No one picking up the phone for redelivery

[outandabout]

Saw this in a comment to a newspaper article online:

"Residents of Newport have been driven to despair by our local (Newport) sorting office. The telephone number on the card is NEVER answered. I have tried ringing continually for hours on end. When I went to collect a parcel I asked the counter clerk why this was so. She told me that they were under instructions from their manager not to answer the phone and to give priority to customers collecting parcels. I pointed out that if they answered the phone they would have fewer customers collecting! Complaining to Royal Mail is like tilting at windmills only less effective!

- Graham Price, Newport Gwent, 17/10/2009 13:08"

I had exactly the same problem with our sorting office a while back. They never answered the phone (after a series of sorry you were out cards were put through when we were in), I was hanging on the phone till it cut off several times, just to make sure they did not eventually answer it, and this was before internet redelivery could be done.

After escalating the issue to top management, which took me an hour or two over a couple of days, they local sorting office accepted they had not been answering the phone due to "manning issues" and that staff would be allocated to ensure this did not happen again.

After this, there was no problem.

All I can suggest is that people should not give up in the face of poor service, if you complain to senior management loudly enough, you will force the local management to put the appropriate level of resource in place.

[Stormproof]

local sorting office accepted they had not been answering the phone due to "manning issues"

Says it all really and I bet the person in the Callers office got a bollocking for it

[outandabout]

yes, suggests that junior management poor performance and desire to hit bonuses leading to them running down the service levels, may well be behind many of the issues that customers get irate about, which to be fair is what many of the posties on here are saying.

[jaja]

source in place.
Saw this in a comment to a newspaper article online:

"Residents of Newport have been driven to despair by our local (Newport) sorting office. The telephone number on the card is NEVER answered. I have tried ringing continually for hours on end. When I went to collect a parcel I asked the counter clerk why this was so. She told me that they were under instructions from their manager not to answer the phone and to give priority to customers collecting parcels. I pointed out that if they answered the phone they would have fewer customers collecting! Complaining to Royal Mail is like tilting at windmills only less effective!

- Graham Price, Newport Gwent, 17/10/2009 13:08"

I had exactly the same problem with our sorting office a while back. They never answered the phone (after a series of sorry you were out cards were put through when we were in), I was hanging on the phone till it cut off several times, just to make sure they did not eventually answer it, and this was before internet redelivery could be done.

After escalating the issue to top management, which took me an hour or two over a couple of days, they local sorting office accepted they had not been answering the phone due to "manning issues" and that staff would be allocated to ensure this did not happen again.

After this, there was no problem.

All I can suggest is that people should not give up in the face of poor service, if you complain to senior management loudly enough, you will force the local management to put the appropriate level of resource in place.

Not quite as easy as that out&about you see RM managment have cut hours out of the callers office to make savings....once the hours are out you can shout as loudly as you like.....you will NEVER get the hours back....its called structual change....I have seen it happen in offices in the end the customers just have to accept it

[coxie]

same in our office, its down to the managers to answer the phone but they all seem to just walk past and let it ring and ring

[chewi]

I thought the number on the back of the 739 was to a call centre. I know on my delivery that a couple of customers have told me that they tried for hours and couldn't get an answer. The callers office reckon they get redelivery instructions by E-mail not by phone.

[venger]

Reason is probably because there's nobody in the office to answer the phone as he/she's out on delivery now as part of his/her duty that DID consist of him/her being in the office to take calls etc, but due to royal mails 'modernisation' he/she is now doing a delivery so there's nobody in the office to answer the bloody phone! If us postmen can't even get an answer in our own bloody office, what hope do the customers have?

[CuttingOffTodayBoss]

Too lazy to get out of bed and answer the door, but quick enough to pick up the phone

[Barry Trotter]

**

[daisydooker]

Too lazy to get out of bed and answer the door, but quick enough to pick up the phone

exactly

[not me]

I thought the number on the back of the 739 was to a call centre. I know on my delivery that a couple of customers have told me that they tried for hours and couldn't get an answer. The callers office reckon they get redelivery instructions by E-mail not by phone.

the number is the office number
the email redeliveresi are via the online service,the CLEO list
dunno about others but at busy times we can hit 30 pages on the CLEO a day

[Barry Trotter]

I thought the number on the back of the 739 was to a call centre. I know on my delivery that a couple of customers have told me that they tried for hours and couldn't get an answer. The callers office reckon they get redelivery instructions by E-mail not by phone.

the number is the office number
the email redeliveresi are via the online service,the CLEO list
dunno about others but at busy times we can hit 30 pages on the CLEO a day

The cleo list in our office is a very big problem due to the manager constantly strolling in at 10-10.30am to do that days list. Obviously that means anyone who has asked for a delivery that day isnt getting it. He just changes the day. Say if its a wednesday redelivery he changes it to thursday. If Wednesday is the customers day off or they have changed their plans to wait in,tough. We are the ones who get it in the neck but I ALWAYS tell the customer to make an official complaint. Sometimes that can be five complaints a day and it doesnt seem to bother the managers.

[not me]

I thought the number on the back of the 739 was to a call centre. I know on my delivery that a couple of customers have told me that they tried for hours and couldn't get an answer. The callers office reckon they get redelivery instructions by E-mail not by phone.

the number is the office number
the email redeliveresi are via the online service,the CLEO list
dunno about others but at busy times we can hit 30 pages on the CLEO a day

The cleo list in our office is a very big problem due to the manager constantly strolling in at 10-10.30am to do that days list. Obviously that means anyone who has asked for a delivery that day isnt getting it. He just changes the day. Say if its a wednesday redelivery he changes it to thursday. If Wednesday is the customers day off or they have changed their plans to wait in,tough. We are the ones who get it in the neck but I ALWAYS tell the customer to make an official complaint. Sometimes that can be five complaints a day and it doesnt seem to bother the managers.

we gave up long ago waiting on the managers printing off the CLEO
same goes for clearing them off the system
nothing more fun thank looking for a 'lost' packet to find it was redelivered days before but not taken off CLEO