Letter: Royal Mail used to be a byword for reliability - what has happened?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.thenational.scot/business/2 ... -happened/

I WONDER if any of your readers have any experience of Royal Mail. I posted a small package, in good faith, first class, and with all the additional trappings of “track and trace” and “signed for” (which used to be completely unnecessary, as first class guaranteed next-day delivery.)

The total cost of this was £6.45, a lot, considering that the envelope was small, containing only a CD and a card and was, in any case, only going to Richmond, London.

This was posted on May 28, with next-day delivery being assured. However, as I write on June 6, the package has still not arrived. My “track and trace” told me delivery had been attempted but refused by the recipients, so the parcel would be returned to me.

I was astonished at this, as it had been previously agreed with the recipients (a classical music group) that the CD would arrive, and be gratefully received. I contacted them and they assured me that no attempt to deliver had ever been made and that therefore nobody had refused delivery!

Subsequent to this I have attempted to contact Royal Mail on three occasions (by telephone, which requires a 45-minute wait, on average, in order to speak with an operative) and established that the package appears to be languishing somewhere in the sorting office in Richmond.

I have been at pains to establish that I do not want it returned to me, but to actually be delivered!

Hopefully, this message has now sunk in, but the frustration, exasperation, and anger still remain. Royal Mail, like so many other British institutions, used to be an international byword for excellence and reliability.

Now they are a joke. What went wrong? It just might be privatisation ...

Brian D York
via email

[Jb1969]

You, meaning the public wanted this.You were assured a privatised company would perform far better & it would not go in same direction as Water, Electricity etc.
The work force were proud to supply that service, but that’s been beaten out of us with impossible delivery duties & no staff.
It’s gonna get worse too!

[ted_e_bear]

You, meaning the public wanted this.You were assured a privatised company would perform far better & it would not go in same direction as Water, Electricity etc.
The work force were proud to supply that service, but that’s been beaten out of us with impossible delivery duties & no staff.
It’s gonna get worse too!

Good reply, especially regarding the workforce, ah the good old days when it was a big thing if you forgot an odd letter or two, oh how times have changed.

[postslippete]

If the parcel was "refused" then the postie would have to endorse it with a red sticker and if it had a return address it would normally be returned to the recipient. Whether the postie has done this or not it is likely to be sat in a dead letter tray somewhere in the office OR its been incorrectly sent to where all the letters/parcels that don't have a return address get sent to.

[TopperGas]

If it was sent Tracked and seems to be lost somewhere in the system then why doesn't the letter writer just get on and claim compensation, not really sure what they hope to gain by writing to the press as they are not going to assist in finding it if it is lost.

[SpacePhoenix]

If it's an RTS item, it's probably stuck in a box of RTS items, either at the MC or DO. RTS items are low priority as they're "dead mail"

[norris9]

Some idiots turned Royal Mail into a loss making company and then decided to try to 'fix' the losses by massively reducing the staff numbers, which inevitably meant that the service went to absolute crap.

[Sean06]

If it's an RTS item, it's probably stuck in a box of RTS items, either at the MC or DO. RTS items are low priority as they're "dead mail"

But what about the live mail stuck amongst this dead mail surely they are a priority.

[LouBarlow]

Some idiots turned Royal Mail into a loss making company and then decided to try to 'fix' the losses by massively reducing the staff numbers, which inevitably meant that the service went to absolute crap.

Royal Mail has more often been a loss-making company than it has been a profitable one. The difference is, it now has shareholders to answer to.

[postslippete]

Royal Mail has more often been a loss-making company than it has been a profitable one. The difference is, it now has shareholders to answer to.

If it hasn't been profitable in the past it is because our profits have been invested elsewhere. Before Royal Mail was privatised it reported a pre-tax £324 million profit that was up from £201 million a year earlier. But the biggest concern back then though was the historic pension deficit.

[SpacePhoenix]

If it's an RTS item, it's probably stuck in a box of RTS items, either at the MC or DO. RTS items are low priority as they're "dead mail"

But what about the live mail stuck amongst this dead mail surely they are a priority.

The RTS mail can be sat around for days until there's the time to do it