Is the Royal Mail 'fit for purpose'?

Think it's some post offices which may strike Anya , not Royal Mail. Unless I have missed news of yet another strike

Is the Royal Mail "fir for purpose"?

Absolutely not. At least not around here.
Long long queues at most times, and surly staff.
Though if I worked for the Royal Mail, I am not sure I would be very happy working there either.

The postmen on the other hand are cheery.

Inevitable once it was privatised I'm afraid. We've lost our lovely postie who knew who we were and where everyone lived to a succession of casual workers who have almost impossible targets for delivery time. No wonder they just bung a bundle of letters into the nearest door!

I've no complaints about my roundsman. Yours may be temporary recruits, who are only there for the busy season and don't give a damn.

Those of you who have had problems should contact them with details of dates and times, then those who drop letters in the road and deliver things to the wrong address can be targeted.

We don't get our mail until late afternoon . We booked a trip away which was last week tickets for trip have just arrived luckily we were able to travel without after ringing company for booking number , the company also sent some more tickets they have yet to arrive . First lot were posted in Nov .

There were always temporary staff taken on at Christmas. A student friend of mine did this in the 60s and it wasn't this bad.

Elegran you can't get through to our local sorting office as it just rings out constantly. When I've been in to complain all you get is a rude stare and a denial that there's anything wrong. So I took to taking pictures of the wrongly delivered mail, especially that for other towns and contacted the Royal Mail Customer Services who did apologise and sent me 6x first class stamps.

But things still go missing, are misdelivered and are delayed.

I think you're right Annie that it's the Post Offices that may strike and that will only affect a few deliveries......not that we'd notice a difference.

Funnily enough, we have just re posted a card that arrived this morning. It was addressed to people living on the isle of Sheppy and posted in that vicinity.

We live in a village in the East Midlands! There were no common features in the address, other than the house number!

Elegran can you pop into this place and see if they've processed it yet!!

Latest update: Good news

Item JX218265468GB arrived at Edinburgh Mail Centre on the 2016-12-12 and we are currently processing it.

Of course you might just get a whiff as you pass by!

J52 that's exactly what I'm talking about!

Re how overworked these poor people are....I went to collect something that has been taken back to the sorting office last Christmas Eve. It was supposed to be open until 4.30pm. This wa at 2.30pm and if was all locked up and they'd gone home early.

Our Vet's surgery is just down the road from this particular sorting office. The road is almost blocked by all he red vans from about 2.00pm onwards. Again they've all knocked off for the day, and I don't know anyone who gets a mail delivery before they go to work anymore.

Anya If I could I would, but it is in one of the most inaccessible corners of an industrial estate. They planned ahead.

I did put it into their tracker - seems to be still there! Looks like the sorting department are at fault.

Good luck!

Update. The lovely people at Salar salmon are sending me out a replacement, so let's hope this makes it past the 'sorting' office in Edinburgh.

Thanks anyway Elegran

I am lucky enough to get an efficient service here - no complaints from me. Our 3 post people are cheerful and helpful; and our outgoing post seems to arrive OK; and the people in the PO are helpful and jolly too.

Anya You'd think the sorting office would have noticed it by now and be glad to get rid of it!

Perhaps it's sitting in someone's freezer yes, you'd think so!

I can't complain about our deliveries at work as they are normally fine. Recently however I have noticed that the postman looks like a vagabond. Completely scruffy, unshaven, filthy shirt with buttons missing (belly on show) and dinner slops down it and I am not exaggerating! He was so bad yesterday I asked him (jokingly, but not, if you know what I mean) whether he had slept in his clothes and he laughed and said "Filthy clothes? I don't even bother getting washed Monday-Saturday... ha ha ha"

I kind of already guessed that!

I never see our home postman as normally at work.

Staff at our post office counter could do with a mega training session in "how to talk to customers" they are rude and even nasty. I avoid it like the plague but have to go in occasionally for work related matters. A few weeks ago I was sending a parcel. Not valuable as such but would make life difficult if it were lost. I popped it on the scales and was told the price, then she added (with the usual charm) "if you want to make sure it gets there you should pay an extra £5.75" Why? I asked, are you planning on losing it? "well the post office won't be responsible if it gets lost". I questioned this and almost got the impression that It WOULD get lost if I didn't pay the extra money. Surely the fact that I haver handed it over at a post office counter should mean that IT WILL be safe and arrive at its destination?

Another time the queue was almost out of the door and they closed the entire post office counter and proceeded to wipe the keyboards down with wet wipes. This took a few minutes and they happily chatted between themselves as they did it ! a lady in front of me asked "if they were for real" and she was treat to a mouthful and told "if she didn't like it the post office in the next town was available to use" You couldn't make it up !

I am very happy with our Royal Mail service, We have a lovely post lady who will go out of her way to help in any way she can and always has a cheery word for everyone.

Some of you seem quite unlucky. We've always had brilliant service from our postman, nothing has ever got lost, nor have we had stuff delayed. So I am afraid I don't recognize any of the complaints above.

Lucky you whitewave - I certainly don't want this issue either.

Anya, why did you put cards in the postbox to be delivered within a mile of you? Isn't it quicker to just deliver them yourself?
All post goes to a central sorting office in an area. I know the one in York was closed, so if you sent a letter from York to York, it had to go to Leeds to be sorted.

We normally deliver a lot by hand but, both feeling ill these week, stuck stamps on all the cards except immediate neighbours and DH managed to drive to the post box today.

Perhaps people who are not feeling up to the mark for whatever reason find it easier to let Royal Mail do the deliveries.

Our usual postman is great, but when he is not on the round for whatever reason, we often get wrong post delivered here.

Oh dear, I did a Xmas post round when I was 17. So did my DH, who was already my significant other. He was allocated the very flat area round his mum's house, popped in there for teabreaks and to warm up and was finished by midday. I was given two rounds in the hilliest, most exposed area in the district, staggered round on the ice gripping onto walls to keep my balance, and finished at six once I'd shoved all the post I had left into the last few houses I got to and taken to my heels before anybody realised and shouted after me. I'm sure there were complaints galore.

To add to my woes, I earned half what DH did because I was under 18 and - shock, horror - female

Yes, that's why I asked Anya why she was posting the local ones.
Someone on the radio this morning said that people often write local on them still, expecting it to make a difference. It doesn't. A local one might have even further to go because it has to go to a sorting office and back, compared to one that is sent to somewhere closer to the sorting office - if you see what I mean.

We do occasionally get wrongly delivered letters but on the whole I'm pleased with the Royal Mail. There is no other service to compare it with anyway because other postal services can pick and choose where they deliver, which the Royal Mail can't do. It's unfair competition and that must impact upon the service.

Our sorting office has two slots in the wall outside, one for local post, one for everything else.