie does a great job, it's the parcel delivery office which tends to be tardy around here.

 

[nivrip]

Nice story, TC.

Don't want to see those birds suffering.

 

[PotGuy]

Having just gone through the hell of the Royal Mail Christmas jobs, I can tell you why.

When I did it last year, they employed better people for better wages, in better working conditions and employed stricter processes of supervision. It was all pretty well organised, we were all paid on time, everyone was happy. I was.

Now that it has been put the through the hideousness of privatisation, they employ the cheapest people who can barely even do the job. I would say a large minority of people sorting mail and parcels could barely speak english, let alone know any of the geography.

We would sort the mail, then that same mail would come back again and when you told your supervisor that it was the same mail she would say something in broken English and toddle off shouting at someone else, while nothing was done about the mail going round in circles.

Then there is this Angard business, which some of you will have read about. Angard is the agency owned by Royal Mail setup to reduce costs and flaunt employment regulations - they want to employed mostly casual workers instead of standard temps or perms. Angard are the worst 'agency' I have ever encountered. I worked 88 hours. I have received a single payslip for 31 hours work, in a week I wasn't even working. I am having to open a tribunal to get my pay. They took everyone's bank details on three separate occasions and STILL didn't pay us, to the extent that the RM bosses on site gave up waiting for them and gave out post office vouchers to exchange for pay.

You want to know why RM is so bad now? Look no further than the fact that your mail is being sorted by people who barely speak the language, don't know any of the geography and are supervised by people who have no idea what they are doing and don't care.

God knows what will happen to the NHS after Cameron is done with it if this is his idea of privatisation. How anything ever got delivered is beyond me. Once I sorted out a box of mail and I saw her put it with the unsorted mail and then somebody walked off towards a van with it. You get what you pay for, as the old saying goes. Mail being sorted by casual workers who are treated like **** and barely receive their pay, supervised by people who are barely paid any more than the casuals and also have no idea what they are doing.

Sorry to get so serious, but it angers me to see a system which was pretty decent and fit-for-purpose replaced in a single year by an incomprehensible, awful service in the name of political ideology. The amount of mail I saw ripped open beggared belief - that certainly didn't happen last year either.

 

[crazylegs]

Having just gone through the hell of the Royal Mail Christmas jobs, I can tell you why.

When I did it last year, they employed better people for better wages, in better working conditions and employed stricter processes of supervision. It was all pretty well organised, we were all paid on time, everyone was happy. I was.

Now that it has been put the through the hideousness of privatisation, they employ the cheapest people who can barely even do the job. I would say a large minority of people sorting mail and parcels could barely speak english, let alone know any of the geography.

We would sort the mail, then that same mail would come back again and when you told your supervisor that it was the same mail she would say something in broken English and toddle off shouting at someone else, while nothing was done about the mail going round in circles.

Then there is this Angard business, which some of you will have read about. Angard is the agency owned by Royal Mail setup to reduce costs and flaunt employment regulations - they want to employed mostly casual workers instead of standard temps or perms. Angard are the worst 'agency' I have ever encountered. I worked 88 hours. I have received a single payslip for 31 hours work, in a week I wasn't even working. I am having to open a tribunal to get my pay. They took everyone's bank details on three separate occasions and STILL didn't pay us, to the extent that the RM bosses on site gave up waiting for them and gave out post office vouchers to exchange for pay.

You want to know why RM is so bad now? Look no further than the fact that your mail is being sorted by people who barely speak the language, don't know any of the geography and are supervised by people who have no idea what they are doing and don't care.

God knows what will happen to the NHS after Cameron is done with it if this is his idea of privatisation. How anything ever got delivered is beyond me. Once I sorted out a box of mail and I saw her put it with the unsorted mail and then somebody walked off towards a van with it. You get what you pay for, as the old saying goes. Mail being sorted by casual workers who are treated like **** and barely receive their pay, supervised by people who are barely paid any more than the casuals and also have no idea what they are doing.

Sorry to get so serious, but it angers me to see a system which was pretty decent and fit-for-purpose replaced in a single year by an incomprehensible, awful service in the name of political ideology. The amount of mail I saw ripped open beggared belief - that certainly didn't happen last year either.

If you saw mail being ripped open then you need to become whistleblower mate!

To open mail is an offense..

I'm waiting to see what the NHS will become once Cameron gets his way and wrestles it from our hands!

I don't like moaning but I have noticed the degradation to the mail service, our letters get delivered now once every couple of days even though we have a daily service, and I know for a fact that Amazon send some of my stuff using royal mail and it sits in the sorting office for 2 or 3 days at a time before being delivered only on certain days, its become quite a pattern..
Also I have had to go in and speak to managers on various occasions where recorded delivery letters have been put through the letterbox without a signature and the notes accompanying the letter have been signed but not by me, but by the postman..
I told the manager in the sorting office that it is fraud and a criminal offense to deliver a letter where the recipient has not signed or recieved it..They said it would be investigated fully, 2 weeks later the same thing happened again and I was standing by the front door and looking at the postman putting the letter through the letterbox, I could quite clearly see the "recorded, signed for" red sticker on the front, yet no attempt was made to ring the bell or knock on the door to attain my signature and deliver the letter to my hand, I rushed out and collared him and asked what the hell he thought he was doing as it was recorded signed for and he had no right to deliver until he had my signature, he then spoke in a very broken english I could hardly understand, he was obviously an eastern european, and told me he had been told to deliver without knocking on doors to attain signatures..

I was disgusted and stormed up the sorting office again demanded to speak to the manager and told of my complaint for the 2nd time, said I spoke to the postman and he told me he was ordered to carry out instructions to deliver without signatures.
Told the manager if it happened again I would take legal action.
It hasn't happened again yet..

But what a joke!

 

[Taffycat]

In the interest of fairness to Royal Mail, I really must update my first post.

The second parcel I mentioned had been ordered from one of Amazon's market place traders. The company had lots of positive feedback, etc., and if one chose "expedited" delivery, which cost an additional ....wait for it, be prepared to faint....£14... they promised that delivery would take place between 22nd - 24th December.

On Christmas Eve, around 2 pm-ish, we rang our local RM Sorting Office to ask if there was any sign of the parcel. The fellow who picked up the call was actually very helpful, but he told us that all the delivery vans were now back and there was nothing left at the Sorting Office with our name/address.

The parcel had (according to the seller's email, and Amazon's own dispatch email) been sent Recorded Delivery, so it would have been pretty easy to spot. The Sorting Office Postie asked for a tracking number - which we had not been given. He immediately sounded a bit doubtful and said that for the P&P we'd been charged, we should have at least been supplied with a tracking number.

Anyway, I then emailed the Amazon market place seller - a company called "Consoletronics Ltd" to let them know that the parcel hadn't turned-up, I mentioned not having a tracking number and asking if they could offer any assistance.

I knew that they would probably have shut-up shop for the day, so I wasn't expecting (or demanding) to hear from them until after Christmas.

I heard from them all right... On Wednesday morning, they emailed me with their reply, which was very short and sweet. It just said "Order Canceled."

My first thought was ... but I didn't ask to cancel!. Quickly followed by... hang on a minute... how the heck can they say it's cancelled, when, according to them, it should be sitting somewhere in the postal system, where it's been since the 21st Dec... No mention of them even attempting to trace the parcel's whereabouts; after all, the sender would surely have been issued with a track and trace number when they sent something by recorded delivery...? No apology, or attempt at forging a good customer relationship, just "Order Cancelled." Ooooooooooh.... sounds a bit like throwing their rattle out of the pram to me.

So apologies Royal Mail, because on this occasion, it looks as if they were entirely blameless.

I also must say that our regular Postie is a really good man. Helpful, honest and a thoroughly good sort, who is very popular in our community. We always know if he's got a day off though, because one of the Posties who relieve him, always screws up the mail before posting it through the letterbox. Never mind whether it's a birthday card, or a document of some kind... he just likes to mangle everything!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Potguy's and crazylegs' posts sound like nightmares

Must confess it doesn't seem too bad in my neck of the woods, the only beef I have is when some posties just deliver a card saying they couldn't deliver cos I wasn't at home when I know for sure either myself or my daughter have been in.

That happens in about one out of ten Royal Mail parcels, probably the same lazy git who probably doesn't even attempt any parcel deliveries, just does a round delivering calling cards. So I have to travel from Greenwich to Charlton sorting office sometimes to collect a parcel. That's either a bus ride, two train stops and a walk or 15 minutes on me bicycle. Not economical to use car with fuel prices as they are.

And have to say the staff at the sorting office are usually helpful and polite, as are the majority of the people who do the deliveries to the front door.

All the posties I've encountered here, FWIW, are both genders, black, white and asian and as far as I can ascertain - even the temp staff - no Eastern European accents. As I said - FWIW.

Privatisation? Ooooo, mustn't, no, don't flops, don't say it, desist, it's naughty.... but it's bursting to get out..... no! Out of order old son, but - Thatcher's legacy! Ha! Ooops, I said it

 

[PotGuy]

Just to clarify I didn't see anyone rip open mail - I meant that mail would turn up ripped up, stolen out of, or an empty envelope.

Also, my postman is a lovely bloke, and I've never had anyone but helpful people in the sorting office.

These are front-of-house employees though. Behind the scenes it is appalling what they are doing to it.

I'll avoid ranting anymore about the NHS or whatever, but just wanted to make sure that everyone knew my postie is a great fella