Is the Royal Mail 'fit for purpose'?

Me too wobble Christmas boxes ready for them

Online orders often say they are dispatched when they clearly are not and goods that are ordered from the UK actually come from abroad, so next day is unlikely.
Some carriers rather than the Royal Mail are very poor, delivering parcels to the wrong address or just leavinh them on the doorstep in full sight. We so often get parcels for someone in the next lane (same house number) hat i now have his phone number so that he can collect it from me.
On the other hand our post lady knows everyone on her round personally and will always try to leave parcels with neighbours, never on the doorstep.
We must be lucky, as I consider all our posties to be 100% honest, pleasant and reliable.

Thanks Saetana for backing me up!
And Anya you misread me, if Glasgow had had your fish it would have been delivered efficiently!!
Ho ho ho...

Royal Mail is rubbish and as far as I'm concerned full of crooks. I've had gift cards and parcels constantly going missing and I can only presume they were stolen. I never send gift cards through the post anymore and I'm not prepared to pay for registered, just because the Royal Mail don't employ honest staff.
I recently crocheted a baby blanket and embroidered two little vests for my little niece. It never arrived and when I complained, all they were bothered about was whether I was compensation and didn't seem at least concerned that it never arrived.. it hasn't always been like that as when my husband wa a postman, he used to go out of his way to give the best service.

Like everything else, it surely depends on where you live and the people who work in these places. Our main post office is being moved for some unknown reason, and the staff there were always agreeable and helpful, two local post offices within shops and in different directions both of them offer a personal service and are always obliging. Our postie is a delight, and always has a bright word or wave. We are obviously among the lucky ones.

Our post lady walks her round, in all weathers. We have been receiving first class post as I would expect, not noticed any delays.

I heard recently, on some consumer programme, that 1st class post is suspended, after a certain date in December, so even if you use 1st class stamps, they are not treated as 1st class. PO are ripping us off, again.

One week during the summer I received no mail at all until the Saturday when a whole lot arrived at once. It included two items posted first class the previous week one of which was a hospital appointment. Fortunately the hospital had phoned me or I would have missed it. I wrote to Royal Mail complaining about the service and their reply was that I hadn't any mail that week.
Once upon a time when I was a child you could post a letter in the morning and it would arrive in the afternoon.
Postmen used to walk their round then they used bikes now it is a van even in the middle of the village near the post office.

I know I keep posting on this threads but I feel very strongly about this.

Above we have two examples one of a system that is failing from Worlass(wrong town and late delivery) and the other where they have a good workable system from Legs55

This is literally a postcode lottery !!

Can't really complain about our postman - used to have a regular one who knew our numbering system - 2 new ones are doing quite well, one even came back the other day & said I've just left the wrong post!!! Our numbers for example are 17,23,24,19,28,7 - rest are as confusing.

I posted all my Christmas Cards 2nd Class beginning of December, most arrived next day

Our Post Office is in our local General Store run by a lovely couple, dread to think what will happen if/when they retire, he also delivers groceries all over my small town for no extra charge

Just had mail delivered here (N. Yorkshire) for someone in East Kilbride. The only thing we have in common is the number on the door. Did receive, better late than never, a card posted two weeks ago.

I bet they wouldn't have me, or anyone else from this area on that panel. We'd put their stats right out!! Or then, perhaps not, as someone has already intimated they know she's a 'spy' so I'm wondering how accurate these figures can be as they're hardly on par with a double-blind test.

'Hey Pat, make sure you don't cock up the deliveries to 24 Acacia Avenue, she's One of Them!'

We however do have significant problems with mail being delivered to the wrong addresses, being delayed or not arriving at all. And I'm not going to back down on that. There are significant numbers on this thread alone to show that something is far from all right.

And my fish is an example of that which can be proved

A few weeks ago we had a pile of ltters shoved through our letterbox addressed very clearly to numbers 1-19 in our street - we live at no 24. I could have gone and delivered them all, but couldn't be bothered, so just wrote on each that they had been delivered to us and then took them the next day and passed the nearest post box, dropping them in. But round us the problem is with packages too big for our letter box, mostly from Amazon. Surprise - we've given Amazon our safe place and if we're going out, we leave note for postie saying where to leave packages. Not once in 6 months has the postie bothered to know on our door and the've been left in our blue bin, taken back to sorting office, certainly never put in safe place!

The monitoring system is how they know that x percentage of first class mail has been delivered the next day - they do have a target of over 90% (not sure what the exact figure is at the moment). I am also a member of the monitoring panel and we send items to other panellists, both business and residential, and then log items we receive ourselves from other panellists (they contain an electronic tracking device as well). As Ele19 said, there are few problems with the mail not arriving on time. Us panellists are spread all over the United Kingdom - I've sent items to people as little as a mile away and as far as the islands off the coast of Scotland

Our postman sticks our post through the door folded in half, Christmas cards as well VERY annoying.

I got a parcel on Thursday by Royal Mail , according to tracking it will be delivered today !! , our Postie is polite and will ring the bell , walk down the street to deliver some mail and come back to me as he knows it takes me ages getting to the front door

I'm gosh surprised! that there is a system for monitoring Royal Mail deliveries Ele19

How exactly does that work as I'm struggling to see how it would, logistically (in that sense of the word applicable to logistics) be applied?

I assure you there is no trace of the fish at Glasgow! It's Edinburgh who have cocked up lost it!!

Gosh surprised at all the problems! Our posties are brillant and rarely are mistakes made. Think they have guessed by now that I am a "spy", I monitor mail deliveries for the Royal Mail and can say hand on heart 99% of 1st class arrives the next day and 2nd mostly 2 days sometimes 3. Our local shop/post office is also very friendly & efficient. I post alot for ebay with no problems there either. Must be Glasgow, we wouldn't still have your fish!
To clarify it is the larger crown post offices who will strike not the small shop ones & deliveries will not be affected.
Re pendent person it is not unreasonable to be charged if you put the wrong postage on it, watch widths a letter is under 0.5cm and a large letter 2.5cm otherwise it becomes a parcel.
Sorry felt had to stick up for the posties would hate to lose them dont like sundays as know no post!!

Our usual postman is very nice but the service from Royal Mail in general round here is appalling. I have been standing in the hall when a card came through the door saying no-one was in & I had to collect parcel from sorting office- he never even tried to ring the bell or knock.By the time I'd read the card he was off!
You can no longer park at our local sorting office as they say members of the public are a liability & padlock the gates so you have to park in town & walk up. When you get there the reception area is plastered with posters saying they will not accept abuse from public- all hand written & very abusive themselves to my mind.
I no longer use any company who use RM for deliveries.
We had a situation earlier this year when half of the town got no deliveries for a week- I don't think we will notice a strike!

Sorry that should have read Indigoblue

Perhaps we have a different system where I live Witzend Our postman doesn't deliver parcels, just letters. We have a fleet of red vans which are used for parcel delivery and they refuse to leave anything with neighbours.

You get a card posted through your door, if you are out, saying you need to go to the sorting office (just up the road luckily) to collect your item but not until the next day, or Monday if it's a weekend. That's fair enough but I wish they'd leave it with a neighbour.

No complaints here.
Our lovely postman just brought a present I ordered only a couple of days ago. Was amazed to get it so quickly so close to Christmas. It's the second that has arrived in super-quick time lately.

Actually, our post man is wonderful as are the locums who sometimes arrive and the sorting office staff down the road could not be pleasanter and more helpful.
We live in the north, in Sheffield:perhaps they are just nicer than in other places?!

As far as I'm concerned, Royal Mail has my grateful thanks. Four days ago, my son who lives in Japan posted me a large parcel. It wasn't Special Delivery or anything else as he reckoned he'd sent it early enough for me to get it by Christmas. My cheerful postie handed it to me this morning.

I object to being labelled as 'moaning'. As someone pointed out the cost of postage isn't cheap and the service simply isn't up to standard.

I could go on about Post Office Counters too. Our main one is diabolical. It is run by a family, who only employ relatives. They are sour-faced, and abrasive, rude to customers and inefficient and the queues are horrendous. I drive two miles to the smaller one on a big estate, which, despite the numbers using it manage to be polite, helpful and get everyone served quickly.

What is obvious is that some areas have an efficient service, be it Royal Mail or Post Office, and others suffer badly.