Customer notice:Amazon serious delays?

[DGP1]

To put it into perspective,
All in Royal Mail I am sure have been paid during December for the work done. I have taken in orders at the busiest time of the year with time related products ( Christmas ). We have taken the money in, sent the items in good time, every order has been cleared so it is mailed in the next post. The time for the items to arrive has now timed out, so, I then pay for the postage for the items to be sent back, refund the money and instead of being the busiest time of the year, make a net loss. Customers are disappointed, I have stock that is now unsaleable and to boot I now haven't had a pay day in December although I will have done triple the work. The reason I'm online now is to deal with the problems, as I were on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
All because Royal Mail stick two fingers at my mail.
does that sound like the December you have had. ......no I thought not!

Jeez, you just won't listen, take it up with management not us, we go in and delivery what we can in the hours we work, Moya Greene is the CE now so maybe you could direct your venom at her.

[fishtank]

If i were you Chaspost i would start putting contingency plans in place for next year.
If the company is privatised not only will the service be poorer but the cost will be a great deal higher and in some areas prohibitive.
Many of the smaller internet companies will struggle badly...and with ebay..the impact will be enormous.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Isn't about time that Royal Mail employees of any Rank "Man Up" and publish the real truth regarding the delay in mail. Companies like Amazon ( the only affiliation I have is that I sell through the company ) have good and what appear to be honest intentions, they appear to handle any issues in a generous and customer focussed manner. As employees of Royal Mail you are allowing and sometimes encouraging the heat to go in their direction, of which all should all hold your head's in shame.
The process of sorting new mail over old is an unacceptable practice to everyone except between the management who negotiated the deal with the government and who have somehow lost focus that your business is charging for items that you indicate you will deliver somewhere else at a set time for a set fee.
On the assumption that 2nd class mail takes 2-3 days to get delivered, a 24 hour holdup such as the beginning of the month would push that to 3-4 days etc. Catching up is not delivering isolated mail 14 days later and delivering Mail before Christmas that was posted after deadlines, while mail has been sitting unsorted for 12 days is something you will have to explain to me.
The mail for December or any event such as, Valentines day is predictable by historic and market trends so therefore the volume of mail can be guestimated for any day, staffing and an infrastructure should be planned for the likely volume. The keeling over of the mail system indicates that both the staff and infrastructure was being winged on an "It'll be alright on the Night" basis.
A lot of orders are placed online on the basis of companies offering a "guaranteed" delivery schedule. The system that Royal Mail is operating now is only operating in the shadow of a previous predictable service. As soon as companies look back at this year and realise their reputation is on the line with orders placed after the 1st of December not being guaranteed delivery for Christmas, then they will stop offering a guarantee until a more predictable service is offered by Royal Mail or someone else.
Delays in a linear fashion can be catered for, an unpredictable service cannot. We are a very small company and had last minute marketing planned for Christmas, when the 3rd of December's mail hadn't been delivered by the 15th of December, it was scrapped, so revenue for both us and Royal Mail was lost there.
Any trading company has dreams of a Factory full of undiscounted work, as Royal Mail have, so make the most of it, before it disappears. Man up, accept your responsibilities and good fortune and stop allowing the weather, other large mailing companies or any other passing ship to take the blame for your shortcomings.

Cor you really are a modern manager aren't you. You believe that the Policy failings and structural matters are lie in the purview of the lowest rung.

A Photo from a news source on the 2009 strikes:
http://www.24dash.com/news/communities/ ... l-services" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, said: "Postal workers are sick and tired of an incompetent management running their business into the ground. Workers are busier than ever and being treated badly. The current round of cuts in jobs and services is unacceptable.

"Royal Mail agreed in 2007 to work with the union on agreeing modernisation. Despite explicit commitments to negotiate they are reneging on that agreement and imposing panic-driven cuts to jobs and services. This is downsizing, not modernisation."

Is that man enough

Me Personally I have been annoying my own MP and waiting letters to various Postal Affairs ministers, attending marches and demos, writing on here and doing my own blog to draw attention to it.

You see the backlog and your affected only then is your interest piqued and because you have done nothing you believe ordinary workers have not either. Yep your a manager, not a leader.

[ChasPost]

It is not the responsibility of front line staff to report issues of policy to anybody in fact what you are asking them to do is breach the commercial confidentiality clause in their contracts and face the sack.
It is very much up to the customer if he or she feels that they have not received the service they have paid for to "man up" rather than just grumble about it.
Amazon have had issues this year...the most important being a failure to realise that their final mile distribution(Royal Mail) could not cope with the volume of orders received especially with severe weather disruption.

It is Royal Mail's responsibility to fulfil it's obligations to Amazon but it is Amazon's responsibility to fulfil it's obligations to it's customers.

The Actions of Royal Mail staff of sorting mail out of order is very self serving, many many people either think they are unlucky with the delivery of isolated items or blame the sender, hence the forum aimed at Amazon. It is quite gob-smacking that you see thinks in the narrow view that you do.
Amazon doesn't have issues in the final Mile, can you not see that it is Royal Mail that has issues in not coping with the level of demand not Amazon. Online companies make claims to deliver in line with normal an expected delivery times. We pay for a service from Royal Mail whether it be for the whole delivery or the final mile. You are hiding behind Amazon in terms of the obligations.
To give a clearer picture, you are waiting in a queue to pay for your supermarket shopping, the Cashier is under pressure from the company to keep the number of customers in the queue down to a certain number, she can see down the line that several at the back have baskets instead of trolleys so she serves them first and keeps the number down to the correct level.
When the customers, to follow your train of thought in the Amazon scenario is that it all the fault of the customers with the fullest trollies that is to blame, you are in that queue, what do you think?.
You only get away with these delays is because this Royal Mail action is somewhat new and at the moment have caught both Companies and their customers off guard, but that won't last very long.
It is invisible and so you are able at the moment to allow good companies who try very to keep a good service to their customers to take the blame. It cannot be that it is Amazon or any else that pays your wages fault for the failure of Royal Mail to do the right thing and at least deliver the mail in the date order that you receive it.
Take a step back and have a look through fresh eyes, it is taken as a given that we will continue and always use Royal Mail but that is a dangerous presumption.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

It is not the responsibility of front line staff to report issues of policy to anybody in fact what you are asking them to do is breach the commercial confidentiality clause in their contracts and face the sack.
It is very much up to the customer if he or she feels that they have not received the service they have paid for to "man up" rather than just grumble about it.
Amazon have had issues this year...the most important being a failure to realise that their final mile distribution(Royal Mail) could not cope with the volume of orders received especially with severe weather disruption.

It is Royal Mail's responsibility to fulfil it's obligations to Amazon but it is Amazon's responsibility to fulfil it's obligations to it's customers.

The Actions of Royal Mail staff of sorting mail out of order is very self serving, many many people either think they are unlucky with the delivery of isolated items or blame the sender, hence the forum aimed at Amazon. It is quite gob-smacking that you see thinks in the narrow view that you do.
Amazon doesn't have issues in the final Mile, can you not see that it is Royal Mail that has issues in not coping with the level of demand not Amazon. Online companies make claims to deliver in line with normal an expected delivery times. We pay for a service from Royal Mail whether it be for the whole delivery or the final mile. You are hiding behind Amazon in terms of the obligations.
To give a clearer picture, you are waiting in a queue to pay for your supermarket shopping, the Cashier is under pressure from the company to keep the number of customers in the queue down to a certain number, she can see down the line that several at the back have baskets instead of trolleys so she serves them first and keeps the number down to the correct level.
When the customers, to follow your train of thought in the Amazon scenario is that it all the fault of the customers with the fullest trollies that is to blame, you are in that queue, what do you think?.
You only get away with these delays is because this Royal Mail action is somewhat new and at the moment have caught both Companies and their customers off guard, but that won't last very long.
It is invisible and so you are able at the moment to allow good companies who try very to keep a good service to their customers to take the blame. It cannot be that it is Amazon or any else that pays your wages fault for the failure of Royal Mail to do the right thing and at least deliver the mail in the date order that you receive it.
Take a step back and have a look through fresh eyes, it is taken as a given that we will continue and always use Royal Mail but that is a dangerous presumption.

Again is comprehension of the facts difficult for you.

This is NOT an official RM site.

Postal Workers cannot decide what work they do thats the Managers responsibility. What would you do if an employee disobeyed policy.

The Policy of RM has nothing to do with this board or Posties on the ground - we can only do the work thats in front of us. Its managers and their policies that decide what work gets done.

You are quite rightly angry at the way RM are treating you (welcome to our world) but posting comments on an UNOFFICIAL site is like complaining to a McD employee that your order was late, when he is sitting in the Dog and Duck enjoying a chin wag with his mates.

Focus your anger correctly at those who decide on the Policy otherwise you are going to get very frustrated.

BTW how can posties sorting mail out of order be self serving - our own items were in that backlog so we suffered the same frustrations as customers. To be self serving we have to gain from it - what did we gain.

[fishtank]

The Actions of Royal Mail staff of sorting mail out of order is very self serving, many many people either think they are unlucky with the delivery of isolated items or blame the sender, hence the forum aimed at Amazon. It is quite gob-smacking that you see thinks in the narrow view that you do.
Amazon doesn't have issues in the final Mile, can you not see that it is Royal Mail that has issues in not coping with the level of demand not Amazon. Online companies make claims to deliver in line with normal an expected delivery times. We pay for a service from Royal Mail whether it be for the whole delivery or the final mile. You are hiding behind Amazon in terms of the obligations.

I find it quite incredible that someone who runs a customer led company doesn't get this.
Your customers don't have a contract with Royal Mail.....you do.
Your customers will quite rightly be angry with you because you took their money and didn't deliver what you promised and you in turn will be angry with Royal Mail because they took your money and didn't deliver.

Amazon customers do not have a contract with Royal Mail,they pay Amazon for the whole shooting match...they are quite rightly venting their anger towards Amazon who will in turn look to Royal Mail for answers...that's what happens when you sub contract work.
Now if i were in the boardroom at Amazon would i be brave or stupid enough to stand up and say we don't have a problem with the delivery of our goods.
I am not hiding behind anyone,i'm just a postman...Royal Mail will not be hiding either when Amazon bosses summon them for talks about the shambles we have witnessed this Christmas...or any future contract negotiations.

[andy2007]

It is not the responsibility of front line staff to report issues of policy to anybody in fact what you are asking them to do is breach the commercial confidentiality clause in their contracts and face the sack.
It is very much up to the customer if he or she feels that they have not received the service they have paid for to "man up" rather than just grumble about it.
Amazon have had issues this year...the most important being a failure to realise that their final mile distribution(Royal Mail) could not cope with the volume of orders received especially with severe weather disruption.

It is Royal Mail's responsibility to fulfil it's obligations to Amazon but it is Amazon's responsibility to fulfil it's obligations to it's customers.

The Actions of Royal Mail staff of sorting mail out of order is very self serving, many many people either think they are unlucky with the delivery of isolated items or blame the sender, hence the forum aimed at Amazon. It is quite gob-smacking that you see thinks in the narrow view that you do.
Amazon doesn't have issues in the final Mile, can you not see that it is Royal Mail that has issues in not coping with the level of demand not Amazon. Online companies make claims to deliver in line with normal an expected delivery times. We pay for a service from Royal Mail whether it be for the whole delivery or the final mile. You are hiding behind Amazon in terms of the obligations.
To give a clearer picture, you are waiting in a queue to pay for your supermarket shopping, the Cashier is under pressure from the company to keep the number of customers in the queue down to a certain number, she can see down the line that several at the back have baskets instead of trolleys so she serves them first and keeps the number down to the correct level.
When the customers, to follow your train of thought in the Amazon scenario is that it all the fault of the customers with the fullest trollies that is to blame, you are in that queue, what do you think?.
You only get away with these delays is because this Royal Mail action is somewhat new and at the moment have caught both Companies and their customers off guard, but that won't last very long.
It is invisible and so you are able at the moment to allow good companies who try very to keep a good service to their customers to take the blame. It cannot be that it is Amazon or any else that pays your wages fault for the failure of Royal Mail to do the right thing and at least deliver the mail in the date order that you receive it.
Take a step back and have a look through fresh eyes, it is taken as a given that we will continue and always use Royal Mail but that is a dangerous presumption.

Your lack of comprehension is quite allarming!
I would have thought that you, would be capable of reading and understanding English!

I'll try to put it into terms that you can understand:
1) If a Manager is concerned that the new Mail could fail, if older (failed) Mail is processed. He/she can give orders to the Staff (us), to ignore the late Mail, and only process/deliver the newest Mail. Then if there's time at the end, we're allowed to process/deliver the delayed Mail.

2) If we disobey these orders, and process/deliver the Mail in the order it arrives. We face serious disciplinaries, for "willful delay of the Mail". If enough new Mail fails as a result of our disobedience, then we could potentially face prosecution.

So what would you have us do?
Face large numbers of us being sacked, and a handfull ending up in Court, for "willful delay of the Mail"?
How exactly would that help you?
You'd still have the same problem. There'd just be a brief improvement (for a day or so), 'till they could deal with us all. Followed by a large influx of new Staff, who wouldn't have the experience to even do what we're doing now. It could take weeks, or even months for them to "get up to speed". What part of this is so hard to comprehend?

[tbp]

Just to put the other side, I also make my living by selling on Amazon/website/eBay. I send between 200-500 items a week (sometimes extra on Sat).

I like the system as it is. Why - 2 reasons.

Firstly, it's predictable. I know that if an item is not delivered in a timely manner then it will likely be in the system for some time, and I know how to deal with it. If the system were to be corrected then it would introduce a variable delay and make it much harder to deal with.

Secondly - and more importantly - if the mail were to be dealt with in a strict 'first in-first out' system then every time there was a delay there would be a knock-back effect to all the mail behind it, introduceing uncertainty as to how long any particular item would take to be delivered. It would introduce confusion for the customers because mail following different routes would take different times to delivery.

And, of course, the resulting accumilation of fimes would mean the prices would have to go up.

At the moment I know that most things I post will be delivered next day. If something is not delivered in a week it is not going to be delivered in a timely manner, and I can deal with it.

I'd rather have cetainty than 'fairness'.

And, finally...

I can make a living the way I do because of RM. I would like to say thank you to all the posties who make it possable. Have a good new year.

tbp

[ChasPost]

Secondly - and more importantly - if the mail were to be dealt with in a strict 'first in-first out' system then every time there was a delay there would be a knock-back effect to all the mail behind it, introduceing uncertainty as to how long any particular item would take to be delivered. It would introduce confusion for the customers because mail following different routes would take different times to delivery.

tbp

I hate to keep putting the contra view but here goes;

Can I paint a picture for you;
a bit of imagination is needed here;

You happen to notice that the post office or where ever hasn't put your mail in the system, this is 3 days later than you left it there, by your remarks of mailing Saturday, I presume that you are mailing your items very promptly after orders are received, so you bust a gut to get the orders out.

They say to you that your mail is now a "failed target" for Royal, so you reply, "never mind take that new mail, mine is already delayed, so you can delay it some more". Then you go into the post office for the next 9 days and do the same.
On the 10th day you notice that mail collections are not so busy, so you say to them, "You look less busy today, perhaps you can fit my mail in, if you have the time".
You repeat this process 5 times during December.

....doesn't have much a ring of truth about it does it.

That is the procedure that you are suggesting, for every sack of mail that jumps the queue there is one left behind and it is only this system that causes erratic delays.
If mail is kept in strict order First in First Out, then any delays are progressive, stretching when the delay occurs by a day or two and condensing when the delay recedes.

I know my posts were like rants, and my current thinking is that are possibly a local issue and would welcome contribution from anyone what works an the Newtown Sorting Office to confirm or otherwise.

[Broxi51]

I hate to keep putting the contra view but here goes;

Can I paint a picture for you;
a bit of imagination is needed here;

You happen to notice that the post office or where ever hasn't put your mail in the system, this is 3 days later than you left it there, by your remarks of mailing Saturday, I presume that you are mailing your items very promptly after orders are received, so you bust a gut to get the orders out.

They say to you that your mail is now a "failed target" for Royal, so you reply, "never mind take that new mail, mine is already delayed, so you can delay it some more". Then you go into the post office for the next 9 days and do the same.
On the 10th day you notice that mail collections are not so busy, so you say to them, "You look less busy today, perhaps you can fit my mail in, if you have the time".
You repeat this process 5 times during December.

....doesn't have much a ring of truth about it does it.

That is the procedure that you are suggesting, for every sack of mail that jumps the queue there is one left behind and it is only this system that causes erratic delays.
If mail is kept in strict order First in First Out, then any delays are progressive, stretching when the delay occurs by a day or two and condensing when the delay recedes.

I know my posts were like rants, and my current thinking is that are possibly a local issue and would welcome contribution from anyone what works an the Newtown Sorting Office to confirm or otherwise.

You have to address your concerns with postcom mate. They are the ones who allow this to happen. If you got fined for delaying every order then you would ignore the first delayed order
and work on the next so that you wouldnt get fined for that one. Postcom dont fine you twice for the same item hence the instruction to ignore the failed order and move on.
Whether it is right or wrong doesnt matter. Any business will try to escape fines where possible and that is what RM has done thanks to postcoms rules.

[ChasPost]

I hate to keep putting the contra view but here goes;

Can I paint a picture for you;
a bit of imagination is needed here;

You happen to notice that the post office or where ever hasn't put your mail in the system, this is 3 days later than you left it there, by your remarks of mailing Saturday, I presume that you are mailing your items very promptly after orders are received, so you bust a gut to get the orders out.

They say to you that your mail is now a "failed target" for Royal, so you reply, "never mind take that new mail, mine is already delayed, so you can delay it some more". Then you go into the post office for the next 9 days and do the same.
On the 10th day you notice that mail collections are not so busy, so you say to them, "You look less busy today, perhaps you can fit my mail in, if you have the time".
You repeat this process 5 times during December.

....doesn't have much a ring of truth about it does it.

That is the procedure that you are suggesting, for every sack of mail that jumps the queue there is one left behind and it is only this system that causes erratic delays.
If mail is kept in strict order First in First Out, then any delays are progressive, stretching when the delay occurs by a day or two and condensing when the delay recedes.

I know my posts were like rants, and my current thinking is that are possibly a local issue and would welcome contribution from anyone what works an the Newtown Sorting Office to confirm or otherwise.

You have to address your concerns with postcom mate. They are the ones who allow this to happen. If you got fined for delaying every order then you would ignore the first delayed order
and work on the next so that you wouldnt get fined for that one. Postcom dont fine you twice for the same item hence the instruction to ignore the failed order and move on.
Whether it is right or wrong doesnt matter. Any business will try to escape fines where possible and that is what RM has done thanks to postcoms rules.

Yep, That's the general idea, not sure if you read my previous rants, and I am not exactly sure who if anyone is culpable, or to what extent, Hence trying to get a heads up.
It is just these posts that indicate they will always be a winner if mail is Last in First Out so I just wanted to make the point.

[Broxi51]

Yep, That's the general idea, not sure if you read my previous rants, and I am not exactly sure who if anyone is culpable, or to what extent, Hence trying to get a heads up.
It is just these posts that indicate they will always be a winner if mail is Last in First Out so I just wanted to make the point.

I get the point and can understand the need to rant about the stupidity but we have ranted on this site for years
about all the injustices that postcom and the government have laid down on RM but unfortunately, until it affects you,
no one cares.

[ChasPost]

Yep, That's the general idea, not sure if you read my previous rants, and I am not exactly sure who if anyone is culpable, or to what extent, Hence trying to get a heads up.
RM but unfortunately, until it affects you,
no one cares.

Royal Mail is a supplier of mine, unfortunately they have a monopoly position with regard to light mail. I pay a rate that I have no control over and I buy a promise that an item of mine will be in another place at a dictated price in a promised time.
The money changes hands from me to Royal Mail, the promise is not being returned.

I have no further interest as I am sure you haven't in the internal workings or management structure, salaries, pensions and working conditions of my organisation.

To conclude Royal Mail has its place in the world, but it is not the centre of its axis

[ChasPost]

Yep, That's the general idea, not sure if you read my previous rants, and I am not exactly sure who if anyone is culpable, or to what extent, Hence trying to get a heads up.
RM but unfortunately, until it affects you,
no one cares.

Royal Mail is a supplier of mine, unfortunately they have a monopoly position with regard to light mail. I pay a rate that I have no control over and I buy a promise that an item of mine will be in another place at a dictated price in a promised time.
The money changes hands from me to Royal Mail, the promise is not being returned.

I have no further interest as I am sure you haven't in the internal workings or management structure, salaries, pensions and working conditions of my organisation.

To conclude Royal Mail has its place in the world, but it is not the centre of its axis

[clashcityrocker]

This hadn’t been helped by a surge of post from customers who found private mail couriers had stopped work altogether and sent parcels through the Royal Mail instead.

Lifted from an article about problems in Worcester.
Far from private companies being a solution..........