Any more redress for delayed SD1?

[Amii]

I've just been refunded £6.45 for a delayed SD1 delivery...the consequences of which have been nothing short of devastating. The SD1 contained key documents to allow us entry in to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party - extra ID for security clearance in light of the increased terror threat of late. Suffice to say, extra coverage for "consequential losses" was not taken out (but what price can you put on a once-in-a-lifetime visit to the Palace?). What's gauling though is the reason my (new) postman gave the next day when I saw him: that he didn't start his round at the usual time of 10.30am because "there wasn't a red trolley available!". Does that sound plausible? I have to believe it in the absence of any other evidence, but surely that's negligent of RM? Or lazy of the postie to not take initiative and pop out to at least ensure his SD1s got delivered on time, even if he had to carry them in hand rather than in trolley (surely they couldn't have been that weighty!)?
Bizarrely what he did instead was hang around the office more than 2 hours until a trolley became available, and then at 12.45pm scanned my SD1 item in the office as "unable to gain access". He hadn't even attempted a delivery, so this was inaccurate (and there were not problems with access to my flat at all...I'd accepted an Amazon parcel delivery just 10 minutes before!). The first I knew about it was when I checked Track & Trace online at 1pm. His explanation for this inaccurate record was that he didn't think he would get to me by 1pm so scanned the item as he did ... again, this does not make sense to me. In fact I only live a 10 minute walk from the local Delivery Office and he could indeed have got to me by 1pm if he'd set off at 12.45pm. I spent 45 minutes running around my neighbourhood looking for this man between 1 and 2 pm the day I was expecting my SD1... I could not find him anywhere. I rang Customer Services in tears and distraught, asking for their help in tracking him down - they tried phoning the DO several times and were not answered. If it were just me affected I may not have been so distraught, but I was going as a guest of my sister in law who had flown in from Malta with her young baby (who she's exclusively breast feeding). It had been a mammoth task of organisation so you can imagine how dejected we felt when we pleaded at the Palace gates at 3pm to be let in despite the lack of all key documents but were not allowed.
BTW, the postie said he returned at 3 or 4pm to try and deliver my SD1 item, but obviously we were at the palace gates then...yet he didn't leave a calling card. He says he couldn't because of how he'd scanned the item earlier that day. Again, this makes no sense to me. The Track & Trace log subsequently was updated from "not accessible" to "failed delivery".
Is there any way I can go about securing some compensation for "stress, anxiety, and inconvenience" if not the consequential financial losses for flights, time off work etc ... without having to go through the lengthy rigmarole of PRP, and POSTRS, before threatening a small claims court for ?negligence ?incompetance ?lack of diligence, which I really don't want to do because
1. I don't want to see this young man (my new postie) potentially out of a job for his 'poor' decisions which could reflect poor supervision & lack of equipment as much as personal carelessness, and
2. I'm just so very very tired, and depressed from the fallout from all of this (family relations are hugely strained...and my chronic health condition flared up due to the insane amount of stress I experienced that day...I was a blubbering wreck by the end of it and have struggled to go to work since).

Is there any mileage in going back to the Escalation Team who issued the cheque and a pithy response which failed to address the Qs I asked (above) over the phone. I doubly checked that she had recorded everything I told her, and she said she had. So I'm unsure why I've had a bland letter simply stating run of the mill things like "the DO has been interviewed..appropriate action taken...any gesture I could make would never make up for the upset we have caused you..."...and totally failed to address my specific Qs (I don't want this to happen to anyone else, but from her response I can not see how they plan to prevent this)...So they simply made no gesture beyond the refund. They are aware there were wasted flights and childcare costs. DOES ANYONE THINK I HAVE A LEG TO STAND ON IN PURSUING COMPENSATION without having to exhaustively go above and beyond the Escalation Team? Does anyone know if they have limits to what they can give out as a gesture of goodwill for distress caused? I am so shocked they didn't even 'attempt' any financial redress.

There was a missed call on my mobile earlier in the week, "no caller ID" which is what flashed up when I answered a call from the Escalation Team earlier in the week...I wonder if they were prepared to negotiate something before resorting to their bland letter with
Cheque for postage costs refunded....

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

[Snaggletooth]

Within the terms and conditions of SD, you can't claim anything. The optional Consequential Loss cover would not have helped either.

There would have been no chance of getting anything at a small claims court before October. Now, with the Consumer Rights Act coming in, there may be a chance, but it would probably be a test case.

If you take it all the way through RM customer service route, and threaten (gently) to take it to the press, you might get something. If you exhaust that route, you can take it to the Ombudsman, then the regulator (but you must exhaust each step before proceeding to the next).

[Janet Brum]

It`s a pitty you didn`t go to your delivery office shortly after 1 pm to see why you didn`t receive your item?
That would have had solved the problem, especially that you live so close?

[Amii]

Yes...a great pity. And that's what makes me all the more annoyed. I was told on the phone that the "Unable to Access" log, registered on Track & Trace and RM computer systems literally just a few moments before meant that he was likely continuing on his round.
I bumped into another postman in a neighbouring patch who used to do that round, and he suggested the next estate he would have gone to after mine - so I ran round there looking for him...and all the other streets in my neighbourhood, to no avail.
Just shows you how important honesty and integrity is...but for that misleading log, I may have had a chance to redeem this.

[yellowbelly]

Sorry about your missing the Garden Party but if you've been refunded the 6.45 I'm assuming the documents
you were waiting for were your own documents coming from another location and not documents sent by the Palace.

WIthout wishing to sound harsh, if the documents were that critical to gaining access to the Palace on the day
(considering your and your relatives efforts to get there) I would have chosen SD 9AM
which I'm assuming is available in your location if you're not far from the Palace. Then a specific driver
would have been sent out with your SD. It would have cost extra but you probably would have made the party.

If you try to go for further compensation this might be the counter argument RM would use.

The version of what happened at the DO if true is obviously concerning, however I can't see a postie being allowed
to 'hang around' doing nothing for two hours waiting for a trolley, the managers probably had him doing other stuff.
But why someone didn't take his SD's off him to deliver in a van is a mystery.

Sorry again for your missing this event.

[Amii]

It's a mystery to me too why the SDs weren't delivered by someone else...or HIMSELF given how close I live. And the letter of response has not addressed this issue. I don't suppose I'll ever get to know the reason, but the postman was new (4 weeks in) and for the first 2 weeks he didn't have a fob to gain quick entry to our estate...instead he would have to call a flat no. and wait to be let in...but he complained to me about how long that took, and I did notice my mail was arriving much later than usual around that same period...so I don't know what he was doing in the interim. BUT on that day (and for the immediate 2 weeks preceding) he did have a quick entry fob. However, why he reverted to scanning my item as being "unable to gain access" (presumably like he'd been doing in the first 2 weeks on the job without a quick entry fob) I do not know. When he first explained his reasons for not delivering on time he gave me the "fob" story until I pointed out he was holding one in his hand. Then his story changed to the "red trolley" one. So I don't know how much I can rely on him having finally told the truth and whether the "inaccessible" logging was to try and pretend he'd physically left the office for his round (maybe meaning he could kill a few hours doing nothing instead) I DON'T KNOW...but would love to find out what his motive was.
As for the 9am issue - I was booked into the hairdressers for my big day at that time (another wasted expense!); and why not opt for 1pm when the service is "guaranteed"? Hell I could have paid for same day express delivery at even greater expense...there's numerous things I "could" have done. But I am where I am, and hindsight is a wonderful thing if it's not you going through the sheer hell of what I went through that day (rant over! It's not personal; I just have a problem with services that purport to mean something on paper but don't translate into reality, and for no good reason that I can see).

In over 13 years living here I've never had an SD item failed to be delivered on time. And no, it wasn't the invite being posted to me. The recent terrorist attacks meant that security was ramped up (requiring more check points on the day, and more documentation to be brought)...the documentation was not for me, but for a family member who does not live in London but who had come to stay with me beforehand, so we could leave together for the Palace.
I am perfectly aware I'm not "entitled" to any compensation, and that any recompense will only be a gesture of goodwill. I have seen no gesture of goodwill thus far and wonder what kind of misfortune you have to suffer to be given it. I telephoned RM escalation team again yesterday to appeal to their better side and was asked how much the Garden Party invite meant to me personally if I had to put a price on it... I responded that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I couldn't put a price on (sorry I'm a royalist) ... he pushed me again for an answer and the only thing I could come up with that had a monetary value attached to it was the actual financial costs wasted on things like my family member's flight to London and travel to & from the airport (I didn't even mention the wasted hat hire, clothes & hairdressing expenses, childcare, hours on the telephone to nearly a dozen RM personnel so far, time off work etc etc)....The financial costs to me are not insignificant given my limited means of earning an income on a zero hours contract due to disability. The emotional and health costs are incalculable...I have been off work since that day with a flare up in my long term physical health condition triggered by the stress & physical exertion of that day. Family relations are strained from the fall out of it all. I have little energy to pursue this, but my friend who is a red top newspaper journalist says she will help - she wants to publish it as a human interest story. I did explain this in my call yesterday and he responded that "strictly speaking you shouldn't even have been entitled to the £6.45 refund; that was a gesture of goodwill"...talk about rubbing salt into a wound...they are heartless.

After pushing me to give him a figure of what the invite was worth to me, he then scoffed at it saying he couldn't give me any more than the £25 it cost in return train travel for me to collect my family member and her 4 month old baby from the airport. I don't understand his reasoning; I was not the only one on the train, and not the only one affected...the envelope was addressed to my family member c/o me (I.e. both our names were on the envelope)....Neither of us got in to the Party. But I left it at that; I could hear from his heartless gung-ho jobsworthy tone that he'd braced himself to stand his ground.

I have asked that a copy of all RM records of my complaint be sent to me, so I may have more to add pending that....though I've yet to even get an acknowledgement of my email request (anyone in the know: is this more dirty tricks?). I've spoken to so many people, and am so tired. Yes, I know that's their strategy: to wear you down into giving up. But given I've got a friend willing to help me, do you think there's any mileage in pursuing this? I really want answers to questions about lack of red trolleys; inaccurate logging of items e.g. "unable to gain access"...(in my view it constitutes a lie, but hey I'm only a customer...the lowest of the low); lack of supervision; and lack of impetus to ensure they meet the "guarantee" cited for SD items...after all, that's the service I "thought" I was paying for. Had my postman explained some dire emergency like sudden illness, or a terririst attack I could've understood that. I AM reasonable person...but I don't feel any of them are. I feel failed at every level and likely will continue to be by the sounds of it.
P.s. My suspicion as to the reason why they didn't get someone else to deliver my item in a van say, is that they weren't even aware he hadn't left for his round...I think he was trying to make out he had, but was sat hiding in his car on his mobile phone. Call me cynical.... Nothing I can proove, but yes it beggars the question why his supervisor didn't act to rescue the situation ... and I think it's cos the supervisor didn't know. Coming back into the office at 12.45 and scanning ur items as "unable to access" fits that story.

[scoobymunster]

OP with respect there really isn't anything more you can gain from this situation. Speculating that the postie was sitting in his car on the phone is harsh, and more than likely completely inaccurate. As mentioned, you could have availed of SD 9AM which would have ensured you had the items first thing. Unfortunately mistakes can happen, and as the cost has been refunded for the failure in this case, Royal Mail can hardly be considered responsible for refunding all your other expenses incurred that day being "wasted". In any case, the person entitled to claim for any compensation is the person who sent it, not you the receiver. The person sending the item is considered by Royal Mail as the customer, not the recipient.

[Amii]

Why even bother offering a 1pm service if the counter argument will "inevitably" be that it should have been sent as SD9? What then when that fails? What mechanisms are in place to make that a trustworthy service but not SD1? If there's not enough red trolleys there's not enough red trolleys... If a supervisor doesn't think to rescue the situation at 1, why is he gonna rescue it at 9? If the DO won't answer their phones at 1, what makes you think they will at 9? There remains an absence of transparent answers to the questions I asked of RM. But interestingly, not one person of the dozen or so I've spoken to has suggested an SD9 would have avoided this scenario. This case has been compounded by poor supervision.

Ur incorrect about only the sender being able to make a claim. From their website:
"Evidence of posting is required. If the sender is claiming they must apply within 3 months of posting. If the recipient is claiming they must apply within 1 month of receipt."

[TrueBlueTerrier]

SD 9am - are usually done by a dedicated van. Posted just for information.

Why even bother offering a 1 pm service if the counter argument will "inevitably"

Just to reiterate we are not, and nor do we represent Royal Mail.

We are an independent Posties website originally intended to offer solidarity and support to colleagues needing information or advice. We then added a "Customer" section as we became more popular.

As the blurb says we can only offer advice and insights from a unique POV, if you need a more formal or official response then I am afraid we can't give it.

I hope you resolve it all, but we can only offer support nothing else. Please feel free to use the form as a sounding board, but please also remember that everyone who posts here does it voluntarily and within their own time.

[Amii]

I appreciate ur all posting responses in ur own time. And am grateful for any insights. I know none of u are representing RM. And I also know I'm still upset at what happened. So sorry if anyone feels aggrieved.
On a different note, my friend is now writing what was initially supposed to be a 'human interest' story about a trip to the palace and charity work...obviously it will now have a very different theme. With her help, I will try to continue through the process of Postal Review etc. etc. - well aware of RM's 'immunity' through Section 90 of the Postal Services Act, but there are more fundamental issues of concern...
Thank you all (and again...sorry!)

[yellowbelly]

Amii,

when I mentioned 9 SD i said this is what I (meaning I personally) would have done considering the time and monetary factors involved.

I also said that if the if you go for further compensation the availability of 9AM SD is a factor 'RM MIGHT use' - again
considering the importance you've attached to receiving the documents in time. I didn't say 'Inevitably' at any point.

Hope you get your issues resolved to your satisfaction.

[Amii]

Yellowbelly,

Yeah, I know...and thanx.

And I appreciate u having taken the time to respond.

[lostinthepost]

While I do sympathise with your position (I would feel equally aggrieved) I do think it's worth pointing out that you're assumption that you're the "lowest of the low" is way off the mark. In actual fact, the postman/woman delivering your post has that distinction.

I know it's difficult to accept right now but we do make mistakes. It's a statistical certainty. Even more so when you factor in the amount of work your postmen has to achieve in any given day. There is a high chance he has NO chance of completing his duties to the job specification, but it's a nailed on certainty he's expected to regardless. Special Deliveries are a particular sore point for us as they are usually not taken into account when designing the duties we have. To put this into context, he will have to break off from what he is doing to make sure SD's are delivered in time. This is lost time to the postman, time he hasn't got. if you wish to find the reason, blame the company itself, or, at the very least, the manager pushing him out of the door. They just don't care about anything other than profit, i'm afraid.

I know it's easy to blame your postie. We get such a bad press despite almost all of the ones I've ever known being incredibly hard workers (20 years). If you could walk a mile in our shoes you would realise pretty quickly that any assumptions about sitting around doing nothing is never the case. You simply wouldn't have a job.

I know it's hard that you have had this experience, and I hope you don't choose to tar us with the "lazy, incompetent" brush. It's not true, and I'm sure going forward, if you took the time out to notice, you will see that your postie will be looking out for you when you don't always realise it. I know this from personal experience, because, for every mistake I've ever been pulled up for, there has been at least a hundred good deeds gone unnoticed.

[Amii]

Thanks for taking the time to explain. Much appreciated.
What's the typical working pattern of a postie nowadays? When I was young I use to hear about a neighbour up the road getting up at 4am every day to do a post round. Do they work a 37 hour week divided evenly over 5.5 days, or do they work shifts. And is their post trolley usually sorted out for them already or do they have to fill it before starting their round?

[Smir]

the thing is the more you push it, the more like your new postie will get in trouble, If he is indeed new, someone would have told him what to do..

let's hope it just goes against him as lack of training or something, being a postie is currently a really shitty job, more leaving than joining, and more and more pressure put on us daily.